Country Music Is Black History, Beyoncé is History in Motion

Photo by Jason Persse via Wikimedia Commons

Beyoncé recently released two country songs: “16 CARRIAGES” on Feb. 9 and “TEXAS HOLD ‘EM” two days later. The artist plans to release a full country album on March 29, continuing the trend of exploring different genres she established with her last album, “RENAISSANCE.”

“TEXAS HOLD ‘EM” made Beyoncé the first Black woman to top Billboard’s Hot Country Songs and the first woman to ever hold the top spot on both the Hot Country Songs and Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs charts. This is in anticipation for “Act II,” the working title for Beyoncé’s country album set to release later this month.

Her new singles got the attention of “The Dukes of Hazzard” actor and country singer John Schneider, saying in an interview for One America News Network that her ‘foray’ into country music is like a “dog in a dog park. Every dog has to mark every tree.” While this statement means little relative to how well the song is doing, One America News is a small, conservative-leaning news site known for pushing conspiracy theories that thrive off of content like this. The events offer an opportunity to explore the Black history behind the country genre and how Beyoncé is paying homage to this history.

A brief overview of country music’s history will begin in Senegal and Gambia, home to a family of gourd-bodied string instruments – including the akonting, buchundu, ngoni, and xalam—that were brought to the United States by enslaved West Africans. They became a part of the music and culture of the enslaved South and are the direct ancestors of the modern banjo, down to how the instrument is finger-picked.

Once popular music began developing as an industry in the early 1900s, country music stars like The Carter Family began to pop up. Maybelle Carter, the band’s lead guitarist, is credited with creating the “Carter Scratch,” a guitar style where the thumb plays the melody and the index finger strums the chords. This style of guitar playing is one of the cornerstones of country music. However, the Black man who taught it to her, Lesley Riddle, a guitarist from North Carolina and friend of the Carter family, is often left uncredited.

“The Piedmont Roll,” another style of country guitar picking used in the main riff of “TEXAS HOLD ‘EM,” was pioneered by Black women like Elizabeth Cotten and Etta Baker. All this is to show that, without the contributions of African and African-American creatives, country music wouldn’t exist the way that it does today.

Beyoncé’s “ACT II” is bringing necessary publicity to the Black female history of country music, but this is a living history that exists separate from Beyoncé. “TEXAS HOLD ‘EM” is not a renaissance, and a renaissance is not what it is intended to be. The contemporary country music landscape is one that Black women are finally breaking into.

A University of Ottawa study showed that of the 11,484 songs played on Country radio between 2002 and 2020, only 3 of the songs were made by Black women. Percentagewise, this amounts to only .03% of all country songs played on the radio within the 19-year period. Despite this, Black female country singers remain undeterred.

An artist like Miko Marks and her 2021 album “Our Country” represents a triumphant return to country music after a 13-year hiatus from releasing music (with “Hard Times” and the soulful “Mercy” as album highlights). This represents a growing presence in the genre, especially during this decade. Marks commented on Beyoncé entering the genre for USA Today, saying, “I welcome it; I’m grateful for it. I’m thankful that she’s shining a light on us all by her presence… I just see that there’s a shift happening, and I’m here for the party. I’m here to watch everybody grow and glow.” While not the first nor the most current, Beyoncé is the most public and has the potential to shine a much-needed light on the Black female presence in country music.