Call it Queen The Bay Effect: Cowboy Carter saw Beyoncé dive deep into country roots — and with the album, which Rolling rock dubbed Instant Classic, it helped introduce thousands of fans to some of country music's legends.
New data from Spotify is provided at Rolling rock Monday reveals that music streams for artists Willie Nelson, Linda Martell and Dolly Parton have skyrocketed after Cowboy Cartercirculation — with some stream numbers reaching tens of thousands.
Linda Martell, whose 1970 LP, Color Me Country, was the first major country album released by a black woman, and saw a nearly 127,430 percent increase in Spotify's catalog streams overall this weekend. Her track “Bad Case of the Blues” also saw a nearly 1,270 percent jump in streams.
Spotify also highlighted people who “discovered” Martell's music for the first time after Bey's album: The country legend had a 1,145 percent increase in first-time listeners on the platform over the weekend.
Martell talks about the introduction “Spaghetti,” where she discusses the limiting nature of the word “genre” and takes her own piece, “The Linda Martell Show”, a segue clip introducing “Ya Ya” as a “melody [that] it spans a range of genres and that's what makes it a unique listening experience.”
Dolly Parton started her moment Cowboy Carter as well as after performing Beyoncé's reworked version of “Jolene” in the prelude to “Dolly P”. After hearing Bey's new version, fans were likely to visit Parton's Spotify page to check out her music, which saw a 100 percent increase in streams overall. Streams for the original “Jolene” also increased by 11,610 percent.
Willie Nelson also had album credits and a huge jump in Spotify streams. His music jumped 190% overall on Spotify, while the 2013 release “From Here to the Moon and Back” with Parton jumped 4,800 percent. His 1971 solo classic “Family Bible” also saw an 890 percent increase in Spotify streams over the weekend.
The trio of country legends — Nelson, Parton and Martell — all provided interludes Cowboy Carter and seem to be a big inspiration for the LP as a whole. All of them also shared their excitement about the record after its release.
On Instagram Friday, Martell shared her pride in Beyoncé for “exploring her roots in country music.”
“What he's doing is beautiful and I'm honored to be a part of it. It's Beyoncé after all!” Martel wrote. After the album dropped, Parton wrote on Instagram: “Wow, just heard Jolene. Beyoncé gives this girl a hard time and she deserves it!”
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