“Boy, this beat is crazy / This is how they made me / Houston, Texas, baby” Beyoncé sings on her mega pop hit “Run the World (Girls)”. Beyoncé’s never shied away from her roots. Numerous times, she’s shouted out Houston, Texas, and more precisely Third Ward—the area of Houston where she grew up. Beyoncé has always been a Southern girl, and she’s seemingly going down South for her next album. A country album may seem surprising, but the final product may not be surprising ideologically.
On Sunday night, in the middle of the Super Bowl, Beyoncé appeared in a Verizon commercial where she tries to break Verizon’s 5G internet. The commercial was mildly amusing at best, but the commercial itself doesn’t really matter at all. What’s important is what happened after off our television screens. In the last line of the commercial, Beyoncé says “Okay, they ready. Drop the new music” in a Call of Duty radio operator voice. Moments later, Beyoncé announced a new album, Act II, coming March 29th and released two new songs, “16 Carriages” and “Texas Hold ‘Em”. The process (the commercial) was shaky, but she stuck the landing (the announcement and release).
All signs so far point towards a country toned album. Act II won’t be Beyoncé’s first rodeo. Speaking to Harpers Bazaar in 2021 about her “Ivy Park Rodeo” collection, she said “One of my inspirations came from the overlooked history of the American Black cowboy.” The cowboy imagery continued to percolate through the Renaissance World Tour and is seemingly apexing with Act II.
The two new singles are country, but they also aren’t… but they really are.
To an average Beyoncé fan, they’ll see the cowboy outfits in the single covers, they’ll see the dusty album teaser video, they’ll hear the banjos and acoustic guitars, and they’ll think “yes, country”. To a contemporary country music fan, “Texas Hold ‘Em” and “16 Carriages” sound familiar, but not radio, and they’ll say “no, pop.” However, country music isn’t monolithic—it never has been. So are these two singles country? Yes. “Texas Hold ‘Em” is a hoedown song and “16 Carriages” is about hardship and overcoming it. Country? Check, and check.
“Texas Hold ‘Em” is the more “country” sounding of the two, but “16 Carriages” may be the formula more present on the forthcoming album. At its core, “16 Carriages” is soul, but there are also country guitars, gospel organs, and blues songwriting. If she went any further south, it’d feature Peso Pluma. Floating on top of all these elements is Beyoncé’s impeccable vocals. Later in the track, her vocals are layered to give more of the aforementioned gospel element.
From “Texas Hold ‘Em” and “16 Carriages”, we can predict Act II will blend a variety of Southern genres, a fun “danciness” from Renaissance, and Beyoncé’s own expert pop twist. Even without the two singles, the concept of a Beyoncé country album sounding like anything coming out of Nashville would be naive. Just like she combined pieces from disco, ballroom, and dance with her own style and flair to create Renaissance, Act II will pull from different sounds. Also like on Renaissance, Beyoncé won’t take influence cravenly. Instead, she and her team will sample precisely picked elements from all over to deliver a body of work that pays deep homage, while still being inventive. The issue with a lot of disco regen (and any genre regen, for that matter) is it beckons the question “why don’t I listen to the originals?” Renaissance didn’t conjure that question, and I don’t think Act II will either.
Act II isn’t going to be John Prine. It’s not going to be Aretha Franklin. It won’t even be Leon Bridges, nor Zach Bryan. It could be all of them. It will be what Beyoncé considers an honourable representation of the South she knows, and the South she wants the world to know.
Beyoncé’s sojourn at New York City dance clubs has ended, and her journey on the dusty roads towards the Houston Rodeo has begun.
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