Photo Cred: Patrick Lindenberg, Unsplash
The follow-up to Beyonce’s widely successful “Renaissance”, “Cowboy Carter” gives us a new version of country music and Beyonce. The album consists of 27 tracks with a total run time of 1 hour and 18 minutes. The album runs the gauntlet of country and pop and even adds a little bit of opera. The album has already made an impact debuting at number one on the Billboard Hot 100, making Beyonce the first black woman to top the charts with a country album, and the single “Texas Hold ‘Em” debuted at number one, also making Beyonce the first black woman to go number one on the Hot Country Songs Chart.
The album has made waves for being record-breaking but also has caused some controversy. A country music radio station in Oklahoma refused to play her song “Texas Hold ‘Em” and they faced a lot of backlash for it. Many took to social media with accusations towards the station, calling them out for being “racist”. Due to all the backlash, the station ultimately reversed its decision and started playing the single on the country station. While this decision was reversed, it does raise a question, is this a country album?
The album is classified as a country album, but it explores all of the genres. Beyonce has always been explorative with her music, and “Cowboy Carter” is no exception. This album has a different feel compared to her previous albums, but it does give you whiplash. You can listen to “Daughter” where she starts singing opera right into “Spaghetti” where she is rapping. The album does utilize interludes to help switch between the genre shifts, but overall it does feel like a mixed-genre album.
“Cowboy Carter” consists of brand new original songs but also has Beyonce’s versions of popular country songs. Dolly Parton’s “Jolene” takes on a whole new life in this album. While most of the song is kept the same, Beyonce has made a few alterations to create her own “Jolene” character. Along with her “Jolene”, she also does a cover of “Blackbird” by The Beatles. In this song, she perfectly captures the original tone of the song while giving it her flare.
Along with the covers on this album, she samples various artists. In the song “YaYa”, you can dance along to the recognizable beat from Nancy Sinatra’s “These Boots Are Made for Walkin” and you feel the Beach Boys' “good vibrations and sweet sensations”. In “Smoke Hour Willie Nelson” and “Smoke Hour II”, Beyonce recruited country music legend Willie Nelson to record radio station-style interludes, and within them, there are the voices of legends like Chuck Berry and Rosetta Tharpe. The samples pay tribute to the country sound and the various eras of country music.
While this album showcases Beyonce, there are some very notable features. Artists like Miley Cyrus, Dolly Parton, Post Malone, Willie Jones, Linda Martell, Shaboozey, and even her daughter Rumi Carter helped to create this album. Shaboozey helps to create the more R&B and pop sound that we are used to seeing from Beyonce, and Post Malone also leans into the more slow pop song feel. Miley Cyrus leans back into her country roots and the rest of the features help the country sound of the album. Not all the artists are singing. Many of them are featured in interludes that help to make the album cohesive and serve as transitions.
This album overall shows the pure diversity of Beyonce as an artist. I wouldn’t classify the album as a whole to be a country album, but you can clearly see the country influence in certain songs and it overall has a Western feel. The album is more of an homage to country music legends, and it allows Beyonce to pay tribute to her southern roots.