Yee-haw! This ain't the country we're used to thinking about anymore!
Cowboy Carter, the sweeping genre-spanning Americana-Country album released by megaton superstar Beyonce earlier this year, breached new frontiers for both country music and Beyonce herself. Met with critical acclaim, Cowboy Carter unfurled over a colossal track list of 27 songs, and was welcomed as a brilliant reimagining and blending of diverse, yet distinctly American musical genres: including country, bluegrass, soul, rock and roll, and rhythm and blues. Praised for its experimentation, innovation, and massive scope, Cowboy Carter sprawled as a panoramic reshaping of Americana, all the better to tell the stories of and celebrate the unsung Black pioneers of so many genres we hold as American.
Credit: Blair Caldwell/Parkwood Entertainment
For the singer herself, who became the most awarded individual artist in Grammy history when she scored her 32nd Grammy award just last year, Cowboy Carter was its own personal transformation. On the album cover, Beyonce sits side-saddle, a favored position of the royal and noble, dressed head-to-toe in a latex red, white, and blue cowgirl attire. Her platinum hair flows in the wind, as a large American flag billows beside her. Her white horse is in motion, and so is she, and so is America; she looks directly at the viewer, confidently, as if to pose the question: "Will you come with me to a new America, or will you be left behind?"
Beyonce in custom Louis Vuitton Men's jacket, pants, hat, Dries Criel jewelry, and Sciaparelli boots
Photo: Pamela Hanson / W Magazine
However, some fans did feel left behind. In 2006, Beyonce would release a music video for almost every song on her album B'Day, pioneering the concept of a visual album for a mainstream pop star. She would further develop this idea on her popular self-titled album Beyonce (2013), and Lemonade (2016), two of her most popular albums that fans have heralded as a reinvention of the industry veteran into her modern, most powerful self. Conditioned by these multimedia albums, members of the Beyhive expressed disappointment in the lack of any music videos for Cowboy Carter.
But the drought has ended, for Beyonce has brought the rainfall. On December 1st, the singer announced an art book featuring 136 pages of images inspired by and for the world of Cowboy Carter. The long-awaited visuals are coming, and the demand was enormous. Pre-orders were sold out by the next afternoon, meaning for many, the mythical Cowboy Carter visuals will remain out of reach for a little longer.
But perhaps, we are all looking in the wrong place, for even within a dearth of official music videos, the Cowboy Carter era has given us looks.
Beyonce in Gaurav Gupta.
Photo: Getty Pictures
Beyonce at the Grammys. Beyonce on Valentine's Day. Beyonce on... any of her Instagram posts! Where have we all been looking this entire time? In our frantic search for the visuals, we didn't realize that the visuals were with us the entire time. And while an official Cowboy Carter art book is coming out, let us all take in a valuable lesson, because the true visuals were dropped along the way. We had them all along!
