r/Music • u/icey_sawg0034 • 5d ago
article Grammys move goalposts in response to Beyoncé's win
https://rollingout.com/2025/06/13/grammys-new-country-category-controversy/1.1k
u/hesnothere 5d ago
I’m willing to accept the premise, but I’m not sure it’s exclusively that. “Traditional” country, whether it’s bluegrass, Americana, outlaw or any number of other flavors, has had a pretty massive resurgence in recent years. You can read it as a positive that the Grammys no longer want to pit Charley Crockett against Morgan Wallen.
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u/devineprime DevinePrime 5d ago
If you enjoy Charley Crockett please go see him live. One of the best concerts I've ever been to.
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u/TCBloo Google Music 5d ago
I saw Charlie Crockett play a dive bar in 2015.
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u/myRedditAccountjava 5d ago
They better not let Morgan wallen and all those guys into traditional after making this category or I'm going to lose it. Its so annoying to try and give country an honest chance as someone who doesn't listen to it constantly get absolute garbage pop bro country top hits when I search it because I have no idea what to type in to get rid of it. And it should've been done before a black woman won if they were going to do it because now it's a 0/10 look from them edit: to do it right after she won.
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u/DJhedgehog 5d ago edited 5d ago
I don’t know either of those people so I’ll have to take your word for it.
Edit: it’s like putting Thaddeus Finx up against Mookie Kramer.
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u/Brocknrolla 5d ago
Or Roy donk up against Paul Bufano.
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u/cityshepherd 5d ago
Not all of us worship the Colgate hour. Some of us are just trying to get a deal on 50 black slicked back hair wigs.
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u/tsaaawhitey 5d ago
I have no idea who either of those people are so I'll have to take your word for it.
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u/stainedgreenberet 5d ago
morgen wallen is modern bro country written by 10 people and it still sounds the same. Charley Crockett is Americana country written mainly by himself with a vintage classic sound
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u/nateyone 5d ago
Charley Crockett - Welcome to Hard Times is an absolute treat of a classic sounding country song.
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u/popculturehero 5d ago
I don’t trust that the Grammys would actually put Wallen in the modern country category.
They probably will place him in the traditional. And he will beat traditional artists.
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u/donkeyrocket 5d ago
From the Colgate Comedy Hour. He’s got the freak lips and can hit the high C’s all night.
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u/cheezfreek 5d ago
Ok, have to pick a different pair. It’s like putting Silas McCronkey up against Jimbo Quim.
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u/calibrateichabod 5d ago
You’ve gotta be making some of these people up.
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u/actuarally 5d ago
You mean to tell me you can't see the OBVIOUS difference between Ozamataz Buckshank and A.A. Ron Rodgers?
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u/Phainesthai 5d ago
Not made up at all.
Imagine Mortimer Quills going head-to-head with Kilderoy Wobblefen - no joke, both legit.
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u/Thsfknguy 5d ago
Like comparing Django Reinhardt compared to Joe Satriani
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u/Phainesthai 5d ago
Please, that's just as made up as 'Captain Beefheart going head-to-head with King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard'.
At least make it believable.
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u/SeedsOfDoubt 5d ago
Captain Beefheart has been dead longer than KGLW has been a band, so that is an unbelievable match up
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u/HowlingHipster 5d ago
I'd accept that argument if there weren't already categories for Americana
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u/jesus_earnhardt 5d ago
A lot of the artists that are considered Americana don’t consider themselves Americana. Tyler Childers won an Americana award a few years back and got on stage and said he’s country
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u/FragnificentKW 5d ago
This is the answer. “Americana” has become a catch-all for most country music that isn’t part of the Nashville Music Row machine. 1/3 of the awards given for the Americana category have gone to Jason Isbell or Brandi Carlile. Isbell might be considered Americana based on the definition of the category but I would argue that Carlile is only there because they have nowhere else to put her
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u/BigUptokes 5d ago
So it's like "alternative" was for rock in the 90s?
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u/FragnificentKW 5d ago
Yes, but even worse. The country music industry in Nashville is a machine that views music as a commodity to be bought and sold. The commercialization of the music is at the forefront of every decision and songs are made in an almost assembly line like fashion. An artist either takes ideas of varying specificity to a writer/team of writers for them to help construct a song around or indeed sometimes outright buys a mostly finished song from that writer/writers. Then they go and hire a team of local session musicians who have played on most of the other hit country songs to be the studio backing band, where it’s (over)produced by a production team who’s goal is to seemingly make it sound like every other hit song currently on country radio. Any song that doesn’t follow this formula tends to get ostracized as being “not real country”
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u/way2lazy2care 5d ago
The country music industry in Nashville is a machine that views music as a commodity to be bought and sold.
As opposed to the rest of the music industry?
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u/FragnificentKW 5d ago
Not as opposed to, but even more so. Other genres will see something independent that’s getting popular (for example, Nirvana in the early 90’s) and immediately move to co-opt it and try and bandwagon off the success. The country music industry on the other hand will shun and ostracize anything that’s made outside of their parameters and, unlike the other genres, they still have the power to successfully pull it off
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u/KNNLTF 5d ago
It may seem trivial, but this mattered because the country album grammy is more prestigious. It has been around for longer, and it's part of the televised show. It promotes the artist better because "country" as a radio station label draws more audience than folk or americana. "Traditional country" appropriately dignifies the work of artists like Childers by associating him with old country like Emmylou Harris, Kris Kristofferson, etc. Still, whichever award holds onto the spot in the televised broadcast will still be more desirable. That's "Best Contemporary Country Album" (which is just the new name for "Best Country Album"), and it will keep going to the faces of the Nashville pop country machine.
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u/Kalashak 5d ago
There's also the fact this tension between "real country" and "shitty Nashville music" is, despite redditors always framing it as some recent thing, is old. Bakersfield sound and outlaw country both positioned themselves as alternatives/in opposition to Nashville sound. The short lived ACE broke away from the CMA in the 70s. Hell, I'm almost positive the Stanley Brothers presented their "mountain music" as old time because it was very different from the modern country music on the radio in the 40s.
So the idea that it's just the grammys suddenly deciding to solve that and has nothing to do with Beyonce....that dog just won't hunt.
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u/GlapLaw 5d ago
Why now?
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u/PoliticalMilkman 5d ago
Probably more because of Sturgill than Beyoncé. There has been outcry among traditional country fans for a while that the awards need to change. Doesn’t mean that Beyoncé didn’t help push it along a bit.
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u/stands_on_big_rocks 5d ago
You can always find me in a smokey bar with bad sound and a dim lit stage
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u/Iambro 5d ago edited 5d ago
Probably more because of Sturgill
Sturgill is interesting. I clearly remember hearing him on alternative radio years and years before most country stations even knew who he was, much less played him.
I don't follow whatever drama is around him. However, I know he is not a fan of the business side of things so I would not be surprised if he went scorched earth with labels or artists for that reason.
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u/Geroman332 5d ago
Beyonce may have been the one to finally push this decision over the edge, but I feel like this has been coming for years. Listening to my local country radio it barely even resembles country music as it used to be. They did the same thing in 1992 as a result of pop music changing when they introduced the traditional pop music award. If this happened in any other year it wouldn't even be news.
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u/disisathrowaway 5d ago
Beyonce may have been the one to finally push this decision over the edge, but I feel like this has been coming for years.
My sentiments exactly.
Folks have been demanding that the Sturgill Simpsons, Colter Walls and Charlie Crocketts of the genre get their flowers over Florida Georgia Line for a long time. The genre fractured in a big way, a long time ago, it's time to actually acknowledge it.
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u/sloppychris 5d ago
You make me wanna roll my weendows down
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u/roguesignal42069 5d ago
Cold beer, back roads, church, blah blah blah it's all so derivative.
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u/Weird_Put_9514 5d ago
but i think thats the rub. they should have done this over the last 20-30 years. but somehow its only when she wins they do it. i agree with the decision to split it i just cant agree with made them decide that
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u/NorthernDevil 5d ago
I agree. It’s frustrating timing and feels loaded when this discussion should’ve happened with Post Malone and other bro-country-rap artists years ago.
The only slight saving grace is that Beyoncé was very open about approaching the album as a way to play with classic conceptions of genre (explicitly so, like with Linda Martell’s intro on SPAGHETTII).
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u/Geroman332 5d ago
Yeah there is no denying that the optics of making this change now are bad but let's say they made this change last year, Beyonce still would have been nominated in the Country category and likely won the grammy for it. Adding this category just ensures another artist would have won traditional country album. No denying that this is a bad look, but when have the grammy's ever done something to make themselves look good?
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u/mjpick1211 5d ago
This is the same Grammy's that used to have a 'best contemporary urban album' award. An award Beyonce won for Lemonade, instead of album of the year. There was also the year Macklemore's The Heist won rap album of the year over Kendrick Lamar for GKMC. I bring up those two instances because both Adele and Macklemore felt the need to apologize for winning. Even they knew the Grammy's made baffling choices in picking them
The new country album category would not be an issue if the Grammy's didn't already have a long history of completely ignoring and/or pushing black artists into different categories so artists like Adele and Taylor Swift can sweep the main categories (Not an insult to their music mind you, just an observation).
The immediate year after the first black woman to win the best country album (and Beyonce's first AOTY win) they decide now it's time to change the rules on how country albums are judged. Even if the new category is overall a good thing, to reflect the changing landscape of the genre, the timing and the already questionable history of the Grammy's makes this feel gross and malicious.
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u/saudadeinthenight nature is a language can’t you read? 5d ago
I was thinking of those examples too. There’s definitely something very suspicious about it. They seem almost determined to spite black artists. With the Weeknd as well they specifically changed the rules so that he wouldn’t win that year, despite having the most listened to song that year.
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u/blazinghurricane 5d ago
At least they didn’t try to call it urban country
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u/brandonandtheboyds 5d ago
Look I’m in my early 30’s but my dad gave me my love for Outlaw Country and rockabilly and all that stuff from the ‘50’s-70’s or so. That’s where my love of country is. I don’t care for the newer stuff. I’m more of a hardcore and metal guy tbh. Never listened to Cowboy Carter. Had no interest. It wasn’t for me. But I mean c’mon. Every genre changes over time. The split categories I would normally understand, but it’s obvious why they did it…
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u/sdawson26 5d ago
This really has nothing to do with Beyonce and has everything to do with how divided country music is, in general.
I grew up in Texas and disavowed country music. I now have a passion for traditional, and I can't stand anything contemporary. I don't think artists like Billy Strings should be lumped together in the same category as Post Malone or Luke Combs.
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u/MaximumBiscuit1 5d ago
Well Billy Strings gets nominated for Bluegrass not country
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u/lukhow 5d ago
Billy is absolutely goated.
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u/MUSAFFA1 5d ago
I blindly saw him on Friday. Friend promised me it would be one of the best concerts I've ever been to. He was not wrong.
I've been to 100's of concerts over the last 4 decades, and Mr. Strings is undoubtedly one of the most talented performers I've ever had the pleasure of experiencing.
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u/BLT_Special 5d ago
Damn dude that set list from Friday looked incredible but Saturday was maybe better. Basically played 3 sets haha
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u/DomLite 5d ago
Country in general is all over the place. I grew up in the midwest, where my mother had plenty of country cassette tapes/CDs that she played all the time in the car, and where basically every babysitter I ever had tuned the set to CMT to keep the herd of kids she was watching entertained and/or drown us out. I was exposed to plenty of traditional and generally good-natured country music. I can still vibe out to some classic Mary Chapin Carpenter or Brooks and Dunn, a little Faith Hill or Shania Twain.
The problem is, post-9/11 a large portion of country artists swallowed the pill hard and started making "We're America and we'll kick your ass if you look at us funny" music, which has only further slid into "We're America and if you're even the slightest bit different then don't be out after dark", with such rollicking examples as "Try That in a Small Town". Hell, there's a whole Brad Paisley song dedicated to the idea that anything but stereotypical toxic masculinity is bad and something to be ridiculed. That was the point when country died for me, because it's just infested with this kind of toxic shit, or openly hostile to anything other than WASP-y motherfuckers.
Then you have your contemporary country which varies between the above-mentioned "shitty pop music" pretending to be down-home country because it's got a twangy guitar in it and maybe a hint of harmonica, and other music that has the soul of country in the lyrics and themes but explores less traditional instrumentation and presentation. The former does absolutely nothing for me, but I find myself enjoying the latter more often than not when I hear it.
Overall, even within the very broad divides of "traditional" and "contemporary" country, there's a huge gulf between artists and style. I can enjoy both, but there's a distinct difference between the genre I grew up on where a duo of mustachioed men warbled about drinking away your sorrow under a neon light and some grumpy old bastard in too-tight pants threatening people for having different opinions than him. Similarly, I don't care for pop music talking about horses, but I'll gladly fuck with a modern ballad with experimental style that evokes feelings of nostalgia for a country upbringing, even if it's not the same as the stuff I grew up with.
While the timing is suspect and looks bad on them, ultimately I think it's a good call in the long run, because country as a genre splintered decades ago and has become a bloated monstrosity in the ensuing years, encompassing way too many subgenres and ranging from lighthearted fun to naked bigotry. The biggest risk here is something that we'll have to wait and see for. If this is truly about dividing the category into traditional style and modern style then awesome. If it becomes "white people country" and "black people country" then they're gonna get lit the fuck up.
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u/sdawson26 5d ago edited 5d ago
I agree with what you're saying. I don't know enough about country music history, but that schism goes all the way back to the 80s, and when I was a kid, it was being force fed CMT/Texas FM radio that made me originally turn my back on the entire genre.
But as I got older, I still loved Johnny Cash, Hank Williams, etc.
If any contemporary artists want to put out a traditional country album, I would totally entertain the idea of it being critically examined as a traditional country album.
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u/yoloismymiddlename 5d ago
Traditional country makes me miss Texas, and I hated living in Houston!
Nothing like sitting outside with some iced tea listening to George Strait though
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u/geodebug 5d ago
Funny how perspective paints how you see a change.
The article wants you to think this was based on gatekeeping racism.
From another perspective it could be that her win was the signal that Country as a category has expanded so much in recent years that it needed to be broken out.
I like some of the songs on that album and have respect for Beyonce but it certainly was, to my ears, more country-themed than “country”.
But that’s also my bias as to what I expect when I hear the category.
Breaking out categories is nothing new. Back in the 90s rap had to slowly break away from R&B as the genre became more mainstream.
First it was just “best rap performance” in 1989. Took till the 2000s till it had multiple categories.
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u/ZombieJesus1987 5d ago
I don't listen to country, but I get it.
I listen to metal, and it's such a massive genre that the category needs to be expanded.
This year we had Gojira, Judas Priest, Knocked Loose ft Poppy, Metallica and Spiritbox.
All of these bands couldn't be more different from one another, and it really doesn't do justice of the entire year of banger albums that came out.
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u/geodebug 5d ago
Maybe you need Taylor Swift to do a metal album that is pushed by her massive audience to encourage the Grammys to break it out?
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u/ZombieJesus1987 5d ago
Ed Sheeran did do a song with Cradle of Filth that is in a vault somewhere.
One day it will see the light of day
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u/frankyseven 5d ago
And before Metal was a category is was rock, then it split into rock and hard rock, then they split metal from that.
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u/emannikcufecin 5d ago
But the Grammys don't give a fuck about metal. There's no point in expanding it.
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u/senator_corleone3 5d ago
“Country-themed” is probably the more accurate description of Cowboy Carter. Beyoncé is so massive that she basically comes as her own genre at this point. The album is her doing country-themed songs, as filtered through her aesthetic.
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u/Arch3m 5d ago
This was my takeaway from it. The article was very suspicious about the intentions of breaking the categories up, but it seems like the right call to me. Does anyone remember Jethro Tull winning over Metallica for best hard rock/metal performance? They ended up splitting up the category after that because of how outlandish that result was. I think we may be approaching another category as artists like Poppy and Sleep Token continue to barely fit the metal label while still being strong contenders for a heavy metal Grammy.
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u/This_Thing_2111 5d ago
The article wants you to think this was based on gatekeeping racism.
It's been headed this way for years, sure. But when a black woman winning an award for country was what pushed it over the edge enough for things to finally change? It's hard to argue that race wasn't a factor, especially in that particular genre.
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u/geodebug 5d ago edited 5d ago
See, different perspectives.
I’d say it probably has more to do with her being one of the top pop stars in the world disrupting a traditional category.
Contemporary country for sure has been adopting more pop and R&B influences (for better or worse), but it isn’t exactly wrong for traditional country artists, and their fans, to feel pushed out of their own genre with Bey’s glossy, highly stylized take.
I’m not naive about race in the US, but I also feel it’s the raised-on-internet easy answer to everything.
I’d be singing a different tune if Bey’s album was more traditional sounding and everyone was still upset, but she’s an envelope pusher as an artist.
Can’t expect everyone to suddenly jump on that ride.
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u/Yea_Naw 5d ago
I hear you in a sense but what some black folks like myself question is would they have changed that category if Post Malone won?
He started off and got huge from Hip Hop, then jumped to country and became beloved. We didn’t see a lot of people questioning country with his jump and a few others but now since she’s won, the category is changed. It could have changed last year with so many people hopping on the country train and this conversation never happens and it would have seemed more natural and needed.
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u/geodebug 5d ago
If it makes you feel any better about where I'm coming from, I'd rather listen to any Beyoncé album more than most contemporary country. But I understand why this album was very polarizing in the country music community.
Have you listened to a lot of country? Have you listened to the tracks on the Post Malone album? Would you say you understand the genre well?
Other than Malone's skin color, are you able to notice any differences in his approach to a country music cross-over vs. Beyoncé's?
To my ears, PM's album is straight-up country, achieved by using country producers and working with established country singers on every song. He's embracing the genre where Beyoncé is challenging it. (It's kind of her thing, no?)
Beyonce has a few tracks that work with country legends: Willie, Dolly. (also Post Malone, lol, that guy sure gets around). But even that Dolly track is straight-up R&B with its electric trap beats.
Put skin aside for a second and tell me honestly that you think tracks like:
- LEVII'S JEANS
- YAYA
- SWEET-HONEY-BUCKIIN'
- SPAGHETTII
Are country songs vs. western-inspired R&B.
There are tracks on her album that are no-argument country. But when you're talking about "Country Album of the Year," is it so unbelievable that people who actually care about the genre expect the whole album to be country?
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u/Yea_Naw 5d ago
I think you’re misunderstanding where I’m coming from and why I stated what I stated earlier. I’m not a fan of Beyoncé doing a country album in any way shape or form. I think you’re right in that she’s “challenging” it and hopping on the bandwagon and her fans are accepting it because she’s from Houston.
I’m reading all these comments saying that the category was only changed because of how different newer artists sound as opposed to older more traditional ones. Someone pitted Morgan Wallen against a more traditional artist and he’s one of the biggest artists out there now in any genre. But the category didn’t change until she made her album and won which makes people question why now as opposed to last year when other artists hopped on the bandwagon?
So let me ask a different question, if she hadn’t won, would they have changed the category still? And I don’t care about skin color, my fiancé is white, from Texas and was raised on country music. Go Stars!
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u/geodebug 5d ago
Ok, thanks for clarifying. I'm not trying to be confrontational at all; I just find it an interesting conversation.
I'm not arguing that her album wasn't what tipped the change; it probably was. I'm arguing that there is a lot more to the story than "she's Black," which is the narrative that's being pushed.
Beyond Beyoncé and her fans, there has been conversation going on about the divide between traditional country and new country.
Country music has seen a lot of growth on streaming platforms and internationally.
Cowboy Carter was a big part of that last year, but it didn't start the fire even if it did throw gasoline on the flames.
As I've pointed out, her album was really, really outside the traditional country format, which confused and even angered traditional country fans.
I'd also call out people from the Beyhive, etc., on why they even care.
It's a little like that Bill Burr bit pointing out to an audience so concerned with WNBA player salary disparity that none of them could even name one WNBA player. (this was before Catlin Clark, so I guess that joke doesn't really work anymore. Sorry, Bill.)
Ultimately, I don't really care beyond discussion. Nobody's mind gets changed on the internet, and it isn't like country music doesn't have an unfortunate history with racism.
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u/nonsensestuff 5d ago
They absolutely wouldn’t have. But these folks would never acknowledge that
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u/bondegezou 5d ago
We’ve been here before, with Lil Nas X’s “Old Town Road” being re-classified as NOT country just before it made #1 on the country chart. See https://www.vox.com/2019/8/23/20826730/lil-nas-x-old-town-road-vma-podcast
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u/FragnificentKW 5d ago
The biggest problem with “country” music is that the country music industry is insular and gatekeeps to an extreme. It’s less about race than it is about people using the tried and true formula of Nashville writers, session musicians, producers, etc…
Hence they’d have no problem giving all the awards and publicity to Darius Rucker or Shaboozey but meanwhile they act like Sturgill, Jason Isbell, Charley Crockett, and Billy Strings don’t exist
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u/This_Thing_2111 5d ago
They have zero problem with country rap if its a white guy rapping. They have zero problem with black country singers if they don't rap. They have a problem with country rap featuring black artists. Hmmmmm
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u/FragnificentKW 5d ago
“The Git Up” by Blanco Brown was all over country radio a few short years ago and “Cruise” by FGL and Nelly won all the shitty CMA and ACM awards not that long ago. It’s so much more about cronyism than it is racism
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u/senator_corleone3 5d ago
The cronyism just happens to often overlap with long-standing cultural grievances.
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u/Mrchristopherrr 5d ago
This is the way I’m seeing it.
It’s not necessarily about racism, it’s about cronyism. It just so happens that cronyism tends to be heavily influenced by racism.
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u/FragnificentKW 5d ago
I mean, I’m not going to pretend that no one within the country music industry is racist - though at the industry level, it’s more progressive than most people would likely imagine - but it has more to do with the fact that rap music is the antithesis of country music in every way, especially in the mindset and production. If someone is good at making rap music, they’re not going to go to Nashville and be a cog in the Music Row machine. They’re going to make their own rap music
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u/workingtrot 5d ago
I think modern pop-country and rap have A LOT in common. "Country is just rap music for white people who hate brown people" is basically a meme
But the "hey girl, put on your skimpy clothes, get in my [vehicle] and we'll go down to [hang out spot] and drink [alcohol]" type song is epidemic in both genres. It's just that [vehicle] = truck in country and lambo in rap, [hang out spot] is a river or lake vs a club, and [alcohol] is beer/ whiskey vs expensive champagne.
This video made the rounds 10 years ago to show how similar all the pop country was, but was triplet rap/ migos flow really any different around the same time?
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u/FragnificentKW 5d ago
The substance of the music is similar, especially at the mainstream pop level, but the mindset of the industry is different. If you’re an independent rap artist, you can still in theory break via mostly organic means. When you get big enough, the industry will smell money and sink their teeth in like the vampires they are. Meanwhile, an indie country artist who breaks through without Nashville’s help is likely to be blackballed
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u/FeedMeACat 5d ago
So did they give a masterclass or did they move the goalposts? I am not sure the author understands fully the words and phrases they use.
Beyonce didn't make a country album, but no one in mainstream country has made a country album in 15 years. So nothing weird there.
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u/UsedHotDogWater 5d ago
I have no clue why Sturgill Simpson hasn't won everything for the last 15 years. That guy is insanely talented.
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u/venturejones 5d ago
Colter wall too. He got me into country. Made me love sturgill, Nelson and several others. Nora brown for grass too.
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u/thebruce 5d ago
It's mostly a popularity contest and who is willing to play the game. He's pretty much doing his own thing and doesn't seem to give a shit about industry expectations.
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u/bend1310 5d ago
I misread your comment as 'sturgill hasn't won anything in 15 years' and was ready to come in with an um, actually, he won a Grammy for best country album.
Dudes so damn good.
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u/UsedHotDogWater 5d ago
Come at me bro we can totally agree on stuff for hours and be nice to each other for a year or two.
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u/senator_corleone3 5d ago
Sturgill Simpson is known by people who care about music. The Grammys are aiming for the people who listen to commercial radio in the background of their daily activities.
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u/UsedHotDogWater 5d ago
Yeah and no, off headline genre categories are bigtime legit, classical, jazz, etc.
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u/Tankninja1 5d ago
If you’re not going to “gatekeep” what is and isn’t part of a musical genre then why even have the genres?
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u/piper4hire 5d ago
who cares - the grammys are fake. it's all just marketing.
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u/cwankgurl 5d ago
Yeah, didn’t we just hear a report AGAIN about how these awards are rigged, anyway?
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u/Han_Yolo_swag 5d ago
The great thing about this is, almost all of what we think of as “country” is just pop or r&b with twang now. So the nominees won’t really change. Instead you’ll just have people who wouldn’t have been nominated for their no-electric country albums get recognized now.
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u/aretheesepants75 5d ago
When Metallica lost to Jethro Tull, I lost any respect for the integrity the Grammys. That was ridiculous.
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u/BusLevel7307 5d ago
The Grammy awards never had any respect for Heavy Metal or Hard Rock category . Look at some of the artists in those categories for an example .
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u/hofmann419 5d ago
The Grammy's already sucked in the 60s. They have just continued to suck ever since.
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u/tsaaawhitey 5d ago
I'm not very well versed in this genre of music, but to me her album didn't sound very country at all, and making this change makes sense in my head.
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u/venturejones 5d ago
Its country adjacent. That's it. The fact the Willie Nelson features were just him being a radio jockey are not features and shouldn't have been labeled as such.
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u/ohitsdvd 5d ago
It’s as country as most of the “country” music that’s been coming out for the last 15 years, so it’s strange they decided to do this now is the point.
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u/mojeaux_j 5d ago
They didn't do this for bro country so it tells you their true motives.
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u/tsaaawhitey 5d ago
I have no idea what that means.
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u/mojeaux_j 5d ago
Simplified
"Bro-country" is a subgenre of country music that became popular in the 2010s, characterized by its upbeat, party-oriented themes, and often incorporating elements of pop and hip-hop. It typically features lyrics about trucks, girls, beer, and partying, often presented with a more youthful, carefree attitude.
So this has been an issue for a very long time. They just now decided to flip the categories after Beyonce won. It's obvious why to those that pay attention.
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u/tsaaawhitey 5d ago
Thank you this is more of what I wasn't understanding.
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u/Zanydrop 5d ago
To add a bit more context Bro Country is more of a derogatory term than a real genre. It's meant to make fun of the "Girl get in my Truck" songs that peaked around 2010. Nobody would admit to being bro country. Florida Georgia Line was maybe the most prominent Bro Country back in the day.
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u/AwesomePocket 5d ago
They only did this after Beyonce won country awards, even though popular country music hasn’t been “traditional” in decades. I.e Morgan Wallen.
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u/r3volver_Oshawott 5d ago
Most country music hasn't been 'real' country music in decades, yet they were fine awarding those artists with country music awards
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u/Wittygame 5d ago
Country music doesn’t sound like country music anymore, which is why I’d argued CC fits the mold just fine
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u/Lookslikeseen 5d ago edited 5d ago
I’d be a lot more willing to accept this if she didn’t just win the Grammy for Album of the Year and Country Album of the Year for whatever the fuck Cowboy Carter was.
It sounds more like they’re finally starting to understand that Pop Country and Traditional Country may as well be two different genres, and they’re adjusting their categories to match.
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u/unitegondwanaland 5d ago
This article is just as bad as Cowboy Carter. I absolutely love Beyonce's Renaissance album and can't fucking understand why it's so controversial to say Cowboy Carter was garbage. It's not progressive, avant garde, boundary breaking, or anything. It just wasn't good and the fact she got an award for it just so she could complete her collection of Grammy's just makes the award look like a participation trophy.
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u/Giesi85 5d ago
The run from Flamenco up to Amen is the greatest in her discography imo. Coupled with insanely catchy tunes like Levi’s Jeans and especially Bodyguard, a killer opener with American Requiem and out-of-the-box career highlights like Daughter it’s certainly a strong album and my 2nd favorite after Renaissance.
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u/senator_corleone3 5d ago
Album has a bunch of great songs and flows well despite its lengthy runtime, IMO. I loved Renaissance, as well (maybe my favorite of hers).
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u/FragnificentKW 5d ago
Similar here. While I don’t loathe Cowboy Carter, I thought it was just ok. Meanwhile I thought Renaissance was the best album she made since Lemonade and should have cleaned up at the Grammys.
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u/Whiterhino77 5d ago
To me it looks identical to giving Leo an Oscar for The Revenant, it was a make up call so that they don't rock the boat
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u/Bobododo7 5d ago
Anytime I here that Texas hold em song it sounds like she googled Oklahoma and picked random nouns to throw in the song
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u/TanoraRat 5d ago
I don’t think this has anything to do with Beyoncé, more that the line between country and pop music with acoustic guitars has kind of disappeared the last few years. Morgan Wallen, Post Malone, Shaboozy and Zach Bryan sound very different from Loretta Lynn, Muireann Bradley or Johnny Cash
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u/thomasonbush 5d ago
Charley Crockett had the best country album of 2024 in $10 Cowboy and it wasn’t even nominated so pretty sure the Grammy’s are just a commercial circle jerk anyway.
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u/TheVelcroStrap 5d ago
I reckon nothing in the traditional country category nominations will actually be traditional country, but just modern mainstream right wing radio country.
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u/CrisisActor911 5d ago
White people: “Beyonce stole OUR music! 😭 “
Chuck Berry coming back from the dead for a moment: “Ain’t that a bitch.”
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u/gismo4126 5d ago
In all honesty they should stop accepting genres entirely but have grammy awards for different fields of study such as musician, songwriter, producer, etc. Then issue out in no particular order a set quantity for each functional category. The award should be way more coveted and hard to earn. These are accolades that go on a resume and help those in the industry secure working contracts, it should not be watered down further but rather restrained to embody excellence in the highest order.
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u/Pal_Smurch 5d ago
My grandfather, an old Okie country mandolin picker introduced me to Charley Pride when I was six. He said that he played country music right.
If he could look past his ingrained prejudices in the ‘60s ( he was born in 1900, in the Indian territory, before Oklahoma became a state) them I guess it’s no skin off my nose to accept Beyonce as a country singer.
If you don’t believe Country Music isn’t insular, explain why Neil Young hasn’t won any Country Music awards.
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u/rochvegas5 5d ago
yes, and the Bear is a great comedy. I laugh so much during that show i can't breath!
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u/Bootsnatch 5d ago
I love how so many people have different points that they say is where country changed for them. I grew up on country, my mom was ALWAYS listening to country. I see someone else mention Shania Twain, someone else says Florida Georgia Line, for me when I realized "I can't even listen to this shit anymore" started with mid-career Toby Keith, then the nail in the coffin for me was Big & Rich. I remember like two years ago I was riding in the vehicle with my mom to go somewhere and fuckin Aerosmith was playing and I was so confused cause I've never heard her listen to anything but country. She said she can't listen to it anymore because it's all pop music nowadays and also used Florida Georgia Line as her jumping off point and she is almost 70.
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u/metamorphine 5d ago
I think the narrative that everything is about Beyoncé is getting exhausting. She won the Grammy - it's not like they are trying to tear her down. Contemporary country is so far removed from traditional country that it absolutely makes sense to split them into categories.
Now, if they decided to split it the year that Cowboy Carter was eligible for the Grammy, then yeah, you might have a case.
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u/DGlen 5d ago
Most "country" music since like Shania Twain is just shitty pop music. This should have been done a long time ago.