Hot Cowpoke Summer
It's looking to be a hot cowpoke summer. Editor Rachel Cholst theorizes why roots music -- and fashions -- are so hot right now.
Look to your left, look to your right, you're almost certainly going to see someone wearing cowboy boots or fringe – even in the heart of New York City. If you're reading this you've known for some time now that country music and its aesthetics have been undergoing a change for some time now. From Lil Nas X to Trixie Mattell and Orville Peck to Beyonce and Chappell Roan, country music has come to signify much more than pickup trucks and beer.
The New York Times has taken a short break from transphobia to notice that Americana exists: either as a condescending nod to changing trends or, in Tressie McMillan Cottom's view, the battle between Music Row and marginalized artists for the soul of the genre (both are gift linked). There's never any one reason for humans to do anything, but I don't think the answer simply lies in the ways our tastes change, or how streaming alienates us and makes roots music more appealing. I don't think it's even that the average music listener cares about and champions the distinctions between mainstream country and Americana (see: Zach Bryan.)
Frankly, I don't even think it's about an interest in the music itself.
We are entering a hot cowpoke summer, and it's because we are using country music to interrogate our very sense of American identity – and that is especially true of marginalized communities like queer country artists and fans.
Read more when you log in or sign up as a paid subscriber!
