What The Hell America!

Beyoncé’s “Cowboy Carter” marked a historic moment in country music. Following its release in March 2024, Beyoncé became the first Black woman to lead Billboard’s Top Country Album chart since it started in 1964. Her Grammy win this year for Best Country Album was another first for Black artists. “Cowboy Carter” asked mainstream listeners to consider how Black artists helped create and shape country music. It also sparked questions about its authenticity as real country. 

Many Beyoncé and Black country music fans alike hoped the attention would open doors to more diversity in the White-dominated commercial country music industry. The reality is more complicated.

On Thursday, Billboard reported that the 2026 Grammy Awards will include a new category: Best Traditional Country Album. Best Country Album is being renamed Best Contemporary Country Album. The Recording Academy, which presents the awards, celebrated the decision as an opportunity to create more space for different types of musical styles to be honored.

According to the a description of the category provided to Billboard, “traditional country includes country recordings that adhere to the more traditional sound structures of the country genre, including rhythm and singing style, lyrical content, as well as traditional country instrumentation such as acoustic guitar, steel guitar, fiddle, banjo, mandolin, piano, electric guitar and live drums.”

The news quickly drew criticism, with some Beyoncé fans on social media accusing the academy of gatekeeping in response to her barrier-breaking achievement. In an interview with reporter Phil Lewis, author of the “What I’m Reading” newsletter, an anonymous music executive said that the Recording Academy’s decision appears to be a clear reaction to “Cowboy Carter.”

The road to “Cowboy Carter” began with the 2016 release of her country song, “Daddy Lessons,” which despite its traditional arrangement and instrumentation, was immediately put to the “country enough” test. 

“All of the sudden, everyone’s acting like she’s moved to Nashville and announced that she’s country now. Just because of this song ‘Daddy Lessons,’” Alison Bonaguro, a critic for Country Music Television, wrote in a 2016 column headlined “What’s so country about Beyoncé?”

Later that year, Beyoncé’s viral performance of the song alongside The Chicks at the Country Music Awards led to more online debate unpacking what and whose music counts as “real country.” Those conversations are a throughline to “Cowboy Carter,” with some country fans disqualifying the album from their own definition of country because of its fusion with hip hop, blues and other genres. Despite the album topping country charts, the Country Music Association did not nominate the album for a single award at the 2024 Country Music Awards.  

But the Grammy victory — which came the same year that Beyoncé won Album of the Year for the first time — cemented the legacy of “Cowboy Carter.” Some researchers and country music fans say it also points to the particular novelty of Beyoncé’s success compared to that of other Black artists pursuing a place in the country music industry, which has taken deliberate steps to shut out artists of color for more than 100 years.

“Beyoncé is in her own category of artists. She’s such a big star, she didn’t have to show deference to the gatekeepers of Nashville, the traditional gatekeepers of commercial country music,” said Amanda Martínez, a historian and assistant professor of American Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. This is not the reality for most Black artists looking to break into country music, she added.

“There have been a lot of conversations about creating more opportunities for Black artists, and I think that what we’re seeing is that chapter has passed. I think that we’re seeing a general moving away from pretending to be invested in creating opportunities for artists of color or addressing issues of diversity,” Martínez added.

“Cowboy Carter” included features from newer Black country artists like Shaboozey, Tanner Adell, Brittney Spencer, Tiera Kennedy and Reyna Roberts, who have leveraged that spotlight to reach broader audiences. Shaboozey, in particular, managed to have a breakout year as an independent artist in 2024, dominating the Billboard Hot 100 chart for a record-tying 19 weeks with his single, “Bar Song.” 

But these singers represent a small fraction of country radio airplay, which remains a powerful platform for the genre. In February, Ottawa University researcher Jada Watson posted updated data on social media finding that in 2024, women artists received 8.39 percent of country radio airplay — a decline from 11 percent in 2022 — and Black artists received 2.8 percent of airplay. White artists represented 94 percent and White men were 81 percent.

“Despite our urging for radio to build pathways for Black female country artists alongside [Beyoncé’s] ‘Texas Hold ‘Em,’ the format failed to platform Black women. Again,” Watson wrote on Bluesky earlier this year. “Radio played ‘Texas Hold ‘Em’ just as much as they needed… until they didn’t anymore.”

Throughout country music’s history, artists of color have been largely segregated and forced to challenge claims that their sound does not represent authentic country music. Black country artists and fans are doing what they can to create their own avenues. Record labels like Rosedale Collective and Origins Records were created to support Black country artists and other artists of color. The Black Opry is a community for Black artists and fans that produces country and Americana shows around the United States.

It’s unclear at this point whether the new change in Grammys categories will be used as another tool to police or undermine the artistry of musicians of color. Martínez said we will have to “wait and see” which artists are celebrated moving forward. When it comes to broader systemic changes, she said: “it’s hard to be hopeful about the prospects of whatever consideration Black artists will receive from the Grammys or the CMAs.”