Beyoncé’s ‘Cowboy Carter’ is here, and it’s much more than country music

Beyoncé has gone country, sure ... but it turns out that’s only the half of it.

For months, the superstar, who made her name in R&B and pop, has been telegraphing her version of country music and style. There was the “disco” cowboy hat at her Renaissance World Tour last year, and her “western” look at the Grammys in February, complete with a white Stetson and black studded jacket. Then, on the night of the Super Bowl, she released two new songs, and sent one of them, Texas Hold ’Em — with plucked banjos and lines about Texas and hoedowns — to country radio stations, sparking an industrywide debate about the defensive moat that has long surrounded Nashville’s musical institutions.

At midnight Friday, Beyoncé finally released her new album, Cowboy Carter, and the country bona fides were certainly there. Dolly Parton provides a cameo introduction to Beyoncé’s version of Jolene, Parton’s 1972 classic about a woman confronting a romantic rival. Willie Nelson pops in twice as a grizzled DJ, who says he “turns you on to some real good [expletive],” including snippets of Chuck Berry, Sister Rosetta Tharpe and blues singer Son House.

Yet Cowboy Carter is far broader than simply a country album. Beyoncé does a version of the Beatles’ “Blackbird” and, on the track Ya Ya, draws from Nancy Sinatra, Sly Stone and the Beach Boys’ Good Vibrations. Desert Eagle is glistening funk, and the upbeat “Bodyguard” would not be out of place on a modern rock radio station. The album’s range suggests a broad essay on contemporary pop music, and on the nature of genre itself.

That theory is made clear on the spoken track Spaghettii, featuring the pioneering but long-absent Black country singer Linda Martell, who in 1970 released an album called Color Me Country.

“Genres are a funny little concept, aren’t they? Yes, they are,” Martell, 82, says. “In theory, they have a simple definition that’s easy to understand. But in practice, well, some may feel confined.”

Of course, Beyoncé herself indicated this a week ago when she posted a note on Instagram saying, “This ain’t a country album. This is a ‘Beyoncé’ album.”

Still, the theme of simultaneously celebrating and transforming country music extends to the album’s cover art, featuring Beyoncé seated sideways on a white horse, dressed in red-white-and-blue rodeo gear and hoisting an American flag.

Guests on the album include Miley Cyrus on the song II Most Wanted, and Post Malone on Levii’s Jeans. (The extra I’s underscore that Cowboy Carter is officially Act II of what Beyoncé has said will be a three-album cycle, which began with Renaissance in 2022. That motif repeats throughout the album’s 27-song track list; the Beatles cover appears as Blackbiird.)

As with Renaissance, the audio for Cowboy Carter was leaked online shortly before its planned release, with some fans urging others not to listen early.

Back when Beyoncé released her self-titled “visual album” without warning in 2013, establishing the “surprise drop” as an industry trope, it was partly meant to protect the album from leaks, which had become a threat to first-week sales numbers. For these last two albums, Beyoncé has embraced a more conventional marketing plan, announcing her album weeks ahead of time and preparing deluxe physical editions. (There are many for Cowboy Carter including LPs in, yes, red, white and blue vinyl.)

In the end, the leaks meant little to Renaissance, which went straight to No. 1. And, regardless of the new album’s fate at country radio — where Texas Hold ’Em has so far made it only as high as No. 33 — the commercial potential for Cowboy Carter seems vast, given Beyoncé’s recent success.

Last year, she won her 32nd Grammy Award, more than any artist in history. Her Renaissance tour sold $580 million in tickets, second only to Taylor Swift. A related concert film, Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé, offered a rare look behind the scenes of her creative process and was a hit in cinemas.

Last week, as the release of Cowboy Carter neared, Beyoncé wrote on Instagram that the album was “over five years in the making,” and that “it was 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.” Fans zeroed in on her appearance at the Country Music Association Awards in 2016, where she performed her song “Daddy Issues” with the Chicks, and drew backlash online.

“The criticisms I faced when I first entered this genre forced me to propel past the limitations that were put on me,” Beyoncé said. The new album, she added, “is a result of challenging myself, and taking my time to bend and blend genres together to create this body of work.”