Beyonce - 4

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.

i think its way weird ppl on here like this more than 'single ladies' -- this sounds like directionless garbage imo

I like the egregious vocal overdubs on this more than "Single Ladies" but I'm not 100% convinced it works as a song.

As a swaggering sound collage it's fucking great, though; almost like Beyonce listened to some old Severed Heads shit and said "hey Switch, I want you to do this, only use my voice and make it all sparkly and day-glo".

i think its way weird ppl on here like this more than 'single ladies' -- this sounds like directionless garbage imo

― geeks, dweebs, nerds & lames (D-40), Wednesday, April 20, 2011 11:40 AM (39 minutes ago) Bookmark

Matt DC and lex pretend said this is better than "Single Ladies" but i can't imagine they speak for a ton of other people, if anyone

I think a non-negligible number of ppl around here liked "Get Me Bodided" more than "Single Ladies" so I don't think it's really that much of a surprise that some would also like "Girls" more.

Those are the two best songs she's done imo

"Bodied" and "Ladies", not "Girls" obv

"Ring The Alarm" and "Crazy In Love" imo

I think a non-negligible number of ppl around here liked "Get Me Bodided" more than "Single Ladies" so I don't think it's really that much of a surprise that some would also like "Girls" more.

― fat fat fat fat Usher (DJP), Wednesday, April 20, 2011 12:25 PM (16 minutes ago) Bookmark

well i'm captain of the GMB fanclub and think SL is just ok and derivative, i'm not saying it's a shock if anyone doesn't worship SL over all else but i felt like D-40 was turning 2 opinions into a 'consensus'

"single ladies" is a great jingle

you know how pop songs are usually enhanced if they work in communal settings - "single ladies" is one of those that ONLY works in communal settings, when you're drunk.

bear in mind i think "baby boy" and "ring the alarm" are better than "crazy in love" too

What a surprise Switch did something similar for Christina Aguilera for Bionic

...isn't this really just what he's been doing for m.i.a. since whenever

i dont love single ladies or anything either but its 10x the song this is imo

agreed

I dig the anarchic incoherency of "Girls"; I don't necessarily think that makes it a good pop single.

i kinda hate the snap-judgment listening culture when it comes to big pop singles - it's very often the case that something that seems underdone or a bit of a mess at first ends up resolving itself - often you find yourself looking in the wrong place for your thrills based on expectations. that's actually been the case for a lot of B's lead singles - i was underwhelmed by "déjà vu", "if i were a boy" AND "single ladies" when i first heard them! and now i basically love them all, to varying degrees.

it works the other way too, sometimes big production or a big hook can fool you into thinking that a song will grow on you despite its flaws.

thats an otm post, i just think im right this time lol

my official position is that i haven't made up my mind either way until my lizard-brain instincts either kick in or don't - i'm pro the idea of this, but either it ends up being addictive and on loop 20 times a day, or it doesn't

it's not a good pop single because it's not a pop single, it's a rehashed tropical bass track with beyonce wailing over it. also, i'm starting to notice no lay unorthodox daughter in this, were there hints of that in pon de floor?

being a pop single and being a rehashed tropical bass track with beyonce wailing over it aren't mutually exclusive things

except in this case

even if you don't think it's a good pop single (which i'm not sure if i do), a bad pop single is still a pop single and it seems on some silly DEATH TO FALSE METAL shit to say otherwise?

still bummed that Why Don't You Love Me? didn't become the breakout hit I wanted it to be. oh that video!

well i'm captain of the GMB fanclub and think SL is just ok and derivative

otm. still mad at jhoshea for talking shit about get me bodied at some point on ilm

everyone i know irl hates "ring the alarm" it makes me feel like i'm taking crazy pills :(

when it came out, I thought "Single Ladies" was just "Get Me Bodied" redux, but I was so so rong

well no, it isn't as good for starters

Key to "single ladies": the "oh oh oh" hook syncopated in time with the beat. If this requires a communal setting to click with it's because you're all not listening with your bodies while sitting at the computer and liveblogging.

"girls" has nothing do thoughtful that I can discern at this stage.

Nothing so thoughtful, I mean.

I disagree on music nerd grounds; the ridiculous amount of overdubbing and close harmony she's doing is entirely my hook into this song (and part of why I think it's more likely to be a "Deja Vu" in her catalog rather than a "Single Ladies")

yeah there's a ton of stuff packed into "girls" - is a vocal hook syncopated to the beat really anything particularly noteworthy?

Not noteworthy, effective!

Whereas "a ton of stuff packed in" is the symptom of our age.

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.