Well, it’s been a week since Beyoncé released Cowboy Carter and it seems like much of the proverbial dust has settled on it. I listened to it last week and found it mostly enjoyable though not something I’d be returning to too quickly. I have, however, come back to check the discourse a bit. What’s been most fascinating is that there has been room for some criticism of Beyoncé this time around. That’s a good thing if and when the critiques are worthwhile. It’s foolish for anyone to suggest in any capacity that she isn’t an immensely talented superstar because they don’t like her music. That would be like saying Michael Phelps isn’t a great athlete because you don’t like swimming. By contrast, it is equally foolish to suggest that Beyoncé can in no way be critiqued. Last year, the critic Angelica Jade Bastien got chased off Twitter for her critique of the Renaissance movie. For Cowboy Carter, a black country singer named Yasmin Williams wrote a critical piece in the Guardian that has received praise online for being thoughtful. More than that, there has been an entire debate about her cover of “Jolene” where positive and negative stances are both valid. It’s a noted shift and a good one at that. Beyoncé is one of the most successful and celebrated artists of the last thirty years (AOTY injustices notwithstanding). Great artists deserve great criticism. She doesn’t require endless fierce defending—and that point doesn’t just go for her. It also goes for Michael Jordan stans, Swifties, the BTS army, Disney Adults, the Barbz, Christopher Nolan film bros, and any other group of people who make celebrity worship a central part of their identity. By suffocating any criticism, these subcultures create a particularly godless form of religion. Worse than that though, this kind of idolatry eventually leads to horrendous art.
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Love it! As someone who has spent years in the thick of Beyoncé fandom, I’ve noticed myself having Beyoncé fatigue. The music industry needs to make a bigger fuss about newer artists for people like me who have a hard time finding new music and new artists to listen to. 30 years is too long to passionately yell “SLAY QUEEN” at the same person.