Black people, Black artists have participated in country music for a long time and that practice didn't start with Beyoncé.
John Schneider, better known as Bo Duke from the “Dukes of Hazzard” television series, said that Houston-born Beyoncé’s entering into country music with an album was like a “dog peeing on a tree” during an interview on the conservative One America News network. As Newsweek reported, Schneider used the interview to bemoan “lefties.”
Schneider said, “They’ve got to make their mark, like a dog at a dog walk park, you know every dog has to mark every tree, so that’s what’s going on here.”
Black people, Black artists have participated in country music for a long time, and that practice didn’t start with Beyoncé. In 1974, The Pointer Sisters went back to their Arkansas country roots and performed “Fairytale” at the Grand Ole Opry after receiving an invitation. They would also go on to win that year’s Grammy for Best Country Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group, which is the first and only time that Black women have won any award for country music.
As NPR reported, Anita Pointer described the group’s experience at the Opry in her autobiography, “Fairytale: The Pointer Sisters’ Family Story”: “When we arrived at the Grand Old Opry, there were protesters carrying signs that said, ‘Keep country, country!’ It was a jarring sight for us. We had fought during the tumultuous civil rights era, which was still fresh in our minds. To see people protesting us because of our race was unsettling. As we took the stage a man screamed, ‘Hot damn. Them girls is Black!’ Fortunately, we won the music lovers over with our live performance…After we performed the song, the same man screamed again, ‘Sing it again, honey!’ And we did. We sang it three more times that night.”
The refrain of “keep country, country” is the same thing Schneider was saying in his interview, but many say it is code for ‘keep country white.” That chant or that cultural context clue is one that is not only ignorant of country music’s past, which stretches beyond The Pointer Sisters, but it is ignorant of the genre’s present and its future, which includes stars like Mickey Guyton, Kane Brown, and Breland
As it regards the roots of country music, documentary filmmaker Ken Burns broached the topic in a 2019 film, “Country Music.” Historian Bill C. Malone stated in the film, “African-American style was embedded in country music from the very beginning of its commercial history. You can’t conceive of this music existing without this African American infusion. But then, as the music developed professionally, too often, African Americans were forgotten.”
But who can forget the late Charley Pride, a much-respected and recognized country singer who paved the way for many Black country artists.
So, in this context, it comes as little surprise that when Beyoncé released two country songs that some Country radio stations initially refused to play them during broadcasts, as they don’t consider her a country artist. Black country artists have long dealt with country music radio’s reticence to play their music, as a 2021 study showed only 2.3% of country music played on country music airwaves over the last 20 years was music by Black or other people of color. This is despite the chart-topping success of artists like Pride, Brown, and Guyton.
Most Popular
Comments / 0