Did Beyoncé Change Country Music Forever?
The Sam Sanders Show
KCRW & Sam Sanders
4.9 • 709 Ratings
🗓️ 1 August 2025
⏱️ 59 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Beyoncé just wrapped her Cowboy Carter era, which saw an acclaimed world tour, historic Grammys wins, and a lot of backlash. So what does her massive crossover really mean for country music and its politics?
Writer and cultural critic Tressie McMillan Cottom joins Sam to unpack whether or not country music still has a race problem (spoiler alert: it does), the reaction to Beyoncé’s success in the genre, and if Cowboy Carter truly opened doors for Black artists. Plus, Tressie argues there actually is a song of the summer… if you’re paying attention.
Feeling a bit of déjà vu? You’re not imagining things, country music is a cherished topic for Sam and Tressie.
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The Sam Sanders Show is a production of KCRW and Sam Sanders Productions.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey listeners, it is the season of giving. |
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| 0:20.4 | Hey, y'all. It's the Sam Sanders show from KCRW, where we ask big questions and give hot takes about the pop culture we love. |
| 0:31.9 | This week, Tressie McMillan Cottom. |
| 0:35.2 | Tressie is a sociologist and New York Times columnist and a professor at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. |
| 0:43.1 | Tressy is also a big country music fan, and she spent a lot of time writing and thinking about the racial politics of country. |
| 0:52.5 | And the racial politics of country music, |
| 0:55.0 | that has been a big point of conversation for some time now, |
| 0:58.0 | in large part due to Beyonce. |
| 1:01.0 | Now I'm going to need all my cowboys to the dance floor. |
| 1:04.0 | You heard me, Texas. |
| 1:05.0 | Get to the dance floor. |
| 1:07.0 | Release your record. |
| 1:08.0 | Beyonce made a country album, Cowboy Carter, which won some Grammys in the country music categories. |
| 1:18.5 | And she just completed the highest grossing country tour of all time. |
| 1:24.1 | All of this has made a lot of Nashville Purist pretty mad. |
| 1:27.8 | Tressy thinks that anger has a lot to do with race. |
| 1:31.2 | Beyonce's race and the racialized history |
| 1:34.0 | of country music itself. |
| 1:36.5 | So this episode, we talk it all out. |
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