{"id":216,"date":"2024-04-12T12:38:21","date_gmt":"2024-04-12T16:38:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/jn8201w2024\/?p=216"},"modified":"2024-04-14T10:13:10","modified_gmt":"2024-04-14T14:13:10","slug":"bend-it-like-beyonce-cowboy-carter-makes-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/jn8201w2024\/2024\/04\/12\/bend-it-like-beyonce-cowboy-carter-makes-history\/","title":{"rendered":"Bend it Like Beyonc\u00e9:\u00a0Cowboy Carter\u00a0Makes History"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"has-small-font-size\">Photo: NPR \/ Courtesy of Beyonc\u00e9 <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-audio\"><audio controls src=\"https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/jn8201w2024\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/197\/2024\/04\/bNU2YEku.mp3\"><\/audio><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Since its release on March 29, Houston native Beyonc\u00e9 has made history with&nbsp;<em>act ii: Cowboy Carter<\/em>. She is the first Black woman to top the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.billboard.com\/charts\/country-albums\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Billboard Country Albums Chart<\/a> since its inception in 1964; in February, her single&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.billboard.com\/lists\/beyonce-texas-hold-em-number-one-hot-100\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Texas Hold&#8217; Em&nbsp;reached No. 1 on the Country Airplay chart<\/a>, making her the first Black woman to top that chart. She is also currently holding the No.1 spot on the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.billboard.com\/charts\/billboard-200\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">all-genres Billboard 200<\/a>, her eighth album to do so.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"position: relative; width: 100%; height: 0; padding-top: 31.8182%;\n padding-bottom: 0; box-shadow: 0 2px 8px 0 rgba(63,69,81,0.16); margin-top: 1.6em; margin-bottom: 0.9em; overflow: hidden;\n border-radius: 8px; will-change: transform;\">\n  <iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"position: absolute; width: 100%; height: 100%; top: 0; left: 0; border: none; padding: 0;margin: 0;\"\n    src=\"https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.canva.com&#x2F;design&#x2F;DAGCKAbHXbo&#x2F;e8Us9KYUVA5ppvBYBNtMqw&#x2F;watch?embed\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\" allow=\"fullscreen\">\n  <\/iframe>\n<\/div>\n<a href=\"https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.canva.com&#x2F;design&#x2F;DAGCKAbHXbo&#x2F;e8Us9KYUVA5ppvBYBNtMqw&#x2F;watch?utm_content=DAGCKAbHXbo&amp;utm_campaign=designshare&amp;utm_medium=embeds&amp;utm_source=link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-small-font-size\">Timeline by: Alexia Baggetta<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Five years in the making,&nbsp;<em>Cowboy Carter<\/em>&nbsp;is the follow-up to her hit 2022 record&nbsp;<em>Renaissance<\/em>&nbsp;and a response to the limitations she&#8217;s faced in the industry. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/C4s6Zr7rlwA\/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;ig_rid=63ee0e1a-32db-4f49-aa90-d8dffd3c2e83\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">In a caption posted on Instagram<\/a>, accompanying the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/music\/music-features\/beyonces-cowboy-carter-album-cover-controversy-1234997470\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">provocative cover<\/a> of her latest project, Beyonc\u00e9 wrote that the album was &#8220;born from an experience&#8221; where she &#8220;did not feel welcomed.&#8221;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>While she did not specify the experience, Beyonc\u00e9 mentioned &#8220;the criticisms&#8221; she faced when she first entered the genre. This could be linked to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2016\/11\/04\/arts\/music\/beyonce-cma-awards-backlash.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">the backlash she experienced<\/a> after she performed&nbsp;<em>Daddy&#8217;s Lessons<\/em>&nbsp;with The Chicks at the 2016 Country Music Awards. That same year, the Grammy&#8217;s Country Music Committee <a href=\"https:\/\/www.billboard.com\/music\/awards\/beyonce-daddy-lessons-rejected-grammy-country-committee-7604485\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">rejected Beyonc\u00e9&#8217;s submission<\/a> of <em>Daddy&#8217;s Lessons&#8217; <\/em>into the country category.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Cowboy Carter<\/em>&nbsp;is more than just an album; it&#8217;s a stride forward for music and culture. &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.mprnews.org\/story\/2024\/03\/31\/beyonces-cowboy-carter-black-reclamation-and-country-music\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Country music has a rigid, centralized power structure that has wielded a lot of power over &#8216;what country music is<\/a>,'&#8221; said Amanda Martinez, author of the upcoming&nbsp;<em>Gone Country: How Nashville Transformed a Music Genre into a Lifestyle Brand<\/em>. But Beyonc\u00e9 is bending the rigid structure and, as a black woman in white-dominant culture, reclaiming the genre in the hopes that in &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/C4s6Zr7rlwA\/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;ig_rid=63ee0e1a-32db-4f49-aa90-d8dffd3c2e83\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">years from now, the mention of an artist&#8217;s race, as it relates to releasing genres of music, will be irrelevant<\/a>.&#8221;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Eight years after the backlash, after taking &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/C4s6Zr7rlwA\/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;ig_rid=63ee0e1a-32db-4f49-aa90-d8dffd3c2e83\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">a deeper dive into the history of country music<\/a>,&#8221; Beyonc\u00e9 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.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n<style>.kb-image216_c13e5b-78 .kb-image-has-overlay:after{opacity:0.3;}<\/style>\n<div class=\"wp-block-kadence-image kb-image216_c13e5b-78\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"409\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/jn8201w2024\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/197\/2024\/04\/1712937979175-0a37bca2-3916-447d-9a6b-cd24399a7daa_1-1.jpg\" alt=\"Infographic that lists five ways that Cowboy Carter has made history in music charts.\" class=\"kb-img wp-image-227\" title=\"Infographic\" srcset=\"https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/jn8201w2024\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/197\/2024\/04\/1712937979175-0a37bca2-3916-447d-9a6b-cd24399a7daa_1-1.jpg 409w, https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/jn8201w2024\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/197\/2024\/04\/1712937979175-0a37bca2-3916-447d-9a6b-cd24399a7daa_1-1-120x300.jpg 120w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 409px) 100vw, 409px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center has-small-font-size\">Infographic by: Grace Draznin <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It&#8217;s an album that has reverberated through the pipes of country music history and inspired a new way to understand the genre.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":862,"featured_media":230,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[80,81],"tags":[84,82,86,85,87,83],"class_list":["post-216","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music","category-pop-culture","tag-beyonce","tag-billboard","tag-country","tag-cowboy-carter","tag-pop","tag-spotify"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/jn8201w2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/jn8201w2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/jn8201w2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/jn8201w2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/862"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/jn8201w2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=216"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/jn8201w2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/jn8201w2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/230"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/jn8201w2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=216"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/jn8201w2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=216"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/jn8201w2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=216"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}