This is a testament to Beyâs artistry. But it is also a reflection of the integral part black people have played in American music since its inception across all genres â including country music.
Before Nashville was the home of the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, country music was a genre borne of African slaves. Indeed, musicologists have traced country musicâs iconic banjo back to the ngoni and xalam, plucked stringed instruments rooted in West Africa.
And yet country musicâs âlittle white mythâ persists today because of the erasure of the genreâs black roots and the contributions black artists have made to it over the years. One of the first black icons of country music was DeFord Bailey, an outstanding harmonica player whose hillbilly records in the 1920s drew from the black folk music tradition he grew up with.
In 1962, Ray Charles, one of the fathers of soul music, released Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music, the first country record to sell 1 million copies, ushering in the possibility of the sort of pop and country music crossover for which white artists like Carrie Underwood and Taylor Swift are now celebrated.
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