Putting on a Cowboy Hat and Adding a Twangy Guitar to Your Track Doesn't Make You a Country Artist

Isn't Hootie a solid country artist now?

Mickey Guyton exists.

I don't think people are buying the schtick anymore. WaPo has an obnoxious number of puff pieces (save one critical review) up about this album and the comments leaned more to those who complained that 1) WaPo was obviously shilling the album (and why don't they do that for other, more talented, lesser-known artists?) and 2) the album is mediocre at absolute best. And WaPo readership is predominantly left.

Beyonce's people need to come up with a different game plan than their usual full court press. People aren't swallowing it anymore.

Why is it so important to diminish what she does? If you don’t like her, don’t buy her stuff. People are treating this as some sort of conspiracy. I can’t see how anyone has been harmed by a country themed Beyoncé album. If people think she’s a phony who’s undermining the genre, the market will sort it out.

r3 the NYTimes has been much worse. I don't know why their tongue is so far up Bey's ass, but it's off-putting.

cheap sterile and gimmicky - some of the songs sound like they were written while watching b-roll of tv commercials on a loop

Sod off, OP!

Last year Tracy Chapman won CMA song of the year, making history as the first black woman to do accomplish this.

Then this year Beyonce comes out with a country album. Coincidence? I think not.

The Queen will not be outdone!

R4 critique of art has been around as long as art has existed. Why should Bey be exempted? Especially when her team goes so over the top with their marketing efforts. If you don't want to attract attention, don't create a spectacle.

BTW, the DL was just as critical of Gaga's foray into country, and her promo blitz was not near as grotesque as the blitz for Cowboy Carter.

Beyonce is no Tracy Chapman.

Tracy Chapman has 10 X the voice and talent as Beyonce

Destiny's Bitch is just a ho in a new row.

Selling bibles next?

Great point, R9. Chapman is respected by the industry because she is an artist who writes her own lyrics and plays an instrument. Combs did a fabulous job with the cover, ahem, unlike some other covers.

My new drag name should be Carly Pride.

Defacto starts one thread about Beyoncé and her new album using his black cosplay character, praising her.

Then he posts this one, anon, criticizing her.

This proves two things about him.

1) he’s clearly completely fucking OBSESSED with this album for some reason

2) he’s deeply mentally ill

r16 is defacto also teacake?

It's not diminishing what she did it's recognizing it for what it is. It's half baked boring tracks with vocals from someone who sounds like they'd rather be doing just about anything else.

[quote][R16] is defacto also teacake?

It's irritating having all this praise heaped upon her when there are are black artists who have been making excellent country music for years. She doesn't deserve to be elevated to some genre bending genius for lukewarm trash.

R13 likes calling black women hos

She's probably more country than Luke Bryan or Carrie Underwood or whoever

Country music today is so bland and watered-down

r22 Exhibit A:

What r10 said.

The first. and last, time I listened to "Texas Hold 'em", it came on the car radio.

I gave it a fair, impartial hearing.

If any other performer had released that song, it would have immediately faded into obscurity.

Mr Pride didn’t rely on auto tune and click tracks so that might be why

R25 he probably didn’t have a whole team songwriters and producers compose and produce each song either.

R26, a revolving door of writers and producers because some previous writers and producers won't work with Jay and Bey anymore. Her 'country' experiment is probably less about breaking ground and more about finding someone, anyone to work with her. And, definitely not the cream of the crop anymore.

MSNBC did a whole feature on Beyonce and her "groundbreaking album" last week, even interviewing African American scholars about this oh-so-important contribution to black culture she's making. You'd think she'd just found a COVID cure or something.

I'm watching it and thinking, "are you people for real?"

Wasn't her "Lemonade" album treated as a similar cultural touchstone? The dying media need these types of hyped-up projects.

Op, whoever said that about the hat and twang sure didn’t say shit about the 100s of mindless country-pop songs that have dominated the genre since the early-90s.

Most of it has nothing to do with being country outside of cliches they throw out. So it’s funny how things become an issue when a black woman does it, but these same people gave subpar white “country” artists passes on the same shit.

R20 you’re free to praise them. Hell, name em since you’re making an argument about praise.

She’s a pop princess, of course she will be praised when she achieves a new win or success.

Insulting Charlie Pride is not the route to dismissing the shit of Beyonce.

Oh please, people roundly criticize the current state of country music, from its putrid stadium 'rock to the lack of airplay for women. Most popular 'country' of today is a bastardization of the genre. That being stated, the 90's artists and their version of soft country still maintained a level of quality - songwriting, musicianship, production - that greatly exceeds today's crap. I don't think it is fair to lump them in with today's artists and most of that 90's music is infinitely better than Cowboy Carter.

A dirt road, a cold beer A blue jeans, a red pickup A rural noun, simple adjective No shoes, no shirt No Jews, you didn't hear that Sort of a mental typo I walk and talk like a field hand But the boots I'm wearing cost three grand I write songs about riding tractors From the comfort of a private jet...

I will add, I feel that the quality of music created for popular airplay has degraded for all genres. This easily disposable music is cheaper for the studios in the short term. But it will lost them money in the long term. Do you notice that, other than Swift and some other top hitmakers, the majority of repeat airplay and downloads are from the 90's and the early 2000's? This tracks on top hits stations and in Gen Z music trends. Everything has been auto-tuned and generalized to death and created by studio committee that it all becomes background music.

So, TBF, Beyonce is just doing what many other performers do. But people shouldn't get upset when other notice the serious lack of quality in the product.

THE POINTER SISTERS had an early country hit with “Fairytale". It went on to win the Pointer Sisters the Best Country Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group for the year 1974, marking the first awarding of a Grammy to an all-female vocal group and making the Pointer Sisters the only black women to date who have won a Grammy in a country music category. Bonnie and Anita Pointer also received a nomination for the Grammy Award for Best Country Song as the writers of "Fairytale."

R35 And that, Ms. Knowles, is how you do country.

Anita Pointer often talked about performing Fairytale at the Grand Ol Opry. Some people in the audience exclaimed “Goddamn! Those girls are BLACK”!

Methinks that Rashida has her nose far up the snatch of Bee.

R34 doesn’t know what they are talking about. Since streaming killed off online pirating the music labels have mad bank. The major music labels get the bulk of the streaming funds and the really big ones invested on major streaming services, like Spotify. There profits have ballooned with streaming while costs of gone down. Smaller focus on physical alumna, printing, labeling, shipping, etc.

She is Beyonce. She is not trying to be a "country artist." She wants to be the Queen of every genre. So far, it's working. "Cowboy Carter" is No. 1 on Billboard's Country Album chart.