The signs were all there: a disco-cowgirl aesthetic for Renaissance. A Western-inspired Louis Vuitton Grammys look. Even before Beyoncé surprise-announced her new album, Act II, during the Super Bowl, there were whispers among the Beyhive that the record would have a country slant. Then came the first two songs, Texas Hold ’Em and 16 Carriages, both with undeniable twang.
The rumours were true: Beyoncé was entering her yeehaw era.
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It’s not just Bey. A week before the Act II news, Lana Del Rey revealed that she too would be releasing a country LP, Lasso. On Grammys night, Kacey “I Didn’t Say F**king Yee” Musgraves announced her highly anticipated new album, Deeper Well, out March 15.
There definitely seems to be something in the (ranch) water. From Noah Kahan to Lainey Wilson to Zach Bryan, the charts are full of exciting country and folk artists right now. The Grammys telecast certainly seemed to overindex on country categories compared with previous years. (Or maybe it was just on my TV, where I replayed Tracy Chapman and Luke Combs’s Fast Car duet at least a dozen times.)
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And it isn’t just music that’s gone honky tonk. Just before the New Year, Rihanna ran into Kyle Richards at Kemo Sabe, the luxury cowboy hat shop in Aspen that served as a backdrop to the Real Housewives fight known simply as Tequila-gate. In January, the Kardashians were spotted there too. Victoria Beckham shared a Valentine’s photo of husband David in Westernwear, calling him her “favourite cowboy.” David Beckham!
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So what’s with the sudden ‘westward ho’? Perhaps it’s the pervasive popularity of Yellowstone and its two — soon to be four! — companion series. Meanwhile, Killers of the Flower Moon, Martin Scorsese’s Western epic, has grossed more than $156 million worldwide and is nominated for 10 Oscars, including a history-making nod for Lily Gladstone.
Or maybe it’s the fashion. Last year’s coastal-cowgirl aesthetic seems to have just been a preview of what was to come. In the last month, for instance, Bey has worn a bolo tie, a lace saloon-inspired dress, and an entire Kemo Sabe’s worth of cowboy hats. Her influence on the rest of us was instantaneous. After the Super Bowl, global Google searches for “cowboy hat” shot up 212.5%, while searches for “bolo tie” were up a whopping 566%, according to Boohoo.
Whatever the reasons, Del Rey herself reaffirmed that an industry shift is here.
“If you can’t already tell by our award winners and our performers, the music business is going country. We’re going country. It’s happening,” the singer said at a pre-Grammys event honouring producer Jack Antonoff.
You may be wondering: What’s surprising about this? Country music has always been popular. And it’s true; country music is huge. But it’s also notoriously insular.
A little bit country, a little bit rock ‘n’ roll.
Case in point: When Beyoncé’s new songs dropped, Oklahoma country station KYKC refused to play Texas Hold ’Em because, they said, “Beyoncé is not a country singer.” The fans fought back, and the song was added to their rotation.
But Act II isn’t Beyoncé’s first rodeo. After she performed Daddy Lessons with The Chicks at the 2016 CMAs, a swift — and explicitly racist — backlash ensued. It got to the point that the Country Music Academy removed promo footage of the performance from their Instagram account (because it was “unapproved,” the academy claimed, not because the comment section was a disaster — riiight).
To state the obvious, country music is simply behind the times. Maren Morris and Cassadee Pope have both publicly distanced themselves from the genre due to its general lack of social progress. “I thought I’d like to burn it to the ground and start over,” Morris told The Los Angeles Times last year. “But it’s burning itself down without my help.”
Morris and Pope, along with Musgraves, Kelsea Ballerini, and Mickey Guyton are some of the stars who have continually advocated for issues like racial equality, LGBTQ+ rights, and gun reform. But country music doesn’t always take kindly to outspoken women — just ask The Chicks. Speaking out — and therefore, putting airplay on country radio at risk — is an act of rebellion. What could be more “cowgirl” than that?
Victoria Monét, Taylor Swift, SZA, and Miley Cyrus were among the big winners of the night.
Although the rest of Beyoncé’s album is still forthcoming, fans and music experts alike believe Act II will be a reclaiming of Blackness in country music. In an essay for Time, Taylor Crumpton writes of the Houston-born superstar, “[Beyoncé] did not need white validation to classify her country — she has been country for the entirety of her life.”
Queen Bey may not be seeking validation, but it’s there for her nonetheless. With Texas Hold ’Em, Beyoncé became the first Black woman to reach number one on Billboard’s country chart.
As the yeehaw-ification of 2024 continues, time will tell how the rest of her tracks — and Del Rey’s, for that matter — are embraced in the country community. In the meantime, we’ll be shopping for cowboy boots and looking up flights to Aspen while we wait to hear them.
Lindy Segal is a freelance lifestyle writer and editor whose work has appeared in Harper’s Bazaar, Fast Company, InStyle, and others. She also writes the Substack newsletter “Gatekeeping.”
This article originally appeared on GLAMOUR US.
