Beyoncé: Cowboy Carter Album's Western Film Inspirations

Aaron Perine

03/29/2024 05:38 pm EDT

Cowboy Carter is here and Beyoncé revealed that she's been inspired by a lot of Westerns while making her new country-flavored album. As the Internet dives in to find all the references and nods to musical history, Beyoncé put out a press release that named the films they were playing in the studio while making the album. There are films young and old on the list. As she conceives of it, Cowboy Carter is the result of trying to imagine her own Western film. Clearly, pop culture is taken-in by what's she's cooked ip on the range. Here's what her press release shared today:

"The album is an experiment indeed. Each song is its own version of a reimagined Western film. She took inspiration from films like "Five Fingers For Marseilles," "Urban Cowboy," "The Hateful Eight, "Space Cowboys," "The Harder They Fall" and "Killers of the Flower Moon," often having the films playing on a screen during the recording process," the release revealed. "Some aspects of the percussion were inspired by the 'O Brother, Where Art Thou?' soundtrack, where it was more Bluegrass.

"This body of work undulates from singing cowboy and Blaxploitation to Spaghetti westerns and fantasy with Beyoncé weaving between personal experiences, honoring Black history, to exaggerated character building," the release continued. "The limited-edition vinyl depicts a microphone in the shape of a gun ala Thelma and Louise running from the law, but the gun is invisible, hyper exaggerated reality."

What's your favorite song off the album? Let us know down in the comments!

Five Fingers For Marseilles

(Photo: TUBI)

Five Fingers For Marseilles is absolutely gorgeous. This Neo-western sees a town besieged and a prodigal son returning home to face the past. The tones in the 2017 gem are not to be missed.

Urban Cowboy

(Photo: Paramount)

Urban Cowboy is a romantic entry on this list. (Look at those looks up top, delightful!) This 1980s number is credited with pumping the country genre back up after a bit of a slump.

Space Cowboys

(Photo: Warner Bros.)

Space Cowboys! Now, this is interesting because getting back in the saddle and aging into a role are key elements of these films. All of these actors have seen a lot of Hollywood's evolution. Legends saddling up? Yeah, that makes sense.

O Brother, Where Art Thou?

O Brother, Where Art Thou? is an interesting choice here. As the press release says, it's more of an Americana piece, but still satisfying. Definitely worth a watch.

The Hateful Eight

The Hateful Eight is a wild ride. Stylistically dense and provocative enough for most filmmakers' full filmography.

ComicBook.com reviewed the movie: "Tarantino builds the mystery of Hateful Eight, most of which takes place in only two locations throughout the entire 3 hour plus run in a carriage and Minnie's Haberdashery during an inescapable blizzard. Before you may realize it, the eight have assembled, and it's time for them to start falling like dominoes."

Killers of the Flower Moon

(Photo: Apple Studios)

Killers of the Flower Moon is a harrowing look at our history in America. This choice makes a lot of sense to motivate some of the more aggrieved moments on Cowboy Carter.

ComicBook.com reviewed the movie last year: "In 1897, oil brought a fortune to the Osage Nation, making them some of the richest people in the world. Sadly, their newfound money made them targets, which resulted in what history now calls the 'Reign of Terror.' A conspiracy within the community quickly began as white men infiltrated the Osage Nation by marrying women for their money."

The Harder They Fall

(Photo: Netflix)

The Harder They Fall drew rave reviews for a novel concept and that stacked cast. Director Jeymes Samuel set out to put an entry into the modern Western canon and succeeded.

"I wanted to tell a story and to have these characters portrayed in a movie where they're not subservient. They're not less than human. They're not less than anything," Samuel previously told ComicBook.com. "And I really wanted to make a film where we see that, we see all of those things that we've been missing, like real true power amongst these people. But also, in the same breath, swag out."

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