Why Beyoncé Keeps Reinventing Herself

A conversation with Spencer Kornhaber about all that Beyoncé takes on in her new album

Latest Apr 5, 2024 0 41 Add to Reading List

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One week ago, Beyoncé released a sprawling 27-track album, the second in a promised trilogy. In the days since, it has dominated conversations about country music in America. I spoke with my colleague Spencer Kornhaber, who writes about music for The Atlantic, about how the pop icon is taking on genre, the country-music establishment, and her own celebrity.

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More Chaos and Surprise

Lora Kelley: How does Beyoncé play with genre on Cowboy Carter?

Spencer Kornhaber: Beyoncé is at a point in her career where she has already proved herself to be the best at what she’s most known for: pop, R&B, powerful vocals. She reached the height of that 10 years ago. With Cowboy Carter, she’s making a conscious decision to be an artist who has more range and more ambition, who is thinking about art outside of the context of genre.

There’s a track on the album with Linda Martell saying that genre is a funny little thing, that some people find genre confining. Genre, for all sorts of creators, is inherently in tension with the artistic impulse—so any artist who has ambition, who is staying true to their muse, is going to be playing with it.

That Beyoncé is more complex than labels would suggest has been an explicit theme of her work for years. And in her new album, there’s a layer on top of that, which is her statement about what country music is, whom it’s for, what it means—and she’s playing with people’s hang-ups and preconceptions too.

Lora: Beyoncé covers so much ground on this album. She sings part of a classical Italian song; she covers the Beatles and “Jolene.”

Spencer: This is part two of a three-act trilogy. This era for her is marked by a willingness to shed overthinking and perfectionism. She had this reputation for being a polished, type-A pop star, someone who’s in control of her image. During the early pandemic, she made a conscious decision to make music that expresses a lot more mess, chaos, surprise, and wackiness.

There’s also this question of: How do you extend a winning streak? You have to mix it up. Longevity in pop—especially for female pop stars—has always involved reinvention.

Lora: Beyoncé features a number of guests on this album. What was she trying to say about country music, and America, by inviting the people she did to collaborate with her?

Spencer: The big conversation on this album is about race and country music. It was explicitly designed to comment on a contradiction in country music: The genre traces a lot of its traditions to Black people and to formerly enslaved people in particular, and still, popular songs are overwhelmingly written and performed by white people. Country music is notoriously not a diverse place. So she’s trying to say: We’re here, we do that too, and we do it as well as anyone else. She brought in four young Black country singers to cover “Blackbird,” and by putting in snippets of Chuck Berry and Sister Rosetta Tharpe, she is highlighting Black pioneers of country music.

Then she brings on Dolly Parton and Willie Nelson, who are white icons of the genre and the keepers of it. They have a lot of credibility and are saying they support what Beyoncé is doing so much that they are going to be on her album. That may also be a message to more traditionalist listeners to give this a chance.

She also brought in Post Malone and Miley Cyrus, who are younger white stars with a lot of crossover appeal, who have built a career on borrowing from Black styles. They’re allowed to move between genres in a way that’s questioned a lot more for someone like Beyoncé.

Lora: Beyoncé became the first Black woman to top the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart, for a song on this album, “Texas Hold ’Em.” Why did it take so long for a Black female artist to reach this milestone?

Spencer: Many, many people have been trying. There has been so much activism and discussion around why Black artists face so many roadblocks in this genre. Racism clearly plays a role.

Beyoncé was able to do it in part because she’s as famous as she is, and could use her marketing powers to make a splash. This could happen only in the streaming era. “Texas Hold ’Em” hit No. 1 not because country radio was playing it but because fans and the public can influence what gets on the charts now, regardless of whether traditional gatekeepers are supporting it.

Lora: At this point in Beyoncé’s career, when she is a major celebrity, to what extent is she trying to bring in new fans versus playing to her existing fans?

Spencer: On her previous album, Renaissance, she was seeming pretty okay speaking to her core fan base, and pop-music fans. But on Cowboy Carter, I think she wants to make the tent a little bigger. She doesn’t need to have a big authentic hit in order to make a lot of money. She has superfans who will stream her music no matter what. But I think she still has a hunger for conquering arenas she hasn’t conquered before.

The thing about Beyoncé is that she is an actual music genius. She’s a great singer and performer. But she’s also masterful at bringing collaborators in, bringing things together into a coherent story, keeping the energy going even while switching up moods and styles from song to song. Her music sounds like one person’s brain expressing their creativity with all the resources they have. And it’s awesome that we live in a time when someone like that is at the peak of their game.

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A black pen portrait illustration of Theo Von — Illustration by Paul Spella. Source: Daniele Venturelli / WireImage / Getty.

Is Theo Von the Next Joe Rogan?

By James Parker

Someone is talking to you. Or is he talking to himself ? A deep, spacey voice with pondering pauses and a resinous Louisiana accent. “There’s this trick,” the voice says. “That’s the devil out there … That’s Satan, baby. That’s Lucifer, bruh. That’s Lucifer, that darkness sniffer.” Your whole life, it goes on; “you think, Oh, I’ll, I’ll just keep judging, keeping people at a distance … But then I get to the end of my life and I’ll realize, You know what? I didn’t win anything by doing that. That was a trick. And the only thing I won was being alone.”
Theo Von is not a preacher. Not officially. Officially, he’s a comedian with a podcast. But unofficially, he’ll take you right there, into that biblical light, into the hell-chasm and the soul in its solitude and the benevolent rays of the divine.

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