Excitement is brewing in Texas as Beyoncé gears up for yet another release of her highly anticipated album, “Cowboy Carter,” slated to drop on Mar. 29. With the announcement of the album’s name and cover art, fans are buzzing with anticipation for what promises to be another groundbreaking musical journey from Queen Bey herself.
The album, the second act of a three-part series, follows Beyoncé’s “Renaissance” album, released in July 2022. Fans got a taste of what’s to come with singles like “Texas Hold ‘Em” and “16 Carriages,” unveiled during a surprise Super Bowl commercial. Expectations are at an all-time high with the album available for preorder and exclusive merchandise, including limited-edition CDs, vinyl records and a box set.
In an Instagram post, Beyoncé shared insights into the album’s creation, revealing that “Cowboy Carter” has been five years in the making. She reflected on her journey in the country music genre, acknowledging her challenges and the backlash she received after her 2016 performance at the Country Music Association Awards.
Beyoncé recently dropped a 27-song tracklist, with one of the songs being the highly anticipated “Jolene,” originally sung by the iconic country singer Dolly Parton.
“Because of that experience, I did a deeper dive into the history of country music and studied our rich musical archive,” Beyoncé wrote. “Act II is a result of challenging myself and taking my time to bend and blend genres to create this body of work.”
The Grammy Award-winning singer expressed her hope for a future where an artist’s race is irrelevant when defining music genres. She emphasized the importance of unity and amplifying the voices of those dedicated to educating on musical history.
One of the most exciting aspects of “Cowboy Carter” is Beyoncé’s collaboration with various Black musicians who have made notable contributions to the country music world. By featuring these artists, Beyoncé aims to celebrate diversity and showcase the richness of Black musical talent.
As Houston eagerly awaits the release of “Cowboy Carter,” anticipation continues to build among fans and music enthusiasts alike. Beyoncé’s ability to push boundaries and challenge conventions in the music industry has solidified her status as a trailblazer, and “Cowboy Carter” is poised to further cement her legacy as one of the greatest artists of our time.
The Defender spoke to Dr. Kinitra Brooks, associate professor at Michigan State University, and the co-editor of “The Lemonade Reader” (Routledge 2019), an interdisciplinary collection that explores the nuances of Beyoncé’s 2016 audiovisual project, “Lemonade” to discuss the impact of Beyoncé’s new body of work on Southern Black Culture.
Defender: When did you start teaching courses about Beyonce, and why is it important for people to study her work?
Dr. Kinitra Brooks: This all started in 2016. So many people were talking about her “Lemonade” album and the symbolism. So, I got together with a fellow educator, Dr. Camilla Martin, and created the “Lemonade Reader” to contextualize many people’s answers. But also take Beyoncé seriously and recognize that she does her research and deliberately goes about things. Studying Beyoncé in this scholarly way allows us to go in many directions.
Defender: What insights do you hope to glean from Beyoncé’s new album regarding its representation of the Black American experience?
Brooks : I think she’s not just looking at the Black American experience. I think she’s looking at the Southern Black American experience. And what she’s doing is privileging regionality. I think she’s having a conversation about the complexities of southern Blackness. So many people look at Afrofuturism as Black people in the future. Still, a significant part of Afrofuturism is also going back to recover old cultural ways, how Black folks existed before white supremacy. And so a lot of futurism is about going back and rediscovering these things and bringing them to the future.
After assessing Beyoncé’s work, particularly with this Renaissance trilogy, she will now show how Black people were significant to creating country music. The speculation is that the third album in a trilogy will be about rock and roll. It’s all about reclaiming it and saying this was our stuff. And then, she remixes and revises her music in specific ways to create something extraordinary.
Defender: What impact will this album hopefully have on the genre, even though she says it’s not a country album?
Brooks : It’s complicated, whenever you have such a huge figure as Beyoncé who is a movement onto herself coming to an already established ecosystem. So, we see where she is ruffling the feathers of the white establishment of country. Still, there are also reparations for the Black folks in country who have been doing the work of making sure Black folks’ presence is felt, but also doing the work of creating within a hostile environment, but staying true to the country’s roots. So, in some ways, she will give them more visibility, but in other ways, because she’s Beyoncé, she takes up all the air in the room. So you have to deal with that. It’s both a positive and a negative effect on those there because folks are discovering country artists they’ve never discovered before.
But you have Black Southern folks who have long been fans of country who now are making room for these large groups of new fans, who are not necessarily fans of country music but are fans of Beyoncé. You have to start having tough conversations about the implications of that. If Beyoncé’s going to come there and take all the air out of the room, do her thing with country music, and then move on, where does that lead the people who were there beforehand and the people who will remain in, in the industry once she, she leaves?
Defender: Beyoncé can’t save every genre. What can we as a people do to reclaim our power ?
Brooks : We need to do the work of discovering for ourselves the Black artists that we love and making sure that we are enthusiastic fans and supporters of them as we’re Beyoncé. It’s gonna have more of an impact on their lives than on Beyoncé. We also have to remember that she is a businesswoman. Also, respect the genre, and do your homework with it.
