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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]No thread about this?  I hadn’t realized she dropped two country songs from the new album. Had to Google her CMA performance with the Chicks from years back. I’m a lukewarm Beyoncé fan and I just cannot get into country music so not a good judge if this is any good. It certainly is brave to try another genre. Who has gone from pop/rock to country successfully? I know some have tried but successfully? Seems tough to pull off.[/quote]

Darius Rucker would like a word[/quote]
DP. But I don’t think there have been any black women to do well in country. Darius Rucker is also a lot less in your face about his blackness compared to Beyonce. He has a white wife and hasn’t really commented on any racial issues like how Beyonce has nor has he had as black a fan base. [/quote]

Darius is Gen X, like me. And he went to an ACC college, like me. He grew up in the south which is a bit different than the urban Texas of Beyonce's youth.

Gen X was raised to celebrate diversity and to pull yourself up by your bootstraps and carry on. College was seriously the best time of your life--before social media and cell phones--and we did mix and mingle with all races at ACC schools.

Aside from skin color, and like the pp said, Darius and Beyonce had very different life experiences and currently live very different lives. She has very much led a segregated life by choice after achieving nonsensical levels of wealth and privilege. Her urban music aligns very much with the FUBU mindset. I'm wondering if Nashville and country stations will embrace her the way they've embraced Darius who comes across as a low-key guy (not a diva by any stretch of the imagination). Pretty sure he recently divorced his (white) wife, but he hasn't really lived his life as a celebrity like Beyonce has. You rarely see him on a magazine cover or in the news/gossip pages.

In short: he has always struck me as a very likeable guy who loves music and shies away from attention beyond the run of the mill promotion of his music (and business ventures---I think he's done collabs with sports or clothing merch).

I'll see if I can find the CBS Sunday Morning interview he recently did. They addressed the fact that country music stations essentially told him they loved his music but feared the listeners were too racist to embrace a black singer. He proved them wrong. He is beloved in Nashville and by country music fans everywhere. His fans come in all colors and from all over.

I think Beyonce has more of a niche fanbase. It will be interesting to see if her typical fans embrace the country songs...or if the new fans who are drawn to her country music drive away her old fans (ie: I've seen lots of videos of white suburban moms and white gay men dancing to her new country song wearing boots and cowboy hats...will that upset her traditional fanbase?).

PS - I think Jay Z is just a jerk. His tantrum at the grammys made him seem petty and jealous...not a good look for anyone...especially a man. Can't tell if he's really that insecure or if any of it is racially motivated, but the guy really hates Taylor Swift.

FWIW, I'm not a Swiftie. I like a couple of her songs and I respect her success the same way I respect Beyonce's success, but pop music isn't my jam.

I actually have gotten into country music in the last handful of years (an interesting departure from my 80s/90s alternative rock and punk roots), but I tend to prefer artists like Darius Rucker and other male singers. [/quote]

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