This week’s blog post is about…drum roll please….. BEYONCÉ.
Shocker? I know right. I am going to be doing more than focusing on Beyoncé’s B’Day
album. I am going to compare her sophomore and freshman albums, talk about
what subcategory of R&B her music falls under, how who she features in her
music impacts the success of her album and their future successes, and how she
just seems to always be one step ahead of the game. Beyoncé’s B’Day album
was released on her twenty fifth birthday, September 4th, 2006. The
album had six singles including “Déjà vu”, “Irreplaceable”, “Beautiful Liar”,
“Ring the Alarm”, “Upgrade You”, and “Get Me Bodied.” Beyoncé had to postpone
the release of B’Day due to a Destiny’s Child album release and her role
in the movie Dream Girls. Dream Girls inspired the lyrics and
themes in many of the songs from her B’Day album. The themes generally
revolved around feminism/female empowerment and relationships. The album went
certifiably triple platinum and resulted in Beyoncé’s second solo tour called
“The Beyoncé Experience.” Like my review, most critics have relatively positive
views about B’Day. It was nominated for seven Grammy awards and named
number 41 on the list of best albums since the year 1993.
I believe there are two phases of R&B: Pre-Beyoncé and
Post-Beyoncé. Pre-Beyoncé has a more “blues-y” feel to it with a lot more soul
singers and, in my ever so humble opinion, is no where near as great as
Post-Beyoncé. Post-Beyoncé brings in a whole other level of straight up,
classy, overwhelming sass that makes R&B go from slow to woah. If you
listen to Beyoncé’s albums in chronological order, you can tell how her style
and R&B evolves throughout the years. Though there isn’t a huge switch up
between Dangerously in Love and B’Day in styles, there is a touch
of more modern R&B thrown in there like in the song “Upgrade U.” While
listening to it, I felt like I was listening to a mix of “Partition” and “Drunk
in Love” from her self-entitled Beyoncé album. I can’t tell if it was a
mix of the beat or her rapping or featuring of Jay Z, but something really
pushed that song ten years ahead of when it was truly released. After listening
to the transitions from album to album, I think Beyoncé is undoubtedly one of
the biggest influences and the creator of modern R&B.
B’Day falls into two categories of R&B: dance/pop and
hip-hop soul. Pop music is derived from and creates a softer alternative to
Rock & Roll. It can be described as more eclectic because of how it borrows
from multiple different genres to create its own sound. Hip-Hop soul is a
crazy, smooth fusion between rap music and the soulful sounds of blues. It was
most popular during the 90’s led by artists like Mary J. Blige, R. Kelly, and
TLC. “Freakum Dress” is a perfect example of an R&B dance/pop song. It is
just honestly one of those songs that makes you want to get up and shake what
your mama gave you. Even the music video is just filled with people dancing and
struttin’ their stuff. I would consider this track as R&B Pop because
of the drums. They have a beat that could be used in a rock and roll song.
Beyoncé’s “Freakum Dress” can be compared to Janet Jackson’s “Rhythm Nation”.
Like Beyoncé’s song, Jackson puts a beat out there that makes you want to
dance, though it is a little more dated than what Knowles’s does.
“Freakum Dress” peaked at number twenty-five on the Billboard Hot 100 song
chart and at number 16 on the Billboard R&B/Hip-Hop Singles chart. An
example from B’Day of a hip-hop soul R&B song would be “Irreplaceable”
(see attached video to revel in this song’s/Beyoncé’s glory). I would classify
“Irreplaceable” as hip-hop soul because her vocals put off a strong “soul” vibe
while the beat of the song says hip-hop without the rapping. An example of
another hip-hop soul song would be Prince’s song “Kiss” released in 1986.
While his voice is so loveably crazy and somewhat an acquired taste, the
musical similarities between “Irreplaceable” and “Kiss” are very obvious.
Prince also plays with the hip-hop beats while keeping his voice very soul-y
and blues-y. “Irreplaceable” was probably the most famous song on the
album as it spent 30 weeks on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart with ten of those weeks
at number one. Mixing soul and hip-hop isn’t always the easiest thing to do,
but of course, Queen Bey SLAYED it.
Alright. I have to be real for a second. It is a
well-known fact that an artist’s sophomore album is typically shit compared to
their freshman album. It totally makes sense when you think about though.
Artists use up their life’s sorrows and their creative juices all on their
first album. After that one does well with the people and critics, the producer
then says, “So when are your hitting me up with the next set of songs?” Next
comes that moment of awkward silence as the artist realizes they have
absolutely nothing. Before 2006 it seemed as if no artist could get past this
so-called “sophomore slump,” but whom of all people burst through this
conundrum with flying colors? Beyoncé. Personally, I think that B’Day was
just as good, if not better, than Dangerously in Love. If my “expert
Beyoncé opinion” doesn’t persuade you, then use Google and look at the multiple
personal opinion polls that have been done online. Most of them agree that B’Day
was even more phenomenal than Beyoncé’s freshman album. I think one reason
that B’Day is considered a better
album is because of its more modern takes on R&B and Pop. If that still
doesn’t convince you, I understand why. It is pretty hard to choose which of
her albums is the best seeing as she is the queen anyway.
On the bootylicious scale, I would have to give B’Day a rating of seven
out of ten. Some of the high points in the album came from the modern spins in
a few of the songs. It takes a special person to make music that gets stuck in
your head but doesn’t still, somehow, doesn’t annoy you. I could have
“Irreplaceable” stuck in my head all day and I think I would be okay with that.
Some things Queen Bey struggled with were the repetitive beats in songs like
“Kitty Kat” and “Get Bodied.” Both of those songs seem to have a not so
enticing, indescribable quality that could be found in Pre-Beyoncé R&B. Some
parts of this album seem to be stuck in the hip-hop soul styles from the 90’s
which are definitely boring in 2015, and could have possibly been boring in
2006 when the album was released. Despite obviously overcoming the “sophomore
slump,” I think the Queen could have done things a little different and a
little better on parts of her B’Day album.
