Francesca Royster remembers waking up the morning after the Super Bowl to numerous excited text messages from friends: Beyoncé had just dropped two new country-tinged singles, and her forthcoming album—the second act in her purported Renaissance trilogy—would be a celebration of country music.

“It’s awakened such a discussion,” says Royster, an English professor at DePaul University and author of the 2022 book Black Country Music. “Students, friends, old friends from college have been calling, wanting to talk about this topic that, for a long time, has felt like a closet obsession.”

While many contemporary music listeners’ first experience with Black country music came with Lil’ Nas X’s 2018 “country-trap” novelty hit “Old Town Road,” Black folks have been writing, performing, and recording country music since it first became popular in the 1920s. In fact, country music wouldn’t exist as it does today without the contributions and innovations of Black musicians.

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