The genius of Cowboy Carter is Beyoncé’s accent – a musicologist explains

Beyoncé photographed by Mason Poole.& Parkwood Entertainment LLC by Conor Caldwell, University of Limerick Cowboy Carter, the latest album from Beyoncé, has sparked widespread debate about the genre of “country music”. As a musicologist, I am fascinated with the construction of genres. Often the boundaries that we create between one type of music and another are opaque and do not stand up to much scrutiny. Music is routinely transferred from one social context to another, taking on new meaning in this process. For example, in my own genre of Irish traditional music, a performer may learn a piece of western art music or a pop song. But to what genre does their interpretation belong? Does a piece of classical music performed in the rhythm of Irish traditional music cease to be “classical”? Or is it intrinsically “classical” because of the construction of the melody and harmony? These sorts of questions are key in understanding Cowboy Carter and its importance in the future development of country music. Identifying and understanding the various elements of a musical performance is part of the musicologist’s job. Country music is defined by some broad themes, including instrumentation, the subjects of the songs and the venues...