Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter, explained

Of all the pop stars currently working in America, Beyoncé is undoubtedly the most visually sophisticated. Every new album comes with a lush, rigorously staged set of images, dense with allusions and Easter eggs, that act as an elaboration and a commentary on the themes of the album.

In the Lemonade era around 2016, Beyoncé made herself into a goddess of many identities: the Christian Virgin Mary, the Roman Venus, the Yoruba Oshun. With 2022’s Renaissance, she became a disco diva celebrating the pleasures of the dance floor as a safe space for queer Black joy.

There’s a lot to parse through and digest on Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter. The 27-track album is a rich, sprawling tribute to various eras and genres of Southern music, from outlaw country to Louisiana’s zydeco to 1960s rock ‘n’ roll — all of which have contributed to our collective understanding of country music.

She carries out this hefty task with the help of some lesser-known country artists and some bona fide legends. One of those heavy hitters is none other than Dolly Parton, who makes several appearances, including in a playful audio message on Cowboy Carter’s ninth track.

In the lead-up to Friday’s release of Cowboy Carter, Beyoncé gave us a small tidbit about its inspiration. She wrote on Instagram that the album was “over five years in the making” and “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.” Without naming said experience outright, she added, “I did a deeper dive into the history of country music and studied our rich musical archive.”

Following the breadcrumbs Bey dropped — an event from more than five years ago, country music, not feeling accepted — led many to the 2016 Country Music Association Awards. There, Beyoncé joined the Chicks for a surprise performance of “Daddy Lessons.”

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.

“I feel honored to be the first Black woman with the number one single on the Hot Country Songs chart,” Beyoncé wrote in an Instagram post last week.

Editor’s note, March 19, 2024, 1:20 pm: On March 19, 2024, Beyoncé posted on Instagram that her upcoming album, Act II: Cowboy Carter — the first two singles from which are propelling her to the top of the Hot Country Songs chart — was inspired by “an experience [she] had years ago where [she] did not feel welcomed ... and it was very clear that [she] wasn’t.” Some speculate she was referring to this 2016 CMAs performance with the Chicks. (The Chicks changed their band name in 2020, after this piece was published). For more on how that performance was received at the time, check out this piece below.

Even if you want to, it’s impossible to forget a Beyoncé performance. Just ask the Country Music Association.