In February, millions of people tuned in to watch Super Bowl LVIII and the collection of standout commercials aired during the game. The advertisements, which elicit great enthusiasm, are an added highlight to the final football game of every NFL season. They are so popular in fact, that in 2024 a 30-second ad cost between $6.5 and $7 million. Each year, competing companies aim to leave audiences awe-stricken with humor, emotion and unpredictability. This year, the most talked about commercial featured the major cellular company, Verizon, with a special guest appearance by R&B and pop music superstar, Beyoncé.
The Verizon commercial had two messages: the first being that their cellular service remains at the top of the charts when it comes to reliability; the other, that the beloved singer, songwriter and actress had a tremendous surprise for her fan base and music lovers around the world.
“Okay, they ready? Drop the music!” she exclaimed.
Within an hour, two new visualizer videos for “Texas Hold ‘Em” and “16 Carriages” appeared online to the delight of fans, confirming speculation that the artist was taking a courageous leap into a genre outside of her normal repertoire – country.
Cowboy Carter
In 2022, Beyoncé released an album that explored the influences and nuances behind dance and house music, in homage to her Uncle Johnny, referred to as her “godmother” and the first person to expose her to the Studio 54-reminiscent culture that inspired the album. The album’s name, “Renaissance: Act I,” suggested there would be a follow-up, but with the secretive style representative of the artist’s creative process, nobody knew for sure which direction the sequel would take.
“Cowboy Carter” travels the expansive frontier of country music while pushing past traditional boundaries and spotlighting artists such as genre pioneers Linda Martell and Rhiannon Giddens. Yet, her sudden announcement regarding the project drew ire and criticism from people who view country music and cowboy culture as exclusive to white Americans. The immediate controversy that swept through the media and music industries was reflective of the motivation for the entertainer’s creation.
In 2016, while performing at the Country Music Association’s (CMA) Awards, Beyoncé received a cold reception from the crowd. “This album has been over five years in the making,” she wrote on Instagram following the release of “Cowboy Carter.” “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.”
“My hope is that years from now, the mention of an artist’s race, as it relates to releasing genres of music, will be irrelevant,” the post concluded.
While fans have taken to social media platforms with dance challenges for “Texas Hold ‘Em” and a soulful rendition of Dolly Parton’s “Jolene,” not everyone appreciates Beyoncé’s latest body of work.
Released on Mar. 29, “Cowboy Carter” debuted atop the Billboard Top 200, and the musician became the first Black woman to score a No.1 album on the Top Country Albums chart. Yet, a staggering number of country music enthusiasts from the white community have displayed territorial tendencies, viewing Beyoncé as an outsider and feeling as though stardom achieved in more urban genres shouldn’t cross an invisible boundary into “theirs.” The album release provoked responses that resounded of racism, with cynical opinions going viral across the internet. In a TikTok video released shortly after the announcement, an Indiana State University student declared, “I’m sorry, but if you’re Black, you’re not country.”
Media responses to “Cowboy Carter” have been varied. Some headlines read, “Beyoncé’s ‘Cowboy Carter’ Is an Epic Tour De Force,” and “Beyoncé’s Country is America: Every Bit of It;” while others are less favorable, calling the album directionless, boring or “too simple.”
Regardless of the controversy, the second act of the Renaissance saga sparked much-needed discussion about culture and history, highlighting the lesser-known influence Black musicians have had on the genre as it has evolved over time. Though some may not realize or care to acknowledge it, Black country music artists – both past and present – helped define country music.
A Ride through Time
National Public Radio (NPR) compared “Cowboy Carter,” to a “sprawling Western epic,” explaining that the Texas-born artist “finds her ideal figure of the American West and South.” The western-themed character Beyoncé embodies is rooted in the history of Black men and women who migrated to the American West and made vast contributions to the sport of rodeo while living a life similar, if not the same as historical depictions of western life.
Over the years, Denver Urban Spectrum has featured numerous articles about the Bill Pickett Invitational Rodeo (BPIR), with information about the origins of the Black American West. BPIR showcases contemporary excellence in rodeo, encouraging and nurturing new generations of Black cowboys. Like the rodeo and other modern nuances urging people to explore the Black influence on cowboy culture and the West, “Cowboy Carter” is positioned to draw attention to the historic influence in spite of negative feedback from individuals who wish to dispel or ignore it altogether.
“The criticisms that I faced when I first entered this genre forced me to propel past the limitations that were put on me. Act II is a result of challenging myself, and taking my time to bend and blend genres together to create this body of work,” Beyoncé wrote on Instagram. “…This ain’t a country album. This is a ‘Beyoncé’ album.”
Her attitude and intent mirror those of earlier Black musicians who created art that still resonates decades after they set upon a musical odyssey without concern about prescribed labels and limitations.
The Jackie Robinson of Country Music
Charlie Pride became a country music superstar and stalwart not by crossing over into the genre, but rising within it.
After playing professional baseball, Pride embarked on a music career, ultimately scoring successive country hits like “Kiss An Angel Good Mornin’,” “Crystal Chandeliers” and “Mississippi Cotton Picking Delta Town.” Throughout his career, he made a total of 29 No.1 Hot Country Songs and 12 No.1 Top Country Albums.
While the fame and hit discography suggest that the country music community eagerly embraced him, his ascendance wasn’t met entirely with acceptance.
“Pride seemed to spend a great deal of his career trying to have as few conversations about his race as possible,” Rolling Stone reported in a 2020 article titled “Rewriting Country Music’s History.” “He’s not especially confrontational or cagey about it, despite the stories of hostile audiences and institutions numbering in the dozens.”
Another oft-told example from Pride’s heyday indicates that it wasn’t exactly open arms across the country music landscape. In one instance, country music star Loretta Lynn was slated to present him with a Living Legend Award, critics predicted a career setback if she were to give Pride a celebratory kiss onstage. She defied the warnings, and as she recounted in her autobiography, “Coal Miner’s Daughter,” proceeded to “give him a big old hug and a kiss right on camera.”
In 1971, Pride won the CMA’s award for Entertainer of the Year – the association’s highest honor. In 2000, he became the first Black artist inducted in the Country Music Hall of Fame. His career achievements prompted many, as the Public Broadcasting System (PBS) noted, to call him the “Jackie Robinson of country music.”
The Genius of Soul… and Country
The incredible singer, songwriter and pianist known as “the genius of soul,” released several country music masterpieces throughout his 50-year career. Ray Charles’ “Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music” topped the Billboard Top Country Albums chart in 1962, followed by “Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music Volume 2,” which reached No.2.
Overall, Charles released seven country albums spanning three separate decades, in addition to participating in several other country collaborations. In 2023, he was posthumously inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame, becoming the third Black artist in its history.
On one special occasion, Charles performed a Johnny Cash special at the Grand Ole Opry in the 1970s, along with country titans June Carter Cash, Waylon Jennings and Jessie Colter. Cash’s mother-in-law, Mother Maybelle Carter who was a pillar of modern country music, appeared on the same program.
The Influence Behind the Sound
Carter was a guitarist best known for her role in the original Carter Family act from the late 1920s until the early 1940s. The Carter Family is heralded as the architects of country music, but behind the music lies a strong influence directly from a Black musician. Some attribute their success to Lesley Riddle, a Black man who took an interest in the guitar and mandolin after a cement factory accident led to the amputation of his right leg.
When she was inducted to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1970, Carter credited Riddle for his influence on her innovative approach to the genre. The man who created the “Carter Scratch,” playing the melody while using his thumb to keep the rhythm on the bass strings, provided guidance to the family, urging them to attend Black churches to find inspiration for material. Rolling Stone reported, “Today, the Carters are in the pantheon of country, but there’s a good chance the last paragraph was the first time you’ve heard Lesley Riddle’s name.”
Digging Up the Roots
In the same Rolling Stone article, another artist featured on “Cowboy Carter” is brought to the spotlight. Rhiannon Giddens is a two-time Grammy Award, MacArthur recipient and Pulitzer Prize-winning singer and instrumentalist who plays the fiddle and banjo. Founder of the country, blues and old-time music band, the Carolina Chocolate Drops, she is mixed race with a white father and a Black mother. Her website plainly states that she has “centered her work around the mission of lifting up people whose contributions to American musical history have been previously overlooked or erased.”
“At the turn of the 20th century,” Giddens said, “Half of the string bands are Black. Within 20 to 30 years, you have complete erasure because what gets recorded is what gets remembered.”
Colorado’s Black Country Connection
Beau David
While much of the country music industry gravitates around Nashville, Tennessee, there are a number of Black country music artists who have called Colorado home.
Grizzly Rose, a country bar, nightclub and dancehall in Denver, salutes the state’s country singers and Beau David is among those celebrated.
David, whose real name was Newrise Battle, was “one of the men of color to change the face of country music, and he was a founding member of the Colorado Country Music Hall of Fame,” the venue writes on its “Country Singers from Colorado” webpage.
Like the Black string bands denied history’s spotlight, David wasn’t a household name. However, he was a considerable talent and his musical contributions to Colorado’s country music scene are not forgotten. Hillbilly-Music.com states that along with being a country music entertainer, he was an actor and held a graduate degree in psychology.
Before he passed 14 years ago, David performed in bands such as The Day Drinkers and Rawhide, and made an indelible mark on Colorado’s country music scene.
Rudy Grant
Rudy Grant is another Colorado Country Music Hall of Fame inductee who enjoys impressive acclaim. When Westword reported Grant’s retirement from venue performances in 2022, the publication recalled his long and successful career.
Inspired by meeting and talking with Charley Pride, Grant eventually established a career as a country music legend whose work resonated largely outside of Colorado as he toured the nation and throughout the world.
Like Pride, Grant’s venture into country music had its initial hurdles. “In the early days, he and his band played country joints around town, including the Seasons and Zanza Bar (also known as the Z-Bar), as well as places in Wyoming, Kansas and Nebraska, where Grant played a particularly memorable gig,” Westword relayed. “He remembers that he came out to a cheering crowd, but says that once the audience noticed he was Black, it went so quiet you could hear a mosquito flying.”
Grant felt the noticeable shift in energy and approached each performance with the intention to win the crowd over. Eventually, audiences responded to the band’s music rather than Grant’s race.
A Lasting Influence
Country music is a genre founded and molded by the innovative blend of many genres, with influences from people with diverse experiences of the lifestyle. It is impossible to deny the impact of Black musicians within the genre, from its earliest existence to modern interpretations that represent a country way of life.
Attitudes are changing in the 21st century with the help of country music stars like Mickey Guyton, Kane Brown, Jimmie Allen, Brittney Spencer and Willie Jones.” With Beyoncé now firmly situated in that list, her innovation has superseded stereotypes and expectations, forcing the acknowledgement of Black country music pioneers and paving the way for others to join in the diversification of the genre.
Beyoncé’s new project not only allows her to explore music that represents her own cultural upbringing in the southern and western environment from which she hails, but it shines a spotlight on the many contributions made by Black people to country and other genres of music. Her resistance in the face of criticism and bigotry is a testament to the use of the music as a vehicle for the expression of struggle and emotion, and it looks to the future, serving as a potent inspiration and example for aspiring artists considering a country music career.
Perhaps the most consequential act of Renaissance Act II will be the reminder that Black country music artists not only exist, but they excel.
