Real country

The Album of Beyoncé Cowboy Carter has already entered the history of music. Novyevropa tells how he rethinks the American past and why it is so angry with conservatives

A week ago, Beyoncé released Cowboy Carter - the eighth studio album, which instantly became the most discussed cultural theme in the West. We tell you why Beyoncé crossed the road to the conservatives and why this album will definitely go down in the history of music.

Beyoncé began work on Cowboy Carter during the pandemic of coronavirus. In 2020, she recorded three albums at once, which she called three acts. The purpose of the project was unclear until the singer released the first release in 2022 - the Renaissance album. A record with 16 tracks in Disco, House and Pop styles then collected millions of auditions (and made Beyonca the most rewarded artist in the history of the Grammy Award).

Insiders in the musical industry began to say that the idea of ​​the Beyoncé project is an attempt to master new genres in which the Queen of pop scenes has no influence, and to return these genres to black artists, whom they used to belong.

From card to Riddle

Haus-music and country are associated with the public with white performers: popular club DJs, Johnny Kash and Dolly Parton. Back in 1974, US President Richard Nixon called Country “the native genre of the Americans”-this is how he tried to attract the sympathy of Yuzhan voters. Finally, country became the personification of White America after the tragedy of September 11. The US Senator from Texas Ted Cruz in an interview with CBS said that after September 11 his tastes changed: from a vast lover of rock he turned into a country of country, because such music after a national tragedy spoke of patriotism.

For all the love of white conservatives for country in the United States, they often recall that even the Banjo, without which it is impossible to imagine the genre, was an instrument of Western Africans and for a long time existed only in the houses of dark -skinned ones. But then Bango went into the hands of white artists. So, for example, the Carter Family group, which is considered pioneers of country music, existed in many ways at the expense of the African American Leslie Riddle, who taught the group members to play the guitar and Bango, invented music for them, but remained in the shadow until the end of his life.

It is an attempt to restore justice and return the new album of Beyoncé to the country's stage. Carter here is the surname that got the singer after marriage (such is the real name Jay-Z), and a reference to the very family of white pioneers of country music. Beyoncé, as it were, wants to rewrite the story, or rather, to enter the name of at least one black person next to the surname Carter in the music textbook.

Queen Rodo

The cowboy theme can also be called personal for Beyonca: having been born in the city of Houston, Texas, she often visited Rodeo with her family and enthusiastically watched the dark -skinned cowboys. On the cover, the performer sits on a horse and holds the American flag: the Queen of Rodeo is a tradition that has been for 40 years. At the end of the popular Invitational Rodeo event, Bill Pickett, on which dark -skinned cowboys from all over America gather , a rider with an American flag in his hand makes a circle of honor, marked by the victory of a particular participant.

Despite Beyoncé's attempt to make tribes to black Americans, she was criticized from her own community. Actively speaking in support of Black Lives Matter, Beyoncé was faced with accusations of hypocrisy for raising an American flag above her head, a symbol of oppression for many marginalized citizens. However, fans pay attention that in the flag in Beyonca's hands there is its own symbolism - red stripes are immediately cast into the eyes, which are considered a symbol of endurance, while a blue rectangle with stars, a symbol of justice, the viewer is not visible.

Thousand and one reference

Beyoncé loves Easter: even the tracklist of the album contains one of them. Above the list of songs is the inscription "Cowboy Carter and Rodeo-CHELLIN". Chitlin Circuit is a network of concert venues in the segregated south of the United States, where black musicians could safely perform from the 1930s to the 1960s. At one time, it was possible to listen to Ray Charles, Ella Fitzgerald, Isa Franklin and other great musicians there. With this reference, Beyoncé as if he calls his album a safe corner in the world of aggressive-conservative white country, where they are glad to perform a different skin color.

And even a white horse is no coincidence placed on the cover of the album: the fans recognized the horse of the Lipitian breed in it, which is born black, but over time it becomes completely white. The same can be said about the modern country music: the study by Songdata, published by the musicologist Jada Watson from the University of Ottawa, shows that from 2000 to 2020 out of 11.5 thousand songs that were in the rotation of the Country Radio in the United States, only 133 belonged to the dark-handed performers. This is less than 1%. The Cowboy Carter Beyoncé album tried to establish balance and show the importance of representation in music.

The singer’s debut single from the new album, “Texas Hold 'Em” (also called a variety of poker), has already entered history: Beyoncé became the first dark-skinned artist, who headed the prestigious country chart Billboard. In gratitude posts to the fans, the singer said that she was inspired by the 2016 experience when she performed with the Dixie Chicks group at Country Music Awards and felt like an uninvited guest.

Politics of the genre

Dixie Chicks is the most successful country group in history, however, which has lost, however, a huge part of its fan base in 2003. Three natives of Texas who released multi -platinum albums became one of the first victims of the abolition culture, when during the concert in London one of the soloists said from the stage: “I hope you know that we are on the right side. We do not want this war and this violence. And we are ashamed that the US president was born in our city - in Texas. ” The girls publicly expressed disapproval of the war in Iraq and criticized George Bush - the youngest, and conservative fans turned away from them.

In 2016, Beyoncé released her first country-song “Daddy Lessons” and was invited to the Country Music Awards. She invited those same persons non grata to the stage, the Dixie Chicks group. The hall, the full of the most famous country stars, accepted them terribly: on the record you can see how people look at each other and vomitly applaud, not even going to give a chance to the beautiful and energetic performance of women.

Beyoncé's rejection of country lovers continues eight years later: in February, when the first single from the album came out, one of the Oklahoma radio stations refused to lose the song, hinting that they did not consider Beyonca a country-performer, even though the song sounds like a classic country. From this point of view, the new album of Beyoncé is not only an interesting attempt to rewrite history, but also an excellent lesson in how to push your boundaries, insist on your own and strive for victory even in the field where they do not want to play with you.

US Vice President Kamala Harris devoted Twit to the release of the album: “Beyoncé, thanks for the reminder that we should never limit ourselves to other people's ideas about what our own path should be. You rethought the genre and returned the country-music of its black roots. Your music continues to inspire us all. ”

Legends in the ranks again

Beyoncé invited to participate in the recording of the album of other dark-skinned country artists, and such support became invaluable for them. So, the audience of the singer Tanner Adell after the release of “Blackbird”, the Caver to the song The Beatles, increased over a week from 106 thousand to 7 million listeners. In addition to niche artists with whom Beyoncé wanted to share the attention of the public, she also enlisted the support of legends. Paul McCartney played the guitar party in the very cover of “BlackBird”, Dolly Parton blessed his legendary song “Jolene”, and Stevie Wander played there on the harmonica.

Beyoncé does not stop at one country. In the “Spaghetti” track, after the words of the 82-year-old Country Executor Linda Martell that genres only limit creativity, Beyoncé reads rap. And in the insanely beautiful ballad “Daughter” performs the opera “Caro Mio Ben” in Italian. Interesting experiments with genres are another reason why you should listen to the album.

Linda Martell is also not a random person in this album. She was the first black woman who performed in a cult program about Country Music "Grand Ole Opra". A few years after this achievement and recordings of the popular Color Me Country album, Linda left the world of country music due to prejudices and cruelty. After that, the woman worked on a cruise ship and even opened her plates store. And more than 50 years later, Beyoncé contacted her to return Martell well -deserved popularity.

Another legend of country, which Beyoncé attracted to the duet, is Willy Nelson. He was a Pioneer of Country Outside and was constantly criticized because of political views, being an active supporter of LGBT and democrats. Instead of working on an album with Meguspal, but conservative country artist Billy Ray Sayirus, Beyoncé invited to sing with her a Miley rebel.

"What then is there such a country?"

Beyoncé drew inspiration in westerns, revising the new reading of the genre in the studio, for example, “Flower Moon killers”, “It’s more painful to fall” and “disgusting eight”. As instructions, she used all typical topics for country music in the album: ballads about love for family and homeland, sad songs about childhood in the south of the United States and alarming poems about murders from a revolver. All that white men sing about, but through a rethinking of an influential dark -skinned woman. "If this, in your opinion, is not country, then what is the country?" - The performer asks such a question in the first song of the album.

One of the main rethinks of Cowboy Carter is a remix on “ Jolene ”, the most popular song Dolly Parton and one of the most famous compositions in the United States in general. If, in reading Dolly, “Jolene” looked like a complaint request to another woman not to take her man, then Beyoncé was a warning about what she is ready to go if someone decides to encroach on the well-being of her family.

Two years ago, Beyoncé promised fans to release three albums. Two are already behind, and the question remains: what genre will she want to capture further? There is a theory that inside this renewal, a hint is already contained in the release meanings: in one of the tracks in the introduction that imitates the switching of radio stations, the track “ Maybellene ” Chuck Berry sounds. It was this composition at the end of 1955 that the unknown performer Elvis Presley sang in clubs in the south of the United States. Later, Presley began to be called the king of rock and roll, and the names of the dark-skinned pioneers of the genre, with which he was inspired, were forgotten. If you believe this theory, then after a few years Beyoncé will give the heat to the foundations of rock music.