On This Beyoncé Going “Country” Business
During a Super Bowl ad for Verizon that featured Beyoncé attempting to “break the internet” in various ways, the 32-time Grammy-winning performer released two new songs that for some, affirm prior suspicions that Beyoncé’s new album will be a country one. The songs “Texas Hold ‘Em” and “16 Carriages” will be part of the singer’s presumed Renaissance: Act Two album due out March 29th.
Beyoncé didn’t break the internet with her commercial or the release of her two news songs. But she very well might break country music in the process. And that very well might be the entire purpose.
Whether these two songs released by Beyoncé are actually country songs or not—and whether her upcoming album is country as a whole—is a discussion that should be had, but is in peril of not happening in any sort of objective or thorough manner, because that discussion is difficult to impossible to have in this current media environment. The songs and album run the risk of being rubber stamped as “country” moving forward because the institutions tasked with making such assessments will fear the accusations of racism if they deem them otherwise.
Maybe Beyoncé’s new songs are country, or at least, they may be more country than they are anything else. But these are decisions that need to be determined irrespective of the noise already surrounding Beyoncé’s foray into country. The question chart managers have to grapple with is if the songs fit within the country format compared to peers. The question radio programmers and playlist curators have to ask is if they’re relevant to the demographics those playlists and radio stations serve. And what awards shows like the Grammy Awards have to decide is if Beyoncé’s new music is more country than it is any other genre.
Billboard already seems to be signaling that “Texas Hold ‘Em” and “16 Carriages” will appear on the Hot Country Songs chart. In an article posted on February 12th titled “Beyoncé Lays Down Her Country Cards,” it concludes, “Before Beyoncé, R&B stars Lionel Richie and Ray Charles (another multi-genre aisle-crosser who’s also a Country Music Hall of Fame member) made their own popular, top-charting forays into country. So why not Beyoncé?”
We won’t know if the songs appear on the Billboard country charts until early next week. But simply appearing on country charts won’t be good enough. Regardless of how good, or how “country” Beyoncé’s songs and album are, they must be #1s. They must also win CMA and ACM Awards. They must win country Grammy Awards, and Renaissance: Act Two must win the all-genre Grammy Album of the Year. Anything less than this, and these institutions will be summarily and viciously attacked in the press, by the press, and in waves coordinated Stan campaigns on social media.
We know this will happen because that is what happened in part in 2016 when Beyoncé released what some claimed was a country song in “Daddy Lessons” off of her album Lemonade. At that time, Billboard did not deem the song country, and it instead appeared on the Hot Hip-Hop/R&B Songs chart. Strangely, this didn’t cause a stir, since at that time, there was strong consensus that the song might be country-flavored, but not country overall.
When “Daddy Lessons” ended up in front of a screening committee at the Grammy Awards made up of industry professionals, they deemed the song did not fit the country format either, setting off a firestorm against the entirety of country music for supposedly gatekeeping against Beyoncé because she was Black. The incident is cited regularly whenever race and country music are evoked, or Beyoncé and country music are evoked specifically.
A similar situation occurred when Lil Nas X’s “Old Town Road” was deemed to not be country by Billboard, and taken off the country charts. The entire country genre was blamed by name, with the viral headline from Rolling Stone decreeing, “Lil Nas X’s ‘Old Town Road’ Was a Country Hit. Then Country Changed Its Mind.” In reality, it was Billboard alone who made that decision, and it was based off empirical and objective benchmarks that “Old Town Road” could not fulfill, and the admission that Lil Nas X had purposely mischaracterized the metadata of the track for it to show up initially as country.
In both of these cases however, Beyoncé and Lil Nas X were invited to participate in the CMA Awards. Lil Nas X won a CMA Award for “Old Town Road,” while Beyoncé performed “Daddy Lessons” as the centerpiece of the CMA’s 50th Anniversary Awards in 2016. Yet these honors are rarely cited to help contextualize Beyoncé’s and Lil Nas X’s experiences in country music.
Similarly, as we move forward with Beyoncé’s foray into “country” music, if any institution that is part of the country music community is at the center of any perceived offense—or even if it’s not—the entirety of country music will be characterized as being complicit in racism in the continuing effort to couch country music as a monolith by individuals uniquely unqualified to speak with any authority on the doings of the genre. In fact, even before any major decisions have been made about how to handle Beyoncé’s new songs, “country music” is already getting attacked.
Is the song “Texas Hold ‘Em” a country song? Similar to “Daddy Lessons,” any and all of the country elements to the song come in the form of performative and rather trite stereotypes of the country genre feeding off of tropes. “Texas Hold ‘Em” is a rhythmic-based, cussy, and frankly vapid ditty that says very little in regards to storytelling. Perhaps it could still be deemed “country” if a song such as “Fancy Like” by Walker Hayes is as well. But beyond any genre arguments, “Texas Hold ‘Em” is just not very good.
Beyoncé’s other “country” song called “16 Carriages” has a little bit more going on in regards to story and lyricism, but the lyrical cadence is not like anything you would ever hear in a country song, while instead the cadence is starkly indicative of R&B. Steel guitar supplied by roots music’s Robert Randolph is present on the track and appreciated, but is buried in an otherwise overproduced soup of wild and sometimes directionless mood changes throughout the song.
Chris Richards of The Washington Post who regularly lambasts country music as racist, misogynistic, and transphobic surprisingly has a similar take on these Beyoncé songs, saying, “both songs feel dull, dry, unimaginative, unnecessary, unconfident and uncool.”
Are these two songs really how we want the Black legacy in country music to be represented to the greater masses?
Much as been made of Rhiannon Giddens appearing on the “Texas Hold ‘Em” track playing banjo and fiddle. It’s cool that Giddens is included on the song, but this pairing is deserving of some greater context.
In 2016 when Beyoncé performed on the CMA Awards, Rhiannon Giddens did too. She had recently recorded a duet with Eric Church on an anti-racism song called “Kill A Word.” Not only did the song make it to #6 on country radio, and #9 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart, Rhiannon Giddens and Eric Church performed the song on the CMAs.
Beyoncé’s appearance at the 2016 CMAs was criticized by Travis Tritt, and Alan Jackson reportedly walked out when Beyoncé was performing. But they were not the only performers who took issue with Beyoncé taking time and attention away from country performers on a country music awards show. Rhiannon Giddens did too.
“I’ve studied this music. You know what I mean?” Rhiannon Giddens said in a 2017 interview with the Associated Press. “I’m not coming from another genre. And there’s nothing wrong with that. Justin Timberlake did it last year, and that was a lovely moment … I just know what angered me about it was that it overshadowed two other performers of color who were kind of naturally there—Charley Pride, who’s a huge figure, and then myself as a guest of Eric Church.”
Rhiannon Giddens goes on to say in the interview, “[Eric Church] was making a really particular point having me sing on his song. His song was all about turning hate into love, and getting rid of these words of anger. That upset me that it was overshadowed. [Beyonce’s performance] turned into a flashpoint, rather than a moment of, ‘Yeah, this is awesome!’ Because it didn’t feel organic. It doesn’t matter who you are, if the moment doesn’t come from the inside, the moment doesn’t come from a genuine desire to inhabit the music.”
You can watch the interview below:
The words of Rhiannon Giddens still ring true today, and perhaps even more so now. It is without question that Beyoncé’s presence in the country music space will shade out other Black and Brown creators, as well as other women. And as who is estimated to be worth $800 million who is married to a literal billionaire in Jay Z, Beyoncé’s interjection into country music is patently unfair to country music’s native performers.
As a reminder, Chapel Hart still doesn’t even have a record deal. But Beyoncé fans are demanding full compliance by country music to facilitate her country move.
Did Beyoncé include Rhiannon Giddens on “Texas Hold ‘Em” to placate her? Perhaps. But no matter the motivation, it is cool that Giddens is part of this project. It’s also kind of cool that Beyoncé is wanting to dabble a little bit in country. You don’t get the sense that Beyoncé herself is here to stir chaos, division, and racist sentiments online, even if that will be the ultimate result. She’s just trying to express a creative part of herself that finds some sort of appeal in country sounds.
As many have pointed out, Beyoncé is originally from Houston. Being born in Texas doesn’t give you a birthright to country music. But it is plausible that Beyoncé heard country music growing up, and wants to express those elements in her music. Country music shouldn’t be so rigid that we make ourselves unwelcoming to artists from other genres, nor completely disallow a pop star from performing on the CMA Awards, which by the way, happens every year.
But we also don’t have to lie to ourselves and the public if what we’re hearing from Beyoncé doesn’t sound good, or doesn’t sound country. People are actively using whether you think Beyoncé’s songs are country or not as a racism litmus test. But this is just not the case. Neither is it racist if you happen to just not like the Beyoncé songs. Taste is subjective, and so is genre sometimes. Beyoncé’s songs certainly have some country elements to them. Whether they’re more country than anything else is fair to say can be up for interpretation.
And though you don’t have to be racist to think these Beyoncé songs are not country or not good, you also don’t have to be racist as a country fan, period. In 2016, Beyoncé’s CMA appearance was met with clearly racist sentiments that should have no place in country music or anywhere else. Though they represented only a small, but vocal minority of country fans, they represented country fans nonetheless, and were weaponized to mischaracterize the entire genre.
The media and Beyoncé fans are betting on a racist backlash to help promote these Beyoncé country songs and her upcoming album. The more actual racism that appears in the backlash against Beyoncé, the more it feeds the billionaire-class Beyoncé beast that is setting up country music like a set of bowling pins to strike it down for their ulterior purposes. The more they can couch Beyoncé as a victim, the better she will do. Don’t be their foil.
But in other respects, it doesn’t really matter what the people of country music do in this situation. It is a guarantee they will fail Beyoncé. Because with Beyoncé, there is one socially acceptable determination to come to: everything she does is absolutely perfect in every sense. This obsequious fealty being demanded for Beyoncé in certain circles is genuinely frightening, and has already reached a level of social contagion.
This is the very thing Saturday Night Live lampooned some years ago about Beyoncé’s fan base and its surrogates in the media. We’re seeing this transpire in real time. Bend the knee to Beyoncé, or risk serious social rebuke and isolation. We’re not even a week into this, and the demand to recognize Beyoncé as the greatest thing currently in country music is reaching a fevered pitch.
You could be inclined to laugh at all of this. But in this instance, the SNL skit is art imitating life. Friendships and relationships in the country music industry are going to be torn apart over this issue. People will lose their jobs over this issue. It’s likely the “Beyoncé goes country” narrative will dominate country music discourse throughout 2024, into the CMA Awards in November, and into 2025 with the Grammys.
It is a lose lose situation for country music, because the media and the Beyhive have already decided that “country music” is the enemy here. Country radio stations are already being attacked for not playing the “Beyoncé songs. But as RadioInsight confirms, country stations haven’t even been serviced the singles yet, they were originally marked as “pop” in the metadata, and “Texas Hold ‘Em” is not FCC compliant off the shelf.
The media, The Beyhive, and social media activists, they want country music to be racist. The more racist and regressive it is, the better their media brands do, the more viral their tweets go, and the more attention they get. This is why this same cohort is currently engaging in one of the most active Black erasure campaigns in country music history by falsely claiming the Black legacy in country music was removed. This has never been the case, while the true threat to country’s Black legacy is the academics and activists who have perverse incentives in making country music appear more racist than it is.
While accepting the Grammy’s Dr. Dre Global Impact Award on February 4th, Beyoncé’s husband Jay Z admonished the Grammy Awards for making his wife the most awarded performer in history, but never having given her the all-genre Grammy Album of the Year. This was setting the table for Beyoncé’s announcement a week later.
The fact that Beyoncé has more Grammy Awards than any other performer in history (32), and the Grammys are still seen as incredibly delinquent when it comes to honoring Beyoncé tells you all you need to know. If the CMA Awards don’t give Beyoncé every single award that she is plausibly eligible for, there will be holy hell to pay, even if she finally wins the all-genre Grammy Album of the Year.
So how do you play a game that is impossible to win? You don’t play it at all. In the immortal words of Admiral Akbar:
If you attempt to placate or appease the Stan armies behind Beyoncé, they will take it as a sign of weakness and use it against you.
Actual country music fans know what country music is. The forces touting Beyoncé will win every battle on the internet and in elite discourse, and just like they did with Morgan Wallen, Jason Aldean, Oliver Anthony and others, they will also lose the war.
Break the internet? Sure, that’s a cute meme. But country music is not just a refraction point for people’s virtue signalizing, nor is it something you can immediately become simply by putting on a cowboy hat, or adding a banjo to a track. It isn’t even just a genre. It’s the culture of agrarian people, who often happen to be poor and working class. Often those people are White, but they can most certainly be Black and Brown too.
Many are touting Beyoncé’s move into country as a necessary integration of the Black experience into country. But that is not what this is. It is the interloping of a pop/hip-hop/R&B star into the genre that will shade out country music’s current and previous Black contributors. We are already seeing this happen in real time. If true diversity in country music is ever going to take root, it is going to have to happen through homegrown, native country stars, not pop stars worth $800 million who want to use country music as a motif and a talking point for their next project.
Beyoncé going country? We’ll have to wait and see what materializes with the album itself, and be open-minded that there may be more true country elements than what we’re hearing on the first two songs.
But you have a right to think Beyoncé’s songs are not country, or to think her songs are not good. Taste is subjective, and you have a right to your opinions. It is going to be a very interesting and difficult next few months. But never, NEVER let anyone make you believe that your opinions don’t matter, or that you’re inherently racist for them if they don’t fall down certain lines.
Ultimately, it’s up to country fans to decide if Beyoncé’s music is country, not the press, not academics, and most certainly not the Beyhive. Country music belongs to the people of the country, and always will.
kevin wortman
February 14, 2024 @ 9:37 am
I mean, Vanilla Ice tried black music, so whatever…
Cackalack
February 14, 2024 @ 9:43 am
If this means a few more people listen to Robert Randolph and Rhiannon I’m cool with with it. I’m also not on social media though.
Cackalack
February 14, 2024 @ 9:47 am
That said the woos are annoying.
OMFS
February 14, 2024 @ 9:53 am
THE WHISTLE GO WOOOOO
KJ Smith
February 15, 2024 @ 5:18 pm
You’re not on social media???
Fat Freddy's Cat
February 14, 2024 @ 9:52 am
As an aside, I think comparing Beyonce to Ray Charles is a bit obscene. (Note to the “Beyhive”: it’s just an opinion. No, I will not “prove” it.)
Why is it necessary for one of the most successful artists of our era to take over every genre? Why should Beyonce and her rabid fans care at all whether or not she’s played on country radio or getting country awards?
We country fans just want to have our own little corner of the world to enjoy. Why is that so bad?
Interstate Daydreamer
February 14, 2024 @ 10:09 am
I think it all depends on WHY you want to exclude her. If she makes good country music and it actually is country, why should it be excluded?
Now, I haven’t listened to the songs (though I intend to), so I can’t yet give an informed opinion on them, but if the Beyonce and her songs have something to offer to the country and roots realm, what reason is there for her to be excluded?
I mean, honestly, yes, country radio has made some good forward strides towards better offerings, but there’s still a ton of non-country music being played on country radio.
Fat Freddy's Cat
February 14, 2024 @ 10:37 am
I don’t want to exclude her as such. Rather, I’m pushing back against the notion that she must be automatically accepted. Actual country artists don’t get that privilege.
As Trigger says below, how about letting us decide for ourselves?
M. León
February 16, 2024 @ 6:10 am
You obviously have NO clue about the real history of country music and I STRONGLY advise you and all who share a lack of knowledge about it’s beginnings and its participants and its evolution to PLEASE find a way to watch Ken Burns EXCELLENT documentary series “COUNTRY MUSIC.” Trust that you WILL learn something and hopefully broaden your horizons.
Trigger
February 14, 2024 @ 10:11 am
I can’t imagine a scenario, nor has it ever happened in history, where a successful country music artist decided to switch genres, and immediately started demanding fealty and compliance from the other genre. Yet it seems to happen in country music over and over.
Similarly, it would absolutely NEVER cross my mind as a country music journalist to start telling another genres of music like hip-hop or pop their business, and acting like I have any agency or authority to do so. Yet again, you see this with pop/hip-hop writers all the time towards country, and never vice versa.
Country music should be allowed to exist in its own little autonomous world, to make its own rules, its own decisions, and decide what country music is or isn’t. We can fight among ourselves about this and commonly do. But it’s not the place of Beyonce, her fans, or her surrogates in the media to demand she be accepted in country, or be called out for being “racist” as the only other option.
This really isn’t even about the music at this point. It’s simply about compliance and control.
Noneya
February 15, 2024 @ 3:05 am
I couldn’t have said it any better.
Thanks for the article, as always it was a great read!
And I agree with whoever said it’s obscene that someone compared Ray Charles to Beyonce.
Penny Fowler
February 15, 2024 @ 6:25 am
“This really isn’t even about the music at this point. It’s simply about compliance and control.”
Exactly….. without saying anything else politically
Penny Fowler
February 15, 2024 @ 8:34 am
George Soros’ buyout of approximately $415 million of Audacy’s debt would make his Soros Fund Management the largest stakeholder of the second-largest radio company in the U.S
Control
Paper Rosie
February 16, 2024 @ 10:31 am
THIS.
K.L. Montgomery
February 18, 2024 @ 11:56 am
What the hell does that have to do with any of this?
Chris P
February 15, 2024 @ 8:51 am
Because the gate keepers of country music, unlike other genres, allowed the definition of what it is sonically to change so much over the last 15 years. Country music opened itself up to basically letting anyone claim their music is country without any real checks and balances in place. As a lot of people have echoed in the comments you can throw a few bars of a fiddle or steel guitar over trap beats and rapping and call it “country” because that is the kind of content that has been allowed to proliferate the genre. Country music has lost its identity so much it’s no wonder it’s become a free for all for anyone to come in and demand air play
Trigger
February 15, 2024 @ 9:04 am
I keep seeing this argument, and one thing it is overlooking is that over the last few years, country music has made a dramatic, historic turn towards more roots, more twang, more country-sounding songs, and this is universally recognized across the industry. Florida Georgia Line is gone. They broke up. When was the last time you heard from Sam Hunt? Luke Bryan’s singles struggle to get to #1. “Texas Hold ‘Em” moves against that trend.
Jon Moore
February 15, 2024 @ 11:22 am
This argument is stupid because music evolves with the times, doesn’t matter the genre. Look at Rock music over that last 70 years, doesn’t sound the same as it did in the 50s. Any attempt at moving backwards is an attempt to gate keep talent.
PJ
February 17, 2024 @ 8:33 pm
Everything you said…so very true! Country music lets every genre in. As a result, it has lost its true essence and is now just a mishmash that has no defining characteristics.
Allan
February 26, 2024 @ 3:29 am
No one is brave enough to say it so I’ll say it. They’re purely making it about race. Country was never meant to be about race. It doesn’t matter where you come from, what you look like, or what music you do or don’t like, etc. But incase you haven’t noticed the massive movement going on right now with black rappers/pop artists going country that have publicly voiced their opinions about how they think country music is racist, this is 100% a politically driven movement. I’ve also read interviews from multiple black artists who have been saying something along the lines of “country music doesn’t acknowledge the historically black contributions so it’s time we take back what’s ours”
Lois
February 15, 2024 @ 6:44 am
I’m pretty sure it has something to do with her competing with Taylor Swift!!
Jon Moore
February 15, 2024 @ 10:53 am
Just curious if you felt the same way when other artists moved from their previous genres to country?
Kid Rock moved from Rap to Rock to Country, did he get the same kind of pushback?
Trigger
February 15, 2024 @ 12:09 pm
Absolutely he did. The media tries to assign Kid Rock as a “country” artist. The genre never has embraced him.
Johnny Cashless Society
February 16, 2024 @ 8:35 am
I don’t know that the genre hasn’t embraced Kid Rock. I seem to recall a duet with Sheryl Crow getting a lot of country airplay a few years back. Add that to him touring with David Allan Coe, Hank Williams Jr. and others and I think country has embraced Kid Rock at least as much as it has latter-day Skynnyrd.
trevistrat
February 16, 2024 @ 3:16 pm
And of course, his bar on Broadway in downtown Nashvegas. Beyonce and Jay-Z don’t have one…YET.
Dianna
February 18, 2024 @ 7:08 pm
Even tho I can’t stand kidd rock.. his voice still sounded authentic in both genres… especially the latter. I’ve never followed beyonce and I did listen to her texas hold em’.. the music sounded great but was not won over by her vocals, which to me still sounded rnb.. maybe I just don’t care for her voice.. and it’s a preference.. I was not sold on on Beyonce the country singer.
Ells Eastwood
February 14, 2024 @ 10:04 am
I just listened to them both, to me that’s not really country at all. Not necessarily bad, just seems like acoustic pop to me.
The small amounts of Beyonce’s music I’ve heard seemed to be always pushing against some boundary or expectation of she “should” be creating so good for her. Keep pushing.
Ells Eastwood
February 14, 2024 @ 10:06 am
and just to add to my comment… She’s definitely a massive creative force and she doesn’t half-ass anything.
Blair
February 14, 2024 @ 10:08 am
The only thing I wish is for “country music” is that they use the same metric for all people submitting music for airplay. Her songs are no worse (considerably better actually) then the crap that is allowed to play on terrestrial radio. And the same argument can be raised that her involvement in Country music might get all her fans to possibly listen and explore the genre as a whole.
And in all honesty, she is an extremely intelligent business woman. Drops the songs on the most watched television event in history. She doesn’t need to convince her fans, but out of the millions of people watching maybe she picks up a few million streams of people checking her out.
I am more curious for the explanation of why Allison Russell proclamation by the Tennessee House GOP was blocked for her Grammy wins while Paramore was passed?
MH
February 14, 2024 @ 11:28 am
Isn’t Russell Canadian?
Interstate Daydreamer
February 14, 2024 @ 11:58 am
“The only thing I wish is for “country music” is that they use the same metric for all people submitting music for airplay.”
Bingo. That’s it, 100%, right there.
Harris
February 14, 2024 @ 10:10 am
This article probably spends too much time being mad about things that haven’t actually happened. Idk I would have probably just liked you reviewing the actual songs that she released more than all this.
Bomani jones talked about this on his podcast and I liked his point that he wasn’t excited about this because she’s just working with her regular producer and not actual country music people. Beyonce could probably do a cool country album if she actually committed to it but seems unlikely that she will.
I do think it’s pretty clear Beyonce doesn’t do anything she doesn’t want to do and is doing this because she does have some interest in country music. Just wish she would collaborate with some people who can actually bring out the best of her in doing that.
I think this article though tries to do to much and gets too far once again into trigger’s personal vendettas with media people on the internet to really serve the audience who comes to this site for his usually insightful analysis.
Trigger
February 14, 2024 @ 10:28 am
“This article probably spends too much time being mad about things that haven’t actually happened.”
I can’t express vehemently enough in human language the everloving motherfucking shitstorm that is about to rain down on country music through this situation. And no, it’s already happened. I was woken up this morning by a reporter from the BBC wanting me to comment on the racist radio station in Oklahoma that “refused” to play Beyonce. In truth, they had never even been serviced the song as a single. Meanwhile thousands upon thousands of phone calls and emails flooded the station, forcing them to add the song to the rotation simply to attempt to stop the international shitstorm raining down on them.
Yes, certain other decisions such as Billboard’s on where these songs chart hasn’t happened yet. Advocating for the people in these positions to try to drown out the noise and make sound decisions based off of the music itself is something that needs to happen now as opposed to after those decisions have been made. Because if/when you switch them, this creates even more issues. See Lil Nas X. We already know that Beyonce’s label changed the metadata for the song from pop to country.
The songs at this point don’t even matter. They’re simply background noise. This doesn’t even have anything to do with music in general. This is about dominance, control, and power over the country genre.
There is a specific reason I chose to post my article yesterday about the fiasco at Key Western Fest this year and the media dropping the ball before this one. It speaks to the perverse incentives the media has to keep country music regressive so that it can enhance their media brands as opposed to solving the problems they purport to identify in the genre.
Blair
February 14, 2024 @ 11:04 am
Looks like it was placed on Play MPE today. Impacting the 20th.
Trigger
February 14, 2024 @ 11:17 am
Yes, they serviced it to radio this morning, likely after the fiasco with the Oklahoma radio station. It seems a little weird to me that they didn’t have this stuff determined ahead of time. Waffling back and forth is going to make this situation more muddy than it already is.
Blair
February 14, 2024 @ 11:26 am
The cynical me says they didn’t service stations earlier knowing the publicity they would get. Free of charge…
gogopro
February 14, 2024 @ 11:33 am
When did Bomani talk about this record? I listened to to Monday’s episode, and last Friday as well. It wouldn’t have been before that would it?
Harris
February 14, 2024 @ 1:16 pm
He talked about it briefly on Mondays episode when he was talking about the Super Bowl halftime show. I liked his suggestion that if she wants to make a good country record she should collaborate with sturgill
gogopro
February 14, 2024 @ 3:33 pm
Thanks. I missed that somehow.
bigtex
February 14, 2024 @ 10:12 am
Is it true that she has cut an altered version of Tammy Wynette’s biggest hit, called “Stan’ By Yo Baby-Daddy?”
gogopro
February 14, 2024 @ 11:16 am
Beyonce was raised in a two parent Christian home. She is raising her child in a two parent home, with her husband. I wonder what it is about her that would make you say that. Are you married to the mother of your children?
MH
February 14, 2024 @ 11:32 am
That’s pretty ironic considering a lot of the social media activists Staning for Beyoncé doing country music want to “smash the patriarchy.”
gogopro
February 14, 2024 @ 3:39 pm
get off social media. It is ruining your brain, and your relationships probably. Judge Beyonce for her action, not what her “stans” (did I use that right, can it be a noun?) do.
Jimmy
February 14, 2024 @ 1:20 pm
That cover photo for “Texas Hold ‘Em” is mighty Christian. 😉
gogopro
February 14, 2024 @ 3:45 pm
Dont hate the sinner, and as far as sins go, that picture is a hard one to hate.
Interstate Daydreamer
February 14, 2024 @ 12:36 pm
And you, with this right there, are the very reason people accuse country music and its fans of being racist. These kind of comments.
Lake Erie Brown
February 14, 2024 @ 2:08 pm
And Trig letting comments like this stay on the blog is also not going to help the case he’s trying to make.
Trigger
February 14, 2024 @ 2:27 pm
I let comments like that through so that we all see the kinds of sentiments that are out there so we have an accurate picture of public perception. If something is more blatantly racist or violent, I will delete it.
Interstate Daydreamer
February 15, 2024 @ 6:24 am
The comment is blatantly racist trying to cloak itself behind humor.
K.L. Montgomery
February 18, 2024 @ 11:59 am
I call BS on that, Trig.
bigtex
February 14, 2024 @ 4:12 pm
Hey, Trigger! They’re TRIGGERED!!!!
JDV
February 14, 2024 @ 10:34 pm
1.) Brutally unfunny pun.
2.) People aren’t “triggered.” You are being called out for being racist. Be a better person
bigtex
February 15, 2024 @ 8:56 am
I am not a racist. I have never competed in Formula One, Le Mans, the Indy 500 or elsewhere.
JDV
February 15, 2024 @ 9:39 am
Another clunker…you can try and deflect but a better solution is to not take time out of your day to be racist on the internet.
bigtex
February 15, 2024 @ 10:08 am
Correct about the clunkers. That’s all I can afford to drive, which is why I’ve never had a car that’s fast enough for me to be a racist.
Country When Country Wasn't Cool
February 14, 2024 @ 10:23 am
What would make this situation really interesting is if Taylor Swift’s upcoming album is a return to country, and completely overshadows Beyonce. Bye bye awards. In Bey’s defense, anything she puts out has to be better than Shania Twain’s last album.
Tex Hex
February 14, 2024 @ 12:17 pm
Incidentally, a couple weeks back Taylor Swift bestie Lana Del Ray (another pop singer) announced her next album would be “country” too. The whole pop world’s goin’ country y’all!
The Original WTF Guy
February 14, 2024 @ 1:35 pm
Good grief. Lana Del Ray may be the bost boring fucking human being on earth, or at least her music is. I’ve tried and it doesn’t even work as something to listen to while I’m actually listening to something else. So she’ll make boring “country” music. Who cares?
As to Beyonce and country, again, who the fuck cares? If it’s good, it’s good. If it’s bad, it’s bad. Sure I get Trigger’s point – it won’t matter. If it’s rejected by country radio/fans it’s because they racist. But most people who listen to country music decry identity politics (as they should, says the social democrat) yet immediately look to identity when it comes to music.
Zball
February 15, 2024 @ 11:14 am
Seems like the movement that inspired “Gone Country” by Alan Jackson is happening all over again.
Sometimes I listen to the pop country radio station while driving to stay up to date with its happenings. Interestingly enough, they were actually playing “Gone Country” a few days ago, which was surprising that they were paying AJ at all and ironic considering the pop country radio is often whose pushing the pop stars in country music. Perhaps this was some hidden commentary on what they actually think. Or maybe them flexing as it can be interpreted as a signal of how strong the country music business is.
Sharon
February 16, 2024 @ 12:56 pm
I listened to both songs. They are not country AT ALL. I would be embarrassed if I was her trying to push this as country. Furthermore, trying to make this a race thing is beyond ridiculous. This is just not country. I have listened to some of her other music as well. Some I liked, others not so much. Just because you put a cowboy I y hat on does not mean you are a country singer.
chris
February 14, 2024 @ 10:30 am
If dull songs from Florida Georgia, Dustin Lynch are allowed to be labeled country, why not Beyonce?
A lot of modern day country songs that are popular have zero storytelling but they are allowed to play in the genre.
There’s also a lot of Morgan Wallen songs (not all) that sounds like rhythmic pop songs more than country.
Trigger
February 14, 2024 @ 10:45 am
I agree that in some respect, you can find comparable songs to these Beyonce tracks on country radio. That is why I’m not out here demanding, “Country radio should refuse to play this, and these songs should not be allowed on country charts.” My concern and what I’m lobbying for is the people making these decisions do it based off the demographics of their listeners and the style of their format, not from fear that the Beyhive will come after them (which they’ve already done to some radio stations).
PeterT
February 14, 2024 @ 4:47 pm
I think these Beyonce songs do have stories and its more interesting than your average pop country tune.
Texas Hold Em has too many tropes, woos and heys, but its basically a relationship on the rocks tune. She’s asking her partner (Jay-Z?) to be open with her (lay your cards down), and to spend time with her (park your lexus, stick around) . She’s describing times when they have been together and been normal (being stuck in a basement during a tornado drinking whiskey, or heading to the dive bar – my guess these are real events) that rekindled their flame and brought them closer (one step to the right) but her Partner then steps away after these moments (run me to the left) and leaves her confused and frustrated (spin me in the middle, I can’t read your mind).
Its a relatable marriage experience to anyone whose had two careers and kids to manage. Finding time for each other is difficult but is important.
the pistolero
February 14, 2024 @ 11:27 am
If dull songs from Florida Georgia, Dustin Lynch are allowed to be labeled country, why not Beyonce?
I keep seeing people say this, and with all due respect, it’s bullshit. As I’ve said elsewhere in response to it, I don’t get why people are using this argument, other than just wanting to game the broken country music system to Beyonce’s benefit. Even if country music and/or country music as institutions were racist (and I’m not arguing that they’re not), it seems to to me to be just a convenient scapegoat, because if it was really about racism all the people coming to Beyonce’s defense now would’ve been screaming about Charley Crockett not getting played years ago.
chris
February 14, 2024 @ 11:53 am
My comment was zero to do about race and more of a reflection of “well what is country music really?”.
What defines country music and how do these two tracks either fit in that or not fit in that?
Chris P
February 15, 2024 @ 8:57 am
That doesn’t make it okay that artists like FGL and Morgan Wallen are even considered “country” to begin with. This is a very dangerous step towards damaging the genre beyond repair.
Howard
February 14, 2024 @ 10:31 am
Let’s see what the full album sounds like, OK? The two songs do nothing for me, but Beyonce certainly has the vocal chops to do a real country song. Maybe there’ll be something better on the album, although if there is, why is Sony forcing this silly thing on country radio?
Trigger
February 14, 2024 @ 10:42 am
I agree, and said as much in the article. Perhaps the album itself take a more country and more substantive turn. We just don’t know yet, and it would be unfair to judge the entire work on these two songs.
Howard
February 14, 2024 @ 11:04 am
The thing is, there are moments in both songs where I actually like them — the gospel touches in “Texas Hold ‘Em,” the blues-rock moments in “16 Carriages.” But a few seconds after I’m smiling and nodding to the rhythm, it all turns ridiculous and shallow. She needs to get a good country producer working with her, on songs with more meat on their bones.. Again, with that voice, I’d definitely be open to hearing her on mainstream country radio if she’d just step up her country game a few notches.
My second favorite genre behind country is ’50s through ’80s R&B, so I’m probably more open to those influences making their way into country than most. To me, it’s all Southern rural music, just taken in different directions.
Cackalack
February 14, 2024 @ 12:20 pm
I like this comment.
Lake Erie Brown
February 14, 2024 @ 2:13 pm
Agreed. Since I can’t like comments anymore I just want to chime in saying that genre labels are stupid and that classic R&B and country are just two sides of the same coin. Always have been. Trig defending radio stations for catering to “demographics” over art is exactly the kind of thing that gets the country music industry labeled as racist.
Trigger
February 14, 2024 @ 2:37 pm
The idea that I am “defending radio stations for catering to “demographics” over art” is beyond insanely ludicrous. Sometimes it’s tough enough to defend the stances I do take. Being attacked for ones I would never take especially sucks. There is no bigger critic of country radio in the history of the format than myself.
That said, I also try to be fair. If I put myself in the shoes of the Oklahoma radio station, and was being demanded to play a single that I didn’t even a have a clean version of that was capable of being played on the radio, and the entire Beyhive descended on me for my blatant racism and tried to destroy my life and career, I would feel like I was being dealt with unfairly, because I would be.
I am not advocating for country radio stations to not add “Texas Hold ‘Em.” I am advocating for them to make the decisions they think is best for their listeners as opposed to giving into social media pressure campaigns by bad faith fanatical actors who will look to destroy their entire lives if they don’t comply. I’m most certainly not asking them to do anything “over art.”
Alison Bonaguro who used to work for CMT retweeted a link to this article, and reminded everyone that she had her job and career destroyed in 2016 after the release of Beyonce’s “Daddy Lessons.” I know people think I’m being hyperbolic, but I can’t stress enough the serious, real world implications behind the social media contagion this Beyonce stuff takes. And we are just getting started.
Lake Erie Brown
February 14, 2024 @ 2:55 pm
Trig, I wouldnt have posted this (or at least the last part) had I already read some of the below comments that make the point better than I did without a personal attack. For that, my apologies. Will be interested in seeing if/how you reply.
I’m well aware of the shitstorm this is going to cause if everyone doesn’t play their cards exactly right (heh, Texas Hold ‘Em indeed). These types of shitstorms are just how the media (both right & left) have decided to operate in order to generate clicks/likes/exposure/branding/capital investments. It is hugely detrimental to our society and discourse as a whole and I currently don’t see any way out of it.
FWIW, I listened to the songs today. I’m not a huge Beyonce fan, but I don’t deny her talent and ability to connect with her audience which goes well beyond race and class. “Texas Hold ‘Em” was….fine. Far better and more country than alot of what I’ve heard coming out of Nashville over the last 10-15 years though not entirely my cup of tea. Certainly wouldn’t be upset hearing this in a store or whatever. The other track was far less country and far more forgettable on the whole, though others in this comment thread have said the opposite so its probably just a matter of preference.
Daniele
February 15, 2024 @ 11:22 am
hey Howard i’m with you. I am also a huge fan of classic soul/r&b 50 s to 80s but i feel like the genre was totally disrupted by the dance/ hip hop influences….is there a thing such as SCM for soul music? Any new artist you would recomend?
Di Harris
February 14, 2024 @ 10:32 am
Listen to TEXAS HOLD ‘EM.
Pure gold.
She will sweep the awards shows with that song, alone.
Time to take out the garbage.
Matt
February 14, 2024 @ 10:32 am
Music is getting harder and harder to classify. “16 Carriages” is a strong song. I wish Beyonce and her team would let her songs stand alone and test the waters to see if they have cross-over appeal. Similar to what we saw back when “Picture” crossed over and that was a more straightforward country track than “16 Carriages.”
If Beyonce is genuinely passionate about country music and working with artists like Robert Randolph and Rhiannon Giddens- it is great to see her increase their exposure. Beyonce does not need country music airplay or country music awards for her legacy.
The best way she could service black country artists is by working with them and using her platform to speak of their talents. I think it’s great if she makes a country/country-inspired album, but she (or more accurately her fans and the media) cannot expect everyone to embrace her.
Let the music speak for itself.
chris
February 14, 2024 @ 10:33 am
Let’s pretend Beyonce was a blank slate and these were her first ever releases. You didn’t know her and these were the only two songs she had on DSPs to her name. I think they would be accepted as “Country” records if the label had entered them as country in the metadata.
It’s more-so that Beyonce has been involved in Pop, R&B, Dance, etc to this point. So is it really about these records?
Trigger
February 14, 2024 @ 10:54 am
When the Grammy Awards screen songs and albums for categorization, they’re told to wipe all memory of an artist’s previous work away, and simply judge the music that is before them. In Billboard’s case, they openly consider where the artist’s music originates from, their previous history, and other factors beyond the specific piece of music to determine where they chart. So these considerations are going to be different for the different entities involved.
One very important factor is the original metadata for the Beyonce songs said they were “pop.” This was a big tell, and will be used against the tracks in the country genre, fair or not. The reason Billlboad decided to move Lil Nas X from country to hip-hop with “Old Town Road” is Nas X’s manager Danny Kang admitted that Nas X purposely put the track in country knowing it would face less competition and was more likely to chart, which it did. This was seen as a manipulation of the chart rules. It will be interesting to see how Billboard reads the metadata change in this situation.
Saving Bro Country Music
February 14, 2024 @ 12:38 pm
Fair, but there’s a massive double standard here in that “The Bones” was actually promoted first to hot adult contemporary radio as a Maren Morris crossover effort (people often forget this), yet later became this massive country hit. I believe the same was true of Meant To Be, which broke a record on Hot Country Songs.
So clearly radio programmers and Billboard are willing to adjust.
Di Harris
February 14, 2024 @ 10:41 am
C’mon Trig, you going to ante up, or fortress up?
Do Not be intimidated by the drooling swifty and beyhive minions.
Texas Hold ‘Em is pure garbage and you know it.
Jay
February 14, 2024 @ 10:48 am
I love Beyoncé’s music. I think the new songs are alright, but neither is particularly great (16 Carriages is definitely the better of the two). I don’t think either is really very country and I can’t really imagine them being big hits in the genre even if you swapped Beyoncé’s vocals with Carrie Underwood’s. The thing that I find funny about this project so far is that a bunch of pop fans have called the songs “too country” for their tastes while most country listeners probably don’t consider them very country at all. They’re kinda hard to pin down, genre-wise.
So far, this feels very much like every other pop star’s attempt at “going country,” where they put on a cowboy hat, namedrop something like “Texas” or “John Wayne,” and throw a banjo or acoustic guitar or something in the mix and think they’ve done something substantively “country.” Pop stars nearly always appropriate “country” as an aesthetic without actually making any country music. Maybe the album will have more depth than that. I hope it will.
The thing that really annoys me about this project so far is the narrative emerging—entirely from the fanbase, mind you—that Beyoncé is “reclaiming country music” for black people. I find it very hypocritical in the way that it erases all of the black talent who have committed their lives and careers to country/folk—which is what Rhiannon Giddens was talking about in the aftermath of the 2016 CMAs. Still, I liked seeing her name in the credits and hope that more will be done to highlight other black talent in the genre.
Beyoncé will definitely get Album and Record nominations at the Grammys, but I highly doubt she’ll win either. Country/Americana voters will favor one of their own so long as someone (Stapleton? Musgraves?) makes the lineup, and she won’t have full pop support with every pop star under the sun apparently gearing up to release this year. Beyond that, the Americana field seems more receptive to outsiders and more supportive of black talent than the Country field, so I figure she can get a song or two nominated there even if Country shuts her out. Aside from being the biggest winner in Grammy history, Beyoncé also boasts the impressive stat of having won at least one Grammy for every album she’s made; it’ll be curious to see if this breaks that streak.
Interesting that the critics seem a bit tepid on it so far. Aside from the Washington Post panning you cited, Pitchfork also wrote Texas Hold Em off as “music for an H&M commercial,” where normally they’d be the first to write a dissertation about how genius and important it is.
I’m looking forward to the album as a Beyoncé fan, but as a country music fan I’m just left wondering what value I’m supposed to find in this when I could be listening to better songs by black artists who actually make country/folk music.
Julie
February 14, 2024 @ 10:50 am
It has been funny seeing some country critics/journalists on twitter trip over themselves to act like these songs are actually good.
Fans being outraged about country radio not playing her songs. Real country fans know that country radio has been crap for years (decades?).
Country When Country Wasn't Cool
February 14, 2024 @ 10:50 am
Agreed. They just aren’t “country” enough. I actually think if she really went for it, she could create a great country album – she has talent in spades. As is, I think she missed the mark. The article’s comments about awards were interesting. This is a blatant attempt to snag that elusive AOTY Grammy by pulling in votes from the country block. She’ll be nominated, for sure (it’s apparently a requirement at the Grammys) but I doubt this will work. Honestly, does anyone think she’s going to win CMA/ ACM trophies over the strong group of country females the past few years? Unless there’s some big collaboration, at best, she’s looking at an American Music Award – maybe.
Di Harris
February 14, 2024 @ 10:57 am
Would be great if Bey wanted to get in there and belt out some, say, Louisiana infused country. Bayou country.
And not this “edgy” crap.
Get in there, talk to her Cajun musician friends. (Buddy Guy, Tab Benoit).
Knock out some Cajun/Blues, country.
NOLA has a music scene that’s like NO other.
So much history & music DNA to draw on.
Think that would be rather awesome.
Seeking the lowest common denominator, has been done to death. B O R I N G. And the kill whitey schtick is juvenile to the extreme.
Get in there Beyonce.
Let’s see what you can REALLY do.
Working with Rhiannon Giddens is a golden opportunity not to be wasted.
PeterT
February 14, 2024 @ 11:00 am
I think whether Texas Hold ’em is country and whether it belongs on country radio or at the country award shows are separate things.
Pop Country is its own genre, and its a sub genre of a wider Country genre. I think recognizing that would relieve a lot of the tension in the wider genre, Pop Country shouldn’t get to be the standard or arbiter of what Country music is. Country radio is Pop Country, Bobby Bones is a Pop Country DJ, the CMAs are a Pop Country award show.
The Grammys are more inclusive, but having Brothers Osborne and Lainey Wilson in the same catergory as Zach Bryan and Tyler Childers illustrates the point.
Beyonce’s songs are what today is generally classified as Americana. Americana is a country sub-genre, whether the Country or Americana people want to recognize that. 16 carriages is similar to the work which Alison Russell has been doing, and Texas Hold em feels like a Lumineers song. I like both, though I appreciate the criticism of Texas hold em relying heavily on tropes and I could do without the woos and heys, but I would personally choose it every time ahead of turning on country radio.
To that extent, I think that the Pop Country business has an out to this whole controversy, and that is admitting that they are a sub-genre, and that their music is adjacent to what Beyonce is producing but not the same. They probably won’t, because its almost certainly in their financial interest to maintain the pretense that they ARE the genre, and anything outside of their control (control being the real organizing principle here) either doesn’t matter, or ISN’T country. To that extent the discomfort this Beyonce record is going to create for them is of their own making – so screw em, and bring it on.
Trigger
February 14, 2024 @ 11:15 am
“Beyonce’s songs are what today is generally classified as Americana. Americana is a country sub-genre, whether the Country or Americana people want to recognize that. 16 carriages is similar to the work which Alison Russell has been doing, and Texas Hold em feels like a Lumineers song.”
I respectfully, but strongly disagree with this. Trying to couch these songs as “Americana” is significantly more difficult than calling them pop country. If they’re anything, they’re pop country, more indicative of Walker Hays and “Fancy Like” than Jason Isbell and “Cast Iron Skillet.”
I do agree these different genre entities need to make their own autonomous decisions about these songs based off of their won benchmarks and bylaws. What they don’t need to have is intimidation to the point where they are forced to make a decision they don’t agree with.
Peter
February 14, 2024 @ 12:19 pm
Maybe thats fair wrt Texas Hold ’em. You can draw a line between the Lumineers and a Pop Country song like Taylor Swifts ‘mean’ and its somewhere on that spectrum.
The larger point here is that the Pop Country industry have carved out a small corner of the the wider Country genre and have been representing it as being Country in its entirety and excluding popular acts (like Sturgill, and TC) that they don’t have enough control over.
Beyonce has come along with some tunes which are certainly within the Country spectrum, but probably fall outside of the narrow corner Pop country has carved out.
This is the bed the pop country industry has created and now they must lie in it. They get zero sympathy from me. Let it burn.
Fuzzy TwoShirts
February 14, 2024 @ 11:06 am
I’m not going to Delevan at length into this, because I frankly couldn’t care less. But I want to share my experience with country music, country music appropriation, country music interloping. Etc etc etc
Once upon a time, not that long ago, in the cosmic scheme of things, Luke Bryan was the biggest thing in the world, and he and Blake Shelton and the Florida Georgia Line guys were continually making country music look, ridiculous, while also demonstrating that their only understanding of country music was some stereotype about Johnny Cash and dying dogs
At that time, a lot of country music records of the golden era Had yet to be digitized or made available on the Internet in any form, and it
didn’t feel like anyone cared.
The only way to get country music from the 50s and 60s was to go to Goodwill and hope for good luck in the used records department
Streaming was hip and new, and most music that was outside. The top 40 was not available to stream.
And my own mother hated Grandpa Jones
Finding this website was the first glimpse into the reality that I was not alone in this world, that there were other people who felt the same way I did. Those rants that have now become history, may as well have been manna from heaven for me
But I don’t miss them.
We buried my mother, and I never have to listen to top 40 country radio again, Florida Georgia Line broke up, independent artists are now dominating the conversation while radio has its head in the sand and continues to play the Twitter headlines game
If I didn’t continue to read this website, I wouldn’t know who was doing what I’m country, radio, who had gone country, or even who some of these artists are
Meanwhile, Bottomley, can I now go on Amazon and buy Reed issues of music from all the way back to the 30s from every artist I want to thought had been overlooked, YouTube channels are continually uploading some of the records that haven’t been re-issued yet. Records that even me, one of the biggest enthusiast and preservationists of country music of the 40s 50s and 60s, didn’t know had been recorded.
Once upon a time, I was miserable, living in a country music doomsday that felt deliberately orchestrated to take country music away from me
And now, 10 years after old farts and jackasses, I am having the time of my life buying music I never thought I would be able to hear. Tommy jarrell, red rector, brother Oswald, Roy Lee centers, I wont keep name dropping but you get the point
Once upon a time I would have been through the wringer over Beyoncé, entering country music, and dominating the discussion.
Now I couldn’t care less
And you know what? I like Hanks snow. I like the Wilburn brothers.
I’ve never heard of Zach Bryan song, I’ve never heard a Turnpike Troubadours song. Not because I actively don’t want to, but because I’m busy listening to other things.
It’s not that I would choose not to listen to turnpike troubadours, it’s that now that most music has gone to streaming and even getting a car with a CD player in it is more of a novelty than a comoddity
I’m probably not going to find very many turnpike troubadours CDs at Goodwill, and that means I have to make the conscious decision to pay full price to get the CD.
And I’ll always be able to get turnpike troubadours on disc on Amazon. They are not at risk of being lost.
But I have been waiting over a two thirds of my life to get some of those old records that are only recently being re-issued. The hagers, Riley Puckett etc
Once upon a time fighting for country music was a daily part of my reality because if I didn’t fight, country music might be gone
And every time a pop country fan came into the comments, even here, it felt like the enemy had infiltrated the last fortress I had to get away from the new stuff, and still know that somebody else cared about the old stuff.
But that fighting is over. I don’t have to play the game anymore.
I don’t have to participate in modern country music discourse just to keep country music alive. Country music can do what it wants and it doesn’t have to have my input, because I have now been given the opportunity to exit the simulation, and just buy what I want to listen to,
And I will
Today: Tommy Jarell
Tomorrow: the world
I don’t know why I bother to type up this whole diatribe, except that I read this article and thought, how once upon a time this would have ruined my whole week, to know that Beyoncé was messing up country music in the public opinion.
And now I couldn’t care less.
Once upon a time, it was hard to listen to everything. I wanted to listen to it, because it hadn’t all been made accessible.
And now so much of that early country and folk music has been re-issued that I could hardly listen to it all
Beyoncé? Never heard of her
Cackalack
February 14, 2024 @ 12:25 pm
Today: Tommy Jarrell. Tomorrow: Kyle Creed on FIDDLE.
Strait
February 14, 2024 @ 4:38 pm
I have had to hear Turnpike Troubadour music and I wasn’t impressed. To me it sounds like leftover ditch clippings from Cross Canadian Radweed.
Jim Bones
February 14, 2024 @ 11:13 am
Yeah not really understanding the love on these songs from people – though it is country enough to fit in on country radio (so not very country at all), so i guess it has that going. To me though it honestly just sounds like lazily disguised pandering to hop on the current popularity of country music. Like i love pop music and i love country music, and this does neither very well lol.
MORE IMPORTANTLY: Conrad Fisher’s (somewhat?) new song “Cecilia” absolutely fucking RIPS. I can’t stop listening. Thanks Conrad. Pure gold, really, congrats on the release, idk if I’m late to the party, but man i love that song.
Jeremy pinnell also rips
Di Harris
February 14, 2024 @ 11:30 am
@Jim,
Am sure you already know this.
Conrad has a new album coming out, this spring.
One of my favorite songs of his (Welcome To The Neighborhood) will be on the upcoming album.
Ok Trig, am done commenting for a few days
Dee Dee Pickles
February 14, 2024 @ 11:26 am
One of the biggest lies this nation has ever told is that Black people are not country. That they do not live in “small towns,” despite what Jason Aldean says. Black people have always lived in the country. It is where we prayed. It is where we sang. It is where we worshiped.
Beyonce’s mother was born in Galveston, the birthplace of Juneteenth. By birth, she is connected to the first generation of Black people in Texas who were freed by General Gordon Granger’s orders on June 19, 1865. That is an unique experience that cannot be manufactured by a songwriting camp in Nashville. Or can be replicated by a white country music star born above the Mason-Dixon Line or outside of the United States.
For anyone claiming that “it’s not Country” has only been conformed to believe that it sounds a particular way, which is untrue. Beyonce is from Houston, TX, has deep southern connections, so to even think she has no idea what she’s doing, or, she isn’t “welcomed here,” is an absolute insult.
The truth is that country music has never been white. Country music is Black. Country music is Mexican. Country music is Indigenous. She did not need to read Black Country Music: Listening For Revolutions by Francesca Royster, Hidden in the Mix: The African American Presence in Country Music, or My Country, Too: The Other Black Music by Pamela E. Foster to understand that. Knowles-Carter simply needed to walk outside her house in Houston, Texas and witness the cultural exchange between Black, Tejano, and Indigenous communities in her hometown. She did not need white validation to classify her country—she has been country for the entirety of her life.
Since the release of “TEXAS HOLD ‘EM” and “16 CARRIAGES,” The Black Opry have received a significant increase in followers, banjo player Rhiannon Giddens, a long-time advocate and public educator of the banjo’s African roots, featured on “Texas Hold ‘Em”, and steel guitarist Robert Randolph, a master of his craft who is heard on “16 Carriages”, are experiencing the Beyoncé effect. Adia Victoria. Amri Unplugged, Brittney Spencer, Mickey Guyton, Reyna Roberts, Rissi Palmer, Sacha, Tanner Adell, and other Black talents in the country music space are being shared across digital and social media platforms.
Trigger
February 14, 2024 @ 12:50 pm
1) Nobody has ever, EVER in the history of country music claimed that Black creators did not have a role in the formation of country music. This is a categorically and verifably false strawman that has been created by activists and academics that has done more to erase the Black legacy in country music than any White supremacist ever has. You will not find one country music history book that says that Black people did not have a hand in creating country music. In fact, they all say the exact opposite. People have been whipped into a fevered pitch over a canard. If you want verification, check out the “Sources of Country Music” painting by Thomas Hart Benton that features a Black guy playing a banjo, and Black Gospel singers.
2) Pushing this canard is not going to destroy racism in country music, it exacerbates it, so does talking down to people native to country music who know its history inherently.
3) We all know where Beyonce is from. That doesn’t inherently make her music “country.” As an experienced country critic, I think the two songs she has released so far sit right on the line of what could be considered country, and what would be considered some other genre. I am not saying they are not country. What I am saying is that the professionals tasked to make those decisions for their institutions need to be given the latitude to make those decisions autonomous of being called “racist” without any other context.
4) I am glad that certain Black creators are receiving renewed attention through the release of these Beyonce songs. But others will be overshadowed. That is simply a fact of life and the American mind’s bandwidth. Similar, some individuals are receiving elevated attention because as I said in the article, the more racist they can portray country music, the more attention they receive. This created a perverse incentive structure—especially on social media—to misrepresent the facts. That is why some many of these people are actively engaging in Black erasure, while purporting to be for setting the legacy of Black creators in country music straight.
O’Conway
February 14, 2024 @ 5:43 pm
Your experience as a music critic is weak and not the trump card you think it is if you listen to Texas Hold ‘Em and don’t hear the story in it.
Trigger
February 14, 2024 @ 5:49 pm
I sure don’t remember citing anything as a trump card. If you like the song, that’s all that matters. The element of story in the song is very weak, and when it comes to country songs, story is usually a strong suit. This is just an observance. Again, I’m not even saying it doesn’t qualify as a country song.
Chris P
February 15, 2024 @ 9:02 am
You make a very good point that “activists” in the media have done more to erase black history and drive “racism” than help move forward the cause. I applaud you for being one of the few willing to expose these media outlets for what they are
Strait
February 14, 2024 @ 4:43 pm
Ridiculous. Throwing open the gates of Country music to non-country artists just so non-country fans will pay attention, is a bad idea. Every real country fan I know also likes blues music. Blues and old country are intertwined. People who like Beyonce OVERWHELMING do not listen to blues music or traditional country music.
This fixation on race is so annoying that I would rather hear the occasional racist outbursts from a real racist then to have to endure this constant race virtue pontification.
Adam S
February 15, 2024 @ 10:39 am
“I would rather hear the occasional racist outbursts from a real racist”
Yeah, no one’s surprised you’re comfortable with racism.
Ben
February 17, 2024 @ 1:45 pm
I’m lukewarm on blues at best. But I love Stax Volt Atlantic ATCO style soul music, and I love the Rolling Stones once they figured out their sound.
Ben
February 14, 2024 @ 11:28 am
I think these songs blow, but so does 90+% of country radio. The problem is the vocal delivery, which I think is *extremely* important in country music. I’ll use Kacey Musgraves as an example. Her voice is naturally a country voice, effortlessly so. When she sings a song like “High Horse” (great track), even though it’s a disco song with tremolo’d guitars, her vocals still make it scan country There’s a performance with her old band where they play it country, and it works in that context. Beyonce’s vocals on these songs don’t scan country at all, and the instrumentals are weak. It scans as pop with some country sounds. There aren’t any country songwriters on these songs. All that being said, it’s about as country (vocals aside, maybe) as stuff like HARDY, Ernest, Morgan Wallen, Sam Hunt, etc. Country radio is really bad at country music in the present.
Brian
February 15, 2024 @ 9:21 am
I think this is an interesting and underappreciated point. It’s a bit underappreciated in part because it’s walking a fine line of being critiqued for racism — when point in fact, a specific vocal style gets certain (almost all black artists) classified as R&B even if they claim they are doing something else — say, indie rock, or art pop, etc. Those are, I think, interesting or valid complaints. By the same token, certain regional dialects scan more easily as country music to the point that I think – whether consciously or not – those accents become a defining attribute of the genre. Your point about Kacey Musgraves is spot on, and even someone like Miranda Lambert can release a straight up guitar-rock song or an acoustic campfire ballad, and *both* of those will get effortlessly classified as country (instead of rock or folk, respectively) because of how she sounds.
Now, Beyonce is actually a really strong vocalist — listen to everything she does on the track “Rocket” for proof — and I think an actually interesting foray into the genre would have involved her introducing her unique vocal strengths to a musical style that was unimpeachably country music through-and-through, because I think this would have presented an interesting experiment in how the genre gets defined. In other words, it would be really hard to argue why someone who sings with a basis in Black church music over a stellar, inarguably country music band, should not be welcomed in.
Instead, she released these frankly cheap sounding Lumineers knock-off ‘stomp and holler’ pablum, and I’m truly flabbergasted that trusted cross-over wizards like Jack White or at least freakin Shane McAnnally weren’t consulted for this.
Ben
February 17, 2024 @ 8:27 am
Beyonce backed by an A-list of Country session pros, and we’re having a completely different conversation.
kross
February 14, 2024 @ 11:29 am
you’ll probably be called a racist for even writing this article. And country music fans will be double racist for rejecting these songs, when in actually we will ignore them for the same reasons we ignore everything else on the radio.
Chilling Effect
February 14, 2024 @ 11:30 am
Chilling Effects in full force here. Any discussions will will be toxic and accusatory in this case. Not worth descending in to “stan swatting hell” to make any points which will go over simplistic heads…
In general however, the sense of entitlement of who is “deserving”(read demanding) awards is appalling but not surprising in the environment we are in now.
Phil
February 14, 2024 @ 11:41 am
I think we’re heading towards the day when genres no longer exist. And it will be a celebration of musical appreciation.
ben
February 14, 2024 @ 2:16 pm
That sounds awful. Why would we want genres to cease to exist? Specialization is important and leads to better, richer work. It’s important to master the genre (whatever genre that may be), and doing that takes a lot of time and effort. Certainly more than one album cycle.
the pistolero
February 14, 2024 @ 4:19 pm
Why would we want genres to cease to exist?
Indeed. In addition to everything else you pointed out, genres are an invaluable tool for helping people find more music they like because it groups the sounds together under a common umbrella. It would really suck if we didn’t have that.
CountryKnight
February 15, 2024 @ 11:28 am
“And when everyone’s super… no one will be.”
—Syndrome, The Incredibles
Phil
February 15, 2024 @ 1:10 pm
There are only two kinds of songs; there’s the blues, and there’s zip-a-dee-doo-dah.
Townes Van Zandt
trevistrat
February 16, 2024 @ 3:26 pm
When was the last time you saw the movie “Zip-a-dee-doo-dah” was in?
Travis D
February 14, 2024 @ 11:43 am
Can we speculate that this may be from being overshadowed by someone that moved to the pop realm from country?
Perhaps this is about ego only, and wanting to be the “big fish” again?
Scott S.
February 14, 2024 @ 12:02 pm
I’m not a Beyoncé fan, but I did listen to both these songs just out of curiosity, and because as this article mentions, I’m sure they will be talking points for both mainstream and social media.
Did I like the songs? Not really. Are they in my opinion country? Again, no. However, my opinion of what country music is as compared to what country radio currently plays are two entirely different things. I would say this is no less country than the current hits by Wallen, Jelly Roll, or other pop/hip hop country artists. These songs wouldn’t be out of place among current country radio’s playlist.
Would be nice if stars from other genres wanted to make a play in country music, that they at least attempted to actually make country music instead of just adding acoustic or steal guitar to what they already do.
Sasha
February 14, 2024 @ 12:31 pm
When genre is cultural as well as musical you run into all sorts of problems. That’s where the racism creeps in. Are the Beyonce songs any less country than what gets regularly spun on country radio and awarded at shows? No, not at all.
The catch-22 of this ‘genre as culture’ gatekeeping is it also dilutes country music. Morgan Wallen, Hardy, and Kip Moore get away with importing rap and rock into country bc they pass the culture test and they’re signed to country labels. I’m not offended by Beyonce’s posturing as an outsider when we have home-grown country music artists doing far ‘worse’ than she is.
Trigger
February 14, 2024 @ 1:16 pm
“Are the Beyonce songs any less country than what gets regularly spun on country radio and awarded at shows? No, not at all.”
This is incorrect. Are there comparables to the Beyonce songs that have been played on country radio recently? Sure. I cited one in Walker Hays and “Fancy Like.” Are these the songs that “regularly” play on country radio and win awards? Absolutely not. As has been covered ad nauseum here and in other places, country music sounds more country now than it has in at least the last 10 years. Country-sounding country songs are all over the radio. They’re the ones winning awards. Lainey Wilson is the CMA Entertainer of the Year, because she symbolizes country music’s return to its roots.
Also, two wrongs don’t make a right.
But just to clarify here, I am not saying Beyonce shouldn’t be played on the radio. I’m saying the DJs, Program Directors, etc. should have a right to make those calls and not assumed to be racists if they choose to not deem the track country.
“Morgan Wallen, Hardy, and Kip Moore get away with importing rap and rock into country bc they pass the culture test and they’re signed to country labels.”
If you go read my last reviews of Kip Moore and Hardy, I make this same exact point.
Compared to other genres, country music is more of a culture. This is just stating a fact. It doesn’t have to be an element of “gatekeeping.” Beyonce is worth $800 million dollars. If I think country music should pay more attention to its native Black and Brown performers before someone like Beyonce, sure, call me a gatekeeper.
Sasha
February 14, 2024 @ 1:55 pm
Nate Smith. Jelly Roll. Hardy. Morgan Wallen. I could go on. These people high are on the country airplay charts right now because they receive regular airplay. Hardy and Jelly Roll also received CMAs this year. I’m not saying this is the dominant sound currently, but these artists and their not-so-country music are doing incredibly well. Artists like this have been doing well for over a decade now. They have a consistent, regular presence in country music.
“But just to clarify here, I am not saying Beyonce shouldn’t be played on the radio. I’m saying the DJs, Program Directors, etc. should have a right to make those calls and not assumed to be racists if they choose to not deem the track country.”
If their decisions are cultural and not musical that exposes them to this realm of questioning. Given the state of country radio (see above) there is no musical argument for Beyonce to be excluded from the genre. We must ask, then, why she is/has been when she’s a major artist making music that would otherwise be acceptable in the country music format.
“If you go read my last reviews of Kip Moore and Hardy, I make this same exact point. Compared to other genres, country music is more of a culture.”
If you accept this, then it isn’t ‘wrong’ when these artists get labeled country. That’s a facet of the genre. But this also opens up country to a whole pandora’s box of questions around gender, race, sexuality, etc. If country music is more than music, what is this other set of qualities that makes someone an authentic country artist? Are some of those requirements outdated or discriminatory? And what would the genre look like if we prioritized sound over culture?
“Beyonce is worth $800 million dollars”
I don’t care about this because it doesn’t matter. Nashville is full of millionaires from both humble and not so humble beginnings. Are the songs good? Is there a musical justification to call them country? As a country listener, those are the questions I’m interested in because I want to hear people from all different walks of life in this genre. For me, music is and should be about sound.
“If I think country music should pay more attention to its native Black and Brown performers before someone like Beyonce, sure, call me a gatekeeper.”
Maybe they could do both because they’re both deserving of this attention.
WuK
February 14, 2024 @ 12:34 pm
I have never liked the music of Beyoncé but she is incredibly popular and clearly talented. I have mixed feelings. It is probably more of a publicity stunt to sell more records but neither song is particularly country, if at all. The positive is that she might encourage some of those that would not consider country to consider it. The music seems aimed at the charts which don’t appear to have much country music in them, even in the country charts. I read somewhere that Lana delnRay is releasing a country album later in the year. She is not the first. Neil Young, Steven Tyler, Lionel Richie and Ray Charles come to mind. As the country charts do. To have much country and seem less significant than they used, I am not sure she does any harm. Fact is. OST country fans would say, it’s not country!
Saving Bro Country Music
February 14, 2024 @ 12:35 pm
I’ve often agreed with your take on these matters – with Daddy Lessons, with Old Town Road, etc. But I think you’re missing some important parts of this discussion.
Admittedly, I do think Texas Hold Em is a legitimate mainstream country radio song … far more so than the Fancy Like comparison you’re making. Beyond the country-esque instrumentals, I actually hear a 90s/2000s vibe (similar to Keith Urban’s Somebody Like You) at times in the melody. Perhaps not your quintessential example of “true country,” but nothing that would be out of the ordinary to have on country radio at any point in the last 20-30 years.
But we may never agree with where they fall on the country spectrum; I think we can agree that it wouldn’t be shocking for that song to be in a modern country radio rotation.
So then we have the issue of why it’s not being played. Keep in mind that the Oklahoma radio station that went viral did not initially say they weren’t playing it because it hasn’t been serviced; they were saying it wasn’t being played because they’re a country station and they don’t play Beyonce. At best, that reflects a lack of due diligence on the part of the programmer since they should at least engage in a conversation about why this song, while more country than “Single Ladies,” still doesn’t belong on their station. Just saying it’s “Beyonce so it can’t be country” is lazy. At worst, it opens the door to the discussion about country being racist and sexist.
But even if they did address the “serviced” point, that reflects an archaic aspect of the radio industry that really needs to go away. The idea that a song at #1 on iTunes and Top 5 on Spotify needs to be “serviced” before it can be played is laughable. Radio is supposed to be about playing what’s hot and/or about to be what’s hot … not about playing what is being formally “promoted” by dudes in suits. You literally have Spotify telling you what music is resonating, why not listen to that instead of what some “promoter” tells you is working? Forget Beyonce, country dragged its feet on Zach Bryan’s culturally game changing this because of this “servicing” thing, and it’s so embarrassing in the streaming age.
All radio formats are shady, but country remains the grossest. This notion of “push weeks” where we’re supposed to believe a song is so cool that it jumps from #5 to #1 in a single week, and then so uncool that it drops from #1 to #27 next week eliminates even the fantasy of organic airplay. The idea that “World On Fire,” a song that isn’t interesting, streaming especially well, or remotely relevant culturally, is on a record-breaking country radio run is laughable. That it’s enjoying this run at a time when actually meaningful songs like “Save Me” basically received the “paper #1” treatment is a travesty.
If this Beyonce conversation helps expose and eliminate even some of the shenanigans at country radio, it would be a win.
Now as for the “taking spots away” point, there’s probably (and sadly) merit to that. But I feel like this is a bigger conversation than just Beyonce or other pop stars coming over to country. Because it’s even been happening with the legitimately country Lainey Wilson. As I cautioned when she started getting showered with awards, country is clearly patting itself on the back for celebrating one woman … but not necessarily using that woman’s resonance to open the doors to more women. Kelsea Ballerini just released the best work of her career, and she’s struggling as much as she ever has at country radio. Megan Moroney has all the tangibles and intangibles to actually be a major star, is releasing actual country that is radio friendly, and saw her big, culturally resonant hit receive a paper #1 … and her current single move at a snail’s pace up the charts. Outside of Zach Bryan and Morgan Wallen’s material, “I’m wearing Tennessee Orange for him” is probably the most quoted recent country music line among 18-34 year old women on Instagram (and her “No Caller ID” is all over stories), the exact demographic everyone is trying to reach, yet you’d never know she was a big deal based on her radio treatment.
So while I do agree that I’d never want to see one woman “steal” spots from other people, putting that all on Beyonce’s shoulders feels unfair. There’s no reason the radio can’t play Beyonce’s country single … and country singles from black women in the country industry day-to-day.
Trigger
February 14, 2024 @ 2:17 pm
Saving Bro Country Music,
Yeah, if you think I am any way defending, excusing, or otherwise favorable to mainstream country radio in any capacity, you haven’t been paying attention to Saving Country Music for the last 16 years. There is nowhere will you will find more vehement venom for the mainstream country radio format than here to the point where explaining why this is would have come across as trite. Of course country radio is completely outmoded and insular. That goes without saying.
All that said, the Beyonce team screwed up here, and in ways that may significantly hurt her prospects. I had a phone call with a colleague this morning about this very thing. By initially filling out the metadata as “pop” and NOT servicing it to country radio, they gave the country radio format every out they needed. And since “Texas Hold ‘Em” is NOT a clean track, this was not something someone could just download off of iTunes and start playing. In this instance, a radio edit needed to be serviced.
Is it stupid that country radio has to be “serviced” as single before playing it? Of course it is. But that’s the game, and frankly, it’s really not a hard one to play if you’re Beyonce. It’s a half hour for an underling at her label to make it happen. They didn’t do that until this morning, and have the official add date as six days from now.
Additionally, the attack on the Oklahoma radio station is going to color how all of this unfolds. Yes, they should be more aware of the environment to know Beyonce released a song. But the Beyhive should have kept their powder dry for the bigger fights to come. There are many legitimate reasons the radio station can and did cite why they weren’t playing the song.
As I said in the article, people are going to literally lose their jobs over this Beyonce issue. It is going to create incredible chaos. What happened with the Oklahoma radio station is going to put a chilling effect on many people’s actions moving forward.
Kevin Montgomery
February 18, 2024 @ 12:42 pm
Kyle,
In 16 years, you’ve gone from being a respectful critic to being a disrespectful hypocrite.
You write these particular articles knowing damn well what the reaction is going to be. You get more comments and more clicks from these opinion-based and politically oriented articles which are detrimental to your other articles regarding album reviews and artist profiles that, while well-written and researched, are clearly ignored by a certain group of your readers.
I’ve emailed you in the past about my concerns, but you continue to shoot yourself in the foot when you write nonsensical garbage like this just to rile up the right-wingers who seem to attach themselves to every word you say regarding sensitive issues such as this.
As painful as this is for you to realize, country music (and any other of genre of music in general) must evolve over time in order to remain popular and to stay relevant with today’s audience, for better and for worse.
Now before you get defensive and bring up years-old articles that you wrote while you still had some semblance of respect as a music journalist, I again remind you of all the vile garbage you’ve wrote making fun of women and minorities, especially Maren Morris and Kane Brown, two people whom you’ve basically crucified ad nauseam.
This article on Beyonce is not journalism, Kyle. It’s “shitposting”, plain and simple. It was written solely to generate clicks and controversy. You know it and you cannot deny it, either.
It’s grown beyond tiresome at this point and has now reached the point of being flat-out pathetic.
My assertion is that you have long since defeated your own purpose of saving country music.
Try saving yourself instead.
Trigger
February 18, 2024 @ 1:15 pm
Maren Morris does suck.
I’d love to hear your opinion about the article I wrote, Kevin. Instead of whatever this is.
Jobi
February 14, 2024 @ 12:36 pm
All I WANT is a NEW Cody Jinks, Jamey Johnson and Alan Jackson Lp ! DOLLY Is NOT Rock and Roll ! Jelly Roll, Wallen, Aldean, Church and The Rest is POP Music !, Period…..
Jobi
February 14, 2024 @ 12:43 pm
There is a Series of Vinyl and Cd’s Called “Hillbillies In Hell”, If You Can AFFORD The Vinyl Series, By All MEANS, Get Them ! This Series Contains Original, Authentic Country and Western. And With 1 or 2 Exceptions, To My Knowledge, NONE of These Songs Has Been Covered By Anyone over the age of 64 !~……
David
February 14, 2024 @ 1:11 pm
She’s viewed as an interloper. How would Garth Brooks be received if he put out a Rap album..probably paned as inauthentic and a crass attempt to own the Rap airwaves with his stardom. Tired of hearing Country Music has black roots. Its roots are in rural Appalachia well over 100 years ago by European immigrants. This region was isolated from the influence of black music, the hymns and rhythms brought here by African slaves that later became the Blues, Jazz and ultimately Rock & Roll….Country is a different branch of the musical tree.
T.B Hall
February 14, 2024 @ 11:34 pm
Thats not particularly true. I also see below Trigger wrote that it started with white immigrants from the British isles and later incorporated musical contributions from those enslaved. However, The combination of those European immigrants, Natives and enslaved people is what created the sound of the old Appalachia music. Now when the man known as the father of hillbilly now country music stepped on the scene, and solidified country as a genre he definitely took our blues and other songs as our influence was heavy by then. Also if Garth Brooks put out a rap album then he just put out a rap album. We dont gatekeep in that aspect, collectively. We dont have some scale in which rap music is judged nor is there some particular criteria. Country rap music exist. Just like gospel rap, gangsta rap. I don’t know if you know this but black artists write for country artist and some such as Dolly wrote songs for R and B singers. Yall are hollering about what makes country what it is meanwhile the words of R&B been gracing your radios for Lord knows how long.
Trigger
February 15, 2024 @ 12:11 am
T.B. Hall,
The people who read Saving Country Music turned off their radios 20 years ago.
When Garth Brooks or another major country star releases a hip-hop album and demands hip-hop radio play it, we can have that discussion. But that has never happened.
Nobody is “gatekeeping” Beyonce here. I went out of my way to say she has every right to make a country album. My only concern is that we cannot have honest discussions about it, because an environment of fear has been imposed around it by a Stan army.
David
February 15, 2024 @ 1:23 pm
Hi,
Not true. Old Appalachian music is indeed from European immigrants in isolated regions of Appalachia that traveled the back roads playing and influencing one another. It is influenced by Celtic music. The exact same way the Blues was created by the likes of Son House who traveled from juke joint to juke joint throughout the South and each region had its own vibe, Delta Blues, Memphis Blues, Jump Blues. The Blues originated in the South as slaves from Africa brought the spiritual hymns and rhythms that were sung aloud and later interpreted into the Blues and ultimately Rock & Roll. You don’t seem to realize that Applacia was completely isolated from blacks mostly due to Jim Crow. Most Appalachian music at the time was played on fiddles a variation of the European violin. Blues players created make shift guitars, different sounds, different rhythms and different cultures. Appalachian music much like the Blues is a cultural storytelling. You can argue much later all musical genres influenced each other as Beyounce is now a cross over artist.
I appreciate and respect black artists and believe in giving credit where credit is due. The fact Eminem was titled the greatest Rapper of all time is complete bullshit as they chose him because he’s the white guy. My point about Garth Brooks is no black kid wants to listen to someone who does not live the life they live. It’s about authenticity.
Cackalack
February 15, 2024 @ 8:06 am
David, with all due respect, you have been taken in by some century old propaganda. When the song collectors first went to Appalachia, they (meaning Cecil Sharp et al) came with the explicit idea of establishing a through-line of English identity. This meant they specifically collected Child ballads and other English songs, excluding songs sung by the very same singers that had Irish, African, and American origins. Furthermore, they only collected songs from white singers, ignoring their black neighbors, even when those white singers advised them about black musicians. The recording industry furthered this fantasy of an “isolated, pure strain” as a marketing tactic by splitting mountain music into “hillbilly” and “race” music, to the point of, hilariously, marketing bands as the wrong race if their music didn’t fit the preconceived notions of the suits in New York.
Easy evidence that Appalachia was not “isolated from the influence of black music” can be found in the presence of the banjo, bones, spoons, and washtub bass in Appalachian music, all of which are African instruments, not to mention more technical stuff like blue notes and syncopation that are trademarks of black music.
I say all this as someone who has dedicated his life to playing and preserving this music, my native music, that my people have been playing for many many generations. If you, or anyone else, would like to educate yourselves on the history of this beautiful thing, I would be happy to help, provide book recommendations, et cetera. Sincere offer.
Joey Jo Jo Shabbadoo
February 14, 2024 @ 1:18 pm
You capitalizing black with score you top bunk in the re-education camp you’ll be forced into. So you got that going for you.
Otherwise you’d be scored as irredeemably racist and shot.
Jimmy
February 14, 2024 @ 1:18 pm
Wow. What a thoughtful discussion on this thread; I really expected it to devolve into a mess.
“Texas Hold ‘Em” would be welcomed at country radio if it was released by a current artist in the genre. I think it’s weak in many ways, but most of what passes for country music these days sounds weak to me. “16 Carriages” sounds like any other pop track, there’s nothing country about it. At least “Texas Hold ‘Em” attempts to be country. If a dude recorded the song, it would be classed as Bro country.
People are so afraid of being cancelled or called a racist (everything is racist these days, don’t you know?), so much so they will swallow their true feelings. I believe the industry: award shows, Billboard, radio, etc., will fawn all over these songs for that reason. It’s the music business. It’s not about art or the best being showcased, it’s about making money, and everyone will do whatever it takes to keep the green flowing and to keep their jobs.
Personally, I don’t care what Beyonce or anyone else does. I’m with Fuzzy. I listen to what I like (once in a while I even find something here that surprises me), and I forget about the rest. Life is too short.
Chucky Waggs
February 14, 2024 @ 1:59 pm
As much as some might hate to admit it, much of what makes a song “country” has to do with production. Just like you can take a pop song hook with trap beats and hip hop cadence and dress it up in rhinestones, cowboy hats and some faint steel guitar to make the cut, one can take pop or r&b and produce it for a country arrangement. Sometimes to great results, if the song itself is of decent quality.
Chris Stapletons solo records are arguably less “country” than his previous outfits but soared on the country charts bc there it sits somewhere on the outskirts of the genre and the quality of the songs, themes, writing and performances are more solid than the majority of the stuff included in the mainstream version of the genre as a whole.
Beyoncé is a great performer with a solid team of professionals who Im sure have worked across all genres and know how to go about crafting a solid effort if that’s something she/they’re interest in as opposed to just creating traffic. If she cares about it being a sincere, quality work and her and her people care about utilizing the elements that make up good country music, I’m sure it’ll be great and I’m actually kind of excited to see what comes of it…
If it’s a disingenuous attempt at genre flipping for attention, it’ll just be as flat as all the other mainstream country music that flies by constantly before being forgotten. But with someone with as strong of a name, brand and career outside of the country genre as Beyonce, it’s inevitable that our modern social and media culture will be chomping at the bit to applaud it, tear it down and get a hit at whatever angle they can to best whatever take proceeded it…..
All Beyonce can really do is put it out there and hopefully have the work do the heavy lifting itself.
Steven
February 14, 2024 @ 2:43 pm
When George Jones sang ‘Who’s gonna fill their shoes’, he surely meant Beyonce, lana del rey and all the other chancers.
Cee Cee Bee
February 14, 2024 @ 2:51 pm
I have been watching this unfold all day and all I can say is:
1. The Oklahoma radio station screwed up in it’s response. It was dismissive and rather rude.
2. Bey’s people screwed up with the meta and with not sending it to country radio.
As soon as I saw she was releasing a country project, I cringed – not because I don’t like her music, I actually do – but because I knew it was going to put country music in a precarious position. I feel like the industry will be forced to get behind this project and push and laud it no matter how country fans react to it. No one has heard the full album yet and we already have finger pointing, dismissal of the work by country fans, and accusations of racism against the industry.
This roll out could NOT have gone worse.
Trigger
February 14, 2024 @ 2:57 pm
You put all this effort out to launch your country project via the Super Bowl, but don’t spend 30 minutes with a radio consultant to make sure your single is serviced to the country radio format?
It really is inexcusable. But again, the scapegoat with be “country music” because Bey can do no wrong.
CountryKnight
February 15, 2024 @ 11:33 am
More like they had the courage of their convictions and refused to bow down to Queen Bey.
Charles
February 14, 2024 @ 3:24 pm
Last I checked country music is already broken. Just turn on country radio. Beyonce didn’t do that.
Ronnie
February 14, 2024 @ 3:45 pm
Do you have any proof this BBC reporter is accusing that radio station of racism?
Trigger
February 14, 2024 @ 3:53 pm
Sorry, I think you misunderstood me. As far as I know, the BBC is not accusing anyone of racism. I said a BBC reporter woke me up this morning to ask me about the Oklahoma radio station being accused of racism for not playing Beyonce. RadioInsights had a good run down of the situation that I linked to in the article:
https://radioinsight.com/blogs/264811/were-todays-beyhive-country-radio-attacks-warranted/
Ronnie
February 14, 2024 @ 6:38 pm
Thanks for following up.
Lee
February 14, 2024 @ 4:03 pm
Something similar happened with Beyoncé’s last album, 2022’s ‘Renaissance,’ which was presented as an homage to Black and queer pioneers in dance music. I wasn’t that into it — to me, it felt like a shallow facsimile of the real thing.
Strait
February 14, 2024 @ 4:35 pm
I did a ctrl+f and there are 11 uses of ‘racist’ in the article. I’m not disputing any points in the article but I’m far past the point of worrying about anyone wanting to call me a racist. Beyonce is a product, not an artist. And anyone who knows anything about black-sided racial banter knows that blacks hate light-skinned blacks for their privilidge far more than they hate white people for it.
Trigger
February 14, 2024 @ 4:49 pm
Yeah, counting the amount of times a word is used to determine the sentiment of an article is a pretty dubious exercise, but thanks for the factoid, I guess.
Strait
February 14, 2024 @ 7:46 pm
I don’t know how that is dubious. I specifically said that I wasn’t disagreeing with you. I am saying how I am so damn tired of race issues being forced into country music.
Kevin C.
February 14, 2024 @ 4:43 pm
Country radio made their bed back when they embraced “Body Like a Back Road” as a country song.
SixtyThreeGuild
February 14, 2024 @ 5:13 pm
“It’s a trap”, you nailed it right there Trig. This is a damn if you do damn if you don’t situation. If Beyonce classifies this as a country album even if it’s barely “pop country” and stations/Nashville reject it as such we’ll get the “everyone is racist card”. If they let it go just to placate Beyonce and her fans you’re going to end up with a even more watered down genre that continues to overlook legit Black artists in the country/Americana realm.
liza
February 14, 2024 @ 6:14 pm
Spot on.
And Rhiannon Giddens said it best, “Because it didn’t feel organic”. The cowboy feels inauthentic. It’s like Carrie Underwood wearing rhinestone outfits during her Denim and Rhinestones period. Cheesy marketing.
JT
February 14, 2024 @ 6:44 pm
I wander over here sometime and I’m always amazed at how base and buffoonish you manage to be while pontificating on manufactured fantasies and fears from some group other than you. And, damn, you always triggered, Trigger. So much is farcical here but trying to argue “Daddy Lesson’s” isn’t country….LOL. Go read Alice Randall’s take on that issue in American Songwriter. It’s country, Trigger. But, then again, you’re trying to save it, right? You know country music was started by Black people, right?
Trigger
February 14, 2024 @ 7:55 pm
Billboard deemed that “Daddy Lessons” was not country. A group of country music experts from various backgrounds in country music empaneled to decide such things from the Grammy Awards also concluded that “Daddy Lessons” wasn’t country. The idea that I am “buffoonish” for pointing this out speaks more to your low opinion of me than any sort of superior intellectual position. If you think “Daddy Lessons” is country, share that opinion and back it up. That is what these comments are for: discourse.
Country music was started by poor agrarian White immigrants living in the Appalachia region who came primary from the British isles bringing their fiddle traditions with them from the Old World. This was then integrated with Black minstrel musicians who introduced the banjo to the music, and later, Southern Black blues musicians who all went into making the foundations of the “country music” that we know today.
Sasha
February 14, 2024 @ 10:43 pm
“Country music was started by poor agrarian White immigrants…”
Do you have citations/sources for everything you said in this paragraph?
Trigger
February 14, 2024 @ 11:30 pm
Are you fucking kidding me? What are my citations and sources? Trying every single country music book that has ever been written. Also in every single one of those books, the important influence of African Americans is also spelled out. That is why all the horrifically and dangerously irresponsible think pieces and viral tweets currently circulating that either say country music is only Black music, or that the Black influence in country music has been removed from country’s history are false both coming AND going.
I have a detailed article on all of this coming up ASAP.
Sasha
February 14, 2024 @ 11:42 pm
…That was an honest question. If you had named a book about country music’s history or an article where you had previously addressed this (provided the article had sources) I would’ve said ‘thank you’ and read the material. Given that you were replying to JT, who said something different, I would think you would understand the need for well-sourced information.
Your response was in really poor taste and not conducive at all to good discourse.
Trigger
February 15, 2024 @ 12:13 am
“Of all the southern ethnic groups, none has played a more important role in providing songs and styles for the white country musician than the forced migrant from Africa, the black. Nowhere is this peculiar love-hate relationship that has prevailed among the southern races more evidenced than in country music. Country music—seemingly the most “pure white” of all American musical forms—has borrowed heavily from African Americans. White southerners, many of whom would have been horrified at the idea of mixing socially with blacks, have nonetheless enthusiastically accepted their musical offerins: the spirituals, the blues, ragtime, jazz, rhythm-and-blues, hip-hop, and a whole host of dance steps, vocal shadings, and instrumental techniques.
Black-white contact began so early and was so omnipresent in American life that it is virtually impossible to know who profited most from the musical exchange. From the time they first saw them on slave ships, white observers have commented frequently on blacks’ alleged penchant for music. In the four hundred years that have passed, white musicians have continually drawn on black sources for rejuvenation and sustenance. “
Country Music USA, Bill C. Malone, 50th Anniversary Edition, 2018, page 5.
T.B. Hall
February 15, 2024 @ 12:02 am
Thats one of those “facts” that leave out certain details while putting emphasis on others. From what I’ve read, It was not started by poor white European immigrants per se, but it has European roots. And they don’t know if all of those Europeans were white for real. In a nutshell European immigrants had their sound, the black people had their sound and Natives as well. They married those sounds and contributions and they created something special. Now when hillbilly which later became known as country music started to progress and became an official genre, the black influence and inspiration was definitely there hence black people saying or feeling “it came from us.” They think having European roots make it of European origin and they think European means “white.”
Sixty
February 15, 2024 @ 6:42 am
Just refer them to Ken Burns documentary on country music and don’t waste your breath
Trigger
February 15, 2024 @ 8:14 am
But the Black legacy in country music has been erased from history. I’ve read this over and over the last few days. The book I quoted from was the basis for the Ken Burns documentary. Rhiannon Giddens was one of the primary interview subjects. Yet somehow this canard that country has erased its Black history persists. Have an article about this very thing coming up.
Cackalack
February 15, 2024 @ 8:25 am
Hey Sasha, three really good books about the origins of our kind of music are Wayfaring Strangers by Fiona Ritchie, which focuses on the emigration of Gaelic melodies to Appalachia, Hoedowns, Reels and Frolics by Phil Jamison, which focuses on antebellum dance music in the South, African Banjo Echoes in Appalachia by Cece Conway, which is pretty self explanatory, and Another History of Bluegrass by Allen Farmelo, which focuses on the artificial segregation imposed on mountain music by the powers that be.
I’ve made some study of this, and I generally agree with Trig’s statement here, though I’d quibble with the minstrelsy bit. Minstrelsy postdates the marriage of the fiddle and the banjo, and was primarily a Northern thing anyway.
T.B.- you summed it up quite well. Somewheres in the murky past of the American South, the Gaels taught everyone how to play the fiddle, the blacks taught everyone how to play the banjo, everyone (Indians, Germans, Acadians, English, etc etc) picked up influences from everyone else, and from that bizarre stewpot came American music, one branch of which (which was artificially separated from “race music” by the record industry) we call country.
Sasha
February 15, 2024 @ 10:13 am
Hello Cackalack,
Thank you ????. Also thank you Trigger, esp for providing a specific passage and page number. I’ll be reading up and maybe we can talk more about this when the article Trig is working on drops.
Trigger
February 15, 2024 @ 10:30 am
Hey Sasha,
I apologize for coming in so hot with my previous comment. I’m just hot right now from seeing so much Black history in country being eradicated. I have an article on all of this coming very soon.
Cackalack
February 15, 2024 @ 12:24 pm
You are welcome!
liza
February 15, 2024 @ 8:32 am
Oh, Sasha.
David:The Duke of Everything
February 14, 2024 @ 7:07 pm
Seems to be a big bother about nothing though I see trig’s points. I haven’t been into pop music in a long time and really haven’t paid much attention to Beyonce. I don’t plan on paying attention to these songs though eventually I’ll probably hear them. I agree with lots of folks here though that argue for them being country mainly because I feel it’s up to the individual to determine if it’s country or not if it matters to them. What is or isn’t country to one can be the opposite to someone else. Now it would be a shame if these songs win some awards just based on who she is or her race. But the awards are pretty much lame anymore anyways.
Wilson Pick It
February 14, 2024 @ 9:18 pm
Maybe it’s not all that big of a deal? It does feel like a little bit of a manufactured controversy, but it also seems like a genuine attempt to dabble in country on her part. Let it play out. She’ll be bored with her new toy soon. Never much liked Beyonce’s music, but I do like Rhiannon Giddens and it would be cool to hear her on FM radio. Will country radio play it? That depends on whether it helps sell trucks to bros.
Trigger
February 14, 2024 @ 9:32 pm
What’s not that big of a deal is the songs themselves, and Beyonce releasing a country album. It’ll either be good, or it won’t be good, and people will listen and consider it country, or they won’t.
But everything surrounding it is already gargantuan, and it’s hard to stress just how gargantuan it is. It’s even bigger than I thought it would be when writing this story. I woke up to the BBC calling me to comment it on it. I’ve been interviewed by two other outlets since. This only happens when a story reaches critical mass like this one clearly has. The country radio issue, and massive publications like TIME and The New York Times basically saying that country has never had a Black artist before is stirring all kinds of attacks and backlash. This will be the dominant story of 2024 unless Morgan Wallen drops another N word.
Wilson Pick It
February 14, 2024 @ 9:50 pm
You are probably right, and it will probably be annoying. These media outlets allow themselves to get played all the time. Hell, Donald Trump rode their free publicity all the way to the Oval Office. It seems like it’s basically up to the FM country stations to decide whether this is going to fly or not, and as well all know they are almost totally corporate controlled. They’ll make a business decision, and it will have nothing to do with the integrity of country music. I don’t think that interests them too much.
Keepin’ it Country
February 14, 2024 @ 9:21 pm
If the media wants to paint country music and it’s fans as racist who cares. They are not going to get us to stop listening and they are certainly not changing our political views. If they want to label me as racist fine then I’m a racist. The media looks down on country music and the values it represents so it doesn’t matter what we do bc we will never be a part of their social norm. They think by interjecting pop they will get us to conform to their “morally correct” views. The media does nothing but lie to serve its own purpose, so I say screw then and whatever opinion they may have.
Chessie System
February 14, 2024 @ 11:57 pm
Trig: I’ll show my age here and have a chat about pop in country and who did it effectively and respectfully.. eLookingvbacknat the 1974 CMA Drama when Olivia Newton John won over Loretta, Dolly and Tanya. The scalding commentary and outrage over a “pop singer” singer winning was atrocious. “Let Me Be There'” and “If You Love Me(Let Me Know)” we’re beautifully done with all of the country accouterments, right down to the slides and baritone backing vocals. And sold a ton of records – so apparently many people were pleased; just not the old gatekeepers…..with that no one deserves “success”, it is a privilege received. If ONJ had great songs, so be it – the CMA’s apparently determined she was worthy of her efforts over her peers. And so what if she came from Australia, or Texas, or New Jersey for that matter. Yes, that burns, but that’s part of the game.
With that, many artists have done counrty and done it without exploitation.
Whatever method Beyoncé entered into the mix is moot. The dilution of country lies on the establishment, radio and record companies. But then again fan tastes change too as do access points to music. The field is new open and still uncharted.
Texas Hold’em is pleasant enough and IMHO sounds alot more country than some of the other stuff I’ve heard. ( compared to Old Town Road for sure). Hopefully this is a heartfelt effort in country, despite the bombast of her fan base and hubris of her handlers.
Redwood guy
February 15, 2024 @ 12:01 am
Unfortunately, no matter how this goes, it takes attention away from from the younger singer/songwriter movement that is blazing trails despite billboard and radio. I can imagine the line mainstream country entertainers that will be falling over themselves to do a collab. This is either gonna be a big deal and she takes over country radio or it fades to nothing.
Trigger
February 15, 2024 @ 12:16 am
This is a very important point. So much attention is going to be sucked up by this issue, it’s invariably going to be taken away from up-and-comers, because that’s how this always happens. I am going to cover this story, because it is critical to country music. But I’m also making sure to carve out time to cover the new music from performers that are not worth $800 million.
Phil Maggitti
February 18, 2024 @ 9:25 am
I blame critical race theory, whose advocates see all of life through the lens of race, for the horse turds being hurled at country music and its fans. Those Fulkerson move their lips when they think. They have a new deck of playing cards coming out. It’s got fifty-two race cards in it. Wankers. Why engage with them at all? Remember: a person can’t be reasoned out of a position if he wasn’t reasoned into it too begin with. Yours in Jesus.
JB-Chicago
February 15, 2024 @ 8:34 am
Yep, there’s only so many female spots on Country radio, and lord knows they can’t play 2 women in a row, so guess who she’ll be taking spins away from? Thank God Trig covers more deserving women than anybody.
This Might Actually Be A Good Thing
February 15, 2024 @ 2:00 am
This was an interesting perspective. I don’t think you’re wrong in seeing a potential influx of non-country fans demanding that Beyonce win everything and dominate (this happens in every major standom). But, I don’t think Beyonce’s entry into country is going to overshadow Black artists. In contrast, I think it’s actually shedding light on the fact that country actually has current Black artists to non-country fans like myself.
Beyonce’s brief entry has actually introduced me and many others to Linda Martell, Mickey Guyton, and Rhiannon Giddens. Even in a recent Time article, the author noted how many Black country artists and institutions are actually gaining followers and recognition since the release of those singles.
I know you mentioned that country has never erased its Black roots, but it sure hasn’t promoted them either. I got into a heated discussion yesterday with a friend who grew up listening to country music because
she believes that the genre is strictly white. Why? Because according to my friend, there hasn’t been a huge Black star since Darius Rucker and even though Black listeners like herself exist, she knows the music isn’t truly meant for her.
Isn’t that sad? Honestly, she’s not alone in that viewpoint. I know Beyonce’s entry might shake some tables in a good and bad way, but I also see it enlightening a lot of people on the history of country and how it might be more inclusive than we know.
Noneya
February 15, 2024 @ 3:18 am
I’ll continue to listen to real county music.
I won’t get into the politics behind it because we’ll just be spinning on a hampster wheel.
I’ll forget Beyone ever happened as the songs were not good to my ears.
James Reece
February 15, 2024 @ 5:33 am
The beauty of your website is that I don’t know any of these “performers”,
nor do I have to. The photos (the camera) never lies.
Meet the latest Ms. Nashville aka Bride of Frankenstein.
Maybe a referral from Taylor Swift will help smooth the path
As Strother Martin might say,
“Some people you can’t get rid of. So we get what we got here today.
She wants it, and she gets it. And I don’t like it any more than you men do.”
trevistrat
February 16, 2024 @ 3:38 pm
Actually he said “Some people you just can’t reach”.
Kayla
February 15, 2024 @ 5:54 am
Idk why they have to mess with country mauic…. we’re finally getting the radio and industry as a while pointed back towards true authentic country music and she has to come in here and pull this and will probably bring more pop back in the picture. You hit it from the racism point… but this is also going to affect country women also who had a huge year.
Trigger
February 15, 2024 @ 8:11 am
It is definitely going to overshadow the continued success of country women. While we’re seeing feature after feature about Beyonce, we saw so little acknowledgement of Lainey Wilson’s Entertainer of the Year win. The press was curiously silent. The press was also curiously silent about the recent all women Key Western Fest. It appears much of the press has already moved on from the “women in country” issue to now focus solely on race.
BeaArthur
February 15, 2024 @ 6:47 am
I listened to the songs yesterday and “Texas Hold ‘Em,” just sounds like it was crafted to be a line dancing song. Through that lens, the random hand claps, ‘woos!’ and ‘spin to the middle’, ‘step it to the right’ lyrics make sense.
Either way, hopefully we’ll get to see Rhiannon perform with her on the Grammy’s.
Tom
February 15, 2024 @ 7:04 am
…short story long.
Jimmy the Black
February 15, 2024 @ 7:06 am
Anyone willing to call you a name such as “racist” is the racist themselves. If they bother to call you that, they will never change their mind or view of you afterward, such as Morgan Wallen with his “N-word” usage. Most blacks didn’t give a flying fuck, but CMT and the rest had to try and tear the man down for what is considered an innocuous word in black circles. And no, it wasn’t the one ending in ER. It was the one ending in A.
But I digress…
If they are willing to label you a racist despite not having actual proof, only bold and ridiculous claims of such, then you have to wear that label and that badge with HONOR because this is a word used to strong-arm people these days. It is still being used to divide this great Nation. They have literally turned it into black and White and this will not go well. The political landscape is changing. The race card is losing power and rightfully so. It is toxicity in action and little else.
Is there racism? Yes. Everywhere. I won’t get into who is more racist or who isn’t racist here, as this is a discussion I have had many times and I have changed minds of some of the most racist people I have ever met (hint: they aren’t the White guilt crowd), but this is a discussion for another time.
Beyonce is doing this just to shake up and break up country. It is that simple. The same reason for Kane “Monotone Talentless Hack” Brown is in “country” while not singing anything that even resembles the genre.
These people are only here because of those at the top and it is a small handful of people who own this racket, with George Soros about to buy Audacy if they can in the form of a 44% stake overall for the failing radio station operator of 270 stations across America in 45 different markets.
This is a concerted effort. One can deny this, but it is evident. It is very clearly an effort to remove White people from traditionally White people areas whether or not the replacements have talent. Deny if you wish, but it’s clear.
War and Treaty = good
Darius Rucker = like him or not, I enjoy a lot of his country stuff
Charley Pride = C’mon now, does it not go without saying?
Plenty of good black talent in country.
A very electronic and auto-tuned Beyonce Knowles is NOT what this music needs. It’ll be little more than r&b / hip-hop posing as country while talking about country-themes such as drinking, gambling, driving trucks and dirt roads. Basically, Dustin Lynch will write all of her music with Walker Hayes bringing in the smooth background vocals and electric beats up the ass as Kane Brown wonders from a distance when he will actually learn to sing.
Dennixx
February 15, 2024 @ 7:36 am
If you are not sharp enough to discern between good and bad music being offered publicly then that’s on you.
The free market will dictate the validity or viability of any artist.
Just because a record sells a shit ton doesn’t really mean squat today!
Andrew
February 15, 2024 @ 9:38 am
Do you not see the contradictory points you made here?
Tex Hex
February 15, 2024 @ 8:29 am
I’m all for genre-mixing. After all, most of my favorite “country” artists barely keep it “country” a lot of the time. Moonpies, Wilder Blue, Crockett, not to mention Sturgill and Stapleton – but nobody would classify any of these guys as rock, soul, or r&b and they certainly wouldn’t be considered for awards in those categories.
Beyoncé can dip into country flavors if she likes, I think that’s totally fine, it’s just a shame her doing so immediately hijacks the conversation and makes everything a matter of race politics and culture war.
Why can’t she simply be known as a pop artist (a massively wealthy and powerful one, at that) experimenting with country-flavored pop music? Mainstream media hacks and activists gaslighting everybody, classifying her as “country” all of a sudden is a huge stretch.
But, like Trigger said, it’s a trap. You can’t gatekeep this thing even if you tried. Best to move on with more important things, support the country artists you already love, and let this thing blow over.
RebJas
February 15, 2024 @ 8:34 am
Won’t listen. That simple.
Taren
February 15, 2024 @ 9:10 am
I haven’t listened to Beyoncé’s new album. I just want to mention the great Aaron Neville. He’s been doing songs in the country genre for years. Especially in the 90s he was nominated for CMAs and Grammys for his contributions. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aaron_Neville
(See Awards and honors)
See Also: https://m.imdb.com/name/nm0005270/awards/?ref_=nm_awd
He even recorded a song on the Jimmie Rodgers Tribute Album: https://www.u2songs.com/discography/various_artists_the_songs_of_jimmie_rodgers_a_tribute_album
I also love Rhiannon Giddens. Of course the great Charley Pride is a favorite. Good luck to Beyoncé. As she is from Texas she probably grew up with a lot of country music. I will make it a point to listen to the album.
Ccountry
February 15, 2024 @ 9:13 am
Just listened to Texas Hold ‘Em. It was pathetic. No additional comments needed.
C.H.
February 15, 2024 @ 9:54 am
Trigger et al,
This comment may get lost amongst the rest.
????Some of you are missing the point. Beyoncé’s intentions are to “reclaim” genres of music that Black people created, was stolen or co-opted by white people who pushed Black country artists out. That is what “Beyonce Goes Country” is about.
According to Beyonce & the BeyHive, the album ‘Renaissance’ is her attempt at “reclaiming” house music that originated from black and Latino lgbt underground dance music culture. Renaissance II is country (Black country-Western which has gospel & R&B elements). Supposedly, Renaissance Act III is Beyonce taking back rock music — think early Tina Turner, who’s one of her idols. This is purely racially motivated and has nothing to do with Beyoncé’s southern roots or her sudden interest in country music. It’s so contrived and not genuine and that’s what I don’t like. It will definitely overshadow other Black and brown country artists who’ve been on the scene for years. But we all must bow down to “Queen B which is ridiculous!!????
By no means is she “country” nor are these two songs. Btw, there’s a difference between being country versus being southern — Beyonce is southern. So she’ll release this faux country album, try to get as much attention and nom/awards (claim it’s racist to not reward her) then she’ll drop it and once again return to making her usual R&B-pop-rap-hip hop hybrid type of music and forget about “going country”. Black people have always been apart of this genre and that should be recognized but to have an agenda pushed by one of the biggest artists in music to “take back” country as opposed to honoring the history of Black country artists and being a more prominent part of it alongside other artists who’ve been doing this for decades is not genuine, respectful or inclusive.
Even the look she’s doing is just cosplaying stereotypical country fashion. Putting on luxurious designer country looking garb and throwing a banjo on your songs doesn’t inherently make Beyonce or these two songs of hers country. I don’t think anyone should be afraid of her becoming the new Queen of Country because Beyonce is NOT and never will be a country singer / songwriter/ musician. The concern I have is more about the interlopers rolling in seeking to take something back that they feel was stolen. The irony is culturally Beyonce’s main demographic of fans are not avid country music fans (neither is she!!). Some may know of mainstream country artists and those crossover songs by Dolly, Reba, Kenny Rogers or Shania Twain but they don’t know the pioneers who didn’t cross over and they don’t live the country life. This is more or less Beyonce’s latest publicity stunt.
Tex Hex
February 15, 2024 @ 11:03 am
I’ve read similar claims in comment sections of other publications, including the Washington Post. The (white, straight, male) writer there gave these two tracks a bad review (funny enough for reasons that differ from most here, including the fact that Beyoncé hasn’t addressed the Israel/Hamas war!) and dude got dragged in the comments.
Anyway, are there any official sources from Beyoncé’s camp confirming that her intention is to “reclaim” whole genres, or is this just conjecture and speculation from journalists and fans? I recall she got called out a few times for being a culture vulture and using uncleared samples on her last album.
Jack W
February 15, 2024 @ 10:22 am
I have to say that I think Texas Hold ‘Em is a fun song. And it strikes me more as country blues than country, with pop embellishments added. So, pop country blues? At any rate, more rootsy than your typical country bro. Or Lil Nas X, for that matter.
Lance Woolie
February 15, 2024 @ 10:41 am
I’m here for Robert Randall . If Beyoncé can make songs with real instruments and real players. I applaud it. It’s more than many so called country artists do on their songs.
Why can’t they just call pop country pop country?
George Strait vs Morgan Wallen is like ???? vs ????
CountryKnight
February 15, 2024 @ 11:36 am
All part of the planned cultural genocide of traditional American strongholds.
CountryKnight
February 15, 2024 @ 11:37 am
I’m impressed by how her ears hold up those earrings.
david
February 15, 2024 @ 12:04 pm
WordPress
Hi, In repose to your email.
Not true. Old Appalachian music is indeed from European immigrants in isolated regions of Appalachia that traveled the back roads playing and influencing one another. The exact same way the Blues was created by the likes of Son House who traveled from juke joint to juke joint throughout the South and each region had its own vibe, Delta Blues, Memphis Blues, Jump Blues. The Blues originated in the South as slaves from Africa brought the spiritual hymns and rhythms that were sung aloud and later interpreted into the Blues and ultimately Rock & Roll. You don’t seem to realize that Applacia was completely isolated from blacks mostly due to Jim Crow. Most Appalachian music at the time was played on fiddles a variation of the European violin. Blues players created make shift guitars, different sounds, different rhythms and different cultures. Appalachian music much like the Blues is a cultural storytelling. You can argue much later all musical genres influenced each other as Beyounce is now a cross over artist.
I appreciate and respect black artist and believe in giving credit where credit is due. Appalachian Music later became Blue Grass Music, then Country, the Country Western. The fact Eminem was titled the greatest Rapper of all time is bullshit as they chose him because he’s white. My point about Garth Brooks is no black kid wants to listen to someone who does not live the life they live. Its about authenticity.
regards,
david
AltCountryFanatic
February 15, 2024 @ 1:03 pm
I’m not going to lie, Texas Hold ‘Em was much more country than I thought it was going to be. If I didn’t know that was Beyonce and heard it on country radio, I wouldn’t think twice about it.
16 Carriages was a little more amorphous, but still not blatantly NOT country in my opinion.
I don’t personally see why these songs shouldn’t qualify as country given what else is out there in 2024.
Dennixx
February 15, 2024 @ 2:48 pm
Which?
The free market and viability part pertains to those who listen to the types of music mostly covered here.
Fans of musicians, songwriters and music.
Not the sheeples who listen, support and buy mainstream.
The sales portion of my comment doesn’t need explanation nor is it contradictory.
Unless you believe that sales equals quality sound.
If you think she makes good music, country or otherwise good for you..
I suggest you support her offerings.
allcanadianamericanboybrady
February 15, 2024 @ 5:49 pm
Chapel Hart lacks a record deal because at least one of those lasses is,well….rather large and not the babe record labels demand female artists to be.Beyonce,on the other hand,is a hot Texas gal who in all ways resembles the cowgirl persona Country labels and fans want from their district daughters.
Besides,I heard “Texas Hold ‘Em last night,and it’s hard to say that song isn’t Country. Get ready the Bronze Beckaroo !!!!!!!
Jim
February 15, 2024 @ 10:03 pm
It’s pop with a country influence. Plain and simple
allcanadianamericanboybrady
February 16, 2024 @ 9:03 am
OK,but that was often said of fellow Windsorite Shania Twain’s music.We’ll see if Beyonce’s coming songs are unmistakably Country.
marcel
February 16, 2024 @ 10:57 am
i choose optimism about the whole kerfuffle.
my granddaughter dragged my son-in-law to a morgan wallen concert. the scene reeled him in. so he asked me for a few artist recommends. i gave him a dozen or two…turnpike, cody jinks, ray wylie hubbard, john fullbright, shane smith, etc.
he is now a rabid turnpike fan. rabid.
morgan wallen was his gateway drug.
and beyonce and her “country” stuff, whether it’s good or no better than her first two attempts, will be a million’s gateway drug. her move is a buy “signal” for country.
Paper Rosie
February 16, 2024 @ 11:12 am
‘Texas Hold Em’ is just another cliche’ list song. It sounds like what someone who hasn’t listened to country music before thinks country music sounds like. 16 carriages – ‘underpaid and overwhelmed’ ….but worth $800 million? Can’t speak for the rest of the country music audience, but this only gets a strong eye roll from me, not sympathy. Would not give either song a second listen. Doubt a true country fan would either. This has absolutely nothing to do with the color of her skin. I currently feel the same way about Kacey Musgraves and Lana Del Rey. Again, this must be so infuriating for women who are trying to get on country radio. We live in such a clown world and everything is so backwards. “We call it progress, but I just don’t know.” For every listen you give one of these ‘country crossover’ artists, please give five listens & buy merch and tickets to artists making actual country music. Your dollars and attention matter. And, I hate to say it again, but ladies (especially ladies who are mothers) put some clothes on. Yet another woman wearing next to nothing to promote her music and ‘express herself artistically’. *Sigh I can’t think of one man in country music who runs around shirtless to promote his music. Tight jeans is about as far as it goes. Don’t pay attention to shiny things that are meant to distract you – pay attention to quality songwriting and people who are authentic.
sandyH
February 17, 2024 @ 6:49 am
why didnt you mention that justin timberlake ( man of the wood ) now a big joke … tried exactly this mishmash 6 yeares ago and you know they destroyed him as a trump fan a right wing a racist and all that shit ..and really (say something was more country than this cringe beyonce shit but it was rejected on radio but its a sleeper hit on youtube ..also listen to livin off the land where justin plays his grandfather and its exactly the themes of this 16 god know what
we need this hypocrasy convo about fake culutre clash in american music and how they are destroying everything
ill wait for your take
DEBRA IVERSON
February 17, 2024 @ 9:19 am
Is Country really ready for T & A all out there?
SuzyQ
February 17, 2024 @ 12:17 pm
I came to Saving Country Music to find out who the artists in Beyoncé’s act ii teaser trailer are, and what their relation to country music was. Beyoncé does nothing without intention and I assume that will be telling about where this album is going and what influences it will be drawing on. I also know this isn’t information other sources are likely to have paid attention to or even be aware of. I was disappointed to find Saving Country Music hasn’t mentioned this yet.
In the teaser, a car drives up upon a bunch of men in the desert, staring at a billboard of Beyoncé announcing Texas Hold ‘Em. Three nostalgic songs play on the radio.
Upon researching, I learned the songs in order are Charles Anderson’s ‘Laughing Yodel,’ ‘Grinnin’ In Your Face’ by Son House, and of course, Chuck Berry’s ‘Maybellene,’ famously inspired by country song “Ida Red” and kicking off rock n’roll. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpxHAiAzH4Y)
Whether this is going to be a full country album or not, who knows, but I would at least anticipate nods to the contributions of early blues, and yes, Black artists, to country music.
Brosser
February 20, 2024 @ 11:44 am
She is making fun of and degrading Texas in the song. Not by making the song but by what she is actually saying. Waiting to hear Alan Jackson regarding this. ????
JD
February 20, 2024 @ 2:01 pm
“You know you that b*tch when you cause all this conversation”… Country music’s roots are Black. White folk don’t own the genre, and, truth be told, haven’t innovated or even made it interesting in some time. White country is boring, except for the women like Carrie Underwood who are unafraid to push boundaries and reject the rampant racism and misogyny…
Beyonce doesn’t have to explain why she’s going country because she IS country. And Daddy Lessons literally featured the Chicks which white country folk love to hate because they were brave to reject Bush’s ignorance.
Country is part of Beyoncé’s Texas, American AND African history. She’s more country than you or your faves. And you can try and put down the quality of the music but that’s simply a matter of taste. The people who love it will love it, stream it and buy it. You don’t have to.
But one thing you won’t be able to do is tear down an artist whose legacy will live on in many genres of music and culture.
Stay mad if you want. The rest of us will see you down at “the dive bar we always thought was nice”…
BEEEEEY-HAW!!! ????????????????
Di Harris
February 20, 2024 @ 7:52 pm
“And Daddy Lessons literally featured the Chicks which white country folk love to hate because they were brave to reject Bush’s ignorance.”
Well, you just are a special kind of stupid.
Kodachrome
February 21, 2024 @ 9:14 pm
1) I agree with Trigger that the biggest problem here is the expectation that her seemingly ubiquitous influence MUST truly be accepted everywhere OR ELSE
2) “reclaiming” Black influence in country music doesn’t need to happen. Shining a light on the history AND the current players (such as my cousin’s husband, Cameron Bedell, who wrote “Down Home” as performed by Jimmie Allan) does. Stealing the entire spotlight for oneself is not helping.
3) this feels like a pissing contest between T. Swift and Beyonce. Taylor wins a VMA in 2009 and Kanye interrupts her on stage to say Beyonce should have won. Taylor wins the biggie Grammy and Beyoncé’s husband just HAS to get on stage and say how unfair it is Bey didn’t win it even though she already has 32 of them. I’m not really a big fan of the music of either of these women. I AM, however, a KC Chiefs fan and the sheer hatred Swift has received for merely being shown during a game all season is nuts. But she also boosted ratings like crazy. I can’t help but feel like Bey’s foray into country is a similar marketing ploy to stir up the drama and get the attention for the ratings.
4) I find the whole sudden onslaught of cowboy hats and other western attire rather disingenuous and gimmicky, but what do I know
5) Swift was also ridiculed when she “left country” to become a pop star, so I don’t see how it’s so far fetched for any Beyonce fans to possibly expect a little backlash from the country music community at this sudden transition from a performer best known for pop and R&B. It’s the way I anticipate the backlash to be handled/interpreted as nothing more than racist that gets my goat.
6) if she’s gonna do country, like several others have said above, study it, work with the giants already in the field (kudos for a Rhiannon Giddens collab), and really GO for it. Don’t slap a steel guitar onto it and call it country. You can put lipstick on a pig…
7) Lastly, if you’re going to make the country music scene your new home, know your audience and maybe muzzle the fans you have that want to call an entire community of people racists for simply not sharing the same taste in music as them.
R
February 23, 2024 @ 8:17 am
Excellent, honest, and thorough analysis of “Her Highness’s” foray into Country Music.
I shared on Facebook with my own commentary.
https://www.facebook.com/ReneCassandra/posts/pfbid0MXGHv5MoHvHRBAu66uXRMsrUfeU7qZa1Ky1AKkpppvbV3gcPmktAjNy4b6yegxZml?notif_id=1708700921393010¬if_t=feedback_reaction_generic&ref=notif
DB
February 25, 2024 @ 9:41 pm
I’m older than I would care to admit, but grew up in a Motown home and yet watched HeeHaw with my grandmother every Saturday night.
I like some country and have great memories of listening to a variety of singers including Charlie Pride, Loretta Lynn, Mel Tillis etc.
So I can understand why many would be dismayed by Beyonce releasing a country album, cause it doesn’t sound like the genre I grew up with either.
But what I can’t understand is why she’s being taken to task for it – if the music sucks then she should be judged on that.
Yes, she has a vocal fanbase, but don’t Taylor Swift and Jason Aldean? Their fanbases leap to their defense instantaneously as well.
Hell, even Dionne Warwick was tweeting about Taylor Swift’s cardigan!
Also, is she really demanding that the country industry bow down to her and throw flowers at her feet? Probably not, more like the fanbase and her record label (which is in the best interest of their jobs). I guarantee that there’s a 24/7 team dedicated to her.
And that whoever was the radio liaison got their ass handed to them.
A few other statements you wrote really stuck with me – the mention of her net worth – yes, she’s worth $800M, Dolly’s worth $375M & Garth Brooks $400M. What does that have to do with her album?
A multitude performers are extremely driven and have branched out – theme parks, cooking shows and Hallmark movies anyone? Some are successful and some are not.
She’s taking attention away from other artists in this genre by releasing this project – Taylor Swift, Beyonce & Adele have dominated the charts for the last decade basically and yes, they’ve overshadowed other worthy talent, but they all happen to be global superstars. That’s the way it goes. If you sellout stadiums around the world and shut down foreign cities (& genre billons for the economy) you’re going to suck up a lot of attention.
Exactly who are the gatekeepers of genres? Is it the artists, or the record companies, the critics or the fans?
Is it a combination of all the above? And if it’s the latter, is it going to sound like something that was recorded 50 years ago?
Jay-Z’s defense of his wife at the Grammys. I mean I don’t know, I would like to think that her husband is her biggest supporter. Was it easier to digest when Adele basically said the same thing while accepting her AOY award?
Lastly I don’t think and I sincerely hope that fans aren’t trying to destroy people’s lives and career. But there can be some visceral reactions when listening to people comparing her foray into a different genre as a ‘dog in a dog walk park….dog has to mark every tree, right?’
Or that she’s setting out to destroy country as we know it. Or that this is some kind of vanity project for her ego that must be fed. I certainly don’t know the motivation for this project and I don’t think anybody else does either.
Not saying that’s every outlet or critic that’s pretty harsh IMO.
It’s just as bad when the sentiments are reversed. I don’t think that most people think she’s out to ‘save country music’ from itself.
Ultimately music for me is subjective. I like what like
what l like and keep it moving if I don’t. For full disclosure, I am not a fan of Texas Holdin
Trigger
February 26, 2024 @ 9:21 am
“if the music sucks then she should be judged on that.”
The music sucks. She is being judged on that. If these were good country songs and unquestionably country in style, none of these arguments would be happen. They’re not, so they are.
“yes, she’s worth $800M, Dolly’s worth $375M & Garth Brooks $400M. What does that have to do with her album?”
Nothing, but we haven’t heard the album yet. So no, the album is not being judged on her net worth.
Should Beyonce be judged by the behavior of her Stan army? That’s a good question. But her Stan Army can be judged on the action of her Stan Army. And yes, some in her Stan Army are very actively spreading false information about country music, and are actively trying to destroy to country format. As the proprietor of a website called “Saving Country Music,” I’m probably going to have something to say about that.
DB
February 26, 2024 @ 5:19 pm
Trigger –
Thank you for your thoughtful reply.
It appears that we are in agreement that the music should be judged on its own merits and so far neither one of us like either release.
But, again was it necessary to mention her net worth while discussing the merits of this project? And I’m not trying to be bitchy but hear me out – when Dolly or Garth comes out with a new album than leans pop, are the articles stating that the $300M earning Brooks has a new album that’s unfairly taking attention away from newer artists? Does making a certain amount of money mean you should longer explore your creativity?
Also, the point that referenced interlopers – great, but one of Glenn Campbell’s biggest hits, Southern Nights, was written by a black man, Allen Toussaint, who produced Lady Marmalade. Let’s not forget Kenny Rogers’ Lady, by Lionel Richie. On the latter, I’ll concede that it could go either country or pop or both!
I agree that the fan base is extremely hard to deal with, but I would argue that’s not limited to one particular celebrity, but all of them. Swifties, Little Monsters, the Beyhive , whatever Madonna Stan’s call themselves, etc are immensely powerful and simultaneously problematic, but I don’t think artists can be responsible for their behavior on the whole, however they should call out behavior that crosses into dangerous territory.
On the other hand all of the above artists/celebrities have assumptions projected onto them sometimes without cause – I don’t think that Beyoncé’s demanding to be crowned ‘Queen of Country’ only to be given a fair chance without prejudice (mental, not racial).
Finally, I did enjoy reading your perspective and certainly understand your devotion to country music.
As I mentioned I listen to variety of music, but am still pissed that Rolling Stone only ranked Frank Sinatra as the 19th greatest singer of all time!
Trigger
February 27, 2024 @ 8:40 am
Saving Country Music was founded to support independent and up-and-coming artists in the industry that go unrepresented or under-represented on a regular basis. It doesn’t matter if it’s Beyonce, Dolly Parton, or Garth Brooks. I will always advocate for the under-represented, even above genre loyalty. For example, when Dolly Parton ended up on the ballot for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, as a country fan, I advocated for her to NOT be inducted over a rock performer whose legacy could be preserved and highlighted through the honor. I did the same thing for the Willie Nelson nomination and induction.
https://savingcountrymusic.com/no-dont-put-dolly-parton-in-the-rock-roll-hall-of-fame-yet/
https://savingcountrymusic.com/put-rock-artists-in-rock-roll-hall-of-fame-before-dolly-parton/
https://savingcountrymusic.com/willie-nelsons-now-a-rock-roll-hall-of-famer-and-a-rock-artist-isnt/
I’ve also criticized when country artists appear on rock and hip-hop charts where they don’t belong.
I have said nothing about the merits of Beyonce’s album because I haven’t heard it. The comment about her being worth $800 was simply to underscore that this is not an artist that needs the support of the country music industry, which you have many artists who literally grew up dreaming to be a country artist from little boys and little girls who can’t even land a record deal, and have more actual country talent than Beyonce. There is also a big difference even between the $300 million of Garth, and the $800 million of Beyonce. If Beyonce is worth over twice what Garth Brooks is, that really underscores how powerful and wealthy she is. Does this mean her music will be bad? Of course not. It was simply a passing observance.
“one of Glenn Campbell’s biggest hits, Southern Nights, was written by a black man, Allen Toussaint, who produced Lady Marmalade. Let’s not forget Kenny Rogers’ Lady, by Lionel Richie.”
These are popcorn farts in the greater legacy of Black artists in country music that are being offered up as penitences by pop and hip-hop writers who have no clue just how successful Black country performers have been in the past, because they’re constantly being diminished and downgraded to fete the performers of the present as being groundbreaking.
DB
February 27, 2024 @ 10:38 am
Thank you for the clarification and the background information on your site.
I will state that I’m fully aware that black artists have long contributed to the country music industry in numerous ways for many decades.
My references to Allen Toussaint and Lionel Richie were meant to be anecdotal, not farts. But I’ll concede to your point about it being easy to reference without doing a deep dive into the subject matter.