Beyoncé Actually is Relatable and Her Sense of Humor in Cowboy Carter is Giving Me Life
Calling Beyoncé "unrelatable" is really not the take you think it is
I recently saw the Cowboy Carter tour, and I can’t stop thinking about it. So many different things stuck out to me about this tour, but one thing that stood out to me was her showcasing a fun side of her personality in the visuals.
I love Beyoncé down, so this is obviously going to be from a fan perspective, but I can’t help but feel frustrated when people call Beyoncé “unrelatable.” It’s as if one person had this idea, and everyone adopted it as true and a fact.
I feel like if you think Beyoncé is unrelatable, you must not have known her until 2013 when she changed the music industry by dropping her self-titled album without any singles or promotion. Since that time, she has refrained from doing press interviews.
If a lack of interviews is the sole reason you think she’s unrelatable, that take is honestly weak. As she shows in her Cowboy Carter and the Rodeo Chitlin Circuit Tour, Beyoncé has been in the music industry for 30+ years. If you think you don’t know her by now (at least part of her), you’re either racist, sexist, or not paying attention.
My boyfriend recently pointed out that Beyoncé brings out a different energy in me. He says my love for Mariah Carey brings out a softer side of me, while my love for Beyoncé brings out a sharper side. I really don’t play. This made me laugh because it’s very true. I was aware they bring out different energies in me musically, and I play them for different moods, but I failed to realize that how I speak about them is a completely different energy too.
I apologize if we’ve ever talked about Beyoncé and I turned into a bitch. But that being said, here we go :).
For some reason, if Beyoncé is brought up, I get ready to shut shit down. People make so many assumptions about her and are constantly criticizing her performances, her place in the industry, her politics (or lack thereof)…basically when Beyoncé said “there’s a lot of talkin’ goin’ on, while I sing my song” she wasn’t lying, and I often feel the need to defend my friend. I’m basically Solange (Cancer sisters unite), so might I suggest you don’t fuck with my sis.
When people use the word “unrelatable,” I often think…what’s so unrelatable about a successful Black woman? It irks me. Her performances are out of this world, so yes, I can’t relate to her dancing and singing ability, but when was that the requirement of an artist? People put this “unrelatable” mark on her as if it stops her from reaching further success. I think that’s interesting because how relatable were the biggest stars of the past? Or even the other stars of today. I don’t hear anyone else getting this critique.
There’s tons of interview footage of Beyoncé, essentially from the 90s to the 2010s. Did y’all forget to check in and relate to her then? Or are you mad that since 2013, she’s achieved a higher level of success and status as a culture shifter, and you think you’re owed more interviews from her?
Perhaps the six documentaries she has aren’t enough either. How can you really get to know someone through six documentaries? I guess it’s impossible! Her opening up about her pregnancy difficulties wasn’t enough, her divulging her choices in her career (like stepping away from her father managing her) wasn’t enough, her sharing her music process wasn’t enough, getting a peek into her mind as she directs her tours wasn’t enough, her sharing her marriage troubles wasn’t enough…
I repeat, if you think those things are unrelatable, you’re either racist, sexist, or not paying attention.
And my most favorite thing about Beyoncé—her music is relatable! She tells us about herself all the time by the music she makes. If anything, I feel like that’s how an artist communicates. You can know them through their work. I especially feel like her work has gotten more and more personal over the years. Everybody couldn’t stop talking about Lemonade for forever.
You’re telling me a woman literally going through the grieving process via song and opening up about her marriage through music isn’t relatable? Infidelity is something many experience, and although it’s not normally such a public experience for most, it’s very relatable.
Perhaps the most relatable thing about Beyoncé is that she’s a Black woman at the top of her game but that’s still not enough for you bitches. If you don’t like her, I’d prefer you just say that. End of “relatable” rant.
With Cowboy Carter, Beyoncé is showing us a different side to her, a different facet of her personality and interests, and it becomes amplified on the tour. It’s an album and tour that feels rooted in lineage, family, and home…and stuntin’ on these hoes per usual.
Beyoncé's albums have a habit of coming around at a time of significant change for me, and I often feel like I’m in sync with her. This doesn’t happen every album, but it’s happened enough times that I’m like, wow, we’re here with it.
Her self-titled album and Renaissance were two big ones for me. Cowboy Carter has been getting me in touch with a side of myself I almost forgot about.
I grew up listening to a little bit of country, and there was a time I played around listening to bluegrass and blues music on Pandora. I used to be obsessed with horses and wanted one sooo bad. In fact, I desperately wanted to live on a farm and run around with animals. I was sort of obsessed with animals, and a farm to my kid brain just seemed like the place to be surrounded by them. I got to visit many a farm as a child, and my aunt gifted me some horseback riding lessons for my 8th birthday. It was incredible.
Not only is Cowboy Carter a beautiful album, but it reminded me that at one point that I wanted to be a lil cowgirl. Peep me as Jessie the Cowgirl for Halloween, and my cousin and I riding a horse. My cousin is honestly serving. He’s in a movie.
My grandpa is also a big rock and roll and country kind of guy. He recently told me how he saw Fats Domino in Modesto, California, back in the day, and that he was incredible. I wasn’t that familiar with him before, but I pulled up his music on YouTube and we listened together. That’s “the good stuff,” as Pocket would say. “Doesn’t get any better than that. They don’t make music like that anymore.”
Cut to me at Cowboy Carter and Beyoncé features Fats Domino in a section of her visuals that pays tribute to many trailblazers including Sister Rosetta Tharp, Bessie Smith, Elizabeth Cotton, Linda Martel, Little Rock 9, Little Richard, Tina Turner, Chuck Berry, Bobby Rush, Nina Simone, James Brown, Lena Horne, and Roy Hamilton. I was like whaat! And thought that moment was amazing.
Side note—I feel like there’s synergy in this between Cowboy Carter and Sinners…they’re both channeling Black people’s impact on music and the south…anyway—
I love that Beyoncé tapped into her rockstar shit for this tour. That was the first thing that stood out to me. It’s something I haven’t seen from her before. The first chunk of the concert, she’s giving huge rockstar energy. She's solo, rockin’ out on a mic, singing for her life, giving us insane energy. To me, it was a deliberate style choice that went with the themes of this album, not some “she doesn’t want to dance as much anymore.” Like, look at the artistry, babes. She’s a fucking rockstar.
One thing that felt very different that stood out to me in Cowboy Carter was that her concert visuals showed a lot of humor this time around. She’s funny! She’s having a hoot! She was giving us Spaghetti Westerns and having a time. I was obsessed. She was having fun with us. In fact, I think she was interacting with the audience a little more on this tour. She flew over us so many times and kept telling us how good we looked, how good we sounded, etc. Thank you, Yoncé!
There were some favorite moments I had in the concert visuals—and bless this individual who posted them all on YouTube, because I’mma be able to show them all to you.
Visual number 1, which I’m entitling “Who is Cowboy Carter?” because that’s what’s asked at the beginning of the video, shows Beyoncé as an outlaw in a Western. The intro is camp, showing a hand dialing a payphone and a mouth warning “Cowboy Carter” is there. The music is over the top, almost cartoon-like, as it warns of her entrance. It’s epic, it’s humorous. Like her visuals often do, she jumps around, showing multiple scenarios, multiple hot outfits, dramatic lights, and shock value.
My favorite part of this section is the saloon section. A Madam tells the ladies to “remember, even a fool spends like a rich man,” which is obviously true because I’m the fool spending like a rich man at this concert. Cut to a few beats later, and Beyoncé is dancing on the bar at the saloon with a bunch of women. Throughout her visuals, she plays with masculine cowboy/outlaw energy, and …saloon women? I don’t really know the word for it, but she plays hot sexy ladies in these western setups, seemingly a sex worker or stripper a few times.
The part that had me screaming was when Beyoncé walks up to a lady, who maybe stole her table of gambling men to hustle. Beyoncé is working here in this scenario. The beat says “smack that trick” over and over from I Been On as Beyoncé confronts this girl. The girl pushes Beyoncé in slow motion and suddenly I’m yelling “beat her ass!” Then, Beyoncé bashes ol’ girl’s head with a bottle in slow motion. There’s a moment that catches Beyoncé’s eyes that shoot like daggers. If this moment had dialogue, I think it would go like this.
Beyoncé: Nicole! Bitch, I told you time and again, stay off my table!
Nicole: Ugh, get over it, hag. They like me better anyway. It’s time you retired.
Beyoncé: She think she can take my regulars? Nah, I’m bottom bitch. I run this joint.
*bottle smash* *people scream*
Beyoncé: The hoe had it comin’.
You might be thinking, “Paige, was that visual moment supposed to be funny though?” To me, it was! I think uncalled-for violence is funny. I think a violent overreaction is funny, and you can see it frequently in my sketches. It’s shocking.
I think she’s winking at us. I think this whole moment was very campy, you’re meant to have fun, and it also gets you hype (as I mentioned I did shout “beat her ass”). I love when Beyoncé talks about fighting, I’m like “yes, same, get her,” and I enjoy a moment when I can see it physically expressed. Bring back more moments like her fight scene in Obsessed.
Visual number 2, which I’m entitling “Who will Win” because that’s what’s asked at the beginning of it, shows Beyoncé in a duel/showdown. She lights a cigar and her enemy draws a semi-automatic and shoots her—but she shimmies off the bullets. Nary one bullet hit her. She deflected them with her fringe shoulder pads, and they almost glimmer off as she shakes her in-shootable shoulders.
I feel like this is something that would happen in Drag Race when they have a movie challenge. She’s unbreakable bitch! She then destroys him with a single bullet. I was screaming then, and I’m screaming again at home, rewatching it. That’s comedy.
Visual number 3, which I’m entitling “Jolene’s” because that’s the “building” we enter right before the part I’m talking about, shows Beyoncé as both the star and patron of a peep show. Another moment in which Beyoncé is playing with masculine and feminine. The star in the peep show, we can assume, is Beyoncé as Jolene. The Beyoncé that is watching the peep show is not explicitly a man, but I feel like whenever Beyoncé is pretending to be a man or masculine, it’s a very specific energy, and she was channeling that here. It’s almost a caricature. I’m kind of obsessed whenever Beyoncé does this. Let’s just call that character Cowboy Beyoncé.
This part cracks me up because Cowboy Beyoncé sits chomping on an apple (and I do mean chomping) and is very pleased with Jolene. Cowboy Beyoncé leans back and gives an exaggerated “ooo” or maybe it’s more like “wheeew” at Jolene’s seduction. I know that’s fuckin’ right, check yo damn self out.
Cowboy Beyoncé puts in another quarter because we simply have to see more Jolene. Cowboy Beyoncé beckons Jolene with her fingers, and Jolene somehow leans down and grabs the Cowboy’s tie through the glass. Perhaps the funniest part of this sequence is that as Jolene pulls the Cowboy in, Cowboy Beyoncé shakes her head side to side and jiggles her cheeks in slow motion. That is goofy. She is a silly goose. That is cartoon energy. She said ahooooga I’m so hot.
And both are true. She’s a hottie but doesn’t take herself so seriously that she can’t give us a moment like:
Visual number 5, which I’m entitling “This is Theater” because that’s what it says on the screen, is funny only to me because throughout the concert, my friend and I mentioned how “this is theater” before that visual even came on screen. And I frequently thought “this is theater” throughout the show. Beyoncé just truly was giving us theater. But here I think she said it, so y’all didn’t really think she murdered somebody (the song Daughter). Or perhaps it was to introduce the violin soloist.
Visual number 6 (these numbers are made up btw), which I’m entitling “Giant Beyoncé” because that’s what she is, features Beyoncé as different giants stomping around in different towns. Her stomping in the western town is my favorite because a smaller Beyoncé on the ground throws her hands up and screams in terror at her giant self. It’s once again campy and silly. It’s almost as if she’s Godzilla wreaking havoc.
This visual taps the most into old cartoons (in essence, but also by showing them) and feels very Americana. This part has a fun spirit as various cartoons and characters from clips of old movies stare at Beyoncé in shock, terror, or admiration. She laughs, blows a kiss, waves, or pours a drink in return. This feels like real life, as people often do react this way to her. She’s giving satire! This is her town, and we’re all just living in it.
I always enjoy the visual interludes Beyoncé gives us during her concerts. They’re always epic, seductive, thought provoking, and Cowboy Carter was no exception. It felt full of messages, sexiness, and humor. While the Renaissance visuals felt like it tapped into something more underground, more raw, the Cowboy Carter visuals felt like it tapped into American culture with a little wink and gave us Beyoncé Spaghetti Western style.
You can’t say my girl doesn’t have a sense of humor!
Before I leave, get into this look I wore. It was styled by my boyfriend, and I think he/me ate y’all up. Get into the accessory details. I’m glad this wig came in handy, too.
Substack keeps filtering my photo with my hand guns as lighter, and I don’t know why…but I’m just gonna pretend it’s giving me an old western vibe. Shoutout to this American Flag wall we found on the way to the concert.
Did you see Cowboy Carter? What was your favorite part?
Upcoming shows
Who All Gon’ Be There 5/25 at 7:30pm
May is flying by really fast! I saw Beyoncé May 7th, and my life changed, and now it’s almost June. Let’s channel our inner Beyoncé this week. If you’d like to give me a little support for this free news letter, you can “buy me a tea” below!
Cheers,
Paige Elson