Beyonce in 2016 - 'Formation' and Lemonade

are the guest artists/collaborators on this record affiliated with Tidal? (serious question)

i presumed that's why jack white popped up, no idea about the others

is there going to be anywhere legit (not tidal) to watch the film?

it seems naive to think that there isnt such a thing, almost like a denial of who holds the power at most music media institution

Pieces on Beyonce, Taylor Swift, etc, hold the power.

i was hoping that she hired a New Orleans brass band for the 'Daddy Lessons' intro, but looks like nope.

she knows white/indie critics will get very excited about seeing all those names on there, even if they arent doing too much.

Releasing albums out of the blue with no advance promos and little advance word don't suggest the actions of someone who gives a hoot about critics.

Actually this feels a bit like the album that a lot of pre-release publicity claimed she was making in 2011. I remember the undisguised disappointment and begrudging three-star reviews among sections of the press when they ended up with 4 and not Beyonce plus Sleigh Bells or whatever terrible idea was mooted.

I have no idea how Jack White cropped up on here, he's the one you'd expect to still have eyerolling contempt for a project like this.

Two degrees of separation:

http://cache4.asset-cache.net/gc/468162840-jason-aldean-jack-white-daft-punk-beyonce-gettyimages.jpg?v=1&c=IWSAsset&k=2&d=GkZZ8bf5zL1ZiijUmxa7QckPVWQSXnG0AHGrmIlVbgopttk5GDJ7Gl9jmvsvDc%2BEEK%2BbtoTu%2BL1hpcqWbUqXww%3D%3D

??

― Listen to my homeboy Fantano (D-40), Monday, April 25, 2016 1:12 PM (21 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

eagerly piping up to say "look! this guy did something wrong!"

"help social justice is griefing me" etc

I guess it's more effective for Beyoncé to just drop an album without any buildup because it forces people to scramble to hear it immediately. It has to be a big cultural moment that people can't afford to miss out on. I mean, it doesn't have to be, obviously, but it reinforces her brand, gives her fans footing over music critics, encourages people to subscribe to Tidal, etc.

Louis CK said a similar thing on WTF last week (I know this is a quintessential mid-2010s post) -- talking about Horace & Pete, he described really wanting people to just stumble onto this thing, not knowing what it would be, with no billboards, stories, etc., in advance. It's just putting the publicity behind the work instead of ahead of it.

eagerly piping up to say "look! this guy did something wrong!"

― a self-reinforcing downward spiral of male-centric indie (katherine), Monday, April 25, 2016 12:34 PM (11 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

"help social justice is griefing me" etc

― a self-reinforcing downward spiral of male-centric indie (katherine), Monday, April 25, 2016 12:34 PM (10 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

maybe i just thought the post was dumb

god forbid we criticize someone who's 'heart is in the right place'

TBF Jack White and Kendrick are probably the first time that a male voice has appeared on a Beyonce track and actually enhanced rather than detracted from the song. Since Sean Paul on Baby Boy over a decade ago anyway. Every time a dude opens his mouth on the last album you're willing for it to stop as soon as possible.

Anyway enough of this bullshit, have you ever heard such a tastefully applied airhorn as on Hold Up? It's almost dainty.

"My Girls" is not copped from Frankie Knuckles. It's a three note arpeggio that was written and performed on a piano before MPP was released. They had trouble recording the original loop so they used a synth instead. It's not a cop at all, it's an accident. It's three notes!

the actual explanation for Koenig's credit is pretty lol

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Cg6C9tHUYAEUDoZ.jpg

god forbid I make a stupid joke about video games

actually it's about ethics in video game jokes

is there going to be anywhere legit (not tidal) to watch the film?

― cher guevara (lex pretend), Monday, April 25, 2016 10:15 AM (1 hour ago)

the cd release will contain a dvd of the film as disc 2 according to the amazon listing

https://www.buzzfeed.com/davidmack/she-just-wants-to-cook-brunch#.ynmbeQBZQ

this is kind of the funniest thing ever

The iTunes album package also has the film included. Not sure what software I'd need to watch it with. No doubt there's something already on my MacBook that plays it. iTunes probably!

(*Full disclosure: I've never watched the DVD of videos that came with the s/t CD.)

https://twitter.com/anthonyblsmith/status/724676347050729473

'aj soprano' is a reasonable look.

I am currently playing "Hold Up" and "Sorry" a lot

same

what a time to be alive, part 435234652345

not sure an arpeggio counts as a heinous theft of the entire song "your love". and also It's not a cop at all, it's an accident. It's three notes!

It is the primary music material of that song, it is a specific three-note arpeggio that phases cells of three against a 4/4 beat, it is married to "new lyrics" about turning one's back on "community" and instead building a castle and filling it with wife and offspring; prob the worst song ever recorded

Note that AnCo's "accident" is an exact compositional lift of a very famous and important song, note that AnCo did not give Frankie Knuckles any co-writing credit (whereas Beyonce did for her own team's "accidental" theft of the weighting of "material things"); if we must talk any more about this song let's talk about it in another thread, a thread filled with old garbage

it really does grate to see people, presented with an album by a black woman about black womanhood, go on and on and on AND ON AND ON AND ON about the white dudes featured or quasi-featured on it, especially when they aren't even the only people there

This is why it has been so delicious to discover that it was an Ezra tweet! paraphrasing a YYYs song! and two words from an AnCo song! and whatever FJM is doing there! it feels like a hilarious trap for Beyonce's indie-interested listeners

god damn it don't make me defend animal collective

also since we're giving credit where credit is due, "Your Love" is by Jamie Principle not Frankie Knuckles

True!

Anyway this "visual album" is as perfect a piece of art as I could ever imagine existing and it's on repeat around here

The "visual album" is up there with Hounds of Love and Bitter as a structurally sound concept album with the weight of literature.

so much overlap between beyoncé and indie audience, don't think it's really relevant.

otm

If you don't think it's a big deal that these bear-market indie musicians are credited on a Beyonce record, and then very funny that they're basically credited for next to nothing at all, that's OK! I think it's very funny

I don't think it's a big deal, I just wish people gave a shit about anyone else in the credits

*not a big deal

If you don't think it's a big deal that these bear-market indie musicians are credited on a Beyonce record, and then very funny that they're basically credited for next to nothing at all, that's OK! I think it's very funny

― fgti, Monday, April 25, 2016 5:21 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark

how do we know they did next to nothing

animal collective aside but that's far from the first time post-"blurred lines" that an artist has gotten a dubious co-writing credit

"I just wish people gave a shit about anyone else in the credits"

we should talk more about soulja boy.

oh the indies claimed him long ago

wasn't even aware Soulja Boy was credited

Meanwhile, more on Warsan Shire, who wrote the spoken interludes:

http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20160425-theres-more-to-warsan-shire-than-the-beyonc-video

Panda Bear is gonna get a second Grammy for this

If you don't think it's a big deal that these bear-market indie musicians are credited on a Beyonce record, and then very funny that they're basically credited for next to nothing at all, that's OK! I think it's very funny

― fgti, Monday, April 25, 2016 4:21 PM (38 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

...he says he & diplo did the demo that became the song but ok

like, idk if im not doing a good enough job branding myself here or what but i could give 2 fuxx about the indie bands featured on this, nonetheless making this out to be some brilliant narrative to mock white ppl's negligible contributions seems like a really weird & twisted reading of what likely happened

but has Anthony Fantano weighed in yet?

Occam's razor suggests this is not some brilliant secret meta-joke by Beyonce about copyright and race relations that to date only one person appears to have gotten, but I could be wrong.

fgti, I love you, but you're suggesting this record's aesthetic success is in part contingent on the imagined reactions of indie white boys.

a meta narrative i might buy into even if i risk being overly lex-ian is "beyonce makes silk purses out of indie pig ears"

Nothing says taking the power back like having your lawyers offer handfuls of your money to white people that would have never asked for it

Panda B can finally afford a roof for those four walls and and adobe slabs