Country music star Lainey Wilson, a native of Louisiana, captures it best in her current tune, “Country’s cool again.” Unquestionably, country is back in style, whether it’s Beyoncé two-stepping her way to the top of the charts or Western clothing and cowboy couture taking over the Paris Fashion Week runways. However, this yee-haw comeback goes beyond clichés to represent a richer, more nuanced understanding of contemporary Americana.
Pop musicians have used country music as a means of expanding their fan base and honing their songwriting abilities for many years. Beyoncé’s idol Tina Turner released her only country album, Tina Turns the Country On!, in 1974. That same year, The Pointer Sisters had their Top 40 debut with the heartbreaking honky-tonk smash “Fairytale.” Some more recent attempts at country crossovers include Kylie Minogue’s Golden, Lady Gaga’s Joanne, Miley Cyrus’s Younger Now, and Gwen Stefani’s southern-fried version of “Just a Girl”.
Storytelling is the core of country music, involving strong emotional content, striking imagery, and a close relationship with the audience. It’s similar like pouring your heart out to the barman while enjoying a few beers at a bar. That explains why Taylor Swift and Kacey Musgraves, two of the most gifted songwriters in the genre, have achieved widespread success. Furthermore, the country music scene is welcoming an expressive writer like Lana Del Rey, whose tenth studio album, Lasso, is due out in September. Post Malone, who sang “America The Beautiful” during the 2018 Super Bowl while wearing a pair of cowboy hats, recently worked with chart-topping musicians Luke Combs and Morgan Wallen in Nashville to make his country album. (Also, he’s working on a Swift collaboration.)
But Beyoncé has accomplished something much more with her most recent endeavour, Act II: Cowboy Carter, which she will release on March 29. She became the first Black woman to reach the top of the country charts with her historic No. 1 country hit. “Texas Hold ‘Em” is a lighthearted song that first invites you to join the hoedown and leave your problems at home. But with its acoustic instrumentation—which features pioneer Rhiannon Giddens’s nimble banjo licking—it avoids cowboy cosplay while honouring the instrument’s Black heritage. This new sound is a misty coda that blends her rural credentials with Renaissance’s house eleganza. In the end, Beyoncé is making country music in her own image by eclipsing the obstacles that have traditionally kept Black musicians out of the genre. As she put it, “This ain’t no Country album.” This is an album by Beyoncé.
Bey’s entry into the country music scene was not shocking to her fans when she debuted her hit song and companion track, “16 Carriages,” on the eve of the Super Bowl, the most watched event in American pop culture. Beyoncé has consistently accepted her Black Southern identity. On the song “Formation” from 2016, she expressed as much: “Earned all this money, but they never take the country out of me.” At the 2016 Country Music Association Awards, she and The Chicks sang “Daddy Lessons,” a twangy tribute to a whisky-drinking, gun-toting father. Ever since Beyoncé made her stage debut at the 2001 Houston Rodeo, a country music era has seemed imminent.
The move into a new genre could be written off by some as just a clever commercial move. Country music, after all, is one of the genres that is expanding the quickest in the world (even K-pop is pulling out the fiddle), and it is particularly dominant in terms of radio play and physical sales. It appears to be more commercially successful than ever. A cynical perspective would interpret this as a devious plot to win yet more Grammys and ultimately win Album of the Year by outwitting the Recording Academy, that is, by venturing into a conventional genre that is frequently given more weight by white Academy voters. That perspective, though, is fundamentally simplistic. Beyoncé’s transition to country music is much more significant and intimate than a trophy shaped like a gramophone or an increase in ticket sales.
Cowboy Carter, like Renaissance, is a victorious return of country music as Black music and a tribute to Black heritage. The introspective ballad “16 Carriages” is composed in the style of a work song, where each clap or stomp represents a bravery. A version of Beyoncé’s narrative, which she typically keeps dear to her heart, is told in this song. “Had to sacrifice and leave my fears behind,” she says. “The legacy, if it’s the last thing I do / You’ll remember me ’cause we got somethin’ to prove.”
In an industry not exactly recognised for its diversity (my fellow Texan Mickey Guyton is the only Black woman to receive a Grammy nomination in a solo country category), Beyoncé is overcoming “the limitations placed on [her]” by embracing her distinctively American background.
Country ‘s cool
In a similar vein, Pharrell Williams’s most recent Louis Vuitton collection, which made its runway premiere at Paris Fashion Week in January, honours an aspect of American history that is frequently overlooked. The collection, which draws inspiration from the Wild West, reimagines the frontier by doing away with clichés and highlighting the variety of influences that have shaped Western dress. Louis Vuitton reimagined cowboy essentials with exquisite details, such as cactus chain stitching, floral embroideries, turquoise buttons, and pastoral Keepalls hand-painted by artisans from the Dakota and Lakota countries. The designer sent denim chaps, vintage suede, bolo ties, and Cuban-heeled boots down the catwalk.
Williams stated, “You see only a few versions of cowboys portrayed,” during a news conference held after the concert. The true appearance of the pioneer cowboys is never fully revealed. They were Black and Native Americans, and they resembled me.” (Interestingly, Beyoncé donned a black leather cowboy outfit created by Williams for LV and a white Stetson for this year’s Grammy Awards.)
Not just Louis Vuitton is embracing the ranch-to-runway concept. Schiaparelli’s Spring/Summer 2024 Haute Couture collection featured Western buckles and horse-dressing knots. Designs from the companies Dsquared2 and Egonlab were embellished with fringe. And amid much hoopla, Willy Chavarria unveiled extra-wide-lapelled flannels and jewelled cowboy hats at NYFW. Supermodel Bella Hadid is even going country; she’s dating real-life cowboy and rodeo star Adan Banuelos, and she can prove it with her wardrobe and horse-maneuvring prowess.
Additionally, consumers are reacting to the nation’s renaissance. A 145 percent rise in searches for “vintage Americana” and “Western gothic,” the latter of which is a gritty, darker interpretation of the American West that evokes a certain mystique (think: Ethel Cain’s Preacher’s Daughter), was reported by Pinterest together with its predictions for 2024 trends.
The cowboy has long been associated with wild individuality, liberty, and a close relationship with the natural world. These sentimental ideas relate to the political and cultural landscape of today. A wider societal movement towards authenticity has taken place in an increasingly digital world, eclipsing our fears of AI by placing a higher value on human connection. In addition, 2024 is a contentious election year when American beliefs are being challenged and reframed via a more multicultural perspective. We’re all working together to create a new national identity that embraces America’s complex past and raises questions about its future, much like the latest wave of country music and Western apparel.
Though America still has an identity crisis, Cowboy Carter is a brave start towards reclaiming a narrative that has long excluded non-White perspectives. The cowboy of today is not your average stoic John Wayne. They serve as a potent reminder of the unwritten tales that have influenced the American experience and as a symbol of resiliency.
