Music Sin Fronteras 3.31.24

Beyonce’ said this ain’t a country album. She is right – it is much,much more from the best communicator on the ;planet

Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter: not a country album, but much more

There is no shortage of female solo country artists. Laney Wilson was last year’s CMA Entertainer of the Year.  Ashleys McBride’s The Devil I Know was named one of country’s Top Five albums for 2023. Carly Pierce has taken home a brace of CMA Awards. Patty Loveless is in the Country Music Hall of Fame. Faith Hill, Trisha Yearwood, Crystal Gayle, Martina McBride, Tanya Tucker,  Loretta Lynn, Shania Twain, Reba McEntire, Patsy Cline, Tammy Wynette, and the unstoppable Dolly Parton all sold millions of records and streams.  And of course, Taylor Swift started in country music.

But the gatekeeper to hard-core country listeners, country radio, is pretty much tone-deaf to the success of women. In 2022, a  study by Jan Diehm and Dr. Jada Watson reported that, despite the huge successes of female country singers in streams, sales and awards, country radio stations pretty much ignored them.

The study reported 75% of charting songs on country radio stations in their study were by men, while 16% were by women – the rest were M/F duos or bands. Female artists’ songs have averaged about 15% of charting tracks on country radio and only 0 .5% of back to back spins and few of those were prime time.

In 2023, 88.5% of artists on the top the Billboard Country Airplay Chart were solo male artists; only 5.75% were solo female acts.  Country radio programmers either know, or think they know, that their audience are bros who don’t want to hear girls on their radio stations. (Faith Hill  was an exception).

 And now comes Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter, illustrated, marketed, promoted as a breakthrough in country music. It is not. As Beyoncé said on Instagram , “This ain’t a country album. This is a Beyonce album”. It’s also a frontal assault on the bro wall around country radio, not to scale the wall and become #1 in spins – she’s only #33  – but to deliver messages . It is packed with memes, references,  name checks, and most of all,  memos that the world is changing.  Women, including black women, are leading the market and breaking down the walls around country music – and changing the genre.

Cowboy Carter’s 27 songs are a musical attack of twangy guitars, banjos, Willie Nelson, Dolly Parton, Miley Cyrus, and Post Malone, fired at the industry and bro radio culture with the opening barrage in its cover – every country meme you can think of. The white horse, the white cowboy hat, the American flag, the high heel boots, even her riding sidesaddle like Queen Elizabeth II. Every element says “I am redefining, country, the flag, patriotism, music  royalty, and who owns the symbols and who owns the music.” She goes even further in the nude alternative cover photo with just the red, white and blue sash with her name on it (spelled with a “i”) and smoking a cigar. “I am me –  black,  proud, and so powerful that  I am  a global symbol, unadorned, all by myself.”

This is what Beyoncé does, makes music that starts conversations —- national conversations and even global conversations. She knows her every word, movement , lyric, and inch of her body, launches 1000 memes and clicks and talk shows and podcasts and YouTube videos.  That she is a superb musician, songwriter, actress, and entertainer is taken for granted.  But even more than all of that, she is one of the world’s best communicators for the digital age. She can use and manipulate words, music, symbols , memes, and visuals better than anyone else. In Cowboy Carter,  she recalls the black origins of country music (banjo, blues. Gospel), flaunts the dominance of rap and hip hop worldwide, the power of black women, and the last gasps of the misogynist bro culture. And she reminds us she is from one of the reddest bro states in the country, Texas.   

A lot to pack into a not-country alum, and she does it.

Patrick O’Heffernan