Amid the confusion surrounding Beyoncé Knowles-Carter's upcoming album, the singer shared insights into her past challenges within the country genre, even suggesting she felt marginalized and not welcomed in country music. This comment was followed days after with Beyoncé saying that the upcoming album is not, in fact, a country album, but a "Beyoncé album."
In a recent Instagram post teasing her album "Act II: Cowboy Carter," Beyoncé shed light on the project.
"This album has been over five years in the making. It was born out of an experience that I had years ago where I did not feel welcomed…and it was very clear that I wasn’t. But, because of that experience, I did a deeper dive into the history of Country music and studied our rich musical archive. It feels good to see how music can unite so many people around the world, while also amplifying the voices of some of the people who have dedicated so much of their lives educating on our musical history," she wrote. Beyoncé would later say, however, that the project "ain't a country album," and the the project came from "taking my time to bend and blend genres together to create this body of work."
So Beyoncé herself is emphasizing that her upcoming album shouldn't be categorized as strictly country. Instead, she describes it as a fusion of genres, a result of carefully combining different musical styles. This sentiment is so clearly evident in the initial singles from the album, "Texas Hold 'Em" and "16 Carriages." While these tracks do incorporate some elements of country instrumentation, they are not unequivocally country songs.
Beyoncé told her audience she was proud to be the first black woman to top the Hot Country Songs chart, despite her admission. She said she had hope for a future where an artist's race becomes irrelevant in genre classification, though it also sounds as if Beyoncé wants genre to be irrelevant in genre classification as well.
Beyoncé's foray into country music has stirred scrutiny and the typical, expected response from legacy media outlets about the genre's apparent historical reluctance to embrace black artists, despite the genre's long history of accepting them. These include legends such as Charley Pride, Darius Rucker, and up-and-comers such as Kane Brown.
"It is time for the institutional oppressive regimes of country music to be removed, and for those who have continued to carry on the legacy of country’s music heart and soul to be seated at the table," a Time magazine article wrote last month.
Notably, her previous venture into country music with "Daddy Lessons" in 2016 received mixed reactions.
