From its cover, which shows her on the back of a white horse wearing the United States flag, Beyoncé’s new album, Cowboy Carter, represents a vindication of the role that black musicians have had in the origin of country music, starting with the contribution of the banjo, which was invented by African slaves in the 17th century. Black origins recognized by artists such as the Carter family, banners of a genre linked to the white society of the southern United States with a vein that goes back to the southern states of the Confederate side of the Civil War, the “old Glory” ) of the period known as “antebellum”.
“This album was born out of an experience I had years ago where I didn’t feel welcome… and it was very clear that I wasn’t.” This is how Beyoncé explained the origin of Cowboy Carter on her Instagram account, referring to her performance in 2016 at the Country Music Association (CMA) gala with the Dixie Chicks, the female country group reviled in in 2003 for criticizing the Iraq war. The Texan’s presence at that gala gave rise to a campaign to prevent her from going on stage, and racist criticism intensified after the concert. Beyoncé’s response was to delve into the origins of that music. “The album is a mix of tribute to their elders, to the pioneers of country music and to African-American artists, and also a way to reinvent and redefine what country music means,” explains Beatriz Navarro, author of the book Dolly Parton, a American portrait and former Washington correspondent of this newspaper, currently based in Brussels.
For this work, the Houston artist has counted on country legends Willie Nelson and Dolly Parton (without forgetting Martell) as well as Rihannon Giddens, responsible for the banjo and viola that plays in Texas Hold ‘Em, a mix that reflects the mestizo roots of the genre considered the music of the people, “the popular music par excellence in the US, although it also represents the most rancid of American society and its most conservative aspects,” says Navarro. Precisely the rereading of Parton’s classic Jolene has been one of the highlights of Cowboy Carter. “Dolly is a very talented artist, but she is also a magnificent businesswoman who takes royalties from her.”
For years, the author of I Will Always Love You began saying that she would like Beyoncé to cover Jolene, a song of which more than 200 versions have been made, because “along with Taylor Swift they are the queens of pop music, Everything you do has a huge impact. Among Dolly Parton fans, the Dollyverse, there was great expectation to know what Beyonce would do with the song.” This new rereading will make the veteran artist even better known among young audiences, “it helps her music remain relevant, in fact it was the version of the song that her goddaughter Miley Cyrus made years ago that made Parton known among Young”.
“It’s clear that Beyoncé didn’t feel comfortable begging her rival not to take her man away from her,” says Beatriz Navarro about the new approach to the song. “In a superficial reading, the original Joline has a not very feminist approach, because it asks a woman to account for her partner’s flirtations, but the song is not about that,” he points out, and remembers that Parton, along with other artists such as Loreta Lynn, changed the point of view of the songs, “in the case of Joline, Dolly is placed in a position of total vulnerability, that uncomfortable place, of panic that another woman or another man will steal your partner.” Nothing to do with the threats that Queen B makes to her husband’s lover. “Beyoncé has either not understood it or has not felt identified with that point of view, she has made it her own with a very current empowerment speech but that has little to do with the original meaning of the song.”
The success of the album speaks clearly of the discrimination suffered by the black population in country, since Beyoncé has become, thanks to the single Texas hold ’em, the first black artist to reach number 1 on Billboard’s Hot Country songs list . Until now Taylor Swift had been the only woman who had topped the list, and Linda Martell, who collaborates on the album on the song Spaghetti, was the black singer who reached the highest position, reaching position 22 in 1969.
These data are stinging if one takes into account that country was born in the Appalachian region, where 20% of the population is African-American (and they represent 50% of the total African-American population in the United States). However, in the country music that has been published between the years 2000 and 2020, African Americans only represent 4% of the artists, according to the study published in 2022 by the Black Music Action Coalition. The same report points out that only 3 black artists are among the 155 members of the Country Hall of Fame, while only 1% of the artists signed to the three big production companies in Nashville, the cradle of the genre, are black. And in the more than 11,000 songs aired in the past two decades on radio networks dedicated to country, only 13 black artists have been played.
“In the 1920s, record companies began to segregate artists and the public,” says Navarro about the origin of the genre, more recent than its links might imply. “On the one hand, white artists were separated, who recorded music of what was then called Hillbilly and later became known as country. On the other hand, there were racial records, for black artists who performed on circuits segregated for black audiences.” That was where the artificial (racist) separation between genres of music with the same origins began. “It is a mixture of influences from the instruments that came from Europe by white, Irish, and Scottish immigrants and the instruments of the blacks, the banjo, along with the spiritual songs in the slave labor camps.”
Maintained thanks to the prevailing segregation itself, the division between genders was taken advantage of by Richard Nixon to fish for Democratic votes in the southern states. He did so by associating himself with traditional white music artists, and since then “there has been a very strong marriage of convenience, continuing to this day, between the country industry and the Republican Party.”
Born in Houston, Beyoncé grew up listening to country, and in 2016 she published Daddy’s Lesson, the same song she performed at the CMA gala with the usual results, and which the US Music Academy rejected when she presented it. to the country category at the Grammy Awards. Something similar happened last February, when a country station in Ocklahoma refused to play Texas hold ’em because “they didn’t play that kind of music.” The complaints forced the station to reverse its decision and praise the figure of Beyoncé, but it is an example of the latent contradictions in a genre that recovered its most nationalist side after the 9/11 attacks of 2001, reflected in the reappearance of southern flags at concerts and festivals such as the Country Music Festival, which banned them in 2022.
“With black musicians, what there is above all is an exclusion from the industry, which is in the hands of a handful of people with a strict and outdated definition of what country music is.” Despite this, in the last 15 years numerous black artists have emerged who claim their presence while the industry shows signs of opening. There’s Rissi Palmer, the North Carolina artist who, with her debut album in 2007, became the first African-American to enter the country hit list after 20 years without a female presence.
Another name that has broken the mold is War and Treaty, the couple formed by Michael Trotter Jr. and Tanya Blount-Trotter who have become regulars at the Grand Ole Opry, the country temple located in Nashville, and who this summer will visit the Huercasa country festival in Segovia. Or Mickey Guyton, a Texan like Beyoncé, who since her debut in 2015 has become one of the most sought-after voices in country singing “If you think we live in the land of the free/ You should try to be black like me.” (if you think we live in the land of the free/you should try to be black like me). Although perhaps the best known is Kane Brown, with six songs that have reached number 1 on US radio stations with collaborations with Camila Cabello or recently with the new star of regional Mexican music Carín León. In addition, Brown, born in Chattanooga (Tennessee), has become the first black artist to win the CMA video clip of the year award.
All of these artists have taken advantage of the good moment in country music that is experiencing “a brutal renaissance,” as Navarro explains. “For the last two or three years, streaming has been a success, which has completely changed the weight of traditional prescribers such as radio stations. “It enjoys enormous popularity among young people, which also seems to be influenced by the issue of TikTok, which has become popular with many dances.” An open door that Beyoncé, who proudly wears her cowboy hats at concerts and galas while singing “They don’t know how hard I had to fight this,” has further expanded. more to bring to light the black roots of country, which for decades they have wanted to hide and bury.
