The American singer, queen of R&B and pop, releases the highly anticipated “Cowboy Carter” on Friday, a country music album.
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Change of direction for Queen Bey. The star comes out on Friday, March 29, the highly anticipated Cowboy Carter, country music album that she announced in the middle of the Super Bowl by performing the single Texas, Hold em. The title had already reached the peak of sales. A first for a black woman in this musical genre.
Among the other tracks on the album, the singer notably covers Jolene, by Dolly Parton, and teams up with country legend Willie Nelson, a Texan like her. But how do country fans receive this album? Reporting from Houston, where Beyoncé is from.
“Beyoncé is not country, she is more pop”
Melissa Shrake has been teaching line dancing for 11 years. In this country dance class, everyone is in a line and everyone does the same moves. For the teacher, Beyoncé “isn’t country, no, not at all, it’s more pop”. An opinion shared by aficionados and certain specialized radio stations who initially refused to broadcast his title Texas Hold embefore backtracking under the avalanche of messages from fans of the artist.
In the record store Volume Music, Abby is waiting for Beyoncé’s vinyl to arrive. She’ll put him in the soul category. “Honestly, the people who are going to buy his album are going to be more die-hard fans, but I think country fans are going to get it as well.”
For Abby, the change made by Beyoncé is interesting: “Country has been hugely and weirdly politicized, and it’s mostly white people’s music. I think that’s going to have an effect on how people especially on the far right are going to talk about this album, but ultimately, I think this album is a good thing.”
“She’s creating a new path in country music.”
At Dosey Doe, a 19th century barn transformed into a concert hall popular with country artists, Chelsa Floyd is the specialist of the genre. “At first I didn’t really like it, but after listening to her single several times, I said to myself that maybe there is a place for her style. I think she is creating a new path in country music that can bring people into the country fold,” she judges.
Glenna Bell is a former country singer. After spending years in the genre capital, Nashville, she now programs a genre show on KPFT radio in Houston. “It’s not the sound and lyrics of the country music I grew up with, so we’ll see how it’s received. Now the music industry has two big stars: Taylor Swift, who started in country, and Beyoncé, who started out in pop. There’s a crossover between the two genres. I’m sure it’s going to generate a lot of money.” she believes.
Faced with her detractors, Beyoncé expressed it herself on her Instagram account last week : “It’s not a country album. It’s a Beyoncé album.”
Release of Beyoncé’s country album: in her native Texas, a mixed reception. Reporting by Thomas Harms.