Is Kacey Musgraves' new album a return to the country music genre that shunned her?

In 2022, Kacey Musgraves' Star-Crossed was disqualified from country music categories at the Grammys. Is her forthcoming album a return to her roots?

Texas-born singer Kacey Musgraves is preparing to release a new album, Deeper Well, a 14-song offering that's due out 15 March 2024. Her fifth studio album, the release is Musgraves' latest since 2021's Star-Crossed, which featured more than a few pop-leaning tracks and subsequently found itself at the center of a drama when Musgraves was disqualified from all country music categories for the 2022 Grammy awards.

A music screening committee for the award's show deemed Star-Crossed more appropriate for pop category consideration rather than country. And in making that crossover – deliberately or not – Musgraves joined a small handful of other female country artists whose careers have followed a similar country-to-pop exodus – including Taylor Swift and Marren Morris.

With the forthcoming Deeper Well, however, the jury is out on whether the album represents a return to the singer's country roots or a continued exploration of music beyond the narrow confines of the country genre – or maybe some mix of both, as Musgraves attempts to carve out a path that suits her artistic and personal sensibilities.

"To me, her motivation is to create great songs wherever they land in genre," Brandy Zdan, a Nashville, Tennessee-based artist and record producer, tells BBC Culture. "The country music genre is so limiting and really caters to the lowest common denominator of listeners and is far from inclusive of female artists."

Released in 2021, Musgraves' 15-track Star-Crossed was a genre-blurring offering. Songs on the album, which debuted at No. 1 on Billboard's Top Country Albums upon release, cover relationships and heartbreak, topics that have long been common themes for country lyrics. But the album also was described by some industry critics as such a heavy dose of pop it could have been performed by Dido. 

The Grammy screening committee seemed to agree. After reviewing the album "track by track" according to a report in Variety, the committee decided that "although there were some more country-leaning tracks on it, there weren’t a sufficient number for it to be considered a truly country album."

It was a decision that the president of Musgrave's label criticized in a letter sent to the head of the Recording Academy, Harvey Mason Jr., pointing out that the album was more country than Musgrave's previous release, Golden Hour.

“Sonically, [Star-Crossed has] got more country instrumentation than Golden Hour, which won Country Album of the Year in 2019…There is no departure in sound from these two projects," Universal Music Group Nashville president Cindy Mabe wrote in an email to the Academy.

Both Star-Crossed and Golden Hour were created by the same team of people. And in addition to winning Country Album of the Year, the latter album also won several other country music awards at the Grammys in 2019 including Best Country Solo Performance.

Mabe's point was that the albums were so similar stylistically that it defied logic to categorize one as country and the other pop. And as it turns out, Mabe is not the only one who feels Musgraves never really abandoned country music.

"I would still consider [Star-Crossed] a country album, she's still a country artist on that album," Jason Lipshutz, senior director of music for Billboard, tells BBC Culture.

"I wouldn't say she left country behind. All of her albums are ostensibly country," continues Lipshutz. "She is definitely playing with the contours of what country music can be and sound like, but she's definitely still a country artist through and through."

But Lipshutz offers this caveat: Musgraves is clearly a country artist who also enjoys other styles of music and likes collaborating with other artists who aren't in the country space.

It's an observation made by other critics as well. Musgraves is an artist who's comfortable navigating her own unique course not limited or defined by traditional genre boundaries. And that reality appears to inform the music she releases and choices she makes, say critics.

For some industry watchers, Musgraves' dabbling in pop-influenced tracks is not surprising – iIt's a move that makes perfect sense.

"She essentially hit the top in country – she won album of the year at the Grammys with a country album [in 2019], which is very rare, so where does one go after that?" Hugh McIntyre, a senior contributor and music writer for Forbes, tells BBC Culture.

"There's only so much she could continue to do within the country world, only so many more people she can reach," adds McIntyre. "So one way that artists expand their reach and continue to grow is by trying new things and reaching new genres."

Annie Zaleski, music critic for Rolling Stone, NPR, Salon and other publications offers a similar rationale for Musgrave's musical path, pointing out that if an artist wants to reach the widest possible audience, then pop is often deemed the way to go.

"I think of the biggest and most obvious artist who moved toward pop from her country roots is Taylor Swift – an evolution that of course has been wildly successful from a critical and commercial standpoint," Zaleski tells BBC Culture. 

When Swift moved fully in a pop direction starting with her album 1989, it was partly because her musical tastes and influences had expanded – Peter Gabriel and Annie Lennox were both inspirations for 1989, says Zaleski. Swift was also at a point in her career where a leap into the pop world would be the key to  the next level of visibility.

Marren Morris provides a similar example, suggests Zaleski. Morris famously sang on Russian-German record producer Zedd's pop song The Middle back in 2018.

"[Morris'] sound as well I think has always had bigger aspirations beyond country," says Zaleski. "And [The Middle was] just her signaling that she was taking more control over her career and approach."

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But there's one more potential motivation that can't be overlooked when it comes to the evolution of female country artists like Marren and Musgraves, which is that country is often a challenging place for artists who don't fit the (traditionally white, straight, and male) historical mold. It's an issue that was also taken on by Morris, who has worked to make country music more inclusive, particularly for people of color and the LGBTQ+ community.

"People in the space, especially women, have been coming forward lately and speaking about how country music is still largely male-dominated, white-dominated, there's not a lot of room for people who don't fit a very specific look and sound, much more so than almost every other genre," says McIntyre.

There is hope, however, for an end – or at least a dramatic change – to the gatekeeping of country music, as Beyonce's recent (not easy, but ultimately successful) first steps into the country genre have shown.

It is against this complicated backdrop that Musgraves is releasing her new album, Deeper Well. Co-produced and co-written with collaborators from her two previous albums, Daniel Tashian and Ian Fitchuk, and released by Interscope Records and UMG Nashville, Deeper Well chronicles habits and people that Musgraves appears ready to put in the past.

Musgraves herself teased the album's theme in an X (formerly Twitter) post stating: "I’m saying goodbye to the people that I feel are real good at wasting my time. No regrets, baby, I just think that maybe you go your way and I’ll go mine."

Some have hailed the album, and the year ahead for that matter, as Musgraves' "emphatic return to country." Though a closer, more nuanced inspection reveals that the upcoming album may represent a continued balancing act for Musgraves.

"It's a little bit of a back to basics album, has a country music foundation, but gestures toward folk and pop song writing. Kind of what Kasey has always done," says Lipshutz.

That unique mix of musical styles on her latest and past albums – country, folk and even some indie influences – Zdan says, is quintessential Musgraves. 

"This only proves my point that she's a true and great artist of our time," says Zdan of the new album. "I can't wait to hear the whole thing and see what she does next."

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