Beyonce - 4

My use if "thoughtfulness" refers not to big risks or brash ideas or bold displays, but an underlying understanding of how what you're deploying will operate on your audience. The charm of "single ladies" is that each element punches well above its weight in terms of kinetic effect - it's not so much "wow the singing matches the beat", rather "this makes me want to dance on the beat so much more." watch people's legs and hips when it gets to that part of the song, it's not just about girls vamping and spraining their wrists.

"girls" has a better beat, but squanders it by comparison.

the final version of "girls" has enough switch-ups that work in much the same way

i'm too lazy to find lex's posts from the day "born this way" dropped but let's just that remember when reading his post from upthread

anyway i don't see what's wrong with posting one's initial reactions w/ the general unspoken rule that gasp people can change their minds! anyone who cares about pop music & hears it outside of what they explicitly choose to listen to should know this -- i have no problem saying that i don't really dig "girls" that much & don't think it will grow on me but who knows, i don't think that needs to be spelled out tho

Maybe because I'm the type of listener who gives chances to music I don't initially "get", I find initial reactions to be annoying (Yes even my own). With the exception of this year listening to the first big singles by Britney, Lady Gaga, and Beyonce, I usually ignore the reactions and the songs until months later because people expect the next coming of Jesus when these songs come out. I guess this year I wanted to know how it feels to be in the midst of things.

However, I guess being on the internet for so long, people changing their minds feels like a cop out, especially when their initial reactions are stated so loudly and dogmatically.

Like when Usher - Confession came out, I didn't listen to the album until like 6 months-1 year after it was released because "Yeah" was freaking everywhere and I just couldn't deal with the hype.

Same with Lady Gaga - The Fame.

tbh when i tried recently to think of a pop single in the last few years i'd done a complete 180 on from my initial impression, i really couldn't. sometimes i'd go from indifference to love or from hate to indifference or whatever but swinging between total love and total hate is very rare.

albums or artists in general are a different deal because there's a lot of songs and other factors at play, but a 4-minute song can only sound so different between the 1st listen and the 100th listen.

Weirdly enough, most of my favorite albums of 2010, were albums that were finally released after multiple delays (and leaks) or were marketed with a constant stream of artists released songs or mixtapes pre-album release. I much prefer an artist do that nowadays.

The whole big pop single opening day is so draining and is feeling out of date to me.

with a constant stream of artists released songs

^^^meaning Kanye's GOOD Friday songs.

it's not like there wasn't a similar dogpile of opinions the day "Power" leaked

personally i find the incessant delay culture of major label music really tedious. if the album is ready, put out the single and stick to your release date, instead of nervously pushing it back and trying to make more hits if the first thing you realize isn't an instant smash.

"girls (run the world)" was co-written by terius? i didn't see that one coming

and is apparently called "run the world (girls)"

http://static.popdash.com/gallery/6923068_run-the-world-girls.jpg

well at least she can make a better cover than gaga

here's the final version & it's on itunes in an hour.

okay YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES

"Pon De Floor" has some serious instant-appeal-to-lizard-brain effect on me, I'd probably like a Bieber song with this a the foundation

haha i give it 6 months til that theory is tested

okay those comments are the best

I particularly like the one deriding this as a horrible trend-chasing ego trip that contains the sentence "In the famous words of Aretha Franklin 'Who’s Zooming Who?'"

i will eventually get sick of this but it's pretty cool right now

putting the original synth line back in is a VERY GOOD LOOK

"Pon De Floor" has some serious instant-appeal-to-lizard-brain effect on me

same here - this works exactly like the best sort of mixtape beat-jacking track. i don't think that's mutually exclusive with a lead pop single, either.

putting the original synth line back in is a VERY GOOD LOOK

yup

Okay this to me just sounds like Beyonce singing over "Pon De Floor", which I've sort of always heard as this goofy Tim-and-Ericy type thing and can't really take "seriously" or whatever. This just reminds me of that one LFO song ("Shove Piggy Shove") that Bjork just sang vocals over top of and released as her own ("I Go Humble"). Like, this isn't a Beyonce song.

"I Go Humble" was great! There is nothing in principle wrong about turning someone else's instrumental into a song.

more than anything i guess it just seems strange that with her infinite resources and infinite collaborators they couldn't come up with anything more compelling than...this?

No I mean I LOVE "I Go Humble" but, like, it's not really her song... I mean this song is fine and everything but it just feels like some Beyonce acapella mashup. I mean, it IS just a Beyonce acapella mashup.

brb, looking up "I Go Humble"

also in technical terms, a song is a piece of music performed by the voice, so there is no way that these COULDN'T be Beyonce's/Bjork's songs since the vocal lines are what make them songs

i had no idea that "i go humble" was an lfo track! all these years!

Whoa that is cheap! Yeah

also in technical terms, a song is a piece of music performed by the voice, so there is no way that these COULDN'T be Beyonce's/Bjork's songs since the vocal lines are what make them songs

what?

A song is defined as a piece of music performed by the voice. Bjork's and Beyonce's vocal additions are what make these songs, so it doesn't actually make sense to say "it's not really her song".

Basically I'm just being annoying.

Oh, jesus, I never realized the term "song" was voice-specific. Or maybe I did and I forgot?

I think it definitely throws a monkey wrench in how people her or perceive a song if it contains prominent elements of a song they've heard before. It's almost like you're being invited into the creative process and thinking about X + Y whereas you might otherwise just take it all as a package deal.

the only thing I'm objecting to here is misuse of the word "song"

Right, I figured as much, but I feel totes sonned now :(

Album is to be called 4... which is better than Bidet and that Sasha Fierce thing I guess.

Whatever, this video is gonna be insane
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3x_yiRm9K4&feature=player_embedded

!

anticipating

A brief questionnaire from Billboard:

http://bit.ly/la9g2K

It doesn't sound like it will be on the album but I would've at least like to hear the sessions of this:

I started off being inspired by [Afrobeat music pioneer] Fela Kuti. I actually worked with the band from "Fela!" [the hit Broadway musical based on his life] for a couple of days, just to get the feel for the soul and heart of his music; it's so sexy, and has a great groove you get lost in. I loved his drums, all the horns, how everything was on the one. What I learned most from Fela was artistic freedom: he just felt the spirit.

Yeah, she was talking about her love for Kuti in the same article where she posed "blacked-up".

At 0:28 in the video when the horse kicks up on his hind legs...that should be the lp cover!!

or not.

It's a cool bit, though.

haha this always happens with pop artists, you hear their new album title/see the new cover and your immediate reaction is THAT IS SO AWFUL, WHYYYY, and then you remember how bad all their previous titles and covers were

i'm really not sure how i feel about this run the world song

like i'm not offended by it but

yeah it sort of came and went without any impact.. extremely forgettable

if I was her I'd just scrap it and make it a "bonus track" or whatever... NO ONE likes it

it's just like was that a comeback

i like it!

imo it's kind of sad when people run from their own singles at the first sign of resistance -- good song or bad, if she put it out in the first place she should stand by it, work it for at least a month or two before moving on to something more radio-friendly

if I was her I'd just scrap it and make it a "bonus track" or whatever... NO ONE likes it

I actually like it. I was lukewarm on the demo but since they added the synth line from the original "Pon De Floor" it has improved the song big time. Plus, a lot of people hated Deja Vu and the accompanying video but I thin it's been accepted by as a solid song in her catalog.

it's just like was that a comeback

How can you call this a comeback when she has been working consistently since 1997? I'm not trying to act like a devoted fan but I feel like using hyperbole language like that doesn't base discussion of music in reality or context. Plus, since she has worked since 1997 the girl can be excused if she wants to experiment or a song doesn't hit right away.