Beyonce - 4

and that is the most camp thing of all!

which is how camp should work!

SO basically this is Beyonce's "Hollaback Girl," then?

Poor LaTavia...

I don't know if this is snarky or not, but she actually did go through a hard time after the Destiny's Child break-up.

No snark in the least. Of all the ex-members, I have the most sympathy for her after her appearance on Real Housewives of Atlanta. Matthew Knowles really did a number on those girls and Beyoncé and Kelly aren't exactly innocent in the purging of the "bad seeds" as Beyoncé so aptly put it. As some of you mentioned upthread, she really does have a love affair with money and comes from a hardcore capitalist family. Something about her has always rubbed me the wrong way, but I don't question her abilities as a performer. The "Single Ladies" clip is still as impressive as the first time I viewed it.

Beyonce recently fired her father as her manager after all these years. Also, Latoya stated that she is on civil terms with Kelly and Beyonce. I'm not saying Beyonce is trying to reform, but for someone who is known to have a hard, capitalist shell there has to be some chinks in her armor.

Either that or she is a very calculating businesswoman. Then again, did any of us cared when a male artists like Jay-Z dismantled Roc-a-Fella?

I know I didn't. A matter of fact, I felt like Jay-Z (like Beyonce) know when to jump ship at the right time.

whole lot of people ARE butthurt about how Jay did the Roc or disappointed in how he handled it though

Oh I know the hip hop world hates it. I was talking about "us" specifically on ILM.

wow.

did any of us cared when a male artists like Jay-Z dismantled Roc-a-Fella?

I did!

What a surprise Switch did something similar for Christina Aguilera for Bionic. The instrumentals are essentially the same:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQ2niKaeW74

Dion doesn't know what camp is -- she married an septuagenarian with the foulest mullet ever created.

and let's not forget her anne geddes calendar

That X-tina cover reminds me of this one Mega Man game where after you defeat a boss Mega Man is standing there and half of him is see-through robot circuitry.

Also, yay Beyonce! I've had a thing for her since the first time I heard Destiny's Child, and it's definitely not going away w this song.

This is a straight up banger but I hope the final version cuts the bit where Beyonce appears to wander off in a different direction before remembering where she is and what she's supposed to be doing.

this is brilliant

and by afaict equating just the snare drum pattern with the entire "beat" (i.e. all of the instrumentation) you're either willfully bending the truth or demonstrating an inability to tell the difference

"All of the instrumentation" isn't actually the beat though, the beat IS the snare drum pattern and the other percussive noises around it, and it's there in its entirety.

I was using "the beat" in a modern hip hop parlance where it means "the instrumental track" and not "the percussion."

In which case telling someone they're "either willfully bending the truth or demonstrating an inability to tell the difference" is kind of a dick move when what they were saying was technically correct.

(Fwiw I don't really care about the concept of "riddimification" and don't think it's really applicable here)

I am perplexed by this tune. If tune it be called. Beyonce went to more effort on her "In The Club" "riddim" cut and didn't even release that.

it still hasn't quite settled for me, i must admit - i'm feeling the energy and the yelling, i don't remotely mind the lack of tune, but it does make me want to listen to princess nyah instead

I think the decision to get rid of Afrojack's "uh uh uh uhhhhh" hook but not replace it with much maybe was flawed, but then the first few listens I thought "Never Leave You" was too sparse too.

Beyonce already has proven she can do yelling in fine form time and time again, at this stage I'm not certain I can see what the yelling amounts to here.

Surely this isn't particularly surprising to anyone that's heard Ring The Alarm or Single Ladies? It's a superior call-to-arms ladies banger than Single Ladies certainly.

Also this is still the demo we're listening to, right?

okay I am in love with "Bobblehead", how did I miss this

oh right, most of the singles from that album were terrible and I never listened to it

It's a superior call-to-arms ladies banger than Single Ladies certainly.

On what criterion? I dunno, whether you like it or not Single Ladies is basically the "call-to-arms ladies banger" of the past 5 years.

well, it certainly raises the "call to arms" stakes by using what sounds like a marching band drum cadence as a foundational beat

I think the decision to get rid of Afrojack's "uh uh uh uhhhhh" hook but not replace it with much

yeah i definitely miss it (didn't really know how to describe it though, "uh uh uh uhhhh" will do!)

Also this is still the demo we're listening to, right?

the radio version's emerged, it's much fuller-sounding

this is definitely better than "single ladies" which may be a pop cultural monolith but is only an average song

dan, the other track off the xtina album you should hear is "monday morning" - glorious new wave amazingness, bafflingly also relegated to bonus track status

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRNjMGraUZM

that picture is weird -- it looks like they've extended her face well beyond the confines of her face

re: "Bobblehead", there's some more Major Lazer connection going on here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHZEtGS9XFo

(obv not nearly as connected as "Girls"/"Pon De Floor")

I was using "the beat" in a modern hip hop parlance where it means "the instrumental track" and not "the percussion."

― some dude, Wednesday, April 20, 2011 7:51 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

In which case telling someone they're "either willfully bending the truth or demonstrating an inability to tell the difference" is kind of a dick move when what they were saying was technically correct.

― Matt DC, Wednesday, April 20, 2011 7:54 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

well, i was talking to The Lex, who i feel i can safely assume was speaking in the same terms as i was. and anyway DJP already poked an actual hole in my argument and i'd dropped it, so i'm not really interested in hashing it out further just because you decided to bring it up again.

On what criterion? I dunno, whether you like it or not Single Ladies is basically the "call-to-arms ladies banger" of the past 5 years.

Yeah but it's had years to grow into that role (and in fact managed it in months). It didn't have that status 48hrs after leaking, in fact there was a general underwhelmed shrug when it first emerged. See how this new one fares after several months of being caned on dancefloors everywhere. I already like it more than Single Ladies (which I like but don't love).

eh, I don't know about all that; it seemed to me that around these parts, the instant a lot of women heard it they went "OMG ANTHEM PUT A RING ON IT FUCK YEAH" and sprained their wrists doing that hand-flick move from the video

Yeah I was mostly talking about people on the internet, not the real world (where this new one hasn't actually impacted yet).

eh, I don't know about all that; it seemed to me that around these parts, the instant a lot of women heard it they went "OMG ANTHEM PUT A RING ON IT FUCK YEAH" and sprained their wrists doing that hand-flick move from the video

I'm not betting against that happening now either. I mean the worst I could say is that she's kinda cynically going for exactly the same effect but that's not to say it won't work.

"Single Ladies" definitely didn't seem immediately like it was going to be as HUGE as it was -- "If I Were A Boy" seemed to get more promotion and discussion initially and then when the "Single Ladies" video dropped that really solidified it as a smash.

Were they released simultaneously?

(lol I could look that up)

"i was a boy" was first by a small margin iirc

the ironic thing is that there was a lot of pre-video buzz about the "if i were a boy" (beyonce was a cop or something?) whereas the "single ladies" video kinda dropped as an instant classic

According to Wikipedia: released simultaneously, "If I Were A Boy" hit #3 in November and "Single Ladies" hit #1 in December

yeah one might have hit the net like a few hours or a day or two earlier but they were pretty much simultaneous releases. totally makes sense that "Boy" peaked earlier as far as i remember things.

obv i'm talking about the "if i were a boy" video in my last post

yeah i was responding to the one before that

i know i was just clearing up the fact that i omitted the word "video" from my post

ok i didn't get that that post was about videos since it was a response to DJP who clearly wasn't talking about videos but that's a pretty mild misunderstanding to hash out over several posts haha

well i was sort of going off your point about "if i were a boy" having more discussion/promotion initially

the video iirc was hyped as this big thing where beyonce plays male roles whereas the "single ladies" video is the antithesis of that stylistically & it's just funny how things actually turned out

weirdly the stats don't even totally show that big a gap between the 2 songs -- "Single Ladies" only has twice as much iTunes sales as "Boy" and 115 million YouTube views vs. 70 million, where it really feels like 10 times as popular

Why can't she make an album that sounds as good as the Control scrap? That was such a great track, I listen to it often.