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As a millennial, I am reminded of a Simpsons reference when almost any situation develops. The investment elite media and some political figures have in the country music career of black singer Beyoncé Knowles-Carter is an example.
In one Simpsons episode, the fictional cartoon show within the series, Itchy & Scratchy, has been bought by a competitor of the Simpson kids’ favorite television host. The new host plays a cartoon from “Eastern Europe’s most famous cat and mouse team, ‘Worker and Parasite.’” What follows is a nonsensical compilation of propaganda images and fervent slogans declared in a foreign language. “What the hell was that?” asks the befuddled host.
The joke is that this was an exaggerated version of the Soviet propaganda films Americans used to laugh at, with overwrought speeches and crude ideological messages delivered with the subtlety of a Stalinist purge. The joke isn’t so funny now, when Americans dutifully sit through DEI training videos at school, at work, and even at home, and when belief in egalitarianism is a legal requirement to hold a job.
While leftists used to complain about militaristic, patriotic displays at football games, the Super Bowl now is a celebration of black “ethnonarcissism.” Remakes of movies and television programs are filled with artificial diversity, where even a historical character might be played by a performer of a different race. The results are sometimes unintentionally funny, such as when a black actress was cast as Juliet in a recent production of Shakespeare’s play, causing thousands to mock the casting.
This is the actress that will play Juliet in a new production of Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet.
Francesca Amewudah-Rivers is set to play Juliet, the Italian female character from William Shakespeare’s play that was set in Verona, Italy in 1597.
Tom Holland is set to play the… pic.twitter.com/48DtvFsnPR
— Oli London (@OliLondonTV) April 2, 2024
“GamerGate” — a reaction by male gamers a decade ago to leftist themes in video games — was arguably the trigger event of the culture wars of the Trump era. It focused on attempts by professional scolds, journalists, and censors to impose their will on video games. GamerGate was only partly successful, however, as major companies and publishers dutifully made professions of faith to diversity.
The battle continues, however, with “GamerGate 2,” a new campaign directed against “woke” companies trying to put their ideology into games and also against various groups (including at least one funded by the Department of Homeland Security) demanding more censorship.
Underlying all of this is endless talk about “media literacy,” with journalists, professional critics, and artists themselves often fighting with fans about the “correct” way to interpret art. While radicals in the past championed “The Death of the Author” to undermine the Western canon, today some complain that viewers and readers are making “unapproved” interpretations of popular media. It is akin to the way free speech was a core leftist cause in the 1960s, while today it is a major target at universities.
Similarly, when a cultural figure who is not in total alignment with political orthodoxy meets some success, he is suddenly “controversial,” regardless of his popularity. Media coverage in such cases often consists of implied demands for censorship, which often works. (Sam Hyde losing his show on Adult Swim following a BuzzFeed article is a classic example.) Internet censorship has also dramatically lessened the likelihood of original success stories: Since free speech is no longer a cultural norm, tech companies must decide whether to provide a platform for any given figure. It is doubtful that many of the apolitical social media stars of the early internet could find success in today’s climate.
The counterpart to censorship is a kind of “Official Culture” communicated to us through leading media institutions and occasionally directly from government. In these cases, media outlets essentially serve as a product’s marketing department. These cultural products have the blessing of the system, and not liking them is close to a political crime. The late Andrew Breitbart was wrong about politics being downstream from culture. Culture is in fact downstream from power.
I’ve already mentioned the latest example: Beyoncé’s new country music album. Why there needs to be such an album, who asked for it, and why anyone should care are unanswerable questions. It’s a kind of parody of concerns about “cultural appropriation,” with the 42-year-old singer sporting straight blonde locks.
Nonetheless, the reaction from media is something close to rapture.
- “Beyoncé Is Riding Into Her Country Era. Here’s What to Know,” New York Times
- “On ‘Cowboy Carter,’ Beyoncé’s country is as broad as the public she serves,” NPR
- “In “Cowboy Carter,” Beyoncé converts us to the religion of country music,” Salon
What is remarkable is that most commentators are talking about it like it is a kind of revenge on white America, a racial victory. The New York Post quotes Beyoncé saying she did “not feel welcome” by the country music industry in 2016 after a performance at the Country Music Awards. According to the Post, that performance resulted in a “backlash on social media that was drenched in racial overtones.”
Beyoncé herself considers her new album a political statement. In an Instagram post, she said: “This album has been over five years in the making. 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.” She is thankful for being the first black woman to hit number one on the country music charts, though oddly enough, she concludes that “this ain’t a country album,” but a “Beyoncé album.” If so, why should country music fans care?
Such doublethink characterizes most of the media coverage of the album. Stories say that blacks heavily influenced country music (if they didn’t invent it altogether), but also imply that the album is a hostile takeover of the genre and therefore a kind of cultural triumph.
Salon says:
[C]ountry music gatekeepers were deadset on excluding the musician from the genre that traditionally features predominantly white artists — mostly because of an electric performance of her country track, “Daddy Lessons” performed with the Chicks during that year’s CMA Awards.
No matter how strong the performance or the undeniable influence of Black people on country music, Beyoncé was met with a harsh and racist backlash. The response was so toxic that the CMAs scrubbed the performance from all its platforms. Conservatives spewed similar racist sentiments during the singer’s 2016 Superbowl half-time show performance, labeling Beyoncé and the performance as “un-American.”
It concludes that in response, she has made an album that is “expansive and almost eternal,” which is for “her ancestors, her lineage, and all the invisible black Southerners who have shaped the fabric of American culture, society, and institutions.” A Southern white man would never be so honored for writing a song about his own ancestors.
“Superstar Beyonce called out country music. That’s huge” says columnist Andrea Williams in the Austin American-Statesman. “Like other spaces that cultivate cultures of exclusion, country music thrives in silence,” she writes. “Where there is no accountability, the status quo persists.”
Miss Williams quotes country singer Travis Tritt, who had tweeted that country could stand on its own without pop and asked when “BET or Soul Train awards are gonna ask a country artist to perform on their show.” Miss Williams says that “pointed” question, the larger response, and country music’s history show the industry “still has considerable work to do in its efforts to be truly inclusive.”
The Telegraph says the album shows “the black roots of country,” promotes “black pride and confronting systemic racism,” and pushes the genre toward “mind-boggling Afrocentrism.”
The Associated Press says the artist “reinforces her dedication to Black reclamation” and “stands in opposition to stereotypical associations of the genre with whiteness.”
One expects there will be a controversy if country music radio doesn’t play her songs enough. The Washington Post, citing a professor who studies country music and country radio, said: “I want to preface this with: The data really won’t be easy to digest. It’s not a pretty picture, right now, of representation.”
Who, precisely, finds white-dominated country radio “not a pretty picture?” It is no more surprising to find country radio dominated by whites than finding that Spanish-language radio is mostly Hispanics and rap is mostly blacks. However, a predominantly white genre is always a target. Will there be affirmative action quotas for Beyoncé and other blacks in country music?
The silliest thing about all of this is the implication that Beyoncé has overcome some massive obstacle. Rolling Stone says she “defines” country, citing the lyric: “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?”
One is tempted to reply with David Allan Coe’s “If That Ain’t Country,” which chronicles struggles considerably more severe than people being mean on Twitter. In contrast, Beyoncé can enjoy the support of Vice President Kamala Harris for her marketing efforts:
Beyoncé: Thank you for reminding us to never feel confined to other people's perspective of what our lane is. You have redefined a genre and reclaimed country music’s Black roots.
Your music continues to inspire us all.
— Vice President Kamala Harris (@VP) March 29, 2024
Michelle Obama even ties this to the election:
Cowboy Carter is a reminder that despite everything we’ve been through to be heard, seen, and recognized, we can still dance, sing, and be who we are unapologetically. This album reminds us that we ALL have power. There’s power in our history, in our joy, and in our votes — and…
— Michelle Obama (@MichelleObama) April 2, 2024
Together, we can stand up for what we believe in, and we must do that at the ballot box this year. The issues that impact us most are on the ballot across the country — from equal pay and racial justice to reproductive healthcare and climate change. And as Queen Bey says at the…
— Michelle Obama (@MichelleObama) April 2, 2024
Does anyone else find this pitiable? Beyoncé is one of the most famous singers in the world. This delicate treatment from media and political leaders to prop up her country album seems like adults praising a small child’s drawing and promising to hang it on the refrigerator to make him feel special. The implication that country music is a problem that must be solved with more blacks (who supposedly invented everything anyway) is also typical of political discussion about culture. “Blackness” is apparently so powerful that it is the driving force behind all American culture, but it is also so delicate that academics and journalists must make sure it gets enough “representation” in everything, and media outlets and political leaders must market it and carefully protect it. The entire thing seems artificial and weak.
If country, especially outlaw country, is about defying the system, Beyoncé’s album is the system. It is just another by-the-numbers diversity set piece, with themes that anyone could have predicted in advance and an almost bureaucratic and programmed political response. It is part of America’s Official Culture, pushing the political orthodoxy of diversity and the usual doublethink regarding black pride and contempt toward implicit white identity. With her fake hair and playing pretend with cowboy hats, Beyoncé’s efforts aren’t just “cultural appropriation”; they are pure kitsch, an unironic parody more laughable than white people dressing up like Indians for Halloween.
Like her attempt to turn the heartbreaking song “Jolene” into another girlboss anthem, even as fans discuss her husband’s alleged real-life betrayals of her, the whole thing seems sad and desperate. Just give Beyoncé some awards and be done with it. Media outlets and the vice president may applaud such a minstrel show, but let us not kid ourselves that this is real country music or real art. Many once viewed blacks as a kind of “underground” of American culture, a source of authenticity in contrast to the allegedly corporate and stale popular white American culture. Today, blacks are just the system’s mascots, and they seem quite content to serve as such.
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Gamergate is more relevant than the author acknowledges. It was a giant middle-finger to all the fans and the people who purchase the products. Capitalism would assume that people are not going to treat their customers with utter contempt, because customers pay the salaries of those who produce the products. But Gamergate showed that producers hate their customers, putting all kinds of content in the products that none of the consumers asked for nor wanted.
It is not an exaggeration to say that Gamergate helped people to see through the covid scam, because governments despise their citizenry in the same way that corporations despise their customers.
What else didn’t consumers want? We didn’t forced diversity in every movie. Some of it is blatant, such as the new Juliet who clearly looks different from past depictions of Shakespeare’s character. Other changes are more deceptive.
Has any seen Dune 2? There’s no way that the hero’s love interest, Zendaya, was born a woman. They two actors lack chemistry and every scene has the feeling of two guys kissing. Trannies are another form of forced diversity that no one asked for or wanted.
Like the Michelle Obama tweet to Beyonce:
Obama says “you transform our culture”. Michelle has been accused of being a man, so what are we to think of this comment? It looks like a dialogue between trannies and that Beyonce was not a woman at birth.
Finally, notice the white horse that Beyonce is sitting on. This is a reference to the Book of Revelation: “And I saw, and behold a white horse: and he that sat on him had a bow; and a crown was given unto him: and he went forth conquering, and to conquer.” These people are artificially trying to fulfill Biblical prophecy, and an internet search will show pictures of Beyonce riding a red, black, and pale horse
Contrast the difference between the woke socio-political RS review with another black musical country and western record, Way Out West by Sonny Rollins (featuring Ray Brown and Shelly Manne). Compare the ’57 Downbeat review by Ralph Gleason, a future co-founder of RS, by the way.
Nothing political or social going on. Gleason matter of factly comments on the playing and arrangements–Rollins’ technique as he displays his rather unique musical interpretation of standard cowboy tunes. That plus the fact that Rollins was said to ‘dig’ the tunes as tunes.
Now, everything is political and any aesthetic appreciation of whatever intrinsic value the music might have is lost in all of the nonsense.
I’ve heard the name Beyoncé, but couldn’t recognize one of her songs if my life depended on it. The funniest thing in the world is these racist, white-hating blacks doing country and calling it their own, sort of like their using electricity. This white displacement causes fear in white women who then respond as women do by submitting, in the important case by voting for their black abusers out of fear and justifying it with virtue signaling about fairness.
Free speech was a core leftist value back when they wanted to break down the cultural hegemony of Christian conservatism and flood mass media with pornography and blasphemy. Now that the left has obtained institutional control, free speech is not just an obstacle but actual declared an imminent danger. Howard Stern’s career as smut-driven free speech crusader turned woke paragon serves as a quintessential example.
It’s interesting that they constantly purport to value “inclusiveness” as their guiding principle but then turn around and positively beat their chest over “mind-boggling Afrocentrism” and “Black reclamation” as though white people can and should essentially be outsiders.
Where… /clap are… /clap all… /clap the… /clap Black… /clap puzzlers!
Video LinkIt’s clearly exclusion! Or is it actually very very middle class nerd girl stuff and that there is a distinct lack of middle class black nerd girls. Because it’s really hard to find a room with nicer, less exclusionary people.
As somebody else once noted in an important maxim about the neoliberal press:
“Everything the American media say is about race is really about class. Everything the American media say is about class is really about race.”
Zendeya isn’t trans, she’s just a lesbian. As evinced by the fake Hollywood “relationship” between her and obviously closeted gay Tom Holland.
Generally I don’t get why the new Dune films are getting so much praise, it seems to me to be an example of “artsploitation” where it’s made to seem artsy and important but is really just sterile digital cinema. The total indifference to the casting (Let alone the total lack of good direction said actors get miscast and not) choices which seem almost all stunt casting is another example.
People want to love these new Dune films but they actually just make the much-maligned Lynch film look good, vibrant full of life, ideas and arresting visuals. This new film everyone talks like they are from 2020s Southern California and everyone who isn’t Paul just shows up to deliver a minimum of what they could get away with and is thrust aside for more Timmy T time.
If Denis Villeneuve had any other accent he’d have been laughed out of Hollywood long ago but “film twitter” is full of A23 worshiping film students and failed film students. Since that is something they can see, execs take it seriously.
More groundbreaking by Bey-Bey…. It’s like Charlie Pride and Darius Rucker never existed.
#BeyonceSoWhite
I listened to track after track of her album and found it to be universally plastic and grossly overproduced.
If America wants a black singer performing Country music they already have that. Ray Charles – Modern Sounds in C&W Music, recorded in 1962 is terrific. Ray understood that good music has heart and soul.
Culture is an expression of genetics. The brown and black sludge don’t have a culture of their own, and can only make grotesque copies of the culture of their betters. The Jews and Whites pushing this garbage see it as mockery of traditional culture, but the niggers and other sludge actually performing it aren’t capable of anything else, and cannot approximate the standards and accomplishments of European high culture, let alone White folk and country culture.
The same goes for the rest of Western society. It will devolve into a cargo cult of niggers and other Untermensch as pilots, engineers, and physicians going through the motions and not fully understanding what they are doing. Indeed, we are seeing the beginning of it now: planes are falling from the sky, bridges are failing, and disease is again growing more rampant.
Genetics matter.
Once Whites are a minority and dwindle to a small number, the West will disappear. In its place will be the shitholes of Africa and Asia from whence the brown sludge originally emerged. They will toil again in a dark age of ignorance that will last for millennia, managed by the insectoid Chinese for their own benefit.
Hood fails to mention Jewish power and influence in the country music industry that seeks to negrify the genre so that whites not only no longer have their own living spaces and workplaces but can no longer retreat to country music. No doubt there are white collaborators in this effort who care more about preserving their wealth and status than anything else.
Country music has been representative and emblematic of white America for a very long time despite having a very small number of black artists, some of whom were popular among the white “racists”. It was also a bastion of right wing politics, but this has displeased the ADL and the chosen people inside the industry and they decided that that had to change, so it is.
I don’t even know what the ‘black’ music scene is supposed to be, anymore. Gangster Hip Hop records financed by Jews and bought by white folk? I think that’s it.
I remember going to a club to hear Marsalis and his combo. They were OK. Nothing special. Wynton attempting to channel Miles. Looking around I didn’t see any black faces in the audience. They don’t care for anything like that.
I don’t know this woman’s music, but my guess is that if you compare whatever she is singing with, say, James Brown’s Please Please Please or Try Me, you’ll immediately know which singer has the soul.
It’s like when Bobby Byrd asked the Godfather, “What you gonna play now?”
And James replied, “Bobby, I don’t know whats I’m-a gonna play. But whats-a-ever it is, it’s got to be funky!”
My guess is that Beyonce might have some sort of nasty funk going on down there, but it has nothing to do with music. LOL
Never have intentionally listened to one of her songs in any genre. But that doesn’t matter because this is just another case of blacks demanding to be where they’re not wanted.
I am a little surprised that Nashville might have given her an unwelcoming reception. I have not intentionally listened to a country song in many years either but I swear that they’ve taken to rapping their lyrics now. Are you kidding me? If I feel like listening to country, I know where I can find George Jones, Willie, Merle, etc. Nothing I’ve heard from the 21st century is country music. Unless it is in the bluegrass section.
All purely knee jerk resentment towards, and lust for revenge against, Taylor Swift.
Taylor started as a big time “Country” artist, then moved into Pop music, with “funky” beats. And began winning Pop Music awards, that bebe’s had undeservedly won too many to begin with, and her racist handlers believed were ipso facto, hers, especially, the Grammys.
So, long story short, it’s simply bebe and her racist handlers’ attempt to beat Blonde, Blue Eyed Whitey at her / Our own game.
“Forgive them Jimmie Rodgers, for they know not what they do.”
Commandress Emmylou, the Queen of Reality, strikes again….
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Note in the introductory shots how pleasant Austin TX used to be… and who exactly the people were.
— ‘ While leftists used to complain about militaristic, patriotic displays at football games, the Super Bowl now is a celebration of black “ethnonarcissism.” –
The cons made the false labels ‘left’ or ‘right’, so selfish ignorants would have a bogus word to slap on themselves as they sit doing nothing but cheering destruction, claiming to be ‘right’. Am not ‘leftist or any con label, and it is fact that ‘militaristic and patirotic displays’ are ignorant terrsm. There is no ‘country’, and their flag’ is masonic bs. Tribe and friends is our ‘country’ or should be.
‘military’ and ‘police’ are oppressors. The cons drones will make the selfish rethink their ignorance.
‘beyonce’ is a con, always has been, people had enough of the fake angry black act, even blacks aren’t interested. Also fake pregnancy etc. Ala exposer wendy williams, who by the way is being kept down by schemer lawyer and court cons. Compare, cons pushing schemer divider con, compared to court cons attacking w. williams. Also what happened to britney spears. The cons get everyone in the end because selfish fail to make tribes and shove back.
The cons claim this or that ‘most famous’ etc but numbers are faked, to make people assume ‘popular’ when they’re not.
‘country’ music was concocted to keep people stupid. The few who wrote semi intelligent lyrics later etc doesn’t change that its mostly stupid.
John Denver was exception, rocky mountain high. Should have paid attention to enviro, that is the real position against in-migration. Btw, ‘rainin’ fire in the sky was referring to meteor shower, not that you can see much any more. Look up, ask why.
‘flags’ are con bs. Important to make own focus, own direction. Search pledge of obedience allegiance truth stream, about ten min vid. Pass along.
Appreciate the article.
Country music has been the obvious product of appropriation for a good 10-15 years now. Look at all the male “country” singers to have come out during that time. All are laughable caricatures of what some suit thinks a country singer should look like, straight out of central casting. Look at that ugly fat sweat hog with all the face tattoos (I don’t know his real or fake name). He is a perfect illustration of how Big Music wants to and has uglified country music. All the broads look like instagram bimbos. Listen to the songs: they are now dominated with electric drum pop beats and auto tune.
The ghastly negress know as Beyonce is merely posting the victory flag into yet another conquered parcel of culture. Real country music is dead. Some jew from Switzerland is writing all the hits now.
blacks will be blacks
The Cleverlys started it.
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“As a millennial, I am reminded of a Simpsons reference when almost any situation develops.”
If I see someone using references to the cartoon The Simpsons in every situation, I don’t think of them as being a millennial, I think of them as being uneducated, unimaginative and immature. Baby boomers don’t make constant references to the Jetsons or Flintsones in the same way, because they received a proper K-12 education. If I were the author of this article, I wouldn’t broadcast the fact, it’s nothing to be proud of.
“If America wants a black singer performing Country music they already have that. Ray Charles – Modern Sounds in C&W Music, recorded in 1962 is terrific. Ray understood that good music has heart and soul. ”
Ray Charles singing country? Don’t you mean Charley Pride?
Slim is right, 1962 Ray Charles country album.
And why Cowboy Carter? Isn’t she a cowgirl?
Yeah but whites lost. We fucked your ass, gamer.
that’s just bouncy ridin the white horse, as she did when she was a hooker, overdosing her johns to steal their wallets. she was applauded for that as well. why is it if a white woman wears dreadlocks she is culturally appropriating black culture but a black woman straightening and dyeing her hair blonde is a trail blazer?