The Cowboy Carter Economy: Who Profits When Black Culture Moves the Market?
With Cowboy Carter, Beyoncé reasserts authorship over a genre Black artists helped birth and proves, once again, that culture is capital.
She reframed country music through a Black Southern lens, spotlighted forgotten legacies, and rewrote American mythology in her cadence.
But the cultural impact didn’t stop at the sonic. It came with boots, fringe, braids, and an economic boom.
Since Beyoncé kicked off her Cowboy Carter tour on April 28, the ripple effects have been immediate and measurable.
Hotel prices in tour cities surged by up to 178%. Airbnb searches in Chicago spiked more than 100% compared to last year. Downtown hotels reported 95% occupancy on opening night alone. Rideshare apps joined the wave, offering discounts using Beyoncé song titles as promo codes. Lyft even turned its map cars into white horses in homage to the album’s artwork.
Retail Ripple Effects
Retail saw a shake-up, too. Levi’s stock jumped 20% after Beyoncé dropped the track “Levii’s Jeans.” Store footfall rose across U.S. locations. UK searches for “women’s Levi’s jeans” surged 263%. The brand even added an extra “i” to its name on social media. As their CFO put it, “She’s the cultural czar. We’re humbled she chose us.”
The Chicago Surge
In Chicago, the Cowboy Carter effect went citywide. Mayor Brandon Johnson summed it up plainly: “Beyoncé was here for three days, and I just needed her to stay two more days so she could help solve my budget crisis.”
He wasn’t exaggerating. Choose Chicago — the city’s official tourism arm — reported a record 55.3 million visitors in 2024. Beyoncé’s shows helped drive international tourism to pre-pandemic highs. Restaurants, salons, rental properties, and retailers all saw a surge.
Short-term rental hosts like Michelle Singleton noted increased bookings in neighborhoods beyond downtown, showcasing overlooked pockets of Black history and culture.
Kristen Reynolds, CEO of Choose Chicago, put it: “That’s tax revenue… and that’s revenue that keeps our taxes lower as residents.”
The Boom Doesn’t Always Reach Black-Owned Businesses
So yes — Cowboy Carter is moving markets. But while city officials celebrate the surge, for many Black-owned businesses, the boom felt more like a window that closed too fast.
Because here’s the truth: Cultural moments don’t automatically translate into economic empowerment.
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Not without infrastructure.
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Not without policy.
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Not when the current landscape is this stark.
Black-owned businesses are growing, but still receive less than 2% of all venture capital funding. In cities like Chicago, where Beyoncé’s presence lit up the economy, Black entrepreneurs face disproportionate barriers to credit, commercial leasing, and municipal support.
According to a 2023 Brookings report, Black people make up nearly 30% of Chicago’s population, but own less than 10% of businesses with employees. After COVID, nearly half of all Black-owned small businesses closed — many permanently.
Demand Surges, But Supply Falls Behind
When Cowboy Carter rolls into town, demand surges — but supply doesn’t always keep up.
In Atlanta, Yelp reported a 300% increase in nail tech searches during Beyoncé’s tour week. In Chicago, Black-owned boutiques saw a wave of new foot traffic after posting Cowboy Carter-inspired looks. In Sweden, economists even cited Beyoncé as a contributing factor to a national rise in inflation.
Her presence inflates the economy, but the profits rarely reach the communities whose style, labor, and imagination helped create the moment.
That’s because most Black-owned businesses — especially micro-entrepreneurs and cultural vendors — aren’t positioned to scale with the spike. Not due to a lack of talent, but a lack of access.
What’s Missing?
The demand is there, but too often, the scaffolding to meet it isn’t.
What’s missing isn’t creativity or consumer interest. It’s access to the fundamentals: inventory financing, commercial space in key areas, temporary vendor licenses, scalable staffing, and the operational infrastructure, like POS systems, CRM tools, and digital booking, that allows businesses to serve at scale.
The Core of the Cowboy Carter Economy
Black creativity builds the moment. Cities profit from the moment. But Black businesses are left out of the long tail.
We’ve seen this pattern before — Black Panther box office weekends. Juneteenth’s sudden retail rebrand. The “Buy Black” surge of 2020.
Cultural flashpoints generate momentum. But without long-term investment, they fade.
Visibility rises. Equity doesn’t.
This Isn’t Just a Branding Issue
It’s not just a branding problem — it’s a supply chain issue, a capital access issue, a zoning issue, and a policy failure.
If we know Beyoncé’s tour will bring tens of thousands of consumers into a city, we have to ask: Why aren’t tourism boards working with Black-owned restaurants in advance? Why aren’t local business directories being handed out at venues? Why aren’t cities creating pop-up retail districts so Black vendors can participate in the surge?
We can’t keep expecting Black businesses to show up for culture without showing up for them with capital.
Beyoncé Is Already Doing Her Part
She hires Black creatives. She partners with Black designers. She funds scholarships.
She builds platforms. Her team is intentional. Her impact, undeniable.
But no one—not even Beyoncé—can build a sustainable cultural economy alone.
We Need a Model — Not Just a Moment
If we want Black businesses to benefit from the markets they help move, we need more than cultural momentum — we need infrastructure.
That means microgrants for tour-adjacent businesses. Supplier directories that connect artists and crews with local vendors. Investment funds that help service providers scale. And local policies designed to reduce friction for Black entrepreneurs during peak cultural events.
Final Thought
Black culture doesn’t just trend — it transacts. Cowboy Carter is the latest reminder: we move markets.
The question is no longer whether Black creativity is profitable. It’s whether we’re ready to structure the systems so Black businesses can profit too.
Author Footnote:
Korrine Sky is a cultural brand strategist, writer, and Editor-at-Large at the Southern African Times. She explores the intersections of commerce, culture, and power—decoding how Black influence is monetized, misrepresented, or misunderstood in the global marketplace. Through her platform, Culture & Commerce, she writes essays that challenge extractive branding and position cultural authorship as a force for equity.
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