Get the latest gossip

Beyoncé’s Act II album cover is ‘a clapback to being told she doesn’t belong in country music’

The singer announced her next record on Instagram with a photo of herself riding a horse and wearing red, white and blue

“The aesthetic choice is bold and seems to be signaling the ways that Beyoncé is putting herself into conversations about nationalism, a theme very much central to discourses about country music, patriotism and authenticity, from the times of its origins,” Royster said. This, despite the fact that one radio station initially refused to play the song, while commentators like the former Dukes of Hazzard star John Schneider compared Beyoncé’s foray into the genre to a “dog … mark[ing] every tree”. Beyoncé nodded to that experience in the caption to her post revealing Act II’s album art, writing: “The criticisms I faced when I first entered this genre forced me to propel past the limitations that were put on me.

Get the Android app