I was so excited for the release of Cowboy Carter. After Renaissance, how can I not be?
Plus, I love country music - mostly the older divas like Dolly Parton, Loretta Lynn, Patsy Cline, and Reba McEntire. I inherited this from my dad would listen to them on road trips through the Appalachian Mountains. (Thanks Dad!)
In my opinion, the album has not disappointed. For those who haven’t been listening to Cowboy Carter, the second track is “BLACKBIIRD” which features Tanner Adell, Brittney Spencer, Tiera Kennedy, and Reyna Roberts. During quiet moments in my apartment, I sing it quietly to myself:
I found myself wondering: Why is the blackbird singing at night? It’s already black and can camouflage itself in the darkness. Why would it give its position away to potential predators? So, I did some digging into the rich history of the song and the patterns of song in blackbirds. As it turns out, they are both grounded in the hope and possibility of voice.
Why would the blackbird sing at night?
It may sound like a simple question, but it has multiple answers. The first is the most “traditional” view of birdsong experts. At night, male blackbirds sing to mark their territory. Blackbirds are primarily monogamous, and male blackbirds want to prevent other males from encroaching on their territory (and therefore their female partner). I hope you can sense the paternalism. It reduces the female blackbird to an individual without agency in her reproductive life.
In reality, 1 in 5 blackbird couples split within a single breeding season - which behavioral ecologists literally call “a divorce.” An analysis of divorce in blackbirds found that the separation generally benefitted females. So, a less paternalistic possibility is that the male blackbirds show off their songs to continually impress a female partner.
But there is another explanation that goes beyond sex: Blackbirds retain the ability to form new songs past for up to 3-4 years, a rare skill among birds. In fact, that’s longer than a blackbird’s lifespan in the wild (2.4 years). Scientists observing blackbird song development believe that it occurs by connecting different sound structures together. Therefore, blackbirds are constantly making active choices about their song and its developmental trajectory.
In this way, blackbirds are capable of constant development with respect to their voice. Humans are too, albeit with a different relationship to language. From the blackbird, we can learn about the centrality of personal choice in continued growth. We too must choose to continue to develop ourselves and our voices.
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Blackbird on the White Album
Back to the music: Beyoncé’s “BLACKBIIRD” is a cover of The Beatles’ “Blackbird” from their self-titled 1968 album (also referred to as The White Album). The song was originally written by Paul McCartney who co-produced the latest version alongside Beyoncé and Khirye Tyler. The White Album was released in November 1968, a busy and often violent year for civil rights in the United States. The release was:
8 months after over 15,000 Chicano students, teachers, and community members walked out of high schools in East Los Angeles in protest
7 months after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1968
6 months after the formation of the National Transsexual Counseling Unit (NTCU), the first formal peer-led organization to link trans folks to medical and legal services
4 months after the the American Indian Movement (AIM) was founded to monitor police brutality against indigenous peoples
3 months after the police riot at the Democratic National Convention
1 month after Black Americans Tommie Smith and John Carlos were expelled from the Olympics for raising their fists on the Olympic podium after winning gold and bronze medals (respectively) in the men’s 200 meters
Many consider the White Album to capture the tumult of 1968, and McCartney specifically places “Blackbird” squarely within struggles for civil rights:
Those were the days of the civil rights movement, which all of us cared passionately about, so this was really a song from me to a black woman, experiencing these problems in the States: ‘Let me encourage you to keep trying, to keep your faith, there is hope.
I hadn’t heard the original “Blackbird” until a few days ago. (As a political principle, my dad did not listen to The Beatles.) But, I was struck by how similar the two versions sound.1 This is different than Beyoncé’s “Jolene” cover where she wholly remade the song in her own style. This isn’t a knock on the song - I love both Dolly’s original and Beyoncé’s reimagining. But, it does underscore the parallels between the two “Blackbird” renditions.
As such, “BLACKBIIRD” is a fulfillment of McCartney’s metaphor - now performed by 5 talented Black women who reassert the message of hope and perseverance in a still-hostile world. And the world of country music is notorious for its White racial hegemony and hostility toward artists and fans of color.
In this way, the song also exemplifies the broad thesis of Cowboy Carter. The song flows naturally within an album that is undeniably country, underscoring the interconnected roots of rock and country music in the musical traditions of Black Americans. Against the backdrop of White hegemony in country music, this thesis is powerful. Writer Taylor Crumpton captures its revolutionary potential in an essay for Time, released shortly after the first singles from Cowboy Carter were released:
To be Black and country is to undo the historical narrative that has been told to you. The plantation is not the nucleus of country identity, it is not the totem of the South. Knowles-Carter’s presence in country music is signaling the birth of a new era, a renaissance if you will. It is time for the institutional oppressive regimes of country music to be removed, and for those who have continued to carry on the legacy of country’s music heart and soul to be seated at the table.
Taking another step back, struggles for civil rights in the United States are also continuing. Just this year:
Finding a voice amidst the tumult requires consistent choices as we learned from our friends, the blackbirds. It’s never too late to make choices that develop that voice to speak out against the shared systems of oppression that marginalize folks within our society.
To echo Crumpton, we can reject the narratives that promote continued inhumanity. We can enter a new era by fostering the possibility of our voice within the details of our lives.
You were only waiting for this moment to arise.