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Definition of tour

(Entry 1 of 2)

Definition of tour (Entry 2 of 2)

transitive verb

intransitive verb

peregrinate

Examples of tour in a Sentence

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'tour.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

Middle English, from Anglo-French tur, tourn turning, circuit, journey — more at turn

14th century, in the meaning defined at sense 2b

1708, in the meaning defined at intransitive sense

Phrases Containing tour

Cook's tour
package tour
tour de force
tour of inspection

Dictionary Entries Near tour

Cite this entry.

“Tour.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary , Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/tour. Accessed 30 Mar. 2024.

Kids Definition

Kids definition of tour.

Kids Definition of tour (Entry 2 of 2)

More from Merriam-Webster on tour

Nglish: Translation of tour for Spanish Speakers

Britannica English: Translation of tour for Arabic Speakers

Britannica.com: Encyclopedia article about tour

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Definition of tour noun from the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary

a walking/sightseeing/bus tour
tour of/round/around something a coach tour of northern France
They embarked on a tour around the country.
a tour operator (= a person or company that organizes tours)
a business trip
a five-minute trip by taxi
a long and difficult journey across the mountains
a tour of Bavaria
the first expedition to the South Pole
We went on an all-day excursion to the island.
The children were on a day’s outing from school.
We had a day out at the beach.
a(n) foreign/overseas trip/journey/tour/expedition
a bus/coach/train/rail trip/journey/tour
to go on a(n) trip/journey/tour/expedition/excursion/outing/day out
to set out/off on a(n) trip/journey/tour/expedition/excursion
to make a(n) trip/journey/tour/expedition/excursion
have/take (British English) a holiday/ (North American English) a vacation/a break/a day off/ (British English) a gap year
go on/be on holiday/vacation/leave/honeymoon/safari/a trip/a tour/a cruise/a pilgrimage
go backpacking/camping/hitchhiking/sightseeing
plan a trip/a holiday/a vacation/your itinerary
book accommodation/a hotel room/a flight/tickets
have/make/cancel a reservation/ (especially British English) booking
rent a villa/ (both British English) a holiday home/a holiday cottage
(especially British English) hire/ (especially North American English) rent a car/bicycle/moped
stay in a hotel/a bed and breakfast/a youth hostel/a villa/ (both British English) a holiday home/a caravan
cost/charge $100 a/per night for a single/double/twin/standard/ (British English) en suite room
check into/out of a hotel/a motel/your room
pack/unpack your suitcase/bags
call/order room service
cancel/cut short a trip/holiday/vacation
apply for/get/renew a/your passport
take out/buy/get travel insurance
catch/miss your plane/train/ferry/connecting flight
fly (in)/travel in business/economy class
make/have a brief/two-day/twelve-hour stopover/ (North American English also) layover in Hong Kong
experience/cause/lead to delays
check (in)/collect/get/lose (your) (especially British English) luggage/ (especially North American English) baggage
be charged for/pay excess baggage
board/get on/leave/get off the aircraft/plane/ship/ferry
taxi down/leave/approach/hit/overshoot the runway
experience/hit/encounter severe turbulence
suffer from/recover from/get over your jet lag/travel sickness
attract/draw/bring tourists/visitors
encourage/promote/hurt tourism
promote/develop ecotourism
build/develop/visit a tourist/holiday/ (especially British English) seaside/beach/ski resort
work for/be operated by a major hotel chain
be served by/compete with low-cost/ (especially North American English) low-fare/budget airlines
book something through/make a booking through/use a travel agent
contact/check with your travel agent/tour operator
book/be on/go on a package deal/holiday/tour
buy/bring back (tacky/overpriced) souvenirs
We met a group of Italians on a tour in Peru.
They made a whistle-stop tour of the five major towns.
This summer we went on a walking tour around Provence.
We're going on a tour of Bavaria.
You can join an organized tour or you can visit independently.
I'd like to do a tour of Belgium on foot.
international
on (a) tour
tour of duty

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Tour Operator Terminology

On this page we’ll try to clearly define the terms you need to know to run a tour business, and interact in our Tourpreneur Facebook Group .

General Tour Industry Terms

Tour This is a catch-all term that implies a type of travel experience that takes place over time, generally visiting multiple sights. It could last 1 hour or 30 days, and be done as a walk, or in vehicle. It could be a solo traveler or a group of 50 people. Other words might be used to describe the same thing: tour, experience, journey, excursion , etc. It usually implies something organized, either by the traveler themselves, or a tour operator, who designs and delivers a tour for a traveler or group of travelers.
Guest/Customer/Client/Passenger/Participant/Traveler Thanks to Disney, guest is what we generally use to refer to our customers. Why the difference? “Customer” implies a financial relationship, whereas guest relates more to a personal connection and a sense of welcome and hospitality. But it’s the same as customer, passenger (PAX), traveler, etc., and different companies will prefer different terminology.
Guide / Tour Guide / Tourist Guide “tour guide” is used more often in Anglophone countries, especially in the U.S., whereas “Tourist Guide” is used in Europe and elsewhere globally.
Tour Leader/Tour Director/Tour Manager/Tour Escort/Trip Leader This role goes by many different names. It refers to a guide who works over multiple days, usually traveling with a group of guests to multiple cities or regions. In addition to delivering commentary about the locations visited, a tour leader also handles the tour logistics, including working with the motor coach driver, staying on schedule, checking into hotels, meals and activities on time.
Interpreter A guide working often at National Parks or heritage sights; interpretation theory is a 100-year old body of theoretical work focused on strategies for helping individuals make their audience connect with and care for the site that’s being interpreted.
Docent The name sometimes used for a guide usually in a museum or cultural heritage sight.
Day Tour A type of experience that begins and ends in the same day. Usually used to distinguish an experience from a multi-day tour.
Multi-Day Tour Any type of experience that lasts for more than one day. Often includes hotels, meals, short activities, and a form of transportation.
Package Tour A kind of experience (usually multi-day) in which several different components are bundled together: it may or may not include airfare, hotels, guided experiences, meals, etc.
Group Tour You’ll see these terms used differently to a kind of experience in which separate individuals or smaller groups come together to share an experience. Group tours can be public or private .
Public Tour As the name implies, this is a tour that’s open to the general public to sign up. The tour therefore consists of a variety of people who don’t already know each other. A public tour is usually offered at a set time and day.
Private Tour A tour that is sold specifically to an already-organized group of travelers who don’t wish to experience the tour with others. A private tour might be a couple, a small group of friends, or a large church group. Private tours might be at a set time, or organized according to group’s specific needs.
Custom Tour A custom tour is usually also a private tour. Custom refers to the operator crafting an experience customized to the specific demands of a client. A tour operator might be engaged by a client to design a unique experience, for one person or a large group.
Pre-Formed/Affinity Group These are commonly used terms in the multi-day tour space to refer to a group tour not made up of individual solo travelers & couples, but instead of an alread-formed large group of travelers. An “affinity group” shares a common trait—they belong to a church, a retirement community, or a family reunion traveling together, for example. A pre-formed group might also be created by a “Group Leader” who sells a tour for a tour operator , often in exchange for a free trip or a commission.
Escorted Tour Used most often in the multi-day tour space, an escorted tour means you’re traveling with an escort (old fashioned term), more commonly referred to today as a tour manager, tour director, tour leader, or trip leader. The TM’s job is to handle the logistics of keeping the group together, checked into hotels, arranging meals, etc. They work for the tour operator.
Guided Tour In short, an organized excursion led by an individual or individuals. “Tour Guide” is the generalized term, but a guide could be a museum “docent” or an adventure guide, tour leader, etc.
Self-Guided Tour This has two different meanings, one related to technology, one related to nature. When talking about mobile phone apps, a self-guided tour is one usually done in-destination using audio recordings and GPS data to guide an individual along a tour route, sharing recorded stories. In the world of adventure tours, a self-guided tour happens when an individual hires a tour operator to provide guidance in the form of itineraries, maps, possibly technology, all to facilitate an extended journey involving walking, hiking, biking, etc.
FAM Tour A “familiarization” tour, focused on helping one set of professionals (travel agents, for example) learn about a destination, or about vendors in an area. A group of tour guides might take a FAM tour to a new attraction that opened in town, to become familiar with it. A group of travel agents might sign up for a FAM to a destination that they’ll then sell to clients.
FIT Tour Very confusing term. It’s evolved over time. It once meant “foreign independent travel” but now is more often thought of as “flexible independent travel.” The goal is to distinguish this kind of independent traveler from someone who buys into a packaged group tour. FIT is more associated with a client who engages with a travel agent or operator to design something that suits their specific customized needs.
Activity An activity is usually different than a tour in that it is less about guided sightseeing and more about doing something, well, activity based. Examples might be watersports, biking, hiking, etc.
Attraction Think amusement parks, museums, and the Eiffel Tower. What do they all have in common? They require tickets, they’re single place-based experiences, and rather than do them in groups, thousands of people pour in at once, with no specific booked time requirements (unless doing so for crowd control or pandemic related reasons).
“Tours & Activities Industry” This is just one of many ways to talk about our industry. You’ll also hear Tours, Attractions & Activities,
DMO/CVB/Tourism Board A Tourism Board or Destination Marketing Organization (DMO) or Convention & Visitors Bureau (CVB) are all essentially the same thing. — an organization (public, private, or a mix) whose goal it is to promote a destination, be it a city, region or country. Examples include NYC & Company and Visit Scotland .
MICE Pronounced like the animal, stands for Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Events. From a tour perspective, this is where an operator might work with a CVB (see above) to organize tours for business customers hosting or attending a conference in a location. Incentive tours are reward experiences that a company offers a group of employees.
B2B Tour operators who work with other operators

Types of Tour Operators

Tour Operator A business that organizes and sells tours. They sell to a customer, and possibly work with vendors (hotels, restaurants, vehicle companies, etc.) to create an organized tour experience. In short, operators do the grunt work.
Travel Agent/Agency In general, an agency works with travelers, and books travel components to relieve the traveler’s burden of figuring it out on their own. An agency might book a tour operator’s tour as part of the services they provide the travel, in exchange for a commission from the operator.
[insert word here] Operator Tour Operator is a general term, but that’s not the only kind of operator out there. You might also be an adventure operator, watersports operator, ATV rental operator, you name it. But in all cases, you’re not an agency booking someone else’s service, you’re providing the service yourself.
Day (or Multi-Day) Tour Operator Both are subsets of “tour operators” in general. It might be used in the Tourpreneur community when we’re referring to the specific challenges of a specific kind of operator, since the products and challenges of each type of tour can be very different.
Inbound / Receptive Operator / DMC (destination management company) These are all versions of the same thing, with terminology that is sometimes preferred over the other words for various reasons. This kind of tour operator creates experiences in a certain location (often a specific city or a region or country), working B2B with tour operators or corporate entities needing local knowledge and connections. Receptive operator is an older term meaning they “receive” clients who are coming in (or inbound) from somewhere else.
Outbound Operator This version of tour operator (usually multi-day) designs experiences that take guests elsewhere. An outbound operator might be based somewhere (Australia, for example) but focus on creating trips that send their Australian customers outbound to other countries.

Sales, Marketing & Software Terms

SEO Search Engine Optimization—the art of optimizing your website and online presence to bring your content to the top of search engine results (principally Google).
PPC Means “Pay-per-click” and references the kind of digital advertising done by companies like Google: you create an advertisement to appear in search engine results, for example, and you pay for that ad a specific market rate each time someone clicks on your link.
OTA Online Travel Agency—this is a catch-all term for a wide variety of online marketplaces servicing the travel industry, selling everything from rental cars to flights to hotels to tours. An OTA in the general industry might refer to big players like Expedia or Booking.com; in the tour industry, it refers to companies like Viator (the largest tour OTA) and GetYourGuide. There is a long tail of “niche OTAs” that serve specific types of tours and activities (like watersports) or a specific region.
Online Marketplace / Platform This is a more general term for the kind of website platform (like Viator) that sells a wide variety of tours online. Think Guide Marketplaces like ToursByLocals or Withlocals, companies that curate large amounts of guides, but aren’t traditional OTAs like viator.
Restech/Booking Software You’ll hear “restech” (alternately reztech, rez-tech, etc…) as a fast way to refer to the software industry centered around creating helping tour operators accept online bookings, and keep those bookings organized. The largest companies in this space work mainly with day tour operators.
Tour Operator Software Different than booking software/restech, TO software offers an extended suite of features meant to help operators across their whole business, from operators to itinerary proposals to budgeting and pricing. This software may include a booking/payment component, but is a much more fully integrated and holistic (and expensive) solution.
SaaS Short for “Software as a Service” — this is how the tech industry refers usually subscription-based websites or software that help you do something. Examples of SaaS include booking software and CRMs.
Supplier In the language of selling tours to customers on a platform, tour operators are suppliers; you supply tours that are then re-sold by the platform.
Connectivity This is the dark art of how you, the operator (supplier) connect to sales channels.
Distributor/Reseller These are sales channels that sell tickets to your tours on behalf of you. They could be everything from an online marketplace like Viator and GetYourGuide, to a personal travel agent or hotel concierge..
Channel Manager This is software that helps you manager all your different sales channels in one place.

The Meaning Behind Beyonce's 'Blackbird' Cover on Cowboy Carter

B eyoncé's eighth studio album Cowboy Carter , the second act of her three-part project, released at midnight on Friday. One of the most striking songs of its 27 tracks is a soulful cover of the Beatles' "Blackbird," which features a quartet of Black country singers: Tanner Adell, Tiera Kennedy, Brittney Spencer and Reyna Roberts.

The inclusion of "Blackbird" (styled as "Blackbiird" on Cowboy Carter , in keeping with the act ii theme) may come as a surprise to some; for one, in recent years, Beyoncé has rarely done covers of other artists' songs. For another, though Beyoncé has been clear that her new album "ain't a country album, this is a Beyoncé album," many of the songs on the album are firmly in the country space, making her inclusion of the decidedly folk rock classic "Blackbird" especially significant.

Read more: Everything We Know About Beyoncé’s New Album Cowboy Carter

"Blackbird," which was written by Paul McCartney and John Lennon and included on their 1968 self-titled album, is a song about hope and survival, with lyrics that encourage the titular bird to "take these broken wings and learn to fly." However, throughout the years, McCartney has been vocal about the song being inspired by the American civil rights movement and specifically the Little Rock Nine , the trailblazing nine Black students in 1957 who faced immense discrimination after they enrolled in a formerly all-white high school following the landmark Brown vs. Board of Education ruling.

In a 2019 interview with GQ , McCartney detailed how this struggle for racial justice inspired him and Lennon across the pond.

"I was sitting around with my acoustic guitar and I'd heard about the civil rights troubles that were happening in the '60s in Alabama, Mississippi, and Little Rock in particular. So that was in my mind and I just thought, 'It'd be really good if I could write something that if it ever reached any of the people going through those problems, it might kind of give them a little bit of hope,' so I wrote 'Blackbird.'

Read more: ‘I Had a Right to Be at Central’: Remembering Little Rock’s Integration Battle

He also shared that he wrote the song specifically with Black women in the civil rights movement in mind, which makes Beyoncé's decision to cover it with all Black female country artists especially significant.

"In England, a bird is a girl, so I was thinking of a Black girl going through this—you know, now's your time to arise, set yourself free, and take these broken wings. One of the nice things about music is that you know a lot of people listening to you are going to take seriously what you're saying in the song. So I'm very proud of the fact that the Beatles output is always really pretty positive," he said.

In 2016, nearly 60 years after "Blackbird" made its debut, McCartney met two members of the Little Rock Nine, Thelma Mothershed Wair and Elizabeth Eckford, after performing a concert in North Little Rock, AR.

"It's a really important place for us because this is, to me, where civil rights started," McCartney said during the concert . "We would see what was going on and sympathize with the people going through those struggles, and it made me want to write a song that if it ever got back to the people going through those struggles, it might just help them a little."

The song has been covered extensively over the years, by everyone from the Foo Fighters’ Dave Grohl to Sarah McLachlan. Now, Beyoncé's version featuring Adell, Kennedy, Spencer, and Roberts serves as a reminder of the Black women at the forefront of the racial justice movement. It also draws a parallel between the ways in which Black artists and particularly Black women artists still have to fight for space in the industry, especially in the country genre, which has historically been less than welcoming to non-white and women artists .

Write to Cady Lang at [email protected] .

The Meaning Behind Beyonce's 'Blackbird' Cover on Cowboy Carter

Cambridge Dictionary +Plus

Meaning of tour in English

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break-journey
circumnavigation

You can also find related words, phrases, and synonyms in the topics:

She spent three months touring her empire .
The prime minister toured the flooded regions .
I spent a month touring round Europe .
around Robin Hood's barn idiom
communication
public transport
super-commuting
transoceanic
well travelled

Related word

Tour | american dictionary, tour | business english, examples of tour, collocations with tour.

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critics notebook

Kristen Stewart Uses Naked Dressing to Make a Point

Her press tour for “Love Lies Bleeding” was something to see.

Ms. Stewart poses in front of a “Love Lies Bleeding” curtain in a black bodysuit, cut very high on the thigh, and black stilettos.

By Vanessa Friedman

Even in the context of the current pantsless trend prevalent on the runway and in some celebrity circles, as well as the vogue for thematic dressing at movie openings, Kristen Stewart’s looks during her press tour for “ Love Lies Bleeding ” have stood out. Rarely has an actress been so unapologetically, gloriously undressed.

Ms. Stewart and her stylist, Tara Swennen, have taken the film’s carnality and covert politics and translated them for the promotional panopticon, forcing anybody watching to confront their own preconceptions about women’s bodies, their sexuality and exactly what empowerment means, while at the same time undermining the whole circus of branded celebrity dressing.

That’s a lot of subtext under very little — clothing, that is. But it was adroitly managed and awfully entertaining to see.

Margot Robbie had fun dressing à la Barbie during her “Barbie” press tour ; Zendaya captured eyeballs and social media during her “Dune: Part Two” camera calls dressed in sci-fi-themed Mugler, Givenchy and Alaïa; and the cast of “Godzilla Minus One” walked the Oscar red carpet in matching lizard-heel footwear. But with her “Love Lies Bleeding” appearances, Ms. Stewart took the concept of character cosplay to a new, more pointed level.

It started in Berlin back in February, when Ms. Stewart shed her shirt for the film’s European premiere, wearing a very short Chanel couture patchwork miniskirt, matching blazer and knit bralet. (She is a Chanel ambassador.) She raised the ante with a controversial Rolling Stone cover in which she wore only a Nike tank top and a jockstrap.

And when she showed up for the film’s Los Angeles premiere in only a “skirts, who needs ’em?” Bettter bodysuit, cut very high on the thigh, with sheer black tights, a black blazer and black stilettos, it was clear that such choices were not mere flukes but a conscious strategy.

As it happens, the motto of Bettter, a label that repurposes men’s suiting for women, is “empower rather than overpower.” Which, given the movie being celebrated, a queer film noir set in a small town in 1980s New Mexico and, as one reviewer wrote, a “ deconstruction of cinematic hypermasculinity ,” is pretty much on the nose.

It was when the promotional juggernaut reached New York, though, that Ms. Stewart really showed her hand. As well as other body parts, in an abbreviated black mini worn with a mesh bra, garter belt-’n’-stockings and a leather blazer for “Late Night With Seth Meyers” and a sheer Monot draped chain halter for “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert.” Paparazzi caught her exiting her building in tiny cream-colored knit hot pants and a bra worn under a khaki shirt, with stilettos, and then in athletic Chanel micro shorts and matching leg warmers. Again with heels.

The clothes were like a dare to the watching world, a refusal to cater to pretty-girls-in-pretty-dresses gender expectations and a good-natured riposte to the idea that provocation is an invitation. An “I see your judgment and raise you one” piece of fashion politics.

In so orchestrating her outfits, Ms. Stewart, who looked as if she was enjoying herself quite a lot, thank you, demonstrated just how much can be said on the pseudo red carpet even without an E! host asking the point of what she was wearing. You really couldn’t miss her point. After all, she wasn’t exactly covering it up.

Vanessa Friedman has been the fashion director and chief fashion critic for The Times since 2014. More about Vanessa Friedman

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Example sentences take a tour

He doesn't flinch but gets up to take a tour of the school.

Take a tour of the ancient network of caves that lie beneath the inn and learn of the ghosts that roam them.

But we chose to take a tour because the holiday rep excursions offer great value for money.

They would take a tour around the house, oohing and ahhing at how everything so pleasingly had its pair.

Maybe, then, you will decide not to take the tour .

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Definition of 'tour' tour

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Beyoncé’s ‘Cowboy Carter’ Is a Sprawling, Endlessly Entertaining Tour de Force: Album Review

By Chris Willman

Chris Willman

Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic

Oliver Anthony to Release Dave Cobb-Produced Debut Album on Easter Sunday 17 hours ago
Beyoncé’s ‘Cowboy Carter’ Is a Sprawling, Endlessly Entertaining Tour de Force: Album Review 1 day ago
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Beyoncé beyonce cowboy carter album cover review

It sounds pretty magnificent, if a short answer is required. But if it’s genre we all really want to get into, “Cowboy Carter” sounds kinda country, and kinda not — in a way that feels wholly country. Because what is modern country music if not a cornucopia that’s a long way past being defined by a single sound? “Act II” feels a lot like a 27-course meal, difficult to describe in whole, but endlessly easy to digest, serving by serving. There are moments throughout where she’s embracing the tropes and traditions of country as we’ve known it, and just as many where you’re thinking she decided to abandon the concept, until suddenly Willie Nelson or Dolly Parton pop up for one of their intermittent spoken cameos, or there’s a fleeting Patsy Cline interpolation, and suddenly she’s veered back into C&W mode again. No one will mistake this sprawling set for ever following a straight path, or having a remotely dull moment.

It’s almost as if Beyoncé was watching some of the evolutionary leaps and hiccups country has been experiencing as it redefines its boundaries — as the music always has — and said, “Hold my Armand de Brignac. I’ve got this.” But it’s not just a matter of what Beyoncé can do for country music; it’s what her concept of country can do for her, in expanding her musical empire and even her already well-honed sense of self. It’s a lot.

As a whole, “Cowboy Carter” is a masterpiece of sophisticated vocal arranging, laid out on top of mostly fairly stark band tracks. It’s not as if she ever laid off that great trick of her trade, even in a dance-based album like “Renaissance.” But here her brilliance at rendering self-harmonies is pushed up to the forefront in a way that might not have been as easy to focus on for a listener since Destiny’s Child covered “Carol of the Bells” for a Christmas record. It’s bliss.

Apart from these mostly common elements, the tracks almost couldn’t be more different from one another. Who knew that her exploration of Black Country would seem so much like her White Album? Or like a countrified version of Side 2 of “Abbey Road,” once the second half of this album turns into a series of short, sometimes weirder songs that have more strength as part of a dizzying medley than they might as Spotify singles. In its own fashion, “Cowboy Carter” plays as well as a smartly sequenced album as “Renaissance” did, even though that felt like a DJ club set and the new one goes harder on eclectic songcraft.

Her decision to issue “Texas Hold ‘Em” and “16 Carriages” as the two teaser tracks two months in advance of the album turns out to have been ideal for setting expectations for two very different sides of the record. “Texas” wasn’t shy about invoking country tropes, like line-dancing; it, along with some of the attendent pre-release imagery, made some suspicious souls wonder if this album would end up feeling like country cosplay. But then there was “Carriages,” a deeply personal ballad about her misspent youth as a budding starlet, sounding nothing like either old or new country, but married to the genre somehow just by the sound of its intricately plucked strings and storytelling.

There aren’t many moments that sell the lifestyle-branding side of country as hard as “Texas Hold ‘Em” does. (That song did its job; it’s still rising on the country airplay charts, upending some people’s initial expectations.) But of course she’s tying herself to mainstream country’s coolest elders, bringing in Willie Nelson, who does a couple of faux-DJ skits, and Dolly Parton, who brings a chuckle to a spoken introduction to Bey’s “Jolene” cover by pointing out the correlation between that classic’s auburn-haired temptress and the fabled Becky-with-the-good-hair. The Dolly homage is unquestionably the most pure country number on the album, but it’s not a completely straight take, as Beyoncé has rewritten almost all of the lyrics (and added a bridge) to make the song a fiercely protective warning instead of an endangered housewife’s plea. Taking out all the vulnerability lessens the tune a little, but it’s still a kick to hear “Jolene” with a serious infusion of “Lemonade.”

Did we mention that this murder fantasy — which starts off with a classical-sounding guitar that sounds almost fit for a Marty Robbins song — eventually winds up with Beyoncé flawlessly singing an aria from the 1700s, “Caro Mio Ben,” in Italian? It’s that kind of unpredictable album, although this at least counts as probably the strangest turn on it. Unless you count “Oh Louisiana,” a much goofier number that has Beyoncé covering a Chuck Berry oldie in a sped-up voice for a mere 52 seconds.

In evangelizing for this album, it’s hard to know whether to emphasize its weirder choices or its more conventional pleasures. There are more than enough of both of them to give “Cowboy Carter” a real sense of dynamics. But when it comes to the most straightforward material, the average listener may gravitate immediately to Beyoncé’s crowd-pleasing duet with Miley Cyrus , “II Most Wanted,” which has producer Ryan Tedder building a breezy buddyship anthem over an interpolation of Fleetwood Mac’s “Landslide.” “I’ll be your shotgun rider ’til the day I die / Smoke out the window flyin’ down the 405,” they sing, putting the western back in country & Western. “II Most Wanted” is not the most interesting song here, but Bey harmonizes with Cyrus just as effectively as she does with herself. It’d be no surprise if their duet finds its way onto and sticks around the adult contemporary chart for about 18 months.

Sexy-time is a big thing on this album, too. Another superstar duet, “Levii’s Jeans,” has Post Malone in the role of Jay-Z. (Or at least we can surmise from other lyrics on the album that Beyoncé considers herself to have a very healthy marital relationship, physically and otherwise.) “Baby, let me rattle that snake with my venom / Denim on denim on denim on denim,” she sings, although it’s actually more lilting and gentle in tone than any saucy lyric excerpt is going to make it sound.

There are theories that “Act III” in her promised musical triptych will be a rock ‘n’ roll album. It could be wishful thinking; maybe she is saving an all-arias album for last in the trilogy. But if she is planning to rock, she gets a slight head start on it here with a couple of numbers here. “Bodyguard” is a strummed soft-rock number with a straight-up backbeat, sounding almost like a demo, in its sweet minimalism.

Later, she seriously ramps up the energy with “Ya Ya,” which brings out her Tina Turner side, and/or sounds like a “TAMI Show” outtake. “Ya Ya” risks extending itself an interpolation too far, as some iconic bass riffing from “These Boots Are Made for Walkin’” is succeeded by Bey twice throwing in the hook from that famous country classic, “Good Vibrations.” On paper, “Ya Ya” is overstuffed with references, but that doesn’t really matter when you can feel the wind coming off the fringe of her miniskirt.

It takes until the 12 th song on the album — at which point, remember, we’re not halfway through — till we get the first and only real hip-hop song on the album, “Spaghetti,” which has Beyoncé rapping, ever so briefly. But it does have, yes, the barest trace of a spaghetti Western feel, which is just enough to technically tie it back to the overriding concept. It also has an introducion from Linda Martell, the first Black female star in country music (circa 1970), who gives a short homily: “Genres are a funny little concept, aren’t they? … In theory, they have a simple definition, but in practice, well, some may feel confined.”

And then, after a few more essentially acoustic-based songs that pick up the tempo, there’s the final stretch of the album, where things finally get a lot looser and loopier. It may be at this late point in the album when Beyoncé loses some people. After the bonkers “Oh Louisiana” and the 1:13 paean to oral sex that is “Desert Eagle,” a few listeners might be going: What the hell was that we just heard? Suddenly, after that, it begins turning into a club album, with “II Hands to Heaven,” which has an electronic pulse we haven’t heard much of, and “Tyrant,” which flirts with trap, even though Bey is keeping the rodeo underpinnings alive with a “Giddy-up, giddy-up.”

Hearing the album finally turn into something that feels a bit closer to 2022’s “Renaissance” toward the very end could be seen as a reward for some of her faithful fans who are more into dance music for sticking through the Texas two-stepping. But in country terms, it also feels a bit like going to California’s Stagecoach Festival, where the headliner is now always followed at the end of the final night by a late-night DJ set from Diplo, since the line between line-dancing and EDM culture is being further erased these days.

Who cares if any or all of it is country or not, you might ask? Well, lots of people do — especially fellow Black artists who have a stake in how this album is received and how it might affect their futures. Martell, 82, is on board for a couple of spoken-word interludes to serve as a reminder Black country’s largely swept-under-the-rug past. But Beyoncé has brought on board here several young singers who are part of the music’s past and future, including Willie Jones, on “Just for Fun,” and Shaboozey, on “Spaghetti” and again on “Sweet Honey Buckin’,” where their interplay is as randy as the title suggests.

“You were only waiting for this moment to arrive” — that’s a key line for an album that lives up to its event status as an inherent piece of agitprop and socially significant performance art, reflecting and affecting the history of Black music and country. It obviously has been compared to Ray Charles’ landmark 1962 “Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music,” but this feels different than someone coming in and adopting the existing country songbook for their own purposes, vital as that was. Beyoncé expanding this historic catalog with her own crucial additions to it is a never-to-be-forgotten signpost, however much it does or doesn’t immediately affect the fortunes of those still trying to get a basic foothold in the genre.

And she’s not pulling this off either by unduly ingratiating herself into a scene with country customs or ignoring those hallmarks entirely. With this endlessly entertaining project, she gets to be a warrior of female and Black pride and a sweetheart of the radio. Because being Beyoncé means never having to pretend to be just one thing.

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10 takeaways from Beyoncé's new album, 'Cowboy Carter'

Sidney Madden

Sheldon Pearce

Cowboy Carter is the hotly anticipated follow-up to to Beyoncé's 2022 album, Renaissance . Blair Caldwell/Courtesy of the artist hide caption

Cowboy Carter is the hotly anticipated follow-up to to Beyoncé's 2022 album, Renaissance .

How long have fans been speculating over the details of Beyoncé 's new album? It depends when you start counting: Some began buzzing over it the second her previous record, the dance-centric Renaissance , was released in 2022 and touted as "act one" of a trilogy. But the chatter has been especially fervent in the past two months, as singles, visuals and other teases popped up during the Grammys, Super Bowl and on the artist's own social media. The Beyhive's busiest bees analyzed clues that pointed toward a country music-inspired sound; they dissected the history of that genre, and how Black musicians have often been written out of it.

After months of anticipation, Cowboy Carter has finally arrived. Is it a country album? In many ways, yes — but it's also a sprawling work filled with disparate influences and references, while remaining a Beyoncé album at its heart. Two NPR Music staffers, reporter Sidney Madden and editor Sheldon Pearce, have been listening since the stroke of midnight. They come to you now with the 10 most important things to know about exactly what Cowboy Carter is, and is not.

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1. It's a sprawling Western epic ...

Just as Beyonce's 2022 album, act i: RENAISSANCE , served as a world-building homage to the unsung Black queer youth who created house music, Cowboy Carter continues the lesson plan. In a statement soon after the album's worldwide release, the artist's Parkwood Entertainment shared that each song on the 27-track project is its own version of a reimagined Western film: "She took inspiration from films like Five Fingers For Marseilles , Urban Cowboy , The Hateful Eight , Space Cowboys , The Harder They Fall and Killers of the Flower Moon , often having the films playing on a screen during the recording process."

Each track, whether an interlude, collaboration or poignant solo, rides out like a full-length film full of scenic grandeur, character and conflicts that any Chitlin' Circuit aficionado or spaghetti Western cinephile or can obsess over. As a whole, Cowboy Carter serves as a well of discovery, full of samples, sonic Easter eggs, Knowles family callbacks and, most importantly, an appreciation for pioneers in the country world.

2. ... with a searing image of its titular central character.

In the cowboy, Beyoncé finds her ideal figure of the American West and South. She cites the rodeo as the first place where anyone who loved country music and culture could gather and mingle and feel welcome. It's an image that runs counter to the experience that inspired the album: performing her song "Daddy Lessons" at the CMA Awards in 2016, where she has said she "did not feel welcomed ... and it was very clear that I wasn't." The Cowboy Carter character exists in conversation with the history of Black cowboys, the loaded meaning behind the term and its function in the American imagination.

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3. It's a country album ...

There are plenty of categorically country sounds on Cowboy Carter . String instruments are its sonic heartbeat, and the do-si-do of the slide guitar on "DESERT EAGLE" and "TEXAS HOLD 'EM" feel perfectly matched with Bey's feathery vocals. The jovial wiggle of the accordions on "RIIVERDANCE" tip a hat to zydeco music and the artist's Creole heritage. "PROTECTOR" (featuring Beyonce's youngest daughter, Rumi) is anchored by acoustic guitar. "SWEET HONEY BUCKIN" interpolates "I Fall to Pieces," the shuffling standard made famous by Patsy Cline. Compared to Bey's past work in an R&B world full of glitz and glamor, many moments on the album, even with their layered arrangements, feel like intimate jam sessions straight out of a Nashville writing camp.

4. ... and it's also not.

Across the tracklist, elements of hip-hop, bluegrass and Chicano rock, with pop, rock, Jersey club music and operatic runs. "YA YA" conjures the charisma of Tina Turner and Chuck Berry, while winking in the direction of Nancy Sinatra the Beach Boys. "BODYGUARD" is a breezy surf-rock romp with Latin percussion and a little whiskey on its breath. "AMEN" rings to the rafters in true gospel splendor. "SWEET HONEY BUCKIN" stacks genre upon genre and yet never overwhelms, instead connecting the dots between them with dusty horse gallops. The production credits stretch far beyond the scope of country stalwarts, making the album a treasure hunt for fans and issuing a challenge to the ways country music has come to be defined.

5. It's got country and Americana icons to set the tone ...

Voices from country lore appear throughout the tracklist, signposts for the album's deconstructions of genre. The outlaw country pioneer Willie Nelson, who once bucked the Nashville sound himself, stands in as the host of KNTRY Radio Texas, Beyoncé's fictional pirate station. Dolly Parton draws a line from Becky with the good hair to Jolene, and turns up again before "TYRANT," encouraging Beyoncé to light up a juke joint. In a prelude to one of the album's most adventurous cuts, "SPAGHETTII," Linda Martell, an undersung, trailblazing Black country star of the '70s, lays out a sort of mission statement: "Genres are a funny little concept, aren't they? Yes, they are. In theory, they have a simple definition that's easy to understand. But in practice, well, some may feel confined."

6. ... and it's flipping some old tropes.

There are covers of country classics here that stand out for how stealthily they're reimagined. Parton's 1973 hit "Jolene" shows up early in the album, but Beyonce adds her own sauce to flip its storied narrative. A vigilant Bey (flip-flopping between being upset and unbothered) clocks the "bird" chirping round her man; unlike Dolly, who responds to a similar threat with a plea for mercy, she puts her rival on notice: " I'm warnin' you, woman, find you your own man / Jolene, I know I'm a queen, Jolene / I'm still a Creole banjee bitch from Louisianne ." This twist renegotiates the common push and pull of rolling-stone / damsel-in-distress infidelity that's historically been a hallmark in country standards, and has only recently started to shift (see also: Carrie Underwood's "Before He Cheats.")

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7. It gives flowers to unsung pioneers.

When Linda Martell shows up in the opening moments of "SPAGHETTII" to pose her question about genres, the slick rhetorical framing cuts to the main conceit of Cowboy Carter and centers Martell herself as a case in point. As a pioneer in the country space, Martell made history with her 1970 album Color Me Country and was the first Black woman to perform on the storied Grand Ole Opry. But because of the racist aggression she endured when moving from pop to country, Martell soon left the business. Now, at 82 years old, Martell's getting her due. Her voice is immortalized on both "SPAGHETTII" and "THE LINDA MARTELL SHOW," both tracks that play hopscotch with a range of genres. "I am proud that Beyoncé is exploring her country music roots," the veteran posted on Instagram . "What she is doing is beautiful, and I'm honored to be a part of it. It's Beyoncé, after all!"

8. It shines a light on the stars of country's new age.

A recent study tracking country music programming from 2000 through 2020 revealed that only 29% of country songs played on format radio were by women artists, and of that 29%, 0.01 % were Black women. And so along with honoring pioneers, Cowboy Carter platforms new stars in the field who are still working their way through its entrenched gatekeeping and redlining.

Rhiannon Giddens strums her banjo on the album's lead single, "TEXAS HOLD 'EM." Virginia's Shaboozey, whose 2022 release Cowboys Live Forever, Outlaws Never Die offered songs for a post-"Old Town Road" country-rap world, cuts through two tracks with his unforgettable tone. "BLACKBIIRD" features the vocals of four Black women — Tanner Addell, Brittney Spencer, Tiera Kennedy and Reyna Roberts. This soulful cover of the Beatles classic about Black women's plights and resilience during the American Civil Rights movement puts its subjects in a spotlight that country radio rarely does, bringing home the reality that opportunities for artists like these have scarcely grown in the years since Martell broke ground.

9. It saddles up over the pop-country middle ground.

On Cowboy Carter , Beyoncé is a pop star actively in conversation with the idea of country music, and traversing the distance between those genres seems to have made her consider the existing relationship between them. In two moments on the album, she enlists singers who have been blurring that binary for quite some time, Miley Cyrus and Post Malone. Miley, of course, is the daughter of "Achy Breaky Heart" sensation Billy Ray Cyrus, and in her own pursuit of a pop identity fiddled with Mike WiLL trap, Flaming Lips psychedelia, glam rock and country pop before settling on the centering sounds of last year's Endless Summer Vacation , which earned her a record of the year Grammy for "Flowers." For his part, Post broke out as a watercolor trap rockstar and has since shifted toward a sound more in line with his Texas roots. Both seem to resonate with the ambiguity Bey sees running through the music.

10. There's more beneath the rhinestone jewel case.

Beyond the many featured guests, other behind-the-scenes contributors help tell the story. The-Dream, Pharrell, No I.D., Raphael Saadiq, Ryan Tedder, Ryan Beatty and Swizz Beatz all helped produce the record. It also boasts an incredibly accomplished cast of supporting players: Pulitzer-winning folk revivalist Giddens, Grammy-winning soul man Jon Batiste, session luminary Nile Rodgers, gospel pedal steelist Robert Randolph, blues rocker Gary Clark, Jr., hip-hop banjoist Willie Jones and the incomparable Stevie Wonder. The incredible variety of names and skills is the secret sauce behind Cowboy Carter 's sprawling vision.

Consumer advocates — and even some realtors — hail NAR settlement: 'We've opened up the entire industry to competition'

A "Sold" sign outside a home in Aldie, Va., on Feb. 20, 2024.

The process of buying a home has seemingly never been simpler: Find a property on a listings website like Zillow, Redfin or Trulia; reach out to the listing agent; tour the property; and make an offer.

But for years behind the scenes, experts say, consumers have not been fully aware of the ultimate cost — and potential conflicts of interest — when searching for a home.

Now, a landmark settlement with the National Association of Realtors is poised to upend this model. According to consumer advocates, and even some realtors, it’s a win for homebuyers and sellers.

“Price transparency is a good thing, increased competition is a good thing, and this will increase both,” said Mariya Letdin, an associate professor at Florida State University’s College of Business. “I really welcome this change.”

When someone goes looking for a home today, they are in most cases intercepted by a broker who has access to certain listings and who will work with the buyer at no cost upfront to help them get into a home.

But therein lies a common misconception, experts interviewed by NBC News said. Although a homeowner who puts their property up for sale must hire professionals to market their home, they usually fold that cost into the final price paid by the buyer.

“The buyer brings the entire purchase price to the table,” Letdin said. “And the seller gets to keep a little bit more of that after this ruling.”

As part of the new settlement, the buyer should now be fully apprised upfront about any potential fees or commissions they’ll ultimately have to pay.

That’s because the agreement requires that a buyer sign a formal contract with a broker laying out what services they’ll be receiving, and for how much.

Alternatively, a homebuyer could decide not to hire a broker and instead put their search costs toward a real estate lawyer, appraiser or someone else with knowledge of the housing market, experts say.

And a seller could even offer to cover the cost of the buyer’s team as an incentive to attract more buyers.

Of course, for a property that’s garnering a lot of attention, such buyer incentives are unlikely to be on the table.

And in the months following Covid-19 pandemic reopenings, the hottest U.S. real estate markets were tipped squarely in favor of sellers.

But now, with home price growth leveling off, the playing field is leveling out too, putting more buyers in the driver’s seat, experts say.

“Now you can hire an attorney for $1,500, instead of paying a $50,000 commission,” said Doug Miller, a real estate lawyer based in Minnesota who helped launch the actions that led to the NAR settlement.

Whomever a prospective buyer chooses as their representative in the homebuying process, the NAR settlement now formally bans the seller’s ability to advertise a commission for the buyer’s reps on the multiple listing service.

For its part, the NAR has maintained that the free market has always set commission levels, and that they were always negotiable — and even useful.

“Offers of compensation help make professional representation more accessible, decrease costs for home buyers to secure these services, increase fair housing opportunities, and increase the potential buyer pool for sellers,” the NAR said in its March 15 statement announcing the agreement.

But in most cases, there was little difference in the amount being offered for those commissions in a given market — usually about 3%.

That’s because any attempt to offer a lower commission to a buyer’s agent would likely motivate the agent to direct their client away from that property.

Miller characterized that behavior as improper and said buyers, in many cases, would have had no awareness of it.

“The future here is that buyers will now be in the driver’s seat,” Miller said. “Instead of that [commission] money going to their agent ... it can now go directly to the buyer. It’s the same amount of money, but now the buyer gets money instead of a buyer agent, and they can decide what to do with it.”

What’s more, greater competition for clients is likely to result in lower costs across the board, said Ryan Tomasello, a real estate industry analyst with the Keefe, Bruyette & Woods financial firm.

“When you introduce a ton of transparency to a marketplace that has historically lacked it, any economist will tell you that reduces friction costs — i.e., commissions — and those are some of the highest in the world,” Tomasello said. “So the all-in cost of buying and selling a home, in theory, is going to decline.”

Many experts, including other real estate professionals, agree that the settlement will effectively thin the ranks of fly-by-night agents who served as an intermediary — a phenomenon that surged during the pandemic-era housing boom.

“A lot of folks parachuted in during 2020-2021 to try to make easy extra money by putting themselves out there as a buyer agent and taking 3%,” said Phil Crescenzo Jr., vice president of the Southeast division at Nation One Mortgage Corp.

“But they weren’t bringing 3% of value — not even close.”

Crescenzo compared it to moonlighting mortgage brokers who helped fuel the housing bubble of the mid-to-late 2000s.

“Once they changed the compensation rules, the dominant professionals rose to the top, the bottom disappeared, and the industry got better,” Crescenzo said.