Bend it Like Beyoncé: Cowboy Carter Makes History

Photo: NPR / Courtesy of Beyoncé

Since its release on March 29, Houston native Beyoncé has made history with act ii: Cowboy Carter. She is the first Black woman to top the Billboard Country Albums Chart since its inception in 1964; in February, her single Texas Hold’ Em reached No. 1 on the Country Airplay chart, making her the first Black woman to top that chart. She is also currently holding the No.1 spot on the all-genres Billboard 200, her eighth album to do so. 

Five years in the making, Cowboy Carter is the follow-up to her hit 2022 record Renaissance and a response to the limitations she’s faced in the industry. In a caption posted on Instagram, accompanying the provocative cover of her latest project, Beyoncé wrote that the album was “born from an experience” where she “did not feel welcomed.” 

While she did not specify the experience, Beyoncé mentioned “the criticisms” she faced when she first entered the genre. This could be linked to the backlash she experienced after she performed Daddy’s Lessons with The Chicks at the 2016 Country Music Awards. That same year, the Grammy’s Country Music Committee rejected Beyoncé’s submission of Daddy’s Lessons’ into the country category.  

Cowboy Carter is more than just an album; it’s a stride forward for music and culture. “Country music has a rigid, centralized power structure that has wielded a lot of power over ‘what country music is,'” said Amanda Martinez, author of the upcoming Gone Country: How Nashville Transformed a Music Genre into a Lifestyle Brand. But Beyoncé is bending the rigid structure and, as a black woman in white-dominant culture, reclaiming the genre in the hopes that in “years from now, the mention of an artist’s race, as it relates to releasing genres of music, will be irrelevant.” 

Eight years after the backlash, after taking “a deeper dive into the history of country music,” Beyoncé is receiving the recognition she deserves from the industry, including support and praise from country legends like Dolly Parton, Willie Nelson, and the accumulation of No. 1 spots on the charts. 

Infographic by: Grace Draznin