Cowboy Carter is Beyonce’s 8th studio album. Act II of a multi project body of work.
The star is no stranger to country music, having been born and bred in Houston, Texas, and being of Creole and French descent, Mrs Carter is a melting pot of culture and heritage, and so its only befitting (and imperative i’d say) that this be reflective in her discography.
As a people, we cease to be consisting of separate entities that make us who we are, but we are a culmination of various parts and elements that have been fed into our bodies and souls from conception combining into one whole entity. That’s why we are a contradiction to some, a novelty to others, and simply human to a few, the gauge depending on how much exposure you’ve had to people who fully embrace themselves and their individuality, because ultimately we’re all just a summation of the years we’ve lived and our heritage.
As a music connoisseur, I’ve never cared much for country music, casually I’d say Taylor Swift is as country as I go (back when Taylor Swift was more country than alternative pop), and for as long as she did country music, I was a fan. It was something about that music genuinely pouring out of her that just made it palatable to me. Apart from that, and the Rod Stewart and country ballads that my mother was ever so fond of and would occasionally play (when I wasn’t selfishly and relentlessly hogging the damn aux) as we carpooled back home from school, I am no country girl.
Thus on that regard, I have absolutely no authority to comment much on the musicality of this album, I can’t speak on how authentic it is or how well put together it is, because I know nothing about country music composition or how its sonic production is stacked and arranged, but what I do have authority on and can assertively speak about is how it makes me feel, how I’ve received it and the projected impact this project will have in music and in the history of black music.
Beyonce, whether you like her on not, is a hard-working artist. And being a hard working artist is no easy feat, because as artists there’s some form of unspoken responsibility that weighs on our shoulders. Its a responsibility to say something, to stand for something and most importanly to have an impact.
When you’re an artist your work and artistry is your contribution to the world, and by virtue of creating, one wants their work to be well received and to have an impact, therefore it goes without saying that Beyonce is one of the greatest artists of all time, not to mention one of the greatest performers to ever run the stage, and she also has impact. She’s black, she’s female and she is colossally influential.
Influence and impact is priceless and not something to be taken lightly, because the implications of impact means you’ve brought about change, and you’ve caused a shift in the riptide of status quo-ry. It means you have created and caused a change in course of someone’s life, you’ve caused a shift, whether that will be a shift the world applauds you for instantaneously or its roses you only get when you cant smell them anymore, you’ve ultimately done at a scale what very few of us get to do and are incapable of, and that makes you special.
Beyonce is one such kind of a force, she’s a woman, she’s black, she’s an artist and she’s at the top of her game after years of a culmination of hard work and resilience that’s kept her going and gotten her this far. What can’t Bey do?
People often like to draw comparisons of her to the late great performer Michael Jackson (the dancing man), and we tend to not see her likeness to another late great artist who was Prince. Prince, another artist who you’ll either decide to have been a contadiction, a novelty or simply human, again dependent on your gauge, was a musicalist, he could play over twenty musical instruments, ultimately he could easily straddle and balance out multiple genres at once.
He was the kind of artist who could easily play and perform whatever genre he set his mind to if he wanted to because he had that almost innate and utmost ability to. The masses will critique and judge (as I once did too) this audacious move Beyonce decided on; to make a country album, given the context and the story we all know all too well of America’s bloody and violent history and how it came to be the United States Of America.
It’s a tale as old as time, the story of the grand monopolization and manipulation of the system aka Uncle Tom oppressing marginalised communities which mainly comprised of African descendants who had been shipped over across the Atlantic to slave the fields and be the powerhouse behind the red white and blue flag of America. A flag which owes a lot to the labor and endurance of black Negro soldiers on the frontline and in the trenches fighting for the American flag.
It’s no surprise that white America has taken credit for a lot of successes and progress that had little to nothing to do with white America. Critics will say, black people cant do country music, neglecting to bear in mind that Country music came from black slaves, whilst in the field, singing spirit hymns with encoded messages of how to escape, whilst playing the banjo which, they came with…from Africa.
So even though the face of country music currently as we know feels like Uncle Tom rocking black face, having been whitewashed and redressed to appease Caucasity (from Caucasian), perhaps we need to take the mask off, and see the black man behind country music. This brings me back to the point of impact, which I believe in the long run will be huge, it just may be the spark that catalyzes a whole chemical chain reaction.
Now if country music wasn’t born off black culture, folks would want to talk about appropriation, which need I remind you, white America has done to create pop culture emanating it from black and minority culture, shall I bring up Miley Cyrus and the Bangerz era (2013 was wild)? Hence the impact discourse of this article, this album will allow so many lines to be crossed, black folk will be more daring to delve into spaces they’re not welcome much, and still kill it.
In addition, this project has allowed to show the non-monolithical nature of black people and black culture, and show the diversity that exists within us, evading so many unhealthy and harmful stereotypes.
After all is said and done, Cowboy Carter is such a Beyonce album, even though it falls within the category of country music, this album doesn’t neglect to give us Beyonce, at the end of the day, it’s an authentic project because it sounds like her and she’s not trying to redress some country music concept that white America takes credit for.
As an album, to summarise it, I’d stay it starts with a prayer (American Requiem) almost as if bracing itself to marathon through the middle with subtle chilled bumps and twangs (Bodyguard, Ya Ya, Riiverdance, TYRANT, etc) as it chops up to conclude with another prayer “Amen”.
