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Post by rick on Feb 12, 2024 2:23:05 GMT -5
I wonder if Beyonce' decided to release a country album because Dolly Parton released a "rock" album. Maybe it has more to do with "conquering all media." Beyonce' Announces Country-Themed Album "16 Carriages" -- "Texas Hold 'Em" -- |
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Post by erik on Feb 12, 2024 9:59:23 GMT -5
It's entirely possible that she's making such an album because of Dolly's "rock" album (although Dolly did hers because she had been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, even though, unlike her Trio pal Linda, she never really occupied a space within that genre up until then).
And it should also be said that she made an extremely controversial appearance with the (Dixie) Chicks on the Country Music Association Awards back in 2016.
But I am very dubious about "Queen Bey" making a country album, and having it be considered something more than just a sight gag. If anything, I'm almost willing to believe she's making this album to p*** off the very same people (Travis Tritt among them) who deplored her CMA appearance.
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Post by Partridge on Feb 12, 2024 11:18:58 GMT -5
She wants to add to her collection another Grammy in a different category. This could be her Album of the Year.
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Post by Dianna on Feb 13, 2024 1:32:49 GMT -5
And it should also be said that she made an extremely controversial appearance with the (Dixie) Chicks on the Country Music Association Awards back in 2016. But I am very dubious about "Queen Bey" making a country album, and having it be considered something more than just a sight gag. If anything, I'm almost willing to believe she's making this album to p*** off the very same people (Travis Tritt among them) who deplored her CMA appearance. I do remember that performance with the Dixie Chicks,which I did like.. it could be because I'm a fan of the D.C.'s.. I don't follow Beyonce or her music... so this was a first listening to the 2 clips'.... For me, her voice is not authentic enough for a country song IMO.. granted, very nasal and a little too breathy, she also has a very quick vibrato.. it still sounded R&B to my ears. I don't think the fans will care, they'll love it.. And I agree with what Mr. Partridge said about winning a grammy for album of the year... Beyonce like Taylor Swift have that pixie dust-midas touch, everything turns to gold or platinum. |
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Post by rick on Mar 30, 2024 16:04:00 GMT -5
And it should also be said that she made an extremely controversial appearance with the (Dixie) Chicks on the Country Music Association Awards back in 2016. But I am very dubious about "Queen Bey" making a country album, and having it be considered something more than just a sight gag. If anything, I'm almost willing to believe she's making this album to p*** off the very same people (Travis Tritt among them) who deplored her CMA appearance. I do remember that performance with the Dixie Chicks,which I did like.. it could be because I'm a fan of the D.C.'s.. I don't follow Beyonce or her music... so this was a first listening to the 2 clips'.... For me, her voice is not authentic enough for a country song IMO.. granted, very nasal and a little too breathy, she also has a very quick vibrato.. it still sounded R&B to my ears. I don't think the fans will care, they'll love it.. And I agree with what Mr. Partridge said about winning a grammy for album of the year... Beyonce like Taylor Swift have that pixie dust-midas touch, everything turns to gold or platinum. With the release of "Cowboy Carter" there has been a lot of media attention, of course -- PBS NewsHour --The New York Times --
Does Country Radio Have Room for 'Cowboy Carter'Does Country Radio’s Treehouse Have Room for Beyoncé?
The pop superstar’s new album, “Cowboy Carter,” could be a litmus test for a format that’s long been inhospitable to women and Black artists.
By BEN SISARIO
When Beyoncé dropped two songs during the Super Bowl in February, it was almost pointless to ask whether they would become pop-culture phenomena. She’s Beyoncé; of course they would scale the charts and inspire a thousand memes.
But another, trickier question soon took shape, highlighting music’s complex genre and racial fault lines: Would country radio stations support Beyoncé’s new direction, with its plucked banjos, foot stomps and lyrics rhyming Texas and Lexus? Or would one of the world’s most influential stars languish in the margins of a format so inhospitable to female artists that, as one radio consultant advised in 2015, songs by women should be minimized on country playlists to ensure that “the tomatoes of our salad are the females”? (Even now, Nashville progressives seethe in remembrance of “Tomato-gate.”)
In the wider pop music world, radio has largely ceded its former star-making mojo to streaming and social media. But country stations still retain a significant gatekeeping power, elevating favored performers and mediating the genre’s metes and bounds for audiences and the industry at large.
With her latest album, “Cowboy Carter” — its cover depicts the star on a horse’s saddle, holding an American flag and decked out in a cowboy hat and red-white-and-blue rodeo gear — Beyoncé could be a litmus test for the format’s openness and adaptability. As many commentators see it, that goes for Beyoncé’s own music as well as for Black female country performers like Mickey Guyton and Rissi Palmer, who have found solid fan bases but barely cracked radio playlists.
“This could be a major turning point,” said Leslie Fram, the senior vice president of music and talent for Country Music Television and a former radio programmer and D.J.
Yet a month and a half after the debut of those two first singles, “Texas Hold ’Em” and “16 Carriages,” and on the eve of the release of “Cowboy Carter” on Friday, the results of that test are still murky.
When “Texas Hold ’Em” went to No. 1 on Billboard’s flagship country singles chart, Beyoncé noted the historic achievement. “I feel honored,” she wrote in an Instagram post in March, “to be the first Black woman with the number one single on the Hot Country Songs chart.”
It wasn’t radio, however, that made “Texas Hold ’Em” a country hit. Positions on Billboard’s chart are computed from a combination of streaming, sales and airplay data, and while the track’s streams and downloads were strong, its radio spins were modest. On Billboard’s Country Airplay chart — a more focused barometer of radio programming decisions — “Texas Hold ’Em” has so far climbed only as high as No. 33. (In a sign of the song’s wide appeal — and, perhaps, of Beyoncé’s imperviousness to country radio’s decisions, whatever they may be — it also spent two weeks at No. 1 on Billboard’s all-genre Hot 100 singles chart.)
Still, songs can take months to bubble through country playlists, and there is a full album to come. Beyoncé has teased collaborations “with some brilliant artists who I deeply respect,” and Dolly Parton has been quoted suggesting that the album may include a version of her ultra-classic “Jolene.” (A representative of Beyoncé declined to comment for this article.)
As difficult as country radio has been for women to break into, it has been doubly so for Black artists. In an interview this month in Nylon, Guyton laid out the stakes of Beyoncé’s country move for musicians like her: “I hope when she’s here for this album, it not only continues the conversation, but continues giving artists, people of color, to have a career in country music, and that it’s not a fad.”
Many top programmers have, at least publicly, flashed a thumbs-up for Beyoncé. Travis Moon of 93Q in Houston, Beyoncé’s hometown, said he was the first to officially put “Texas Hold ’Em” in rotation. “My gut was that the song sounded great in the mix,” he said in an interview. Tim Roberts, country format captain for the Audacy chain, which includes 21 country stations among its 220-plus roster, said he welcomed Beyoncé and the attention she brought to the format.
But country radio can be punishing to those perceived as outsiders or dilettantes, and programmers may be scanning for signals from their audience before pushing further. “I think part of it depends on how committed the artist is to the format,” Roberts added. “Is this a one-time wonder, or is there going to be more?”
Beyoncé herself may have stoked this question when she declared on social media: “This ain’t a Country album. This is a ‘Beyoncé’ album.”
All that raises questions about the longstanding tribalism of the country market and the business that shapes it. Soon after Beyoncé released “Texas Hold ’Em” and “16 Carriages,” industry executives gathered in Nashville for the annual Country Radio Seminar, where Beyoncé was a hot topic. According to attendees, there was excitement but also hints of territorial conflicts. Jada Watson, a Canadian academic who studies country radio, said that at least one attendee expressed concern about Beyoncé “clogging up their charts.”
Merely by announcing her project, Beyoncé has sparked a debate about the tangled racial history of country music, and of the genre’s rarely acknowledged, but intensely defended, boundaries. On Instagram, she said “Cowboy Carter” was “born out of an experience that I had years ago where I did not feel welcomed … and it was very clear that I wasn’t.”
Interpreting that statement, fans zeroed in on Beyoncé’s performance with the Chicks (then known as the Dixie Chicks) at the Country Music Association Awards in 2016, which led to an online backlash. But there have been other perceived slights, like the singer’s brass-and-guitars track “Daddy Lessons” not being nominated for a country Grammy that same year.
For those paying attention, Beyoncé has been revealing her country bona fides for years, frequently calling out her Texas roots — plus “My daddy Alabama, mama Louisiana” in the song “Formation” — and sporting cowboy hats with jeans as far back as her Destiny’s Child days.
Some in the business are skeptical of Beyoncé’s chances of success on country stations. Nate Deaton of KRTY.com, an online-only station south of San Francisco, described “Texas Hold ’Em” as “extraordinarily average,” and said, “If that was any other female artist, it wouldn’t see the light of day.”
Joel Raab, a longtime consultant, said that early audience research on “Texas Hold ’Em” yielded enough “dislike” reactions to suggest that listeners were “somewhat polarized” on the track. Despite supportive statements made by top programmers about the song, Raab said, “In reality they’re not playing it very much. They want to be politically correct, but maybe they don’t want to get the BeyHive after them,” referring to the star’s vociferously loyal fandom.
Historically, country crossover attempts can be unpredictable. Darius Rucker of Hootie & the Blowfish had no obvious advantage when he released his country solo album “Learn to Live” in 2008, yet it was a smash. But when Sheryl Crow tried with “Feels Like Home” in 2013, she found only limited success at country stations.
“If it’s a great enough song, it will supersede any objections,” Roberts of Audacy said. “If country radio gets better ratings, they will play the living daylights out of it.”
And the tomato factor may still be real, particularly for Black women. Watson, an assistant professor of information studies at the University of Ottawa, said that while playlists briefly became more diverse after the furor of 2015, they have lately gotten worse. According to Watson’s study of industry data, just 9.87 percent of airplay on country stations in the United States in 2023 was for songs by women — and 9.81 percent were for songs by white women.
“Quite unfortunately,” Watson said, “it hasn’t changed.”
But no one is counting Beyoncé out yet. Tom Poleman, the chief programming officer at iHeartMedia, the largest radio chain in the United States with more than 850 stations, noted Beyoncé’s success across a variety of formats, saying that in addition to being played on every one of iHeart’s 125 country stations, “Texas Hold ’Em” has been heard on its Top 40, R&B, rhythmic, urban and hot adult contemporary stations.
“The bottom line is, Beyoncé is doing what very few artists have ever done,” Poleman said. “She’s achieving airplay on six formats simultaneously and breaking down barriers, showing that a great artist is bigger than any genre definition.”
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Ben Sisario covers the music industry. He has been writing for The Times since 1998.
------- A nother from The New York Times --
Beyoncé’s ‘Cowboy Carter’ Is Here, and It’s Much More Than CountryBeyoncé’s ‘Cowboy Carter’ Is Here, and It’s Much More Than CountryThe superstar’s new LP is a 27-track tour of popular music with a Beatles cover, cameos by Willie Nelson and Dolly Parton, and features from Miley Cyrus and Post Malone.
By BEN SISARIOBeyoncé has gone country, sure … but it turns out that’s only the half of it.
For months, the superstar, who made her name in R&B and pop, has been telegraphing her version of country music and style. There was the “disco” cowboy hat at her Renaissance World Tour last year, and her “western” look at the Grammys in February, complete with a white Stetson and black studded jacket. Then, on the night of the Super Bowl, she released two new songs, and sent one of them, “Texas Hold ’Em” — with plucked banjos and lines about Texas and hoedowns — to country radio stations, sparking an industrywide debate about the defensive moat that has long surrounded Nashville’s musical institutions.
At midnight on Friday, Beyoncé finally released her new album, “Cowboy Carter,” and the country bona fides were certainly there. Dolly Parton provides a cameo introduction to Beyoncé’s version of “Jolene,” Parton’s 1972 classic about a woman confronting a romantic rival. Willie Nelson pops in twice as a grizzled D.J., who says he “turns you on to some real good [expletive],” including snippets of Chuck Berry, Sister Rosetta Tharpe and the blues singer Son House.
Yet “Cowboy Carter” is far broader than simply a country album. Beyoncé does a version of the Beatles’ “Blackbird” and, on the track “Ya Ya,” draws from Nancy Sinatra and the Beach Boys’ “Good Vibrations.” “Desert Eagle” is glistening funk, and the upbeat “Bodyguard” would not be out of place on a modern rock radio station. The album’s range suggests a broad essay on contemporary pop music, and on the nature of genre itself.
That theory is made clear on the partly spoken track “Spaghettii,” featuring the pioneering but long absent Black country singer Linda Martell, who in 1970 released an album called “Color Me Country.”
“Genres are a funny little concept, aren’t they? Yes, they are,” Martell, 82, says. “In theory, they have a simple definition that’s easy to understand. But in practice, well, some may feel confined.”
Of course, Beyoncé herself indicated this a week ago when she posted a note on Instagram saying: “This ain’t a country album. This is a ‘Beyoncé’ album.”
Still, the theme of simultaneously celebrating and transforming country music extends to the album’s cover art, featuring Beyoncé seated sideways on a white horse, dressed in red-white-and-blue rodeo gear and hoisting an American flag.
Guests on the album include Miley Cyrus on the song “II Most Wanted,” and Post Malone on “Levii’s Jeans.” (The extra I’s underscore that “Cowboy Carter” is officially “Act II” of what Beyoncé has said will be a three-album cycle, which began with “Renaissance” in 2022. That motif repeats throughout the album’s 27-song track list. The Beatles cover — where she is joined by a quartet of young Black female country singers — Tanner Adell, Brittney Spencer, Reyna Roberts and Tiera Kennedy — is rendered as “Blackbiird.”) Midway through the track “Daughter,” Beyoncé even flexes some opera skills, singing a bit of “Caro Mio Ben,” a popular 18th-century Italian aria. (More on that here.)
In a statement, Beyoncé described the sonic texture of the album, differentiating it from the synthesized process behind most contemporary pop albums (including her own).
“With artificial intelligence and digital filters and programming, I wanted to go back to real instruments, and I used very old ones,” she said. “I didn’t want some layers of instruments like strings, especially guitars, and organs perfectly in tune. I kept some songs raw and leaned into folk.”
As with “Renaissance,” the audio for “Cowboy Carter” was leaked online shortly before its planned release, with some fans urging others not to listen early.
Back when Beyoncé released her self-titled “visual album” without warning in 2013, establishing the “surprise drop” as an industry trope, it was partly meant to protect the album from leaks, which had become a threat to first-week sales numbers. For these last two albums, Beyoncé has embraced a more conventional marketing plan, announcing her album weeks ahead of time and preparing deluxe physical editions. (There are many for “Cowboy Carter,” including LPs in, yes, red, white and blue vinyl.)
In the end, the leaks meant little to “Renaissance,” which went straight to No. 1. And, regardless of the new album’s fate at country radio — where “Texas Hold ’Em” has so far made it only as high as No. 33 — the commercial potential for “Cowboy Carter” seems vast, given Beyoncé’s recent success.
Last year, she won her 32nd Grammy Award, more than any artist in history. Her Renaissance tour sold $580 million in tickets, second only to Taylor Swift. A related concert film, “Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé,” offered a rare look behind the scenes of her creative process and was a hit in cinemas.
Last week, as the release of “Cowboy Carter” neared, Beyoncé wrote on Instagram that the album was “over five years in the making,” and that “it was born out of an experience that I had years ago where I did not feel welcomed … and it was very clear that I wasn’t.” Fans zeroed in on her appearance at the Country Music Association Awards in 2016, where she performed her song “Daddy Lessons” with the Chicks, and drew backlash online.
“The criticisms I faced when I first entered this genre forced me to propel past the limitations that were put on me,” Beyoncé said. The new album, she added, “is a result of challenging myself, and taking my time to bend and blend genres together to create this body of work.”
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Ben Sisario covers the music industry. He has been writing for The Times since 1998.
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Post by Dianna on Mar 31, 2024 2:31:38 GMT -5
Regarding Beyonce's "Cowboy Carter".. I'm sure her reasons for putting out a country record are legitimate and well intended.. The problem I have with this "Country Music Beyonce" is as I said before, it isn't authentic and to me it comes off as hokey.. I'll repeat what Linda has said several times before in the past.. if she didn't hear or sing it by the time she was 10 years old, it was not authentic. I'm willing to bet that a very young and eager beyonce was not sitting in her bedroom listening to country artists like Dolly Parton or even Linda Ronstadt, mimicking and copying the vocals and incorporating that into her own sound... if she did, we could hear the influence. Her vocals were most likey molded by Rnb pop artists like Michael Jackson, Diana Ross and probably Aretha Franklin.. Nothing wrong with it.. that's who she is as an artist.. As I said, I'm sure in her mind she's doing this for all the right reasons, I guess... I'm sure Dolly would love to have Beyonce record Jolene.. Who wouldn't?! lol
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Post by rick on Mar 31, 2024 3:03:39 GMT -5
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Post by RobGNYC on Mar 31, 2024 10:05:45 GMT -5
It’s too much. Can you be tired of an album that you haven’t heard?
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Post by erik on Mar 31, 2024 12:35:24 GMT -5
Quote by RobGNYC:
Well, in a word, Yes.
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Post by Partridge on Mar 31, 2024 14:40:10 GMT -5
It’s too much. Can you be tired of an album that you haven’t heard? yes. the release of this album was even featured on the ABC Nightly News. it is not that newsworthy. |
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Post by erik on Mar 31, 2024 16:25:16 GMT -5
Quote by Partridge:
Neither is what the GOP candidate for president says, but ABC does it anyway (LOL).
Anyway, let me make an early Grammy prediction here. Right now, Beyonce has 32 Grammys. It will be 40 come next February. Write that down.
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Post by Partridge on Mar 31, 2024 16:30:11 GMT -5
What is this Kanyesque thinking that Beyonce deserves a Grammy just because she is Beyonce? She's just another female singer- how is she getting all these Grammy awards?
Of course Grammy Awards are nice but I've never thought they meant much since A Taste of Honey with their hit Boogie Oogie Oogie won over uber-ass Elvis Costello for best new artist. And then they were never heard from again.
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Post by erik on Mar 31, 2024 16:57:35 GMT -5
Quote by Partridge:
Aside from Beyonce herself, I think it's her "Bey Hive" of fan(atic)s that contributes to this. They seem to imply, and some actually say this out loud, that any slight against her by the Recording Academy is a racist conspiracy, which in my opinion is complete and utter garbage. They proved that to me back in 2021, when they reacted in a transparently bigoted fashion to Queen Bey's Black Is King losing the Grammy for Best Music Film to The Sound Of My Voice.
But Queen Bey's group is a very nasty bunch; indeed, they make even Taylor Swift's most fanatical followers seem genteel by comparison.
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Post by rick on Mar 31, 2024 19:59:55 GMT -5
Quote by Partridge: Neither is what the GOP candidate for president says, but ABC does it anyway (LOL). Anyway, let me make an early Grammy prediction here. Right now, Beyonce has 32 Grammys. It will be 40 come next February. Write that down. erik, you've brought this up already, but even if Beyonce' is nominated for, say, eight Grammys the next time around, if she "only" wins seven, then social media and wherever else will be abuzz with how the Queen has been robbed. To another point, when Beyonce' had her concerts here in Los Angeles and Taylor Swift had her concerts here in Los Angeles, the local news stations were all about that. It floored me the way that people were spending so much money to dress up in really expensive outfits on top of what they were paying for the tickets, parking, concessions, etc. I believe some people were even paying hundreds of dollars to be flown in by helicopter. I am at an age where I feel I've seen everyone I want/need to see, and don't have any desire to attend an arena or stadium show anymore. |
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Post by erik on Apr 1, 2024 8:41:48 GMT -5
Quote by rick:
With respect to social media going ape if Bey is denied even a single Grammy next year, I have no reason whatsoever to doubt that; but like I said, it'll be at its fiercest with the Bey Hive itself.
As for this craziness surrounding Bey and "Tay" doing arena/stadium shows--I totally agree with you, rick. It doesn't just border on the ridiculous, it is ridiculous, period. Besides all that, I wouldn't go to see any artist in a sports arena or stadium, because, and I think Linda's right about this, those places are not at all conducive to making or hearing good music. I will bet money that most of the fans can't even actually hear the music itself most of the time because of the crowd noise and the amplification going around the rafters. If you ask them about what the artists performed in these shows at these places, they probably couldn't tell you. But they're the only places where you can cram in between fifty and a hundred thousand fans at any one time, and make anywhere from two to ten million dollars at any one time. It's a "see-and-be-seen" mentality as much as anything else (IMHO).
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Post by Tony on Apr 1, 2024 18:09:28 GMT -5
Watching ABC Nightly News. Upcoming story is Dolly Parton- What she had to say about the Beyoncé cover of Jolene.
Are Beyoncé and Dolly the most overhyped celebrities on the planet? I think so, more so than Taylor Swift, who seems to be an actual phenomenon.
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Post by erik on Apr 1, 2024 18:45:24 GMT -5
Quote by Tony:
Well, Dolly is an institution unto herself; and in any case, as she always says, jokingly (I think), it costs a lot for her to look that cheap. Queen Bey--well, it doesn't matter to me what her fans may think; I think she is overhyped, and that's putting it mildly. Or to put it another way, she is a legend in her own mind.
Taylor sometimes seems that way too; and remaking all of her albums isn't a whole lot better than what Queen Bey does. But at least four of her songs ("Begin Again"; "Betty"; "Back To December"; "Teardrops On My Guitar") show that, if she really wanted to, she could go full bore into Linda's 1970's territory and convince me on some level that her status is for real.
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Post by Dianna on Apr 1, 2024 19:17:20 GMT -5
I don't get the bustling of excitement surrounding Beyonce and I've never been to one of her concerts... but this is what "Oprah" said about "the experience."
"While they’ve both seen Queen Bey perform before, both Oprah and Gayle agreed that last night’s event was in an entirely different category. Calling it “the most extraordinary show I’ve ever seen,” Oprah added, “My body was vibrating the whole night. I had Beyoncé dreams. And I woke up like, What was that? It was transcendent to see all of that come together. I mean, the amount of creativity, the amount of energy, the amount of synergy, the amount of alignment, just what that takes. And she’s at the helm of all of it, you can see, from every costume to every move. I bow to that. I bow.”
It's as if as if Oprah had a near death experience. lol
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Post by erik on Apr 1, 2024 21:03:51 GMT -5
Quote by Dianna:
I can certainly believe that Oprah would see this as something of a near-death experience. But it's also very easy not to "get" Beyonce as well.
The George Klein rule is in play here: "If you're a fan, no explanation is necessary. If you're not, no explanation is possible". And let's not forget who Klein, the famous Memphis DJ, was originally talking about--namely a good friend of his who also ginned up this hysteria 68 years ago: ELVIS.
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Post by Partridge on Apr 2, 2024 0:03:25 GMT -5
I've been listening to "current hits" radio station recently for something different. To my ears most of the female singers do not put any emotion into their singing. They're almost indistinguishable. (The guys are more unique.) I heard Selena Gomez today but it was a non-event. Taylor Swift is better than most. Today I heard Beyonce's Texas Hold'Em song and she comes across as a better singer than any other female I heard. And even though I'm not crazy about the song, it sounds better to me than what I hear on current country radio.
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Post by erik on Apr 2, 2024 8:20:51 GMT -5
I suppose if Queen Bey has shown us anything by releasing this album (all eighty minutes of it, by the way), it is that she seems to have mastered the fine art of Gaslighting. Whether people have praised her or attacked her, she has at least provoked a reaction, which seems to be first and foremost in today's media landscape. Cowboy Carter would be a failure if nobody gave a damn at all (IMHO).
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Post by rick on Apr 2, 2024 12:28:19 GMT -5
I've been listening to "current hits" radio station recently for something different. To my ears most of the female singers do not put any emotion into their singing. They're almost indistinguishable. (The guys are more unique.) I heard Selena Gomez today but it was a non-event. Taylor Swift is better than most. Today I heard Beyonce's Texas Hold'Em song and she comes across as a better singer than any other female I heard. And even though I'm not crazy about the song, it sounds better to me than what I hear on current country radio. I have seen the ads on TV for Disney + streaming “Taylor’s version” of Taylor Swift’s concert film. I have Disney + and tried to watch it. I understand that her fans are legion and she does positive things with charitable donations, but I don’t find Taylor Swift interesting either to watch or hear. I have watched Beyonce’ on TV and listened to her music and her voice doesn’t do anything for me. We all have our own tastes and likes and dislikes. |
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Post by Dianna on Apr 2, 2024 14:07:57 GMT -5
Actually, the way I am introduced to the new pop hits is by watching video shorts on youtube, which annoyingly show up .. On these video shorts, I kept hearing the same song ....."One kiss is all it takes," so I finally looked up artist... "Dua Lipa" I'd wake up repeating the lyrics in my head.. "One kiss is all it takes" with that stupid accordion instrument playing.. ha ha
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Post by erik on Apr 4, 2024 8:47:17 GMT -5
Quote by rick:
I think it is the fawning attention the media gives to both "Bey" and "Tay" that is irritating more than anything else. I don't know that I could ever become a fan of either one of them, though in all good honesty, Taylor could be a really good pure singer if she really worked as hard at getting the voice to where it needs to be as she does on her stage productions. I'm not saying she could ever be on Linda's level (that's never going to happen {IMHO}), but it would never hurt for her to do a deep dive into what made Linda a big deal in the 70's and 80's.
Quote by Dianna:
I try to ignore these, and have come across two other artists as of late who may be of some interest. One is Laufey, an Icelandic-born artist who had won a Grammy two months ago in the Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album category for Bewitched; her style fuses jazz, classical, and certain elements of 1960's/1970's pop-rock. Another one is Kimmi Bitter, a San Diego County native whose style is kind of retro-country--by that, I mean the Nashville Sound of 1956-1964.
There's a lot out there to be had; you just have to search for it yourself, time-consuming as that can sometimes be.
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Post by Partridge on Apr 5, 2024 18:18:12 GMT -5
Next on ABC’s World News Tonight (04-05-2024) Paul McCartney weighs in on Beyoncé’s Blackbird. Why is ABC pushing this album so hard?
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Post by erik on Apr 5, 2024 23:12:46 GMT -5
Quote by Partridge:
One reason could be because someone, maybe one of Queen Bey's Beyhive, or even Beyonce, is paying them. The second one is that it draws ratings and eyeballs. And the third reason is that Queen Bey is engaging in both Gas Lighting and the Art of World Domination.
In terms of Gas Lighting, she's doing that job nicely. But when it comes to World Domination, she has some very stiff competition, in the form of one Taylor Alison Swift.
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Post by rick on Apr 6, 2024 15:03:40 GMT -5
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Post by rick on Apr 9, 2024 18:51:59 GMT -5
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Post by rick on Apr 12, 2024 2:07:37 GMT -5
Read something curious about "Cowboy Carter" on The Second Disc blog ....
" Unless you've been under a rock, you've heard by now about Beyoncé's Cowboy Carter, a fantasia and rumination on country music, Americana, and the black experience featuring appearances by Paul McCartney (via a sample of the original backing track of The Beatles' "Blackbird"), Dolly Parton, Willie Nelson, Linda Martell, Miley Cyrus, and a host of African-American country artists including Tanner Adell, Brittney Spencer, Tiera Kennedy, Reyna Roberts, Shaboozey, and Willie Jones. Note that the physical releases do not include all of the songs on the sprawling album: shockingly, standout track "Ya-Ya" has been eliminated from both the CD and LP versions. (Copies purchased from Beyoncé's online store reportedly add one of the missing tracks back.) Curious how one of the year's biggest sellers could drop key tracks off its only physical releases? You're not the only one.
Please read The Second Disc's own Mike Duquette over at Duque's Delight for his thoughts!
Music's Physical Crisis is Taking Notes / Why is it this hard to get a full album, with liner notes, on a disc?
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