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Beyoncé

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Cowboy Carter and the Black Roots of Country Music

Beyoncé is following in the footsteps of many Black musicians before her.
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History Explains the Backlash to Beyoncé's 'Cowboy Carter'

Black cowboys made up as much as a quarter of working ranch hands during late 19th century. That legacy has been obscured.
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Who is Linda Martell, the Black Country Musician Beyoncé Spotlights?

The first Black woman to play the Grand Ole Opry and hit Billboard’s country music charts.
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‘Give It Up For My Sister’: Beyonce, Solange, and The History of Sibling Acts in Pop

Family dynasties are neither new nor newly influential in pop.
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Democrats’ years-long efforts to reclaim the word are cresting in this year’s Presidential race.
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Why Do Modern Pop Songs Have So Many Credited Writers?

How modern songwriting evolved into a game of aggressive credit—even for the people who didn’t technically do the composing.
Weird Al Yankovic, Lizzo, and Beyonce with their mouths covered by black bars indicating censorship.

The Surprising History of the Slur Beyoncé and Lizzo Both Cut From Their New Albums

How did the controversial term go from middle-school slang to verboten? The answer lies on the other side of the Atlantic.
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Songs for a South Underwater

After the 1927 Great Flood, Black musicians from the Delta produced an outpour of songs testifying to the destruction. The same is true today.
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How a Genius Fashion Invention Freed Midcentury Women Like Lucille Ball to Be Pregnant in Public

The inventor thought her pregnant sister looked like “a beach ball in an unmade bed.”
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The Forgotten Stories of America's Black Wall Streets

A century after the Tulsa Race Massacre, what happened there is finally more widely known—but other "Black Wall Street" stories remain hidden.
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Inside the Making of People's Iconic '50 Most Beautiful' Issue

Before People was the juggernaut of the celebrity media, it was a magazine “about people.”
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In Search of Soul

A musicological conversation about the history and social value of Black music.
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100 Women of the Year

From Amelia Earhart to Michelle Obama, meet 100 women who defined the last century.
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Cut Me Loose

A personal account of how one young woman travels to South Carolina in search of her family history and freedom narrative.

How Auto-Tune Revolutionized the Sound of Popular Music

An in-depth history of the most important pop innovation of the last 20 years, from Cher’s “Believe” to Kanye West to Migos.

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Beyond three strands of hair interlocked around each other, there's a complicated story.

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