REVISED (Academic Argument): Beyonce

It takes a queen. It takes a queen to release an album without any promotion or previous announcement…and to do it successfully. It takes a queen to nearly break the Internet. Who is this queen you ask? Katy Perry.

Just kidding. It is Queen Bey of course.

            On December 13, 2013 Beyoncé did a surprise reveal at midnight of her self-entitled album, Beyoncé. The album contained fourteen songs, five singles, and was accompanied by seventeen music videos. The singles on the album were “XO”, “Flawless”, “Pretty Hurts”, “Drunk in Love”, and “Partition.” Beyoncé quickly became the fastest selling album in iTunes history. The album featured artists Jay Z (of course), Drake, Frank Ocean, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, and even her young daughter, Blue Ivy. It went two times platinum in the United States and reached number one on Billboard’s Top 200 and Top R&B/Hip Hop Albums. Of all of the fantastic albums Beyoncé ever released, this is by far the greatest and the most bootylicious.

            The themes found in Beyoncé can be put into three categories: Sex/Love, Relationships, and being yourself. The songs that fit in the sex/love category include “Drunk in Love”, “Blow”, “No Angel”, “Partition/Yonce”, and “Rocket.” The relationships category includes “Jealous”, “Mine”, “XO”, “Superpower”, “Heaven”, and “Blue.” The being yourself group has “Pretty Hurts”, “Ghost/Haunted”, and “Flawless.” There is a pretty good spread of songs per group. After listening to each song and lyrically analyzing and grouping them I have came to a conclusion. Many critics who had negative things to say about Beyoncé and its sexual content are looking too close to the surface and too individually at each song instead of viewing the album as a whole. According to Pitchfork, Beyoncé is just trying too hard to follow the risqué pathway way that Miley Cyrus and Rihanna have paved. What they are failing to recognize is that she is completely different from Miley and Rihanna in that she has a successful marriage to back up her sexual music; she is not just singing about sex without a healthy relationship to base it off of. Then there are the critics, like Vivienne Pattison who did an interview with Daily Mail about the subject, who say that Beyoncé is making us take steps backwards in terms of the feminist revolution. Since when has embracing your sexuality and being who you are made society change their views on where women belong in the world? In all honesty, Beyoncé embracing her sex life and normalizing the idea of sex in a healthy relationship is empowering to women. It is showing them that maybe instead of one night stands; they should be looking for someone who actually cares for them. Laura Cox talks about how Beyoncé released her album and videos straight to video because Beyoncé says she wanted to speak “directly to her fans with no filter.” Honestly, why in the hell would someone just want to tell the whole world about their sex life without some deeper reason? It is just illogical. The album is truly about her relationship with Jay Z and her family, not just about sex. In “Flawless”, she even goes on to reference her mother, father, and sister. “Blue” is a song all about how much she loves her daughter. Daily Mail also made a statement about how Beyoncé “cashed in” by using her daughter in the album. My reaction to that: they are just searching for something to hate Beyoncé for at this point. That is them looking at the surface level of the song versus applying its meaning to the album as a whole. The crazy thing to me is that when Beyoncé remade her song “Crazy in Love” to fit the themes of the movie Fifty Shades of Grey, no one had a word to say about how extremely sexual she made the song. Why? What is the big difference? Just because it was made for a movie about an overly sexually crazy man? In the song “Flawless”, it begins with an intro by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and part of it states, “…We teach girls they cannot be sexual beings in the way boys are.” I think that explains exactly why Beyoncé was not criticized for her remake of the song “Crazy in Love.” I also think that is exactly why I can not find any articles that call out Lil Wayne, Jeremih, T-Pain, Ludacris, Trey Songz, or any other male music artist for embracing their sexuality in their music. Lil Wayne’s song “Lollipop” has the same exact theme except from a male’s perspective as Beyoncé’s song “Blow.” Somehow though, it was an outrage when Beyoncé released “Blow” but no one cared at all about how dirty “Lollipop” was when it came out. Ludacris literally has a song called “Sex Room” that talks solely about having a room to have sex in that includes poles and candles to “entice” women. Still, no reaction from the critics or society. I think that like Adichie said, society thinks it is unacceptable for women to embrace and speak/sing/rap/refer to their sexuality but if a man does it then it is completely fine. Unfortunately, I do not have an answer to this problem. I am not sure how to change the views of our society. I do not know how to make people see that women can be and should be allowed to express that they are the sexual beings men are. What I can say is that I think Beyoncé is on the right path. I think she making leaps in the right direction. If people are not going to come to the conclusion that women should be treated equally on their own, then women may as well express their freedom to be equal and eventually society will succumb to the reality.

            Now that my rant is over, I want to focus more on the album, Beyoncé, itself. I am so overwhelmingly pleased with everything Beyoncé did with this album. This is the first album of hers that I felt like she had a true goal; I felt like she had a plan in her mind from the moment she began working on it. From the themes of the album to how she released it, I think she knew exactly what she was doing. She wanted Beyoncé to make a statement about sexuality and feminism and relationships. The downfall in this plan though is that not everyone will get her planning. The people who did not understand her intentions were the ones who did not know how to listen to the album. It is honestly like a person trying to read a book and make each chapter it’s own story instead of putting all of the chapters together to see one important moral of a singular story. I do not have a personal favorite song from the album. I like each song for what it has to provide to the final story and its method of getting its point across. I love “Pretty Hurts” because it is so meaningful and applicable to real like that it evokes an unavoidable emotional response not to mention how beautiful Beyoncé sounds in it. My favorite song to dance to in this album is “Yonce/Partition” as long as I am somewhere that has some poppin’ bass. It is the greatest song to get pumped up for something. About to go play a soccer game? Listen to “Yonce/Partition.” About to go to a party? Listen to “Yonce/Partition.” About to go to the grocery store to buy milk? Hell, listen to “Yonce/Partition” any way cause why not? The best song on the album to sing/rap along to is absolutely, without a doubt, “Drunk in Love.” I feel like anyone who has the slightest affinity towards Beyoncé has just screamed “DRUNK IN LOVEEEE!” at least once in their life. It is ok if you have. Do not deny it. There is nothing to be ashamed of. One thing that I think contributed to the success of this album was how Beyoncé incorporated other artists on her tracks. On Beyoncé, she featured Jay Z, Drake, and Frank Ocean. All three of those artists are very popular so it appealed to not only her fans, but also their fans. Again, another smart tactic displayed by Queen Bey while creating this masterpiece.

            This is it. This is the moment I have been waiting for. I have reviewed Dangerously in Love, B’Day, I am…Sasha Fierce, and 4. Every time I have found and had to give negative feedback on something in every album... up until now. Beyoncé is the first solo album Beyoncé has released that I cannot find anything that I do not like. She has done it ladies and gents. She has created the perfect album in my professional Beyoncé expertise. I cannot imagine her releasing an album more perfect than this one, but I sure as hell hope she tries to top it anyway. On the bootylicious scale, I give Beyoncé a ten out of ten.

Works Cited:

Battan, Carrie. "Beyoncé: Beyoncé." Pitchfork. 6 Jan. 2014. Web. 11 Dec. 2015.

Cox, Laura. "Beyonce Backlash: Parents' Anger at Star's X-rated New Album and Videos... Which                        Even Include Her One-year-old Daughter." Mail Online. Associated Newspapers, 14 Dec. 2013.         Web. 11 Dec. 2015.

Webber, Stephanie. "Beyonce "Killed It" With Fifty Shades "Crazy In Love" Remake." Us Weekly. 24       July 2014. Web. 11 Dec. 2015.

REVISED (Academic Conversation): 4

Some artists may give up after producing three kick ass albums. Some may even be content with their artistic contribution to the world after making three critically acclaimed, phenomenal records. The Queen feels no such way. Beyoncé, ever so brilliantly, named her fourth released solo studio album, 4.

          The Queen’s fourth album was released June 24, 2011 after taking a few years off since releasing I am…Sasha Fierce. 4 is Beyoncé’s first album released after her ‘business breakup’ with her father, Matthew Knowles. This breakup up lead her to singing about more mature topics that revolve around female empowerment, relationships, and love. Beyoncé is different from most artists singing about female empowerment though. There are studies to prove that most female artists talk shit while trying to be empowering, which is basically just counterproductive. An artist who exemplifies this conundrum is Christina Aguilera. One minute she can be singing a song about being and loving yourself no matter what anyone has to say about it and the next minute she can be saying that she isn’t sure whether Lady Gaga is a man or a woman. Do you see the imbalance there? Thankfully, Beyoncé strays away from this foolishness and is nothing but empowering for her listeners. The album produced five international singles and was named the best album of the year 2011 by The New Yorker. Strangely enough this was Queen Bey’s first album to not have any singles reach number one on the charts. Instead, the top slot on Billboard’s Hot 100 was taken up by Maroon 5 with “Moves Like Jagger”, Adele with “Someone Like You”, and Rihanna with “We Found Love” after the release of 4. It’s as if she reached a sophomore slump on her fourth album release somehow. However, one of the greatest compliments paid to Beyoncé and the album was by writer, Kenneth Partridge. He was quoted saying, “whether she’s hopelessly heartbroken or crazy in love, Queen Bey works damn hard to make you feel exactly what she’s feeling.” I am thinking this Kenneth guy is definitely someone I would get along with. He is very right about Beyoncé’s ability to appeal to a listener’s soft side and put them in a glass case of emotion or her ability to appeal to their wild side and get them in their “freakum dress.” There are twelve tracks on 4 and only one of them features another artist. In the song “Party”, Beyoncé guests features rapper, Andre 3000. Oddly enough, that is the only song on the album not directly related to female empowerment or relationships. It does seems as if Beyoncé is remaining the solo figure on many of the songs so that her overall theme and goals shine brighter than the people who could have been possibly featured on the tracks.

                        Instead of going through each fabulous song, I am going to do a selective track-by-track focusing on the five released singles. This will allow me to get more up close and personal with some of the Queen’s best songs from the album.

1.    “Run the World (Girls)”

Chances are, unless you’ve been living under a rock the past four years, you have heard (and most likely jammed out to) this song. This is one of the iconic Beyoncé songs that everyone seems to know, sort of like “Crazy in Love.” It was released on April 21, 2011 as the first single of the album. If you can’t tell from the ever so subtle title, this song is basically about women being boss ass bitches. It almost literally screams female empowerment. Unlike many of her songs previously that share the same underlying theme, in “Run the World (Girls)”, Queen Bey comes right out and says, “Hey, listen, get out of the way. Girls run this damn world. BYE FELICIA.” Like the lyrics, the music video that accompanies the song is not shy with creatively showing its theme as Beyoncé rides in on a big, black stallion. Critics have mixed reviews about the song. They nearly all agreed that the track had the typical catchiness that is expected with any Beyoncé song, but the female empowerment theme was so loud that is threw the song off itself. I think this is because people and critics are so used to artists passive aggressively singing about their problems and feelings that is took them by surprise when Beyoncé put it all out there. Personally, I loved the song because it truly was the Queen doing her thing and singing about something she is passionate about. I can’t hear the song without putting my diva face on and screaming “GIRLS!” whenever Queen Bey asks me personally who runs the world (yeah, she is totally talking right to me in the song…we’re tight like that). 

2.    “Best Thing I Never Had”

The second single was released on June 1, 2011 and called “Best Thing I Never Had.” This song is a complete 360 when compared to “Run the World (Girls).” While the first single was upbeat and had a dance vibe running through it, the second single is more of a ballad. This song is about relationships and revenge on someone breaking the Queen’s heart. Many believe it was the follow up to the song on her previous album. “Irreplaceable.” Even though it had a positive reception, it too was unable to reach the top of the charts as it peaked at number 16 on the Billboard Hot 100 list. It did do a little better on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, reaching number 4. Even though I really do like the song, I am NOT a fan of the music video for it. It reminds me of a college girl on Halloween…just looking for an excuse to dress slutty. It opens up with Beyoncé wearing lingerie and holding a flower. It all just seemed a little ridiculous. I definitely think she could have done a little more thinking on the video, but I mean even the Queen can’t be perfect all the time. Critics agreed that this was one of Beyoncé’s best songs all around. Her vocals were on point, the message was relatable, and it was something that anyone could listen to and enjoy. I am shocked that this song didn’t do better in the charts because it was a number one single in my book…which I mean really… that’s more important than Billboard’s opinion anyway.

3.    “Party”

Queen Bey’s third single from the album, “Party”, was released on August 30, 2011. This is the only track from the album that had a featured artist, Andre 3000. Some praised Andre for his verse in the song because of how effortless his rapping seemed to be. Others deemed “Party” to be the worst song on the album and something they could have done with out. Unfortunately, I agree with the latter. When I read the title of the song, I expected some crazy, dance evoking, fun beat but I was sorely disappointed. It is terribly mediocre compared to her previous two singles on the album. To me, the song is too “ballad-y” to be about partying. Also, I don’t think that Andre 3000’s part adds much to the song. I do think he is a talented rapper and that he does a great job, but it needed to be done in a different way. I would have enjoyed the song more if the Queen had created this song into a more “Crazy in Love” beat that made me want to jump up and down and dance around.    

4.    “Love On Top”

“Love On Top”, released on September 12, 2011, was the fourth single from the   album 4. Thankfully, this track did everything for me that “Party” wasn’t able to do. It brings in the dance evoking aspect along with an undeniable and contagious sassiness. The only thing greater than the song is the song’s music video. Queen Bey just seems to be having so much fun with the song and dancing while continuing to seem passionate about what she was singing about. “Love On Top” is Beyoncé’s second highest debuting single on the Billboard Hot 100 having started off at number 20 on the list. While it didn’t reach number one on the Hot 100 list, it did reach number on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart and stayed there for seven straight weeks. This song gave me what I look for in every Beyoncé album: something I can bump to and sing at the top of my lungs with my friends.    

5.    “Countdown”

Released on October 4, 2011, “Countdown” was Beyoncé’s final single released from the album. Despite how fantastic I think this song is, it didn’t do so great in the charts. It peaked at number 71 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and number 12 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs Chart. I was not the only one who loved “Countdown.” Most of the critics also felt like that was a great song and showcased not only her voice, but also her personality and most definitely her sass. The music video for the track was well received, even though some legal issues arose from it but that’s beside the point. It matched the tone of the song and continued its upbeat vibe and ‘dance-y’ feel. I think that “Countdown” was the perfect song to be the last single of the album because it tied everything back together and showed the Queen just doing her thing. I wish I had been 21 when this song came out because I would love to be in a bar or club when they played this gem. 

Despite a hiccup here and there, I did truly enjoy this album. I think Beyoncé brought the appropriate amount of sassiness, seriousness, and just plain fun that made it irresistible to the listeners. With that being said, I would give this album an 8 on the Bootylicious scale because of the diversity of the tracks and the overall vibe it puts off.