Maps of Music

Cowboy Carter (2024)

Where the lyrics of Cowboy Carter take you, and where it was really made.

The album began as a reaction to being rejected from country music, and it ended up as a country record that Beyoncé said was not a country album.

Key places

Westlake Recording Studios, Los Angeles (2024)

Recording site Westlake Recording Studios — Listed as a place where the album was recorded. The studio is in Los Angeles. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

The Record Plant, Los Angeles (2024)

Recording site Record Plant Studios — Listed as a place where the album was recorded. The studio is in Los Angeles. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

The Village, Los Angeles (2024)

Recording site Village Recorders — Listed as a place where the album was recorded. The studio is in Los Angeles. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

East Iris Recording Studio, Nashville (2024)

Recording site East Iris Recording Studio — Listed as a place where the album was recorded. The studio is in Nashville. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Album story

Overview

• Cowboy Carter: eighth studio album by Beyoncé
• Also referred to as Act II: Cowboy Carter; stylized in all caps
• Released March 29, 2024 by Parkwood Entertainment and Columbia Records
• Concept album and the second of a planned trilogy, following Renaissance (2022)
• Conceived as a journey through a reinvention of Americana
• Spotlights the overlooked contributions of Black pioneers to American musical and cultural history
• Presented as a radio broadcast, with Dolly Parton, Linda Martell and Willie Nelson as DJs

Background

• Born and raised in Houston; the city's cowboy heritage and country and zydeco music shaped her upbringing
• Performed at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo four times between 2001 and 2007
• Performed the country song Daddy Lessons with the Chicks at the 2016 CMA Awards, followed by backlash
• The Recording Academy's country committee rejected Daddy Lessons for Grammy consideration in December 2016
• This experience led to the album; she researched the Black roots of country music
• Read that half of cowboys were historically Black, which inspired the 2021 Ivy Park Rodeo collection
• Over five years in the making; writing began in 2019, and recording took place during the COVID-19 pandemic
• Originally intended for release before Renaissance; the order was changed in response to the pandemic

Recording

• Around 100 songs recorded for the album
• Stevie Wonder on harmonica, Paul McCartney and Nile Rodgers on guitar, Rhiannon Giddens on banjo
• Cyclical structure: the final note loops into the opening track

Cover

• Shot by Blair Caldwell, a Los Angeles-based photographer from Texas
• Beyoncé rides a gray horse at a gallop, sitting sidesaddle in red, white and blue clothing
• Holds the reins in one hand and a large American flag in the other

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Tracklist

Disc 1

Disc 2

Sources: musicbrainz.org

Artist

Formation

• Rose to fame in the late 1990s as the lead singer of Destiny's Child, one of the best-selling girl groups in history.
• Solo debut album Dangerously in Love (2003) became one of the best-selling albums of the 21st century.
• Destiny's Child disbanded in 2005 after the Destiny Fulfilled... and Lovin' It tour.

Career

• Released B'Day (2006), I Am... Sasha Fierce (2008), 4 (2011), Beyoncé (2013), Lemonade (2016), Renaissance (2022), and Cowboy Carter (2024).
• Renaissance and Cowboy Carter form a trilogy highlighting the overlooked contributions of Black pioneers to dance music and country music.
• Estimated sales of over 200 million records; the most-certified female artist by the RIAA.
• Holds a record 35 Grammy Awards, 30 MTV Video Music Awards, and a Primetime Emmy Award.
• Headlined Super Bowl XLVII halftime show (2013) and the Coachella festival (2018).
• Acted in films including Dreamgirls (2006), Cadillac Records (2008), and The Lion King (2019).

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Reception

At release

• Cowboy Carter was met with universal acclaim and appeared on multiple year-end lists
• Critics praised the blending of diverse musical genres and the vocal performance
• Critics described it as both a grand political statement and a personal ode to Beyoncé's roots
• Metacritic gave a weighted average of 91 out of 100 from 22 reviews
• Variety's Chris Willman characterized it as a piece of agitprop and socially significant performance art
• The Atlantic's Spencer Kornhaber and the Evening Standard's Gemma Samways noted its use of country and Americana touchstones to explore Black cultural roots
• The New York Times' Ben Sisario described it as a broad essay on popular music and on genre as a concept
• Robert Christgau said the songwriting diminishes slightly toward the end, while calling her our greatest female pop singer
• Business Insider, Esquire, the Houston Chronicle, People and USA Today placed it at number one on their year-end lists
• Billboard, Entertainment Weekly, PopMatters, The Daily Telegraph and Rolling Stone placed it second

Reappraisal

• Received no nominations at the 58th CMA Awards; publications attributed this to conservatism and racism against Black artists in country music
• At the 67th Grammy Awards, it won Best Country Album and Album of the Year
• Won Best Country Duo/Group Performance for the single II Most Wanted
• Critics such as The Guardian's Alexis Petridis said its wild lurches into eclecticism are the point

Records

• Debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 with 407,000 album-equivalent units
• Beyoncé became the first woman and second artist overall to debut her first eight albums at number one
• Debuted at number one on the UK Albums Chart, selling 40,000 copies in its first week
• Debuted at number one on the Canadian Albums Chart and the ARIA Albums Chart
• Debuted at number one on the German Albums Chart
• Received 11 Grammy nominations, the most of any album at the 67th Grammy Awards
• Over 76 million streams globally on Spotify in its first day, the biggest debut ever for an album by a Black woman on that platform

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• Beyoncé recorded around 100 songs for the album
• The Super Bowl LVIII commercial for Verizon, Can't B Broken, aired on February 11, 2024 before the album was announced
• An unauthorized projection onto the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum was answered with a painting of three horses and the caption This ain't Texas
• Levi's added a second letter i to its name and logo on social media after the track Levii's Jeans
• Lyft changed car images on its map to white horses as a reference to the album cover
• Beyoncé described the album cover's sash as a nod to her mother Tina Knowles' family surname

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

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