I’m wondering whether the biggest barrier to Beyoncé’s “Texas Hold Em” getting the country radio play it deserves is that it’s blatantly a dance song — a sub-genre I get the idea country radio has mostly avoided the past few years, and a subgenre (not coincidentally) dominated, as far as I can tell, by female artists. I like it a lot, just like I like lots of other country dance songs these days. But they almost invariably go nowhere on Billboard’s Country Airplay chart. Occasionally they do better on the trade mag’s streaming-heavy Hot Country Songs chart, and not just if women made them — think “The Git Up” by Blanco Brown a few years back, or recent Jessie Murph collaborations — as I expect Beyonce’s country songs will as well.
That she’s both a Black woman and a major celebrity who bigots will undoubtedly dismiss as an interloper or carpetbagger are obviously important factors as well, as others have pointed out; as far as I remember, despite several Black women putting out country albums in the past few years (Britney Spencer, Britti, Tanner Adell, Miko Marks, Mickey Guyton, more), none have wound up on commercial country radio like a handful of Black men (Kane Brown, Breland, Darius Rucker) have. But it still seems most likely to me that the biggest factor in this case might be the record’s sound. It’s encouraging, though, that some stations seem to be looking past that. (I expect stations here and there played Blanco Brown as well, but I’ve never seen that quantified.)
If anybody doubts it’s a dance song, Ms. Knowles-Carter’s lyrics put her poker cards right on the table: “A real life boogie and a real life hoedown.” “Come take it to the floor now, ooh, and I’ll be damned if I cannot dance with you.” “One step to the right, you run to the left.” Not to mention “Pour some sugar on me” — an obvious reference to a famous Def Leppard classic produced by Mutt Lange, who I suspect not coincidentally used to be married to Shania Twain. Even though, again, I’m pretty sure it’s been a while since radio played a Shania-style dance ditty, including Shania’s own fun “Giddy Up” last year.
I’m less enamored with Beyoncé’s other new country move, “16 Carriages” — seems to have more of a story, which may or may not be world-historical, though if so I haven’t decoded precisely how yet. In fact more likely it’s just some musician-on-the-road clichés — do Beyoncé tours require 16 busses to haul equipment maybe? Some people seem to be saying it’s more legitimately country if less radio friendly than “Texas Hold ‘Em” and others say it’s not country at all, but the word I’d mainly use is convoluted, which is to say prog in the way Beyoncé has always been prog, way back to Destiny’s Child days.
All that said, I’m not buying what seems to be some fans’ and pundits’ assumption that Beyoncé automatically deserves a shot on country radio just via the mere fact of being Beyoncé, and the only possible explanation if it doesn’t play her is racism. Truth is, most country songs, even most really good ones, never make it onto the radio. And there are all sorts of reasons for that. Assuming Beyoncé is above it all strikes me as a creepy kind of entitlement, no matter what color her skin is. As an American, I distrust royalty by instinct, and she and Jay-Z are just about the closest we have to it — and that’s not the only reason I’ve always been a Beyoncé skeptic. That her mom is Louisiana Creole and that she’s recorded with the (then still Dixie) Chicks and sang with Sugarland once at the AMAs are all wonderful, but country bona fides alone aren’t enough to stop me from touching the dial.
Even on pop and hip-hop/r&b radio, her hits aren’t the automatic smashes they used to be — “Crazy in Love” was 21 years ago, “Single Ladies” 16, “Drunk in Love” 11, and though the first couple singles from 2022’s Renaissance were decent hits (“Break My Soul” went #1 on the Hot 100), those were clearly exceptions; if I’m reading her Wikipedia discography right, not since before the 2010s did her singles regularly go Top 5. That said, “Texas Hold ‘Em” is a really good one, and I hope somebody plays it. On country dancefloors, I have no doubt it will be huge. Wedding receptions too, I bet.
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Christian Iszchak
Prog Beyonce!
Chris Molanphy
Great points—thanks for chiming in, Chuck.
Brian Mansfield
I’m in the middle of a long drive, so I can’t weigh in fully. But I think you’re right that the sound is the biggest obstacle. The record sounds different enough from everything else at the format that it will give some programmers and some listeners pause. on the plus side, it sounds really good next to a lot of what’s on the radio now, so that will help it. I don’t think an unknown could turn the record into a hit. The other major issue is community. Country programmers are used to getting to know artists, no matter how big they are. Country listeners have more direct engagement with artist in the format than happens at any other format. Beyoncé doesn’t strike me as the sort of person who’s going to spend a lot of time gladhanding radio programmers. It will be interesting to see what happens when those two dynamics collide.my apologies for anything that didn’t get translated properly, but it’s raining, I’m driving, and I’m not editing.
Sean Ross
Country is coming around quickly. Houston and Detroit, the two markets that should most understand this song, were first, but now other major groups have given Variety’s Chris Willman positive interviews about it, and more Country stations have given it at least one spin than pop stations, as of Thursday.
That said, I definitely think in the first few days, it belonged in that same category as “Cha-Cha Slide” and PDs in *every* format were wondering what to make of it. Now, if anything, it seems more like “Macarena,” including possibly being a fun, different song when we so desperately need one.
It also occurred to me today that it also clusters musically with the Shania Twain hits, except she’s Mutt Lange, turbo-charging Country’s conventions, some more classic than current. Some of the subtext is clearly different, but musically, it belongs in that very small category as well.
If Beyonce had gone to Nashville, there’s an excellent chance that it would have been the Sheryl Crow Country album–a great artist, who was nearly Country already, making compromised product that didn’t make anybody happy, or open a successful new chapter for a veteran artist. This record had to come from the outside.
Chuck Eddy
Just seemed, as I said, like it’s been quite a while since country radio played a Shania-style dance song. But as you suggested, maybe that’s all the more reason it’s time for one.
Michael Tatum
I always found it amusing there were plenty of disco-haters that didn’t seem to mind those same musical devices on white rock records. Modern Country pilfers from hip hop production right and left, and someone like Sam Hunt (who I like, don’t get me wrong) owes his whole schtick to the genre. So any resistance at this point would be a little odd. Not to say predictable, but odd. I’m sure since she’s a Texan she does have sincere interest in that music, but I also wonder if Beyoncé planned this genre excursion in part as an envelope-pushing gambit. I’d be impressed if she did. I also wonder if Renaissance part 3 will be her indie rock album.
Gemma Seymour
Putting “Don’t be a bitch” in a country song is pretty much guaranteed to get you dropped from country stations.
Sara Sherr
She can’t be the only country song with cursing in it. I suspect there is more at play here, but I am seeing posts that “Texas” has made it to Country Airplay at some stations. And I agree, that line is like, why?
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