This morning, Beyoncé explained the origin and genre of her next album, Cowboy Carter, as she kicked off a 10 day countdown for the album’s March 29 release on Instagram.
“This ain’t a Country album. This is a ‘Beyoncé’ album,” she said in the post. “This is act ii COWBOY CARTER, and I am proud to share it with y’all!”
Cowboy Carter is the second act of Renaissance, a trilogy of albums the Houston singer launched with the release of her electronic album Renaissance in 2022. Although this next album will stray from the sound of the first, it will continue its spirit of exploration by bending and blending the country genre with others alongside a yet to be announced list of collaborators.
In the post today, Beyoncé said her exploration of the country genre originated from an experience she had years ago where she felt unwelcomed by the genre’s industry. This led her to research the history of the genre and its African American origins, inspiring her to spend five years working on what would become Cowboy Carter.
Beyoncé didn’t specify when she had this negative experience, but she was likely speaking about her appearance at the Country Music Awards in 2016, which sparked calls for a boycott by country fans who were offended by the singer’s Black Panther Party inspired performance at the Super Bowl that year.
This pushback against her presence in the genre inspired Beyoncé to “propel past the limitations” put on her by challenging herself to create a body of work within the country genre, which she revealed with the surprise release of lead singles, Texas Hold ‘Em and 16 Carriages.
Following the release of these singles, Beyoncé was once again rejected by people in the country industry. One Kansas country radio station refused to air Texas Hold ‘Em because they assumed the song was not country before listening to it.
While they apologized later for their mistake, the radio station’s actions exemplified a wider attitude from the music industry that boxes Black artists within r&b and rap genres regardless of their music’s form and content. These limitations have been so harmful that Beyoncé is only the first Black woman with a number one single on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart.
“My hope is that years from now, the mention of an artist’s race, as it relates to releasing genres of music, will be irrelevant,” Beyoncé said in her post.
And with that Beyoncé kicked off a 10 day countdown for the release of Cowboy Carter next Friday, March 29.
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