Collapse and Delight

The collective close reading of ‘Cowboy Carter’

There was a period of time when I absolutely loved Monday mornings — my favorite part of the week. Why? Mad Men aired on Sunday night, and Monday morning was all about reading critics’ assessments and talking to friends, comparing notes, everyone abuzz with observations and theories, easter eggs they’d spotted and sub references they’d caught that cast new light onto what we had watched, right down to whatever song had played over the closing credits. Even then, those sorts of shared-timing cultural experiences were becoming diminishingly rare. But on top of the simple joy of “appointment viewing” and the water-cooler camaraderie the next day, there was the draw of a written thing that rewarded close reading, and the collaborative experience of mining it. I’ve been reminded of that this week by the whole world listening to Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter (available wherever you get your music) and the utter, delightful flurry of people unpacking all that it contains. (I mean, wow, just look at that scope of that Wikipedia page already.) In addition to enjoying the hell out of things like the recasting Dolly Parton’s Jolene from “begging” to “warning,” I have truly learned something new from the album and the ensuing conversation every day since it dropped, from Linda Martell and the Chitlin’ Circuit, to the fact that Paul McCartney wrote ‘Blackbird’ with black women in mind, and so much more.

Rather than do a round up here, for anyone who might have missed all of this, I’m going to point you to Danyel Smith (aka @danamo): both her roundup and her commentary on MSNBC. Danyel is an old friend of mine from the Readerville days, but far more importantly she’s the former editor of Vibe and Billboard, among other things, and the author of Shine Bright: A Very Personal History of Black Women in Pop.

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[ IMAGE: promotional poster featuring the songfest from Cowboy Carter ]

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Karen Templer

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4 responses to “The collective close reading of ‘Cowboy Carter’”

  1. i’ve been treasuring these moments too — any event that feels like we’re all paying attention to the same thing and possibly living in a shared reality. award shows, SNL, the eclipse (as you wrote), etc. all give little glimpses of it still, but i agree that they do feel so much more rare and less potent now. this decline of “appointment viewing” does seem to touch on something central to how attention has been reorganized by tech or, at least personally, how much agency i’ve given to platforms choosing for me. 

    i had a micro bookish “monday morning” experience recently that really highlighted this too. we had a group of internet strangers all reading middlemarch together on bluesky (using a schedule and a 🛖 cottage to filter) and it was such a pleasure to have a little corner of the web to visit and collectively close read together everyday. reflecting on it, i’m surprised by how alien it feels to just be doing the same thing together online right now.

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  2. i’ve been treasuring these moments too — any event that feels like we’re all paying attention to the same thing and possibly living in a shared reality. award shows, SNL, the eclipse (as you wrote), etc. all give little glimpses of it still, but i agree that they do feel so much more rare and less potent now. this decline of “appointment viewing” does seem to touch on something central to how attention has been reorganized by tech or, at least personally, how much agency i’ve given to platforms choosing for me. 

    i had a micro bookish “monday morning” experience recently that really highlighted this too. we had a group of internet strangers all reading middlemarch together on bluesky (using a schedule and a 🛖 cottage to filter) and it was such a pleasure to have a little corner of the web to visit and collectively close read together everyday. i’m a bit surprised by how alien it feels to just be doing the same thing together online now.

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