Beyonce “Snubbed” by the CMA Awards? My Ass.
You first have to mean something to country music before you can get snubbed by it. You don’t hear baseball players whining they did win the Heisman.
On Wednesday (8-31), the nominees for the 2016 CMA Awards were announced, and subsequently the story turned to who got snubbed, as per normal after most nominee announcements for awards. Some think that up-and-coming artists Sturgill Simpson and Margo Price got disrespected after it was revealed they were in early contention for the nominations but didn’t make the final cut. Others see a glaring omission in The Voice coach Blake Shelton receiving no love, or massive concert draw Jason Aldean getting left out, or country music’s EDM maestro Sam Hunt seeing no action.
But in a society where everyone is aggressively on the lookout for reasons to be offended and to call out gross injustices that only exist because someone decides they should, guess whose fans are creating an internet furor because country music had the lily white audacity to snub her for an award she doesn’t deserve, never should have been in the running for, was never even pursuing, and for a song that is not only not country, but was never even released to country radio.
Yes I’m talking about the Queen Bea herself—Beyonce.
On Beyonce’s latest record Lemonade there’s a song called “Daddy Lessons.” And because someone screams “Yee Haw!” and she says “Texas” a few times, apparently that qualifies it as country. And this is the idea the press has been trumpeting ever since the song hit the streets, including by the supposedly objective and non bias Associated Press, who was even saying when the song was released in May…
The song could even qualify for CMA’s song of the year or single of the year awards if it charts in the top 50 of a Billboard country singles chart by the end of June. And there’s no requirement for being known as a country artist for Beyonce to be nominated for female vocalist of the year.
Even then the press was setting the table to characterize country music as a bunch of racist, closed-minded hicks if a non-country song from a non-country artist didn’t receive a CMA Award, or at least a nomination.
And now all of that has come to roost.
Writing for Fusion, journalist John Walker states,
Musically, the track draws on country, folk, soul, and other genres made popular by Black American musicians in the 19th and 20th centuries. One could argue that, in doing so, Beyoncé was attempting to reclaim these styles from the Elvis Presleys, Iggy Azaleas, and countless other white entertainers who decontextualized them in the decades that followed, even if her efforts fell on deaf ears throughout many corners of Nashville … Perhaps not unrelated, the 2016 CMA Award nominees are almost entirely all white.
How exactly would Beyonce be reclaiming country music from decades of decontextualizing from Iggy Azalea, or even Elvis Presley? Once again, the issue of Millennial intellectual think piece pundits who only know country music from the outside looking in comes to the forefront.
Check out some of the other ridiculous notions buzzing around the Beahive:
Carrie Underwood probably threatened the CMA people because she knew Beyoncé was coming for her country throne https://t.co/CG1PdFvz1L
— ♕ (@beytrash) August 31, 2016
dolly parton should give beyonce her CMA for daddy lessons https://t.co/N6vU8w4raw
— ️️️ (@BeyIconic) August 30, 2016
In fairness, none of the furor appears to be coming from Beyonce herself, at least at the moment. But why would she get her hands dirty when her sycophants and surrogates in the press and the celebrity Stan culture can infuriate social media with manufactured hatred in an attempt to divide us among racial and cultural lines?
This has nothing to do with race, it has to do with licking Beyonce’s ass in celebrity worship run amuck, while using race to make windmill tilting arguments. God himself could come down and declare that “Daddy Lessons” isn’t country and unfit for a CMA Award, and the Beehive, both affiliated and unaffiliated with the celebrity press, still wouldn’t believe it. This isn’t just insanity, it is abject idolatry.
You want to know who got snubbed for CMA Awards? How about Rhiannon Giddens, who’s arguably the best singer in country music, Carrie Underwood, Cuban-American Raul Malo, and Canadian-born New Zealander Tami Neilson notwithstanding.
This is country music’s African roots, black and beautiful.
Meanwhile what is Beyonce doing? Screaming “Yee Haw!” in “Daddy Lessons”? That’s the most stereotypical of stereotypical country music reductive bullshit possible, and cultural appropriation by definition.
Does country music have a racial diversity problem? Of course it does. But claiming Beyonce has any business winning a CMA Award, especially Female Vocalist of the Year, doesn’t help that cause, it flies in the face of it. It makes the issue seem like one about symbolism as opposed to finding artists from diverse backgrounds that can offer substantive and insightful perspectives to the genre to enhance the overall quality and diversity of the music. Country awards are meant for country artists, not for some exorbitantly rich and successful superstar carpetbagger coming in to abscond with accolades meant for artists who’ve actually devoted their lives to the country music craft.
Beyonce got subbed by the CMA’s you say? Yeah, fuck off. This remains a non issue.
mike2
August 31, 2016 @ 6:23 pm
All hail beyonce.
HayesCarll2323
August 31, 2016 @ 6:31 pm
This is the world we live in. Beyonce is a joke and I can’t stand her, same goes for the media.
Matt
August 31, 2016 @ 6:34 pm
I’m a huge Beyonce fan, I love country music, I think those tweets are just a bunch of people having fun being overly obsessive fans (which is a Twitter forte), but DAMN that paragraph from Fusion you quoted is one of the stupidest things I’ve ever seen. The article is ostensibly about country and yet he slips folk and soul in there for no reason whatsoever. Beyonce wasn’t reclaiming anything, she was nodding to the music of her father’s region (personally, I think the song is more blues rock than anything). Elvis? Fucking Iggy Azalea? What is that dude talking about?
Trigger
August 31, 2016 @ 6:44 pm
I’ve got no problem with Beyonce, her music, or even “Daddy Lessons” specifically. I also can’t claim to know much about her music, but I do know “Daddy Lessons” is not a country song no matter how much they want to construe it. And that’s fine. I think it’s great that there are different styles of music and that we all like different things. Diversity is important in music. But the idea, first planted in the public by The Associated Press, that Beyonce is somehow due a CMA is the most ridiculous country music notion I’ve ever seen.
Matt
August 31, 2016 @ 6:56 pm
Oh yeah, it’s undeniably stupid from the start. And even if it was a country song it’s not even that good.
Although not being country and not being good has rarely stopped the CMAs before.
nascarfan999
August 31, 2016 @ 9:21 pm
Way more country than Sam Hunt. The music at times actually reminds me of American Kids. Based on that, it wouldn’t be shocking to me if it was considered country. My problem with all of this is as you quoted a song has to crack the top 50 of the country chart to qualify and that did not happen. Thus the only award one could nominate her for is Female Vocalist, and I don’t see how anyone can think 1 song that kinda sounds country (as most people define country today, right or wrong) on an otherwise non country album can qualify her for the award, especially since the 1 song wasn’t promoted as country or to country radio.
At least now I guess I can say I’ve intentionally sought out and listened to a Beyonce song in my lifetime. Cross that one off the bucket list.
Adrian
September 1, 2016 @ 9:57 pm
Beyonce’s music is not country and of course it does not deserve a country music award.
I think the comments that she was “snubbed” might reflect a perception among some people that “country” music has become more of an artifact of white racial identity, than a music genre. Part of this perception is probably the result of the increasing racial polarization of this country in recent years, unlike the utopian perspective envisioned in Brad Paisley’s “Welcome to the Future”. Unfortunately a big part of this perception is also due to the choices that the country music industry has made in recent years. When Nashville keeps releasing and rewarding songs that are not musically country, including EDM and rap influenced “bro country” singles performed by white guys, it is giving some credence to the theory that the genre is more about racial identity than musical style.
Marshaye
November 4, 2016 @ 3:57 am
Fyi, “Black People” invented this so called country music and the fact that your culture seems to copy and paste others accomplishments time after time is nothing new. Fiddling and ect I guess the white slaves brought it back from Africa and Egypt or maybe the harmonica and folk music that slaves would perform among themselves were all and illusion, who knows? I’m certain of its origins and there is overwhelming evidence of the truth just look it up. Hahaha! WHITES “, invented country folk music is by as funny as you thinking rock and roll and classical music came from your culture as well. …. The gd “Fiddlers and banjos ” should have given you ignorant, pathetic, pitiful self-serving magic stealing people the easiest clue of its origins more than anything else. …
JC Eldredge
August 31, 2016 @ 6:41 pm
I know she’s not exactly your normal artist type, but it’s Queen Bey and the Beyhive. Just a little FYI ? That aside, she isn’t country, shouldn’t have been nominated, and why does every damn thing have to be made into a race issue now? If we’re nitpicking, about half of the trash on the country top 40 would have qualified as hip-hop, but you didn’t see Thomas Rhett’s couple of fans whining about it.
Trigger
August 31, 2016 @ 7:05 pm
That’s the thing. I know very little about Beyonce, just as her fans and pop journalists know very little about country music. That’s why when they come together, there’s inherently conflict and misunderstanding. That’s why the idea that all of music should just be in one big blob is fantasy. It isn’t deading to diversity. It is killing diversity and causing conflict. I don’t want to hate on Beyonce. My guess is she’s probably pretty good at what she does. But she doesn’t belong in the nominating pool of the CMA Awards.
JC Eldredge
August 31, 2016 @ 7:24 pm
Another problem is that she has been elevated into some type of otherworldly goddess by fans and pop media. Don’t get me wrong, she is very talented and puts on some epic performances, but her fans need to realize that she isn’t everyone’s cup of tea and that her “kingdom” doesn’t include country music. Her twitter trolls are more aggressive than Trumps, 1D’s and Beibers combined and they will absolutely beat this to death and I guarantee start some Carrie Underwood is a racist bullshit when she had nothing to do with who was nominated.
Corncaster
August 31, 2016 @ 6:41 pm
Beyonce, lol. Enough already. “Next” is way overdue.
Martha
August 31, 2016 @ 7:17 pm
I was actually watching that Rhiannon Giddens video on you tube just last night. She is just so amazing to me. Love to listen to her.
Gena R.
September 1, 2016 @ 7:49 am
Yep, great voice. 🙂
Justin
August 31, 2016 @ 7:29 pm
Don’t worry Trigger I’m sure Beyonce will duet with Miranda Lambert or Carrie Underwood to do a version of her “country song.” I was just joking but wasn’t the CMA’s that paired Lambert with Meghan Trainor for the country standard “All About That Bass (no treble)?” You know we do have to have a duet with a non-country artist on the show. Although many times it is the washed up non country artist too (Lionel Richie, James Taylor, etc.)….
ElectricOutcast
August 31, 2016 @ 7:41 pm
Speaking of which, I don’t know if it’s just me but lately I’ve been trying to do some things on Facebook lately and one of the things I’ve been noticing in some fan pages, is that I’ve been looking at some comments on those fan pages, like Fitness Models for example, and the way some of those comments have been posted, you’d feel like the people who’d typed those comments lost a million IQ points.
Another big example I can give is when I’d be hanging around Garth Brooks’ fan page for “Inside Studio G” I’d be looking at the chat stream of that thing and I feel like I’m in a room full of Kindergartners to the point where if I watch Garth on my Facebook app on my phone, I’d have to swipe the chat away just so I can preserve my brain cells.
Bottom line: Social Media is making it hard for me to find actual smart people anymore.
Bill
August 31, 2016 @ 7:43 pm
For fucks sake…
Scott S.
August 31, 2016 @ 8:42 pm
Maybe we will get a Kanye West sighting at the CMAs.
Shastacatfish
August 31, 2016 @ 8:49 pm
Obviously this is stupid but this is sort of what country deserves. When you break down the standards and the blur the lines of what is and is not country you open the door for this kind of thing to happen. Until the good ship country music corrects course and finds its way again, this will not be an isolated incident.
seak05
August 31, 2016 @ 9:18 pm
also when every person nominated for awards is white, nearly everyone in all the bands is white, all the execs are white, the producers are white etc (& please, please don’t construe this as me saying Daddy’s lesson’s is country or should have been nominated, just that county earned it’s reputation for having a lack of racial diversity honestly, and that means it’s more open to those types of attacks).
Truthseeker destroys PC
September 1, 2016 @ 7:36 am
And Rap and hip hop could be construed as having a lack of diversity as well. What’s the problem with that? Who freaking cares??!!!!!???!!
See my comment below.
seak05
September 1, 2016 @ 9:10 am
I mean, both hip hop and r&b have seen more successful white performers recently than country has African-American. And when white people do find success in hip hop & R&B they often get more acclaim than perhaps their work deserves, see Macklemore. So really that’s a fairly poor comparison
Fat Freddy's Cat
September 1, 2016 @ 8:07 am
So there are crowds of African-American country singers being shut out of awards? How many?
I can’t speak to the overall data on country music listeners, but while I do know individual African-Americans who like country music they’re kinda rare. I don’t think they’re being excluded; I think they aren’t that interested.
Jack Williams
September 1, 2016 @ 8:34 am
And some that do like the music are afraid to admit it. I’m reminded of an interview I saw with Rhiannon Giddens where she talked about how sometimes black people would come up to her after a show and admit that they “always liked country music.” She then chuckled and said “well, I’m glad I gave you permission.”
I remember one time at work hearing a conversation between a black man and woman in an adjacent cubicle. The woman had something on her wall that would identify her as a Loretta Lynn fan. The man noticed it and she said something like “I’m a country bumpkin.” And then he said “That’s just sad.” He seemed like a good guy, but he had such a negative view of country music that even Loretta Lynn was just some country singer to him.
seak05
September 1, 2016 @ 9:13 am
yep, it’s probably fair to remember that a large percentage of the rural population in the south is African-American and that country and soul music have a lot of the same roots. But country music has been so stereotyped as white (& also “rebel” flag raising) that it serves as a deterrent. I’m also not sure why the number of African-American listeners should have any bearing on the number of African-Americans country singers who deserve to get awards?
Jack Williams
September 1, 2016 @ 9:37 am
And who would those African-American country singers be?
Fat Freddy's Cat
September 1, 2016 @ 10:37 am
It wouldn’t have a direct bearing on those who deserve awards; rather, if few African-Americans ever have the desire to be country singers, then there probably won’t be many candidates for awards.
albert
August 31, 2016 @ 11:06 pm
‘Obviously this is stupid but this is sort of what country deserves. When you break down the standards and the blur the lines of what is and is not country you open the door for this kind of thing to happen. Until the good ship country music corrects course and finds its way again, this will not be an isolated incident. ‘
Right f***** on Shasta . You reap what you sow . This is why we get Hunt singing’ House Party’, or whatever the hell that is , to a brainwashed audience who thinks THAT’S country music . The powers that be understand this only too well which is why they focus marketing on an audience chasing whatever is deemed hip .
Acca Dacca
September 1, 2016 @ 6:36 pm
That’s actually a very insightful way to put it. If we rolled the clock back to the early ’90s there’s no way in hell anybody would be claiming that Beyonce’s song is country next to what was on the radio then. I’d even say there’d be some hope if we rolled it back just a decade to the mid-2000s when neo-traditionalism was gasping its last breath (so far). Blech.
seak05
August 31, 2016 @ 9:22 pm
I mean I sometimes hang out on Stan twitter as a sociology experiment, and I haven’t really seen that. Stan twitter for pop stars is a very scary place. Most of the social media backlash I’ve seen has been about Blake getting snubbed, and on boards like this one about Brandy, Sturgill, and Margo. Frankly I think both of those groups have a point.
Lindsey
August 31, 2016 @ 9:27 pm
Those bunch of idiots. Obviously, 99.9% of the time, the ones screaming “racist” are the racists themselves. Nobody else gives a fuckin flyin shit what they are, except that they’re pissing the rest of us off (and eventually someone will put a stop to their nonsense).
Anyway, I’m sure she could sing circles around some of the performers at the awards, but it’s not where she’s ever wanted to belong. Therefore, she doesn’t belong. There’s nothing wrong with that, either.
KathyP
August 31, 2016 @ 9:37 pm
So is Beyonce’s “diss” a micro agression or a macro agression? I get confused with all this diversity and PC bullshit. As for Sam Hunt getting shut out, maybe he’s just clearing the trail for FGL to join him in has-been land? One can only hope.
Dane
August 31, 2016 @ 10:55 pm
Awwwww man, you done smacked the beyhive! Run for them Thar hills!
Gena R.
September 1, 2016 @ 7:45 am
The Beygency is gonna getcha! 😉
Kevin
September 1, 2016 @ 1:25 am
Is she the one who sings the “that sh#t is bananas” song?
seak05
September 1, 2016 @ 7:32 am
No, no, you’re confusing Beyonce with the woman Blake is using as his retirement plan
RD
September 1, 2016 @ 4:45 am
I can’t read this anymore.
Charlie
September 1, 2016 @ 4:55 am
I would say that this shit is so out there that it is like it is on another planet, except I might be interested in what happens on another planet.
Cody
September 1, 2016 @ 5:42 am
I’ve been coming to this site daily for a few months now. I’ve reserved from commenting for the most part. However after reading this article and feeling the exact same, I just had to comment. If anything to just say Hell Yea! and Well written. I’ll add I watched the VMA’s with my wife this past week, (hated it and didn’t finish watching it.) None the less the big hype was on Beyonce, and I don’t know what it is with these people claiming she is the best entertainer. I don’t see it. I think its way over hyped. When the first thing a entertainer does is get on stage and shake her ass, I don’t see talent nor confuse it for talent.
Eddie666
September 1, 2016 @ 6:40 am
You guys in the old US of A are losing it man, and quickly too! You’re becoming a joke to the rest of the world with your pc bullshit!
It’s almost funny if it wasn’t fucking dangerous!
Whiskeytown
September 1, 2016 @ 8:11 am
Haha, this is spot on.
“If you go hate in heart, let it out” – “Clayton Bigsby
Whiskeytown
September 1, 2016 @ 12:20 pm
If you got hate in your heart, let it out. Damn phone
Tezca
September 1, 2016 @ 9:19 am
Lol. I blame tumblr for this. I’m one of the Americans that think SJWs are just full of bs and stuff.
Worm
September 1, 2016 @ 2:36 pm
Laughing? At what? Getting your asses kicked in the olympics in every event by the good old us of a? Fuck off!
Eddie666
September 1, 2016 @ 10:45 pm
Olympics? You mean the drugfest! Haha! You must be real proud. No one really takes that serious anymore mate.
Bee
September 2, 2016 @ 7:30 pm
A joke? You only joke about what they show you on the news or online. 99.9999% of Americans don’t watch or care about any of that. We’re too busy with things that matter. We live in a great country. We leave the worrying about PC to very few, and foreigners like you. Come to Texas and call us a joke. You’ll wish ya hadn’t, mate.
Jack Williams
September 2, 2016 @ 5:50 am
Deep thoughts. Mate.
seak05
September 1, 2016 @ 6:49 am
I do actually listen to pop music, and have heard Lemonaide. And I will say this, it’s a better album than anything nominated for AOTY, & no less country than Dierks, Keith, or Maren’s albums. Which is of course, as others have pointed out, the problem with the blurring of the lines.
That being said, it wasn’t put up for any awards, don’t think it’s really worth taking Stan twitter seriously, If Beyonce (or Alicia Keys!) ever did want to make a country record though, I think that could be cool. They have amazing voices, and the roots/soul part of R&B does actually work well with country. All of that music origionated in the South (in America).
Convict charlie
September 1, 2016 @ 12:50 pm
I wouldn’t consider it being a part of country but Alicia keys was at the acm honors the other night. I can’t remember who she sang with maybe Miranda but it was for a little big town tribute song. Caught it on Twitter.
Fred
November 6, 2016 @ 7:36 am
Lemonade is a big turd. Horrid music
Truthseeker destroys PC
September 1, 2016 @ 6:57 am
Culture is an important thing. It gives people an identity…something to relate to. Historically country music was the culture music of choice with white southerners and rural farm folks in heartland america. Yes it has roots in irish jigs and reels and some influence from blues. And yes, Africans did invent the banjo. Look it up. BUT….country music or hillbilly as it was formerly called was essentially a unique cultural phenomanon. That’s not racist, hateful or exclusionary in any way. Hip hop, R&B, and Rap are cultural musical expressions that many blacks relate to. That said there have been white hip hop, rap and r& b acts. There is a history in country of of black artists as well. Deford Bailey, Charley Pride, Darius Rucker to name a few. So really then, does race matter in music? Of course not. If you are gonna try to hop into another genre tho, have some respect for the music , it’s style, sound, fan base and roots. Don’t criticize a genre tho for being too white or too black. Let people enjoy their culture of choice and quit calling the race card just because you feel you don’t relate to a certain culture. Learn to enjoy cultural differences. And let’s keep country , country!
Nelson
September 1, 2016 @ 7:12 am
FWIW: The Dixie Chicks are covering “Daddy Lessons” on their current tour.
A.K.A. City
September 1, 2016 @ 7:20 am
I am a Beyoncé fan, and Lemonade is a remarkable album. The way it addresses marriage issues is very raw and very real- at least to me. That being said, I would never call it country nor everyone’s cup of tea. I doubt Beyoncé cares less who is nominated for a CMA; she is probably busy rolling around in her piles of money. It kind of makes me sad that some fans have nothing better to do than complain about her not being nominated for an award that she seems to have no interest in. “Daddy Lessons” wasn’t released as a single and is an album cut, and I think as a rule, album cuts aren’t considered for awards.
Beyoncé fans as a whole are very rabid- many have downright harassed and bullied a new woman each week based on rumors (they are looking for “Becky with the Good Hair,” the “other woman” alluded to in Lemonade). This is stan culture at its worst. I do think it is strange that these fans have latched onto the country angle. On the album, there is a very rock-feeling collaboration with Jack White called “Hurt Yourself,” but I don’t see calls for Beyoncé to be named the next Rock Vocalist of the Year.
Adam
September 1, 2016 @ 7:22 am
Beyoncé is a racist sack of shit and I personally feel shes got blood on her hands concerning the targeting shootings of LEOs. Fuck Beyoncé
Eduardo Vargas
September 1, 2016 @ 7:23 am
Yeah sorry, I couldn’t care less about Beyonce, don’t know what the fuzz is about…
the pistolero
September 1, 2016 @ 7:24 am
I’m not usually one to use the term, but this is just so much social justice warrior bullshit.
gtrman86
September 1, 2016 @ 7:29 am
This is so fucked up to say the very least, this so called current “Country” music genre is nothing more than a dumping ground for artist grasping at straws to keep their careers alive when either they suck and have always sucked or their moment in the spotlight is dimming and they are on their way out of the public eye. The sad thing about this is that the Douche Bag music clowns in the Nashville music industry are welcoming these outsiders with open arms. Steven Tyler, Darius Rucker, Tom Cochrane, Beyoncé, and the list goes on and on….
And as we have come to expect it just keeps getting worse, I’m sure Metallica, Snoop Dog, Nickelback, U2, Jennifer Lopez will all be releasing albums and climbing the Country charts in the not so distant future.
Shastacatfish
September 1, 2016 @ 8:45 pm
Ever heard of the Dalton Brothers?
Cilla
September 1, 2016 @ 9:29 am
We live in a Bizarro world! Ok. Time to quote Whitney Houston: HELL TO THE NO!
STOP the madness. Be-Yawwnce does not need being mentioned With anything in regards to Country music. This Shit is beyond laughable.
blue demon
September 1, 2016 @ 10:36 am
have the chocolate drops disbanded? havnt heard anything from them since eden and their website is offline. I love Rhiannon’s solo stuff but id really like to hear more from the band.
Trigger
September 1, 2016 @ 10:41 am
I think that remains undetermined. When many of the other original members left, I think Rhiannon didn’t want to continue on with that name. But I wouldn’t be surprised at all if it comes back in the future.
Jack Williams
September 1, 2016 @ 1:15 pm
CCD band member and multi-instrumentalist Hubby Jenkins seems to still be playing with her (that’s him on banjo and then guitar in the Rhiannon video). I think we’ll probably see another CCD album and tour some day, but my guess is that it won’t be a full time endeavor. I think I remember her using the word “collective” when describing the future of CCD.
Nadia Lockheart
September 1, 2016 @ 10:58 am
(Upon hearing the news Zac Brown, wearing his mind-controlling hypnosis Varvados tophat, slams a table in a conference room where he, Scott Borchetta, the “Evolution Caucus” wing of CMA World’s Board of Directors, Mikel Knight and Beyonce’s management team, Parkwood Entertainment have converged.)
Zac Brown: “It…………………..It Can’t Be! I mean……………….SHE’S QUEEN BEE! I mean………………..QUEEN BEE! HOW IN THE FLYIN’ FLAPJACKS DO YOU SWAT QUEEN BEE?!!!” (flaps arms dramatically while clenching fists) “QUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEN BEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!”
Scott Borchetta: “Yes Zac, I believe we are well aware that Beyonce is Queen Bee!”
(A flustered Zac Brown grimaces as he slowly dusts off his Varvados suit and adjusts his hypnosis tophat)
Zac Brown: “The CMA establishment will pay! They will not get away with denying Queen Bee! We must band together in formation and storm the halls of 35 Music Square East and make it loud and clear……………..that WE WILL NOT BE DENIED! WE’LL FORCE THEM TO BE DRUNK IN LOVE & CHECK ON IT!”
(entire board room explodes in applause)
Zac Brown: “We’ll make them wave the white flag in record time! If I was able to brainwash Justin Moore into using dubstep effects and Josh Turner into incorporating a bunch of modern polish into his latest single, believe me when I say we can do ANYTHING!”
Mikel Knight: “You still haven’t crushed William Michael Morgan’s spirit, though! And Sturgill Simpson is still roaming about, non-armed and dangerous with his words!”
Zac Brown: (visibly irate, flustered face) …………………………SHUT UP!” (clearly daunted by Mikel Knight’s observation, hides his face in his long, ornate Varvados cape)
Steve Pamon of Parkwood Entertainment: “Ladies………………………oh, right…………….there is only a token lady here………………..and gentlemen! So yeah: basically all you gentlemen………………….the time has come to come together and take our country music back! Or, wait…………………..we never actually claimed it for ourselves to begin with! Well, now we are so, bwaaaaaaaaaaaaaa ha ha ha ha ha ha ha…”
(entire rest of room engages in pep rally chants)
CMA Evolution Caucus Member #1: “They hate lift-kits!”
CMA Evolution Caucus Member #2: “Lock them up!”
Scott Borchetta: “We will rise, and Make The Country Music Association Great Again! Let’s do this for Queen Bee! We’re With Her! We’re With Her!”
CMA Evolution Caucus Member #3: “But I don’t want Beyonce! I want Kelsea Ballerini! She’s the only tomato I’ll ever support”
Zac Brown: (gives exasperated shrug then rolls his shoulders back up) “It’s time! Time that the CMA establishment stops pollen our legs as the bunch of bumbling traitors they are! Now we’ll show ’em what all the buzz is about! We’re going to give ’em so many hive fives it will make their heads spin, bee-lieve me! Now let’s buzz off: for QUEEN BEE!”
(entire room makes bee-buzz cadence)
*
Joey
September 1, 2016 @ 11:15 am
Well, to be fair, “Daddy Lessons” is indeed more “country” than the vapid inanity put out by Luke, Keith, Ballerini and FGL this year and they all GOT nominations. So why not Beyonce? Hell, why hasn’t Insane Clown Posse ever been nominated!?!
the pistolero
September 1, 2016 @ 11:51 am
Why not George Strait, or Don Henley?
Nadia Lockheart
September 1, 2016 @ 2:21 pm
My guess is, because George Strait has since retired from touring and only plays select shows, that he just didn’t have the numbers to justify receiving a nomination this particular cycle.
As with Don Henley, “Cass County” was among my favorite country albums of last year, but outside of impressive sales for the record (it sold just north of 200,000 copies to date), he didn’t really have a well-rounded case to make for at least the major categories.
Obviously quality is more important to me than quantity, but I concede that’s not really how the CMA nominees are determined.
the pistolero
September 1, 2016 @ 4:17 pm
Of course. That was largely a rhetorical question. 😀 Just the same, both their numbers were nothing to sneeze at, and I think it’d be interesting to see how they’d have done if they’d actually gotten played on the radio.
Joey
September 1, 2016 @ 5:06 pm
And goddammit, why not Eminem!? He raps about trailer parks and other fun country topics.
the pistolero
September 1, 2016 @ 4:32 pm
Also, I will just repeat here what I said elsewhere:
See, this is about more than just crappy mislabeled music that is at best the musical equivalent of mystery meat casserole. It’s about giving idiots space to write things like this…
“Musically, (‘Daddy Lessons’) draws on country, folk, soul, and other genres made popular by Black American musicians in the 19th and 20th centuries. One could argue that, in doing so, Beyoncé was attempting to reclaim these styles from the Elvis Presleys, Iggy Azaleas, and countless other white entertainers who decontextualized them in the decades that followed, even if her efforts fell on deaf ears throughout many corners of Nashville. (One particularly not good article over at CMT asked, ‘What’s So Country About Beyoncé?’) Perhaps not unrelated, the 2016 CMA Award nominees are almost entirely all white.”
…and people are forced to admit that “Daddy Lessons” *might* be more country than, say, anything Sam Hunt ever put out — which, of course, obscures the larger, more important point, which is that Sam Hunt as a country singer never should have been a thing in the first place.
“If they can get you asking the wrong questions, they don’t have to worry about answers.” — Thomas Pynchon
(Also, anyone who takes Alison fucking Bonaguro as any kind of country music authority is a drooling moron.)
Jack Williams
September 2, 2016 @ 8:22 am
Yes, and I love how he lumps in Elvis with fucking Iggy Azalea (“the Elvis Presleys, the Iggy Azaleas). Just a couple of soulless white folk types. Never mind that Elvis was Mississippi born, one of the greatest selling music artists of all time, and has had numerous songs written about him, while Iggy is from the other side of the world and a past flavor of the month rapper.
Erik North
September 5, 2016 @ 4:18 pm
This, and the fact that Elvis always admitted his love for, and the influence of, R&B and black gospel music on his style, as opposed to the misguided out there who, even to this day, claimed that Elvis “stole” from black people or that they heard he made some racist statements about black people, none of which are true.
Fourth Blessed Gorge
September 2, 2016 @ 3:09 pm
Good for the CMAs, the entire planet is under no obligation to play along with the endless Beyonce hype machine. She has not conquered all genres with her brilliance, she has already received plenty of plaudits, she has no place in “country music” unless she records some country music, not one country-esque tune. The pop world is so hypnotized by their handful of superstars that they lost all ability to see the bigger picture.
“One could argue that, in doing so, Beyoncé was attempting to reclaim these styles from the Elvis Presleys, Iggy Azaleas, and countless other white entertainers who decontextualized them in the decades that followed…”
The Elvis Presleys and IGGY AZALEAS????? Any writer who’d seriously draw that comparison has zero credibility, it’s like comparing the invention of the electric light with the invention of the beer coozy. I have to take offense when Elvis is knocked down and relegated to “national joke” status, as it does the man’s true musical legacy a tremendous disservice. IMO Elvis was way, way more of a musician than Beyonce is, not to mention the fact that Bey’s patented hip-swiveling wouldn’t even exist without Elvis.
Brett Dale
September 2, 2016 @ 10:46 pm
Whats next Eminem for male country artist?
Anne
September 5, 2016 @ 3:56 pm
More Blake fans got pissed b/c he and the old pop star weren’t nominated for vocal event. That song was bad & his new gf can NOT sing. Sorry but BS wasn’t snubbed his album wasn’t strong & his single choices were the worst on the album.
Shane
September 7, 2016 @ 9:41 am
You know things have gotten out of hand when people believe a blatantly obvious pop singer like Beyonce was snubbed at the COUNTRY MUSIC AWARDS. Good grief is this really what it’s come to?
Kris
September 18, 2016 @ 7:53 am
The truth is, I do not think Beyonce was “snubbed”, rather does she care and I don’t think any of her fans really care either. It’s twitter and all the comments about a Beyonce snub should be taken with a pinch of salt, much like comments about her being “worshipped” or being the President or being the ruler of the universe. It’s people having fun, so firstly let’s all just cam down. No one was even really complaining about this, you found 2 tweets out of probably like 10 about this topic.
Now, I personally have studied country AND folk music extensively, and the honest truth is, there is absolutely no reason whatsoever “Daddy Lessons” could not be considered a country song. The only reason there is so much reluctance here is because it’s Beyonce, a pop singer. If the Dixie Chicks (who by the way have been covering the song on the tour) had been the original releasers, no one would have ever disputed it’s country-ness. You have attempted to reduce it into a “Yee-haw” and a few “Texas-name-drops”, when the truth is, country music is obviously a part of Beyonce’s upbringing, and she is in fact a Texas native.
If you’ve seen her album, it’s obviously not a full country record, but that particular song, about heritage and familial relations, complete with its instrumentation, is definitely a country song. there no reason it isn’t, and you haven’t stated a single reason why it’s “not”, as opposed to why it shouldn’t be, except for the fact that you clearly simply do not like her. (By the way, you sound so much like a conspiracy theorists these days and less like an actual critic/reviewer that I will not be returning to this site.)
This is not about your personal opinions on Beyonce or her music, it’s about one specific song that, by its very fabric, fully qualifies as a decent country song. I’ve listened to it many times now. Again, it wasn’t really “snubbed”, but, as someone said, it’s more country than “Luke, Keith, Ballerini and FGL” and a lot of other qualifiers, and I wouldn’t have been too shocked if it was nominated for something or other. So you cant say its not country simply because you don’t like the artist it came from, or simply because it contains a “stereotypical” yee-haw. Those aren’t reasons to disqualify it in the genre completely. I suggest you get a grip, and stop acting like Beyonce is crying in a hotel room somewhere plotting her revenge against the CMAs, when she has 20 Grammys, millions of fans worldwide and a billion dollars to keep her company anyway.
Trigger
September 18, 2016 @ 7:57 am
“It’s people having fun, so firstly let’s all just cam down. No one was even really complaining about this, you found 2 tweets out of probably like 10 about this topic.”
The Associated Press ran a story on Beyonce and this song which asserted that she could be considered for Song of the Year, and maybe Female Vocalist of the Year. That is where this all started. There were more than a couple of tweets. I posted these as examples. It might be a small movement, but it was a movement nonetheless.
John Major
November 2, 2016 @ 6:29 pm
Beyonce has no place on CMA show because she is not country and her music, lifestyle, cultural and politucal stance on issues are not in line with the fans or culture of country music. Its a slap in thd face by higher ups who are not connected with country but progressive greedy people just trying to get more viewers. Enough PC bullcrap this is an insult and I turned the tv when they announced it. You dont see country stars on BET or Black rap awards shows, soultrain….etc. I have plenty of black artist in my mp3 collection so its not a race issue. In fact many other artist would be fine even of different genres. It us an issue of the fact that she has nothing in common with the genre or the fans especially on a show meant to showcase the best of country music.
Joyce
November 2, 2016 @ 8:56 pm
U sound mad bro
Dr. Ronald Bryant
November 2, 2016 @ 11:56 pm
I am a black man and Beyonce song Daddy Lessons is not country. She is not the first african american to do a song like this. Janet Jackson has several country songs but she has never forced her song nor herself on country award shows. Beyonce is just like her fand. She thought that sorry ass week song was gonna get her a country nomination. They hyped up Lemonade but it has not produced a #1 song from that album. Lemonade is a carbon copy of Rhythm Nation. With Rhythm nation Janet was nominated in the Rock category because of Black Cat. Beyonce need to sit her attention seeking ass down.