Saturday on Max’s “Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace” Nashville star Darius Rucker said Beyoncé success with “Cowboy Carter” helped Country music look more like American and alleviate some of the stigma of racism.
Partial transcript as follows:
WALLACE: So this spring, Beyonce tore up the charts. Cowboy Carter was a huge hit. How big was that?
RUCKER: Huge. It was so big. I mean, I can’t express enough how big what she did was because she brought so many eyes to the to the genre. You know, one of the things I love about what Beyonce did is when I started making country music and having hits I’d have African American women and men come up to me and go I love country music. I could never say it until now you’re playing and I can say it you know and she brought I think even more eyes to the to the genre and more people looking at it and more black people going alright man, I like country music and that’s, I always say I want country music to look more like America and I think she did a lot to make it go that way.
WALLACE: A couple of years ago, you wrote that country music still had the stigma of rebel flags and racism.
RUCKER: It’s still around, you know, it’s still these you still see it some places and I don’t think that’s I don’t think that’s ever going to go away. I mean, it’s still, it’s still there. It’s not as prevalent as it was. It’s not, it’s not the majority of country music, but it’s still there.
WALLACE: Still, a couple of years ago, you still think it’s there?
RUCKER: It’s still there because it’s still in America. It’s still part of America, the American. What we what we know is America so yeah, pretty sure it’s still there.
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