Beyonce
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Home on the Range June 28, 2024
On March 29th, pop megastar Beyoncé released her eighth solo album, Cowboy Carter. It is also her first country album. known for sleek, hip-hop-inflected R&B tracks like “Crazy in Love” and “Formation,” Beyoncé has reinvented herself via banjos and D...
Having a Bad Bey May 03, 2024
There’s a rule for writing about Beyoncé, and it’s simple: you just have to say that every single thing she does is the most amazing, medium-redefining thing ever done by anyone. For a long time, it was an easy rule to follow, because doing so involv...
On Beyoncé April 15, 2024
What happens when your delusions of grandeur are not delusions; when you accrue the talent, resources, and courage to execute any dream or vision you possess, and there will invariably be an audience from which detractors will be cast as lunatics or ...
In Beyoncé’s Country, All Are Welcome April 08, 2024
Beyoncé is the ultimate American cowboy.Now, before anyone starts airin’ their lungs, the proof is right there in her blazing displays of bravura, burn-the-breeze grit, and unprecedented levels of Southern swag. This is, after all, the woman who turn...
Has Beyoncé Killed Jolene? April 05, 2024
Not long ago, a post crossed my timeline featuring a black-and-white, heart-stoppingly gorgeous photo of Dolly Parton in the Sixties. The caption read, simply: “What the hell did Jolene look like?” One can only wonder.As a musical artefact, “Jolene” ...
Beyoncé Won’t Burn Down the Barn with 'Cowboy Carter' April 03, 2024
Here she comes round again, the horse goddess. When Beyoncé released “Renaissance,” in the summer of 2022—a paean to house music and disco, and to the Black queer people who invented them—the album cover featured the artist perched on a glittering be...
The Violence of 'Cowboy Carter' April 01, 2024
The power of Dolly Parton’s “Jolene” is that Dolly Parton sounds powerless. The guitar riff prickles nervously; the melody pleads in the manner of a hungry pet; Parton sings, in a trembling tone, about the woman who could and very well might take her...
This Is Not a Cowboy Hat March 29, 2024
A high-quality cowboy hat should travel far and last long, and the 10-gallon topper’s frontier currently extends behind some tightly managed velvet ropes. Just this year, it has made it to the Oscars, to Paris Fashion Week, and on the cover of Vogue....
Beyoncé’s Country Roots March 27, 2024
If you somehow haven’t heard: Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter, her eighth studio album and the much-anticipated sequel to Renaissance, drops on Friday. Its lead single “Texas Hold ‘Em” made history when it debuted at the top of the country charts last month....
The Fight Over Country Music’s Politics March 20, 2024
Even if you want to, it’s impossible to forget a Beyoncé performance. Just ask the Country Music Association.On Wednesday, Beyoncé performed with the Dixie Chicks at the CMA Awards — one of the biggest stories of the awards show and one of the bigges...
Beyoncé Has Embraced Country February 23, 2024
In the summer of 1984, Lionel Richie, in the middle of an epic run of pop and R&B hits from his blockbuster album Can’t Slow Down, chose a fourth single from the LP that was very different from its predecessors. Richie had already stretched himself s...
