Opinion
Beyoncé dropped two country music songs earlier this month while also announcing that she is working on a country music album that will drop later this year. Since then, she’s inevitably been hit with backlash for trying to switch genres. something that every artist has to deal with when they make this move.
Unfortunately, however, this backlash is now being made all about race, as country music fans are being portrayed as “racists” if they dare to say that they don’t want Beyoncé to take over their beloved genre.
Backlash Against Beyoncé
On Wednesday, Grio published an op-ed titled “Beyoncé is making a country album. White people like John Schneider need to get over it.” This was partly in response to Schneider of “Dukes Of Hazzard” fame comparing Beyoncé to a urinating dog when asked about her entering the country music world.
“The lefties in the entertainment industry just won’t leave any area alone, right?” Schneider was asked, according to Daily Mail. “They just have to seize control over every aspect, don’t they?”
“They’ve got to make their mark, just like a dog in a dog walk park. You know, every dog has to mark every tree, right? So that’s what’s going on here,” Schneider replied.
Full Story: ‘Dukes Of Hazzard’ Star John Schneider Slams ‘Leftist’ Musicians – Compares Beyoncé To Urinating Dog
White People Are Told To ‘Get Over It’
In her Grio op-ed, author Monique Judge made the backlash that Beyoncé has received all about race, arguing that white people “have never wanted us to thrive in areas they consider their own.”
Judge went on to directly respond to Schneider’s comments, blatantly accusing him of racism.
“Let’s understand that ‘lefties’ in this case isn’t a political statement; it’s a euphemism for a word I can’t type here, but it starts with an ‘N’ and ends with a hard ‘ER,’” she outrageously wrote.
Judge is clearly trying to push the narrative that all country music fans are inherently racist, but this is simply not the case at all. Just look at the black country music star Darius Rucker, who has admitted that he was told that fans “would never accept a black country singer.”
“To be honest with you, I didn’t think I would have much success. And when I started doing the radio stations and stuff, I had people say to me, to my face, ‘My audience would never accept a Black country singer,’” he told ET Canada last summer. “That’s something that I was like, ‘Okay, just play the record, let’s see?’ And then they did.”
Thankfully, country music fans immediately accepted Rucker, with his first single “Don’t Think I Don’t Think About It” debuting at number one on the Hot Country Songs charts.
“I wasn’t worried about it ’cause I just want to make records, you know?” he said. “I mean, I wasn’t sitting around going, ‘Oh my God, you know, I’m going to be the Black guy in country.’”
Related: Beyoncé Declares That We Must ‘Dismantle The Racist And Unequal System’
It’s Not About Race
Despite Judge’s arguments that any backlash Beyoncé receives is racially motivated, the reality is that all musicians are hit with pushback when they try to switch genres, regardless of their race. When Taylor Swift initially made the jump from country music to pop, she found herself in hot water, as the pop world didn’t want her while the country world was angry at her for abandoning them.
Gwen Stefani and Miley Cyrus are two other artists who were slammed when they tried to break out of their respective genres, yet fans were not accused of racism for criticizing them.
In the end, country music fans have every right to tell Beyoncé that they aren’t interested in her taking over their genre, and they shouldn’t be accused of racism simply for expressing their opinions.
What do you think about this? Let us know in the comments section.
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