As if that wasn’t enough, the star released two new songs, “Texas Hold ‘Em” and “16 Carriages,”
Which unveiled her brand new sound, with the upcoming album fitting into the country genre.
Of course dedicated fans of Beyoncé’s will be aware that this isn’t her first foray into country music, with her song “Daddy Lessons” being at the center of Grammys controversy in 2016.
You see, despite “Daddy Lessons” being an undeniably country song about Beyoncé’s dad, Mathew Knowles.
It didn’t receive any nominations in the country music categories at that year’s Grammys.
An anonymous insider later told the Associated Press that Beyoncé had submitted the song for consideration.
However, the country music committee rejected it because they didn’t agree that it fit in with the genre.
This is particularly outrageous considering the important role that Black people played in the creation of country music, with many early country hits lifted from hymns performed by Black ministers in the South.
With that in mind, when Beyoncé unveiled her new sound at the weekend, many quickly began to speculate that her aforementioned “three-act project” was her way of “reclaiming genres originally rooted in Black music,” with Renaissance reclaiming disco and house music, this new album country, and it being widely theorized that the third act will be rock and roll.
Unfortunately, it seems as though the industry hasn’t evolved at all since 2016, with it being evident that Beyoncé is still being excluded from the country music scene eight years after the “Daddy Lessons” drama.
One person tweeted in response: “This is a microaggression. Those songs are clearly country, not ‘country influenced.’ Black people BIRTHED country music. Put some respect on it.” Another person echoed: “calling it influence is just disrespectful to her southern roots. she has always been a country gworl.. give her the flowers she deserves.”
But Variety’s tweet appeared to be just the tip of the iceberg, with a Beyoncé fan revealing that his local country music radio station had refused to play Beyoncé’s new song when he requested her new song because they “do not play Beyoncé.”
X — formerly Twitter — user Justin tweeted a screenshot of the email reply that he received from Oklahoma radio station KYKC on Tuesday after he requested “Texas Hold ‘Em.”
He captioned the screenshot: “I requested Texas Hold ‘Em at my local country radio station (KYKC) and after requesting, i received an email from the radio station stating ‘We do not play Beyoncé on KYKC as we are a country music station,’” and it soon gained traction.
Many felt that the station’s response was reflective of a wider issue, with one person asking: “Is it that they don’t play Beyoncé or they don’t play Black people???” Another claimed: “the racism we’re about to bear witness to because Beyonce is digging into her country roots is going to be intergalactic.”
Somebody else tweeted: “The racism we always knew was there is revealing itself already and she hasn’t even dropped the album yet.”
Sharing a photo of “Texas Hold ‘Em” in their schedule, they wrote: “Lots of calls coming in for Beyoncé’s Texas Hold ‘Em. It’s coming up in minutes.”
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Source: The Wall Street Journal
