Modern Sounds x Country Music
Beyoncé’s new album is old hat, but I mean that in a good way
Cowboy Carter, the new Beyoncé album, is— surprise, surprise — causing a big commotion.
Why? Well, partly because it’s hers. Tireless sales person that she is, she invites controversy.
It’s also because it’s not totally clear whether Cowboy Carter truly is a “country” album. It may be a poke at or joke on the folks who routinely listen to the strain of popular music identified as country. It may be all those things.
I confess that I have not heard Cowboy Carter, nor will I ever, barring some miracle.
I haven’t been able to absorb new music since I went deaf in 2010. I can barely remember what Beyoncé sounds like, but that’s not relevant. I’ve never heard Adele or Taylor Swift, period. They’re both A.D. (“After Deaf”) for me. Even with my cochlear implants, new music is lost on me.
Still, I’m going to “defend” Beyoncé. She may not be “a plain old country girl,” to quote a great old June Carter song, but she’s well within her rights.
Here’s the thing.
American music is an unending conversation, artists of every ethnicity and hue cherry-picking what moves, tickles and inspires them, mashing it up, making something…
