A rustic radio station in Oklahoma that obtained criticism earlier this week for not taking part in Beyoncé’s new track “Texas Hold ‘Em” is now taking part in the tune.
KYKC-FM added the track to its nation playlist, Roger Harris, a basic supervisor for South Central Oklahoma Radio Enterprises, which oversees KYKC, informed CBS News in an e-mail Wednesday. Harris mentioned it was additionally included in playlists of two different stations it oversees, KCFC-FM and KADA-FM.
The transfer comes after a fan requested “Texas Hold ‘Em” — a rustic track about Beyoncé’s home state of Texas — solely to have the request shut down by the station.
The fan posted SCORE’s reply to social media, which learn that “We don’t play Beyoncé on KYKC as we’re a rustic music station.”
The response generated outcry and accusations of racism on-line from the Beyhive — Beyoncé’s ardent fanbase.
Kevin Mazur/WireImage for Parkwood through Getty Images
Harris informed CBS News that the station initially did not know Beyoncé had launched two nation music songs — “Texas Hold ‘Em” and “16 Carriages” — following Super Bowl LVIII, and defined that the response to the fan was a “customary reply” since KYKC do not play her music — however does on to 2 of its others. In addition, Harris mentioned KYKC did not “even have the track.”
“Because we’re a small station, we do not get serviced by the massive labels like greater stations do,” he added.
After emails, calls and extra requests flooded the station concerning the track, Harris mentioned they made an effort to trace it down, listened to it, and agreed that it sounded “nation.” The station even wrote a post about it on social media.
“We don’t have anything in opposition to Beyonce…and we want her the most effective in her foray into nation music,” Harris informed CBS News, including that she’s an “icon.”
“We really want that artists WOULDN’T get boxed in to sure genres or codecs,” Harris mentioned. “If it is good music, it is good music.”
The KYKC incident echoed the same sentiment over whether or not race was a think about figuring out genres when Lil Nas X’s track “Old Town Road” was eliminated from the Billboard Hot Country Chart in early 2019. Billboard justified the choice then by claiming the track “doesn’t embrace sufficient parts of as we speak’s nation music.”
However, it later returned to the charts after Lil Nas X paired up with Billy Ray Cyrus for a remix of “Old Town Road.”
It’s not the primary time Beyoncé has been thrown into an issue associated to nation music. During the fiftieth anniversary of the Country Music Awards in 2016, she carried out her track “Daddy’s Lessons” with The Chicks, which wasn’t obtained nicely by some nation music followers.
