Do you think Beyonce is Country?

[PineMarten]

She grew up in Texas, she has Willie Nelson and Dolly Parton's blessings, and this appears to be a musical direction she's following out of genuine affection for the music. I'm struggling to see what place arguments that she's not Country could be coming from that I could respect.
Sure, it's pop country, but that's been with us for decades and is part of the landscape.

[LAPlayer]

Originally Posted by Nymuso

You forgot TAILGATE, TRACTOR and TEQUILA.

Originally Posted by 815C

Haven't listened, but if her lyrics contain BEER CAN, DIRT ROAD, TANK TOP, SUN TAN, then yes it is likely country.

What about the dawg? You can't forget the dawg.

[KevWind]

I do not waste my time even considering the question.
As RP said Worrying about genre Cred is just click bait, I'll do my fretting on the neck of the guitar

[Jeremy]

Doesn't bother me at all. Heck, Avenged Sevenfold did a "country" song that sounds more "country" than most "country" these days.

Originally Posted by RP

It's a very slippery slope when one starts questioning the "street cred" of a performer who performs a certain genre of music. I say forget the bona fides and let the music speak for itself...

Yep.

[bfm612]

Originally Posted by PineMarten

She grew up in Texas, she has Willie Nelson and Dolly Parton's blessings, and this appears to be a musical direction she's following out of genuine affection for the music. I'm struggling to see what place arguments that she's not Country could be coming from that I could respect.
Sure, it's pop country, but that's been with us for decades and is part of the landscape.

Agreed, although I'll admit I'm susceptible to a lot of biases and gatekeeping that you're addressing. We (including me) tend to put a lot more weight on the idea of authenticity that it always calls for, in some genres more than others (like punk and some rap). But really sometimes it just doesn't matter. Dylan went through superhuman contrortions with his history in the early days just to make himself more legit in the folk circles, but in a way his work has rendered that irrelevant.

[SFCRetired]

Most of todays country isn't country so what does it matter? As far as Dolly goes, that is the most ridiculous thing I ever heard in music. R&R HOF? Really? Are these people smoking crack?

I actually heard she has now accepted the HOF offer and yes she will do a R&R album to justify it. So now we have a pure country artist who does one album to go into the R&R HOF.

Am I the only one who thinks this is crazy? But REO Speedwagon can't get in, or Ted Nugent and others who are far more deserving. The R&R HOF has made a joke of themselves.

[bfm612]

Originally Posted by SFCRetired

Most of todays country isn't country so what does it matter? As far as Dolly goes, that is the most ridiculous thing I ever heard in music. R&R HOF? Really? Are these people smoking crack?

I actually heard she has now accepted the HOF offer and yes she will do a R&R album to justify it. So now we have a pure country artist who does one album to go into the R&R HOF.

Am I the only one who thinks this is crazy? But REO Speedwagon can't get in, or Ted Nugent and others who are far more deserving. The R&R HOF has made a joke of themselves.

I just think the R&R HOF just needs to rename itself. It's Rock & Roll in name but it's de facto has been a much larger umbrella. Maybe they don't want to go through the hassle and expense of registering a new URL or email domain to replace rockhall.com.