Beyoncé's Country Songs Are Driving Streams for Black Artists

Country music, meet Cowboy Carter.

Superstar singer-songwriter Beyoncé Knowles is foraying into country music, embracing a genre that has excluded women of color for decades and, in the process, proving that her listeners have a deep interest in Black female artists. Her era of country music, launched during a Super Bowl ad in mid-February and headlined by an upcoming album, is expanding the industry's audience and boosting streaming numbers for songs by other Black female country artists.

Country star Tanner Adell, a Black artist, saw U.S. streams of her song “Buckle Bunny” skyrocket 305% during the first week of March, according to data from Spotify. Another Adell song, “Trailer Park Barbie,” saw a 130% increase in streams, the music streaming company said.

Other Black female country artists like Mickey Guyton and Reyna Roberts also saw increases, and Knowles' own country song, “Daddy Lessons,” from her sixth studio pop album, “Lemonade,” jumped 540% in streams the day after his two country songs. The singles were released last month, Spotify reported.

“Texas Hold 'Em,” one of those singles, made her the first black woman to hold the number one spot on Billboard's Hot Country chart, according to the famous music magazine.

That song and his second recent country hit, “16 Carriages,” will appear on “Act II: Cowboy Carter.” Knowles announced the album's title in a Tuesday post on her website. It follows “Act I: Rebirth” and serves as the second installment of a three-part project.

The announcement of Knowles' album was a “highlight moment in time,” according to New York Times best-selling author, songwriter and speaker Alice Randall, who was the first black woman to write a No. 1 song for an artist in the world. Hot Country list. , back in 1994.

“Beyoncé is pointing out that black women have been in country music almost since the beginning,” Randall said. “We have finally surpassed the red line that kept us off the lists.”

However, the acceptance of artists of color in country music remains a challenge, even for Knowles, whose recorded songs are primarily classified as pop and R&B.

while some music Critics praised Knowles' country songs, other fans of the genre refrained from giving him a warm welcome.

Two days after the release of “Texas Hold 'Em,” coined as a “pop-country” song with elements of folk musician Rhiannon Giddens on banjo, pop radio stations played the song 49 times, according to a x publication by radio industry tracker US Radio Updater. But country stations only played it twice, according to the publication.

Beyoncé fans, known collectively as the “BeyHive,” called an Oklahoma country station to protest the station's initial rejection of a request to play “Texas Hold 'Em.” On another occasion, a fan reported hearing a radio host comment that while the song is country and the instruments are country, “something else makes me think it's not country.”

Of the more than 2,100 artists who played on country radio stations between 2002 and 2020, only about 1.5% were Black, compared to about 98% who were white, according to a SongData report on representation in music. country. Other artists of color, including those who identified as Hispanic, Indigenous, biracial or Filipino, represented about 1% of the artists who performed.

Beyond radio, Black and brown artists accounted for less than 4% of country songs played on radio, in airplay, on the charts, in artists signed to major labels, and in nominations for awards, according to SongData.

In areas where artists of color made gains during those two decades (gaining 3.2 percentage points in the share of songs streamed), the gains overwhelmingly benefited male artists of color, according to SongData. Among artists of color whose songs were aired, the report found that less than 3% were songs by women.

Some observers have argued that resistance to Knowles' recent music is due to racism and political prejudice.

“Artists of color are releasing great music that sparks great conversation, but that hasn't changed the underlying limitations and racist format of mainstream country radio,” said Jocelyn Neal, professor and chair of the music department at the University of Carolina North-Chapel Hill. .

Country artists like Maren Morris, Luke Combs, and Kacey Musgraves have taken a more progressive approach than the traditional themes of beer, pickup trucks, and country living. Black LGBTQ hip-hop artist Lil Nas The song became embroiled in a racial debate after being removed from the Billboard Hot Country chart in 2019 after it was claimed that the song lacked country elements compared to other songs on the chart.

Political tensions have flared in the country music industry for decades, as newer, more liberal artists try to move away from the genre's “conservative” roots, Neal said. The genre's fan base has long been conservative, she said.

Knowles, along with superstar Taylor Swift, who both had mega years in 2023, received a higher percentage of negative ratings from registered Republicans than any other demographic group of voters, regardless of political affiliation, race and age, according to an NBC poll. News. Of voters surveyed, 34% had a negative stance on Knowles, while 16% had a positive opinion. More than 40% of Republicans were neutral. Among registered Democrats who were surveyed, only 5% had a negative view of Knowles and more than half had a positive view.

Beyoncé previously drew criticism from country fans after the Houston native's live performance of “Daddy Lessons” in 2016 at the CMA Awards. She was joined by girl power group The Chicks, who made headlines in the early 2000s for speaking out against then-Republican President George Bush and the US invasion of Iraq.

While Beyoncé helps break the country mold, she is inviting a younger audience into the Western genre.

One of those fans, Tenley Patterson, 26, said she didn't bother listening to country music before Beyoncé's releases, but was impressed with the country songs.

“It's not like the country music I've heard before; it has a special edge,” Patterson said. “Little by little my interest in the genre has reached its peak.”

While the average country music listener is a member of the baby boom generation, those born between 1946 and 1964, according to music data firm Luminate, there has been new interest among listeners who are part of Generation Z (those born between 1997 and 2012) and millennials, two generations reported as more diverse than older age groups.

Country music overall saw an increase of 20 billion streams, a 24% year-over-year increase, from 2022 to 2023, according to Luminate.

Spotify's Nashville team, which monitors the music streaming giant's country genre, said it saw an increase in Gen Z and millennial listeners in response to Knowles' entry. Rachel Whitney, managing editor of the Nashville team, said playlists outside of the country genre play Knowles' country songs, expanding her reach.

Beyoncé's giveaway is also increasing exposure for other artists on some charts, such as Lainey Wilson and Cody Johnson, who have more “traditional” country songs, Whitney said.

“It's amazing to see how country connects with younger listeners,” Whitney said. “We can support that with our playlists and make sure we don't make country into a specific sound.”

In addition to Knowles, pop stars such as Lana Del Rey and Post Malone are preparing to release country albums, according to Billboard. The news source says that Ed Sheeran could also release a national project in the short term.

UNC's Neal, herself a Beyoncé fan, described the star's career as groundbreaking, but said the push for diversity in country music requires more than one superstar.

“Historical evidence suggests that it takes more than one successful artist to move the needle on what is honestly 100 years of genre formation,” Neal said.