Beyonce, Ameriican Requiem, and Reclaiming Genre
“Nothing really ends, for things to stay the same they have to change again”
On March 29, 2024, Beyoncé released Cowboy Carter, the first country-inspired album released by the artist. The album’s release sparked debate over numerous questions: What is country music? Who can create within the genre? Who is it for? Through the album, Beyoncé explores the nebulous boundaries of race and genre.
Race plays a critical role in the genre’s formation and Black Americans have been credited with creating country music. Early forms of the Banjo traveled with the Africans across the middle passage. Music provided cultural expression and relief for enslaved Americans, creating joy within the crushing weight of slavery. Per scholar Francesca T. Rayster, segregation in the Jim Crow South affected the genre as well, with music producers separating Black and White musicians into “race records” and “hillbilly music,” deeming their sound and audiences to be different. This separation perpetuates through the decades, and in the twenty-first century, country music is seeped in toxic masculinity, often associated with white men singing about trucks.
In 2016 Beyoncé performed at the Country Music Awards (CMA) with The Chicks, sparking an intense racist backlash from country music fans. Beyonce herself acknowledged that the negative reaction to her presence at the CMA awards spurred her to develop what is now known as Cowboy Carter. As a body of work, it is a masterpiece, covering well-known classics and partnering with established giants in the country music industry, including Dolly Parton and Willy Nelson.
Taking the dictionary definition of requiem into our analysis, Beyoncé’s song “Ameriican Requiem” from Cowboy Carter lyrically is both a somber remembrance and full of hope. Mirriam-Webster’s Dictionary defines a requiem as a funeral mass or solemn memorial service. Though typically used in a religious context, it also encompasses a musical composition performed in honor of the deceased. Here we will use it to focus on America’s complex relationship with country music through a lyrical analysis of “Ameriican Requiem.”
The song opens with the lyrics, “nothing really ends, for things to stay the same they have to change again,” describing the sneaky way deep-rooted white supremacy evolves to maintain its relevance in American society. The next line also supports this continuity of racism stating, “ you change your name but not the ways you play pretend.” At every stage of American history, Black Americans have faced racially motivated abuse, seeking to keep them at the lowest rung of society. From enslavement to chain gangs, lynching, and the prison industrial complex—American society has reinvented and repackaged white supremacy and control, hell-bent on retaining power. Country music as a genre continues to pander to its white supremacist base, protecting white artists from facing consequences after racist words and actions.
However “Ameriican Requiem” does not dwell in the past. It is in this space, this crossroads, where Beyoncé calls out what was and what is, while using this opening song to present a new way forward. The lyrics, “Can we stand for something? Now is the time to face the wind” represent a call to action, a plea for listeners of all socioeconomic and racial backgrounds to face the racist appropriation of country music and ultimately, the deep-rooted talons of white supremacy in the United States. Facing the wind often feels like standing in a hurricane, full of racist vitriol faced by Black musicians in the genre.
Beyoncé reminds the audience that she is, “coming in peace and love, y’all. Oh, a lot of takin’ up space.” As a Black woman, she has repeatedly dealt with racism and sexism throughout her career. She anticipates backlash to the album, and in the second verse, she addresses her Southern pedigree directly, “the grandbaby of a moonshine man; Gadsden, Alabama; Got folk down in Galveston, rooted in Louisiana; Used to say I spoke too country; And the rejection came, said I wasn’t country ‘nough; Said I wouldn’t saddle up, but; If that ain’t country, tell me what is?” She deftly calls out critics who doubt her ability to create a country album and the industry’s attempt to gatekeep a genre literally created by her ancestors.
The final verse sums up her vision for the future, “Goodbye to what has been; Pretty house that we never settled in.” Casting off the racist chains of decades past, the rest of her album reclaims and inspires new sound for the country music genre. I see the use of “pretty house” as dually descriptive, a call back to the Antebellum plantation big house, where enslaved Black Americans were forced to contribute their labor toward the economic well-being of the enslaver. Additionally, the lyric is especially poignant given the foundational role Black Americans played in the development of country music.
She goes on to say, “A funeral for fair-weather friends; I am the one to cleanse me of my father’s sins.” Beyoncé actively invited established Black country music performers onto the Cowboy Carter album, using her extensive resources to lift up the careers of other musicians. The artist Shaboozey’s collaboration on two Cowboy Carter songs increased his recognition and his solo song “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” reached the top of the Billboard 100 and, at the time of this article, has been nominated for six Grammys.
Throughout “Ameriican Requiem” I see Beyoncé almost daring the country music listeners and industry establishment to react negatively. She essentially asks, can you truly be country music fans without acknowledging the deeply embedded Black roots of the genre and subsequent racist exclusion? Only time will tell.
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