Following up on this post about favorite videos prior to the visual album eras, what are your favorite videos from self-titled to now?
This is really hard to narrow down, but my top 3 would be:
Formation - It’s a powerful comeback statement. The scenes with the El Camino, the police car in the flood, the plantation, etc are such strong imagery. The styling and chore is also great. There’s so much to dissect.
Blow - It’s super fun. I really like the 80’s roller rink and neon aesthetic. It’s a video that really feels like a party. It’s nice seeing all long time dancers together having fun.
Brown Skin Girl - The video is so sweet and beautiful. It honestly warms my heart as someone from a culture big on colorism. I love that she included other prominent Black women as well South Asians. The scene of her and Kelly singing to each other is so cute.
Shout out to to Partition, Hold Up and honestly the entirety of Black is King. What are your favorites?
I’m curious, since many artists thrive off of quick little buzz singles rather than putting out quality albums. They take the quantitative instead of qualitative approach to music to generate temporary buzz.
Her party album : B’Day Her vocal album : 4 Her Masterpiece : 🍋 Her Magnum Opus : BEYONCÉ Her All In One Album : IASF Her nostalgic album : Dangerously In Love
Intro
Ever since her iconic "you ready?" back on Crazy In Love, Beyoncé has been the name on everyone's name. However back in 2006, she wasn't the cultural icon she would become. She was getting closer and closer though. Dangerously In Love was a commercial and critical success, but some were still doubtful if Beyoncé could go solo successfully. After her final album with Destiny's Child and an acting role in Dreamgirls, Bey came to the studio full of emotions and ideas. She hired 4 studios, created what was described as a "healthy competition" between producers and finished the album in 3 weeks. What she released was her best solo album at the time (which wasn't that hard but still). Now 15 years later, it's a testament to how talented Beyoncé already was in her early career and while not her best anymore it's still really great.
The Songs
As mentioned in the intro, Beyoncé acted in Dreamgirls. On B'day, she sang a lot of songs inspired by her character in Dreamgirls. Without spending too much time summarizing dreamgirls, her character gets (Small TW)>!emotionally abused by her manager!< and because of that Beyoncé said she wrote songs that she wished her character would've said. As an effect of this, the whole album has the theme of feminism. This is notable in the track Kitty Kat, where a woman is singing to herself how her male lover doesn't appreciate her anymore and how she's better off without him. It also interpolates Erykah Badu's Tyrone in the bridge, which is another track about telling a man off. Another great track is Upgrade U, which is about how Beyoncé is making the life of her man better and how a good relationship can be super beneficial for both sides as they both get something from it. For bonus tracks, Check On It is the clear highlight, a track where Beyoncé takes her sexuality into her own hands, suggesting a boy might want to check on her and that she will let him. Not originally intended for this album, I think it works perfectly with the general message of female empowerment. And then of course there is Irreplaceable
Irreplaceable
Now for the biggest hit of the album and one of the biggest of Beyoncé's entire career. Irreplaceable is a pop track with R&B elements. It has like 5 different hooks which makes the song just so catchy. It showcases her vocals but also her personality while singing. Beyoncé doesn't just say she could replace this guy within a minute, her performance makes it feel like a minute would
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SZA
Bruno Mars
Mariah Carey
One Female Rapper
On June 24, 2011, Beyoncé released her fourth studio album "4". This album began her transition from an icon to one of the legends of the music industry. Following the release of the highly successful "I am...Sasha fierce", bey took a career hiatus in 2010 "to live life and to be inspired by things again". During this hiatus, she "killed" her alter ego "Sasha fierce" because she felt that she has grown and can let people see who she really is. The same year, she also parted ways with her longtime manager, her father mathew knowles. She said that this decision made her feel vulnerable but she wasn't going to let fear stop her. In an interview for complex, Beyoncé said that she felt dissatisfied with contemporary radio. She wanted 4 to change that status. 4 placed sonic experimentation front and centre. It had a myriad of collaborators like kanye west. The dream, babyface, Andre 3000 to achieve that. The result was a stunning album pepped with highs and lows of a relationship. The album felt like a sneak peek directly into the real world of bey. The ballads were less polished and felt more raw and filled with emotion. Even a romantic wedding song like "Love on top" was never portrayed as a glossy glowing love song but rather acknowledged the struggles of a relationship.
Like rolling stones mentioned in their review of 4 - "Beyoncé is such a force of nature that it’s easy to overlook her trump card: She’s a bit of a weirdo. Her weirdness is musical – it’s in the idiosyncratic way she syncopates her vocals, the odd melodies she floats over rugged beats, her sui generis mix of rap bravado, gospel sanctimony and old-fashioned showbiz razzle-dazzle."
4 was the first bey album to not have a no.1 hit. With this album, she outgrew the need of "hit singles". Looking back at it now, this album marked a reinvention in her career. It was the last time she ever played by the industry rules. This album leaked a month before its release and after this, bey strayed away from a traditional release and chose to do a surprise release with her next album and well...the rest is history.
Questions :-
A) Where would you rank 4 in Beyoncé's discography?
B) Do you feel that there would've been a change in the trajectory of bey's career without this album?
C) How do you think Beyoncé's career would've played out if she never parted ways with Mathew Knowles?
D)What's your favourite and least fav song of this album?
**Posting this now because it's already midnight in austr
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Personally I never really go back and visit this album. I feel as though the impact of the album was felt from the release and shock value rather than the actual content of the album. The songs were fine I guess but how many have stood the test of time.
Where does this album stand in the grand scheme of music? (content wise) How many of you still revisit this album.
What does this album represent for you? Is it more of a big deal for Beyonce as she started making the music she wanted to make?
I personally would like to see Britney turn either Blackout or In the Zone into a full length music video, the concept!!!
Additionally, I think Jagged Little Pill by Alanis Morissette would create a masterful film about heartbreak and angst (Lemonade??)
On the eve of her scheduled guest appearance at the SuperBowl 50 halftime show, Beyoncé released one of the most important songs of the 2010s. Mirroring the industry-shaking digital drop of her self-titled album in 2013, Formation was released on Youtube and Tidal (as a free download) without prior announcement. The song and its provocative music video, which centered on black Southern culture and race dynamics in America, garnered almost equal amount of praise and uproar upon release. But the reception to the song paled in comparison to that of its high-production performance at the halftime show, which included symbolisms of the Black Lives Matter movement and the Black Panther Party. The song, video, and performance spawned countless thinkpieces on race relations, police brutality, feminism, capitalism, and identity politics. For Beyoncé, the release has become a turning point in her image; she simultaneously become one of the most glorified AND hated personalities in America.
Formation was universally lauded by critics, notably receiving the Best New Track acclaim from Pitchfork. It placed at or near the top of most music year-end and decade-end lists, swept its six nominations at the MTV VMAs including Video of The Year, and was nominated for Best Music Video, Record of The Year and Song of the Year, at the 2017 Grammys, where it was infamously snubbed at the latter 2 awards.
In the five years upon its release, Formation has undeniably became a cultural fixture --- an anthem for black expression, resistance, and empowerment.
Discussion
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What do you think of the song's lyrics, sound, and message? How did they age?
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Where would you place Formation on Bey's discography?
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From the 102929011 thinkpieces and backlash Formation got, what particularly resonated with you / you agreed with?
But seriously does anyone remember it?
I recently saw a youtuber rank the songs on BEYONCÉ (non platinum & more only editions) & was curious how other people rank them. My ranking is:
- Blow
- Partition
- Rocket
- Superpower
- Mine
- No Angel
- Jealous
- Blue
- Haunted
- XO
- Pretty Hurts
- Drunk in Love
- Heaven
- ***Flawless (only because the remix is a million times better)
If I had to throw 7/11 in this ranking, I’d put it right under ‘Mine’
Not sure if this has been discussed in this thread but I feel like music is an amazing source of expressing emotion and I can’t help but recommend Beyoncé’s album Lemonade for surviving infidelity.
I’m sure a lot of you have heard the album, available on Spotify even though it wasn’t for a few years, but the emotions ranging from insecure to anger are such a pure reflection of this journey.
“Pray you catch me” - the reflection of discovery and wondering when your partner will know the knowledge you have of the affair.
“Hold up” - upbeat self-assured idea- how can you do this to me when I love you so much?
The music video has a poem at the start, “I tried to change” which details the lengths we go to change ourselves to appeal to the WS.
“Don’t hurt yourself” - fuck you, you hurt me and now you’ll be hurt because you lost the best thing that happened to you and everyone will know what you did. “When you play me, you play yourself”
“Sorry” - I’m going out and looking good and I’m not sorry about it
“Sandcastles” - I’m broken and I think I’ll walk away
“Love drought” - hopeful/reconciliation “Ten times out of nine, I know you're lying But nine times outta ten, I know you're trying So I'm trying to be fair And you're trying to be there and to care…”
I’m sure there’s more that I missed but please give it a listen- i feel like it covers a lot of emotions of betrayal from insecure, anger, sadness, self-love and hope
If you have listened, what’s your favourite song/lyric?
It must be Disney’s way to kiss BLM’s behind and a lot of bleeding heart with a built in guilt for what their ancestors did and should be long forgotten will watch it and whip themselves as a punishment. Come on people this is getting ridiculous. Why do we need yet another Lion King?!
Abel is incredibly massive right now but i think he’s time he leaps into the next realm that only few artists can reach. It’s time.
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