Good morning, Broadsheet readers! Kamala Harris assured international leaders of American support during the Munich Security Conference, Sabrina Ionescu puts on a show, and Beyoncé is back. Have a wonderful Monday.
– The Queen’s country. The next phase of Beyoncé’s artistic renaissance arrived during the Super Bowl, when she announced her new album. The album’s name is unknown, but Beyoncé is referring to it as Act II, following 2022’s Act I: Renaissance. And as the first two song releases make clear with banjos, stomps and claps, and references to spurs, boots, and long back roads, this is a country record.
There are any number of reasons for Beyoncé to make a country record. In fact, it’s a natural progression for the star, who was born and raised in Houston and has dabbled in her hometown’s sounds throughout her career (including the country song “Daddy Lessons” from her album Lemonade.)
And the shift comes at a time when many popular artists, including Lana Del Rey and Post Malone, are embracing the genre, and country stars Morgan Wallen and Luke Combs top the all-genre Billboard charts. Wallen had the longest-running No. 1 song last year in “Last Night,” and dominated the Spotify and Apple Music charts. In the first half of last year, country music was the third-fastest growing genre (behind Latin and K-Pop) and was more popular than it had ever been.
Still, it’s a disservice to Beyoncé to say what she’s doing is purely to play into a trend: It’s also a way for one of the world’s most successful artists to keep her sound fresh and push her art ever forward; for an artist whose fanbase is already huge to grow even bigger. Beyoncé is no stranger to reinvention. She came up in one of the best-selling girl groups of all time, launched a successful solo career in pop and R&B, and has spent the past few years producing projects like the musical film Black is King and her Renaissance album, which pay homage to and celebrate different Black communities, from the African diaspora to the LGBTQ community that created the disco and house genres.
With her latest release, she takes her reverence for her history westward, and joins a long line of Black country and blues artists, from Ray Charles to Charley Pride. In doing so, she is also giving a platform to modern Black country artists like Rhiannon Giddens, a Grammy-winning folk musician featured playing the banjo on the new track “Texas Hold ‘Em.” Giddens herself won a MacArthur “Genius” Grant for her work “reclaiming African American contributions to folk and country music.”
Beyoncé’s embrace of the genre has already angered some modern country puristswho abide by—as PBS put it—“stereotypes that country music is just for white audiences and sung by mostly white males,” which are “reinforced daily on country radio, playlists, label rosters, and tour lineups.” The industry has long been criticized for its treatment of Black artists and women, in particular. Beyoncé’s “Daddy Lessons” track was shut out of the Country Music Association Awards back in 2017; other Black artists, like Lil Nas X, have also been unwelcome in the “tightly controlled machine.”
“For country radio, for example, there’s sort of a fear of losing a listenership of white listeners, especially white male listeners, by playing wide varieties of music or like even taking on the definitions or debating the definitions,” Francesca Royster, author of Black Country Music: Listening for Revolutions, recently told the Texas Standard. That blowback could hurt not only sales and streams of Beyoncé’s new album, but her award nominations as well.
But in recent years, Beyoncé has said she is less concerned with awards and racking up No. 1s (famously, the Grammys has never awarded her Album of the Year, though she has won the most Grammy awards total of any artist), and more focused on creating art that will live beyond her. The record will no doubt be a commercial success, but Beyoncé’s sights are set on other types of acclaim.
You can hear that reflected in “16 Carriages,” one of the songs on her forthcoming album. “Had to sacrifice and leave my fears behind,” she sings. “For legacy, if it’s the last thing I do.”
Alicia Adamczyk
alicia.adamczyk@fortune.com
@AliciaAdamczyk
The Broadsheet is Fortune’s newsletter for and about the world’s most powerful women. Today’s edition was curated by Joseph Abrams. Subscribe here.
|
