BEYONCÉ - act i RENAISSANCE

RainOnFire

RainOnFire

Staff member
There was a lot of groundwork that led to it, but Self-Titled was the moment and I think this bit highlights why -
“Not only does ‘Beyoncé’ rank as the year’s most accomplished and engaging mainstream pop album by a rather laughable margin,” said Variety, “but its calculatedly shrugged-off release strategy can’t help but read as an imperious kiss-off toward the singer’s competitors for the 2013 crown — Lady Gaga, Justin Timberlake, Miley Cyrus, Katy Perry, and even her husband Jay Z — all of whom worked up gallons of sweat and employed every eyeball-grabbing trick in the book to move their product, only to be upstaged by Beyonce’s abrupt digital data-dump.”
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None of it would be possible if the music and videos weren't as phenomenal as they were, but in a year that everyone was so loud (the VMAs that year felt like 2011's show in terms of being, for better or worse, the perfect time capsule for that period in pop), for her to quietly drop the album and still command the most attention was the signifier that she had ascended.
 
LuckyLucky

LuckyLucky

Solenciennes said:
I think it's only become more special as time goes by too... Beyoncé doesn't do talent show appearances. It was elusive then and it's unheard of now, truly remarkable.
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I've often wondered if she agreed to do it because she's been on massive, nationally televised talent shows herself.. and lost.
Maybe supporting a contestant, especially a young black woman, resonated with her and made her say yes when she wouldn't usually.
 
Mr.Arroz

Mr.Arroz

Staff member
He/Him/His
RainOnFire said:
There was a lot of groundwork that led to it, but Self-Titled was the moment and I think this bit highlights why -

None of it would be possible if the music and videos weren't as phenomenal as they were, but in a year that everyone was so loud (the VMAs that year felt like 2011's show in terms of being, for better or worse, the perfect time capsule for that period in pop), for her to quietly drop the album and still command the most attention was the signifier that she had ascended.
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I think too (and perhaps I may have leapfrogged this) but she ensured that 2013 had everyone's attention for her work. She edged everyone for months. The tour. The Super Bowl. The endorsements. When we remember "changed the world with that digital drop"... her build-up to a rejection of the 2-3 year album drop with 3-4 singles and videos model was real - that was it. She spent that entire year pivoting back from the transition of 4. That's where I think she truly changed as an artist. She took control of her talents and let them command attention from her audience, not the other way around. It wasn't simply BEYONCÉ alone - it was the will-she, won't-she atmosphere of its eventual release. She spent months checking in on our level of investment, and delivered when she knew that we weren't going anywhere. Beyoncé is nothing but studied and aware as an artist, as proven by this album's samples and its cultural touchpoints. The journey past 4's necessary self-realization and the hill up to BEYONCÉ (and especially motherhood) were her watershed. She stopped asking for respect and instead understood her power to receive it. That's such a moment.
 
Laurence

Laurence

Mr.Arroz said:
I think too (and perhaps I may have leapfrogged this) but she ensured that 2013 had everyone's attention for her work. She edged everyone for months. The tour. The Super Bowl. The endorsements. When we remember "changed the world with that digital drop"... her build-up to a rejection of the 2-3 year album drop with 3-4 singles and videos model was real - that was it. She spent that entire year pivoting back from the transition of 4. That's where I think she truly changed as an artist. She took control of her talents and let them command attention from her audience, not the other way around. It wasn't simply BEYONCÉ alone - it was the will-she, won't-she atmosphere of its eventual release. She spent months checking in on our level our investment, and delivered when she knew that we weren't going anywhere. Beyoncé is nothing but studied and aware as an artist, as proven by this album's samples and its cultural touchpoints. The journey past 4's necessary self-realization and the hill up to BEYONCÉ were her watershed. She stopped asking for respect and instead understood her power to receive it. That's such a moment.
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I got a bit wet reading that. This album is a classic.
 
Andy French

Andy French

he/him
Thinking back to February/March 2013 when basically all we had to go on was Bow Down/I Been On, a looped snippet of Grown Woman from the Pepsi ad, and the Super Bowl afterglow (had Standing On the Sun even leaked yet?)...part of me almost misses the uncertainty in the air about whether we'd even get an album
 
jvckkk

jvckkk

he/him
When we were stitching together the various Pepsi commercials to get a minute of Grown Woman.

E2C9da_XMAMlbda.jpg
 
Mr.Arroz

Mr.Arroz

Staff member
He/Him/His
Andy French said:
Thinking back to February/March 2013 when basically all we had to go on was Bow Down/I Been On, a looped snippet of Grown Woman from the Pepsi ad, and the Super Bowl afterglow (had Standing On the Sun even leaked yet?)...part of me almost misses the uncertainty in the air about whether we'd even get an album
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I still have a Soundcloud rip of where they pitched up her vocals on "I Been On"...
 
Mr.Arroz

Mr.Arroz

Staff member
He/Him/His
I thnk I Am... Sasha Fierce is just as important as 4 tho...

It was a complete buff-and-shine to her hallmarks as performer. It was a way to make herself utterly commercial and to dilute her talents into a highly-digestible form. 4 then set the stage for the push-away from that and to allow her space to be not so... seemingly transparent. I think record-wise they're both necessary parts of her progression.
 
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