“People don’t make albums anymore,” Beyoncé Knowles-Carter said in a 2013 interview in her HBO documentary. Her most recent album, “Cowboy Carter,” a celebration of Blackness, love, spirituality and blend of country music with other genres recently won Grammys for album of the year and country album of the year.
This caused an unjustified uproar on social media. “This is straight BS,” a tweet writes. People expressed their disappointment that Billie Eilish’s “Hit Me Hard And Soft” didn’t win AOTY. They lamented incessantly on the internet, ranting that Eilish’s album surpassed “Cowboy Carter” in streams. While that is true, the Recording Academy is not based on streams or record sales.
The category is album of the year. Not a mixtape, not a hit single, not a feature. A complete piece, a story from start to finish adhering to the 3-act structure, a lyrical masterpiece rich with thematic elements and motifs that speak to a larger voice. A work of art that requires analysis and introspection, rather than a viral snippet for a TikTok trend. “Cowboy Carter” is a masterpiece. It is one hour, 18 minutes and 21 seconds of auditory bliss. It refuses to adhere to a genre, and Beyoncé has said so herself: that “this ain’t a country album. This is a ‘Beyoncé’ album.”
“Cowboy Carter” was born following an incident in which Beyoncé “did not feel welcomed ... and it was very clear that I wasn’t.” It is widely speculated that the event she describes is the 2016 Country Music Awards, in which she performed her single “Daddy Lessons” with the Chicks. This performance sparked immense backlash, arguing that Beyoncé was too liberal due to her outspokenness in regards to the Black Lives Matter movement and thus had no place at the CMAs.
This album is the AOTY because “AMERIICAN REQUIEM” and “AMEN” mirror each other, opening and closing the work with a commentary on racism being America’s original sin and how her generation and following ones seek to rebuild a broken nation. It deserved AOTY because “BLACKBIIRD” is about a Black woman who struggles in the face of adversity and eventually prevails, and Beyoncé is a blackbird in her own right given the discrimination she faced at the CMAs.
It deserved AOTY because of the parallelism in “16 CARRIAGES” in which she sings, “only God knows,” having a double meaning of “only got Knowles” as she details the hardships of losing her innocence to her career as an adolescent. Her ability to bend the concept of genre with “SPAGHETTII” seamlessly is why this deserved AOTY.
The harmonic genius in “II MOST WANTED” and brand loyalty to Levi’s, given that they were the first brand to support Destiny’s Child in “LEVII’S JEANS” is why this deserved AOTY. Her patriotism in “YA YA” despite Black women enduring constant oppression silences those who claim she’s “not American enough,” while also depicting the bloodshed of her ancestors who built the foundations America stands on.
“DESERT EAGLE” represents femininity and sexuality, “II HANDS II HEAVEN” has Biblical themes of rebirth and forgiveness and finally, “AMEN”, the last song on the album, portraying how the United States was built on the backs of oppressed peoples, its statues emblematic of struggle and how she and subsequent generations will purify America’s original sin. The album closes with “Amen,” a parallel to the last word of the Christian Bible.
This album speaks not only to Black history but American history, with symbolism running as deep as the album cover itself: Beyoncé atop a white horse riding sidesaddle asserts royalty and power, alluding to historical figures being eternalized through depictions of them next to white horses. The red, white and blue illustrates patriotism; her bleach-blonde hair billowing in the wind assimilative.
Country music has Black origins, and Beyoncé paid homage to them throughout the album through her usage of organic musical instruments (banjo, acoustic guitar, fiddle), and features from Black country pioneers like Linda Martell. So for people to say that she doesn’t belong is like saying Steve Jobs shouldn’t have an iPhone, or Elon Musk shouldn’t be driving a Cybertruck. Country music has, and always will be, a “Black thing,” as so many tend to be.
Furthermore, “Cowboy Carter” broke records and should be respected for that alone. It was the first album by a Black woman to reach number one on the Billboard top country albums chart. The song “TEXAS HOLD ‘EM” was the first single by a Black woman to take the number one spot on Billboard’s country song chart, along with the all-genre Hot 100 chart. She is the first Black woman to win country album of the year. She also became the first Black woman to win a country Grammy in 50 years and just the fourth Black woman to win AOTY.
The 2024 CMAs snubbed her. She did not land a single nomination, and got minimal promotion on country music radio stations despite the album’s achievements. The Grammys, which also have a history of dismissing Black women, finally paid her her dues. Let Beyoncé enjoy this well-deserved win.
So, if you have not yet sat down to consume this masterpiece in its entirety, to digest the album’s racially liberating and unapologetically Black themes and to excrete the hatred from your heart, I suggest you at least give it a listen with an open mind.
“Cowboy Carter” is an emblem of America’s original sin: racism. The album receiving accolades and consequential negative uproar is proof that there is still much work to be done. The more that people say Black women shouldn’t be in country music just argues for the significance and necessity of this album. As Beyoncé closes her work, “them old ideas are buried here. Amen.”
Zora Rodgers is a junior studying film, television, and theatre. She's from Falls Church, Virginia and has the pajama pants to prove it. When not watching the TODAY Show or writing, she can be found wearing too much perfume and spending her NBC paychecks on SKIMS. You can reach out to her at zrodgers@nd.edu.
