How will Beyoncé, Lana Del Rey and Post Malone 'going country' impact the industry?
In the past six months, Beyoncé, Lana Del Rey and Post Malone have all announced plans to explore their singer-songwriter craft through three chords and the truth.
It's a generational moment.
It's not just that Lainey Wilson's latest single proclaims "Country's Cool Again."
Upon announcing her debut country album (and 10th overall) "Lasso" this month, Del Rey said: "The music business is going country. We're going country. It's happening. That's why [frequent Del Rey collaborator Jack Antonoff] has followed me to Muscle Shoals, Nashville, Mississippi, over the last four years."
Beyoncé, Lana Del Rey and Post Malone have the bona fides that could shift pop culture's mainstream.
Post Malone's Texas roots
Post Malone is a Dallas native with face tattoos who is as comfortable wearing a bolo tie and playing an acoustic guitar as he is dropping bars about basketball hall of famer Allen Iverson.
He's teased entering country's mainstream throughout his decade-long rise to pop superstardom.
Once artists like Jelly Roll and Morgan Wallen gained country-to-crossover acclaim, his deeper involvement in country music became a matter of if, not when.
In 2021, the "Rockstar" artist performed Sturgill Simpson's "You Can Have the Crown" and Brad Paisley's "I'm Gonna Miss Her" on Matthew McConaughey's "We're Texas" fundraising event after Winter Storm Uri.
More recently, he's been seen in Nashville alongside Paisley, ERNEST, Jelly Roll, HARDY and Wallen.
At the 2023 Country Music Association Awards, Malone jumped in on the CMA Awards tribute to country legend Joe Diffie, performing Diffie's hit "Pickup Man" with HARDY and Wallen.
Rumors persist that a long-teased country-inspired release from Malone could be forthcoming.
Lana Del Rey finally arrives
For the past three years, Del Rey has been crafting her debut country album. However, it could've easily happened a decade ago.
Del Rey admitted that 2011 singles "Ride" and "Video Games" were Americana and country-influenced in their writing, but they didn't feature pedal steel guitars or waltz tempos once released.
Dating back to her early days as Lizzie Grant, she also covered Skeeter Davis' 1962 hit "The End of the World" and Donna Fargo's 1972 classic "The Happiest Girl in the Whole U.S.A."
Recently, Del Rey and Kacey Musgraves appeared together during NBC's holiday season "Christmas at Graceland" special. She's also covered "Stand By Your Man" and "Take Me Home, Country Roads."
The cinematic qualities of Del Rey's music highlight retrofitted notions of glamour and melancholia. Bits of the aesthetics of country stars such as Bobbie Gentry, Loretta Lynn, Dolly Parton and Tammy Wynette have long roots in Del Rey's seductively dreamy yet fun sound and style.
Queen Bey's 'Renaissance'
Beyoncé is a Houston native who sang in a Methodist church choir and has Creole roots on her mother's side of the family. Her western-inspired Louis Vuitton outfit created by Pharrell Williams that she wore to this year's Grammy Awards — alongside two of the many songs she's expected to drop on her "Renaissance: Act II" album out March 29 — barely scratch the surface of the depth and scope of her interests in the genre.
From releasing a 2021 western-inspired Ivy Park fashion line in collaboration with Adidas to riding into the Houston Rodeo on horseback before a 2004 performance, she's been a longtime aspiring country artist.
About her 2016 single "Daddy Lessons" — which eventually led her to the stage at the CMA Awards with the Chicks — the song's co-writer Kevin Cosson said the track painted a "tough, country picture" filled with rifles and whiskey.
"It didn't take the hip-hop element to make it tough," Cossom said. "(That comes) with her being from Texas."
NPR's Jewly Hight said Beyoncé onstage with the Chicks was "like reclamation than invasion, since the genre's roots entwine with African-American folk, blues, string band and pop contributions."
Scotty McCreery said to Rolling Stone that "(Beyoncé wouldn't) come to a country show if she didn't really respect what (country music is) all about."
Parts of all sides of country's pop and now heavily female revival resonate with Beyoncé's career.
Songwriter Ne-Yo claimed he originally wrote her 2007 song "Irreplaceable" as a guitar ballad with Faith Hill or Shania Twain in mind. Beyoncé's also presents elevated versions of country music fashion with its aesthetics and vibes boldly remixed.
How will this trio impact the industry?
There's no particular reason to believe that either Beyoncé or Del Rey will achieve commercial success through country radio. For well over the past decade, women have been stars but outliers in the format stalled at attaining No. 1 status on Billboard's Country Airplay charts roughly 25% of the time, at most.
However, Malone is already so present in radio's top-40 format, plugged in with country radio favorites and capable of engaging with songs by country traditionalist favorites like Diffie that he might be seen as a player.
Del Rey's work with Taylor Swift's collaborator Jack Antonoff is important.
Swift, though long not entirely associated with the genre, has likely influenced, for starters, the over 100 women musically fostered by CMT's Next Women of Country program.
Del Rey's music will likely spur massive streaming appeal and possible country-to-Billboard Hot 100 crossover success similar to what country favorites Kelsea Ballerini and Megan Moroney have seen.
As for Beyoncé, an intriguing comparison emerges when discussing her surprise single drop.
In the first 24 hours following its release, Wallen's 2021 Lil Durk collaboration "Broadway Girls" was streamed over 1.5 million times on YouTube.
In 2021, Durk and Wallen dominated streaming platforms. The rapper had 35 appearances on Billboard's Hot 100 chart, while Wallen's "Dangerous: The Double Album" closed the year as the No. 1 Billboard 200 album of the year.
Both Beyoncé's drops could eclipse Wallen's YouTube success.
Wallen has roughly half the monthly listeners on Spotify as Beyoncé.
Beyoncé has 40 million more Instagram followers than Taylor Swift. She's won more Grammys than any other artist.
She also announced her latest material in a Verizon ad where she promised she'd "break the internet."
If the internet can be broken, everything else breaking is entirely possible.
