B/W: makes you wonder what kind of deal she must be getting from iTunes for the exclusivity. And Google for the advertisement via the video hosting.
DocMcCoy"Go and laugh in your own country!" 5,917 Posts
Following the news that Beyonc?? has done 500k in two fucking days just by being Beyonc??, why don't we go over to Talib Kweli to hear what he has to say?
I announced my album release 2 months ago. Beyonc?? dropped overnight. Columbia gets paid on Beyonc?? album. Only I get paid on mine.
has there been an album that had video and tracks before? for every song?
this seems like a smartphone album vs songs with three bonus videos.
and she has taken some visual cues from her sister. some of the videos have that "Solange" feel vs the regular Hollywood bling steez she usually rocks. or maybe she just simply aligned herself with some daring talent.
Last time I recall an album spawning so many videos, it was Thriller. For the same reason, that visually it's as appealing as the audio. IT'S ABOUT THE BEYONC?? EXPERIENCE.
I'd say in this case, the visuals are better. I mean, men want her and women want to be her. Marketing dream. It could be back-to-back crescendos of poorly-executed armpit-farts and it'd sell.
No, there's nothing as good as a Thriller single on here but day-umm... :caveman noise:
DocMcCoy"Go and laugh in your own country!" 5,917 Posts
batmon said:
has there been an album that had video and tracks before? for every song?
Not at the time of release, and definitely not fully integrated into the actual album. There were a few acts in the 80s who did it after the fact, like Eurythmics and The The, and most recently Super Furry Animals did a DVD release of their Rings Around The World album which had a surround sound mix of the album and a low-budget vid for each song. Nothing approaching the scale of this, though.
this seems like a smartphone album vs songs with three bonus videos.
and she has taken some visual cues from her sister. some of the videos have that "Solange" feel vs the regular Hollywood bling steez she usually rocks. or maybe she just simply aligned herself with some daring talent.
For me, she started to step away from the "old" Beyonce on her last record. Now, we're at the point where she's all "later for that". I have no doubt there'll have been an exchange of ideas between her and her little sis at various stages, but this is no hipster landgrab move.
I said this elsewhere and got eye-rolls, but to me this is her Music Of My Mind. Not on a musical level - it's far too early to tell for that, but if it ended up being that influential within her sphere...well, I wouldn't be surprised, put it like that.
In terms of ambition, though? Absolutely. Fully-realised aesthetic, quantum leap forward artistically, obviously intensely personal and full of ideas that she's touched on but never really explored beyond a superficial level, and the whole thing is a full-on attempt to challenge people's ideas of what a performer like her can do, or is allowed to do, and make them re-examine that shit. The Beyonce Police pulled double shifts dumping all over this, but they had their work cut out.
She low-key made a bid for Most Divisive And Polarising Pop Artist of 2013 as well, but I think Kanye got that one in the bag.
I said this elsewhere and got eye-rolls, but to me this is her Music Of My Mind. Not on a musical level - it's far too early to tell for that, but if it ended up being that influential within her sphere...well, I wouldn't be surprised, put it like that.
In terms of ambition, though? Absolutely. Fully-realised aesthetic, quantum leap forward artistically, obviously intensely personal and full of ideas that she's touched on but never really explored beyond a superficial level, and the whole thing is a full-on attempt to challenge people's ideas of what a performer like her can do, or is allowed to do, and make them re-examine that shit. The Beyonce Police pulled double shifts dumping all over this, but they had their work cut out.
janet. - Janet Jackson came to mind for me.
DocMcCoy"Go and laugh in your own country!" 5,917 Posts
batmon said:
DocMcCoy said:
I said this elsewhere and got eye-rolls, but to me this is her Music Of My Mind. Not on a musical level - it's far too early to tell for that, but if it ended up being that influential within her sphere...well, I wouldn't be surprised, put it like that.
In terms of ambition, though? Absolutely. Fully-realised aesthetic, quantum leap forward artistically, obviously intensely personal and full of ideas that she's touched on but never really explored beyond a superficial level, and the whole thing is a full-on attempt to challenge people's ideas of what a performer like her can do, or is allowed to do, and make them re-examine that shit. The Beyonce Police pulled double shifts dumping all over this, but they had their work cut out.
janet. - Janet Jackson came to mind for me.
Yeah, I've heard people make that comparison, and I think it's a valid one. But this one goes up to 11.
I'd be semi-interested in an informed comparison of Beyonce v. Janet. My initial (non-informed) instinct was to give Janet extra points for doing it without a Jay-level male figure cosigning, but then I remembered Jimmy and Terry. I of course still tend to give her extra points for doing it first, but that's probably because I'm old. I don't know.
How many of their own lyrics did/do Janet/Beyonce write? Not saying that's thee yardstick--I'm just curious.
Personally, I've never really recovered from my tellingly-late-in-the-game discovery that Beyonce's name has three syllables, not two. It was not too long ago that I was all like "bee-YAHNCE."
DocMcCoy"Go and laugh in your own country!" 5,917 Posts
james said:
"bee-YAHNCE."
They actually reference that in one of the videos, where she makes a childhood appearance on a talent show (there's another talent show clip which is undercover cold as fuck, but that's another story).
How many of their own lyrics did/do Janet/Beyonce write? Not saying that's thee yardstick--I'm just curious.
Couldn't say in Beyonce's case, but the Janet/Control story is interesting. The Reader's Digest Condensed Books version is that after Jam & Lewis got the gig, they met up with Janet to find out what kind of album she wanted to make and what she expected from them. She began talking about her personal life and how little input she'd had on her previous records. Seeing an opportunity to take things in a different direction, Jam & Lewis invited her up to Minneapolis to hang out under the pretence that they were prepping the album. All the time, unbeknownst to Janet, they were taping their conversations with her on the low. She'd talk about sexuality and relationships and "control" and all that, and from these convos, Jam & Lewis would shape the lyrics. I'm not sure how much direct input she had, but they always made a point of emphasising that the ideas and concepts behind the lyrics came from Janet, hence the co-credit.
Bonus beat: Spice Girls producers Biff Stannard and Matt Rowe used the same method when working up material for the Spice Girls debut album.
I think janet was her making the beats, writing, etc w/ their help. 5th album - adulthood steez.
Beyonce - 5th album - post kid, "expanded" sounds, and "deeper"content (maybe).
Janet had two albums then had Control & Rhythm Nation - 2 huge joints, and then takes it somewhere else w/ Janet.
Got that hardcover limited edition booklet w/ the (bonus track) Jacksons( Randy written/sung) cover - One More Chance...from Victory.
Beyonce had a big debut, B-Day was fire.....then I Am... Sacha Fierce was a ONE tracker, and the last album i let slide so i cant comment.
has there been an album that had video and tracks before? for every song?.
A completely different lane, but KA did it for Grief Pedigree last year.
Kool..i didn't think her crew would be at the forefront of this shit.
HarveyCanal"a distraction from my main thesis." 13,234 Posts
Gawd, I hate when a marketing scheme gets more attention than the music. Listened through the snippet videos and I guess the marketing scheme is more worth talking about...because the music is nothing special.
The other thing that is bewildering about Beyonce is that "Singles Ladies" is unavailable as a record single. The clerk at the record store said it is available as a CD single. And I don't even know if "I Am...Sasha Fierce" is available on vinyl either.
It is not music for me or my life but I will say that while she can sing, she lacks the depth and soul to carry Rocket.
I tried, oh I tried and other than Mine, I could not get through one video.
Her whole sex and sexy thing is wholly unbelievable. She is a stunning looking woman with an incredible body who can dance her and yours and my ass off but everything is SO CALCULATED and she is trying SO HARD to be hot and sexy that there is actually nothing sexy about it at all. It's a lot of skin and posing but absolutely no heat.
She is not raw or messy or relaxed or real enough to be what she is trying so hard to convince everyone she is. It just doesn't make for fun viewing.
Yes. And the importance of this lack cannot be overstated. It makes her attempts at sexy/pwoarty music stiff and overly aerobic, keeps her slow-jam/torch-song material talent-show shallow, and renders her icy/queen-bee shit redundant. I, too, have tried to get into her stuff, but just cannot, and I think that's a big part of the reason. She clearly wants it far more than she means it.
I will say, though, that she is definitely a worthy successor to Aretha and Whitney when it comes to kicking that street talk unconvincingly. Lucinda Dickey-level gangster, your girl.
Hey, did her all-woman band thing ever happen? I remember hearing about that and thinking it seemed cool and worthwhile, but I can't remember whether the endeavor ever made it out of the Beyonc??verse into the actual world.
Comments
Holy shit. I didn't even think about this aspect.
directed by Lil Internet no less!
Blow is the club jam imo. Mix it with White Horse - Laid Back.
[removed][removed]
Great! Thanks, Kweli! Kweli's album is in-stores now!
Don't hate, congratulate (and make less boring music)!!!
Peace,
Big Stacks from Kakalak
7.0 overall
b/w
Rocket
http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2013/12/16BEYONC-Shatters-iTunes-Store-Records-With-Over-828-773-Albums-Sold-in-Just-Three-Days.html
this seems like a smartphone album vs songs with three bonus videos.
and she has taken some visual cues from her sister. some of the videos have that "Solange" feel vs the regular Hollywood bling steez she usually rocks. or maybe she just simply aligned herself with some daring talent.
All this.
Last time I recall an album spawning so many videos, it was Thriller. For the same reason, that visually it's as appealing as the audio. IT'S ABOUT THE BEYONC?? EXPERIENCE.
I'd say in this case, the visuals are better. I mean, men want her and women want to be her. Marketing dream. It could be back-to-back crescendos of poorly-executed armpit-farts and it'd sell.
No, there's nothing as good as a Thriller single on here but day-umm... :caveman noise:
Not at the time of release, and definitely not fully integrated into the actual album. There were a few acts in the 80s who did it after the fact, like Eurythmics and The The, and most recently Super Furry Animals did a DVD release of their Rings Around The World album which had a surround sound mix of the album and a low-budget vid for each song. Nothing approaching the scale of this, though.
For me, she started to step away from the "old" Beyonce on her last record. Now, we're at the point where she's all "later for that". I have no doubt there'll have been an exchange of ideas between her and her little sis at various stages, but this is no hipster landgrab move.
I said this elsewhere and got eye-rolls, but to me this is her Music Of My Mind. Not on a musical level - it's far too early to tell for that, but if it ended up being that influential within her sphere...well, I wouldn't be surprised, put it like that.
In terms of ambition, though? Absolutely. Fully-realised aesthetic, quantum leap forward artistically, obviously intensely personal and full of ideas that she's touched on but never really explored beyond a superficial level, and the whole thing is a full-on attempt to challenge people's ideas of what a performer like her can do, or is allowed to do, and make them re-examine that shit. The Beyonce Police pulled double shifts dumping all over this, but they had their work cut out.
She low-key made a bid for Most Divisive And Polarising Pop Artist of 2013 as well, but I think Kanye got that one in the bag.
janet. - Janet Jackson came to mind for me.
Yeah, I've heard people make that comparison, and I think it's a valid one. But this one goes up to 11.
I'd be semi-interested in an informed comparison of Beyonce v. Janet. My initial (non-informed) instinct was to give Janet extra points for doing it without a Jay-level male figure cosigning, but then I remembered Jimmy and Terry. I of course still tend to give her extra points for doing it first, but that's probably because I'm old. I don't know.
How many of their own lyrics did/do Janet/Beyonce write? Not saying that's thee yardstick--I'm just curious.
Personally, I've never really recovered from my tellingly-late-in-the-game discovery that Beyonce's name has three syllables, not two. It was not too long ago that I was all like "bee-YAHNCE."
They actually reference that in one of the videos, where she makes a childhood appearance on a talent show (there's another talent show clip which is undercover cold as fuck, but that's another story).
Couldn't say in Beyonce's case, but the Janet/Control story is interesting. The Reader's Digest Condensed Books version is that after Jam & Lewis got the gig, they met up with Janet to find out what kind of album she wanted to make and what she expected from them. She began talking about her personal life and how little input she'd had on her previous records. Seeing an opportunity to take things in a different direction, Jam & Lewis invited her up to Minneapolis to hang out under the pretence that they were prepping the album. All the time, unbeknownst to Janet, they were taping their conversations with her on the low. She'd talk about sexuality and relationships and "control" and all that, and from these convos, Jam & Lewis would shape the lyrics. I'm not sure how much direct input she had, but they always made a point of emphasising that the ideas and concepts behind the lyrics came from Janet, hence the co-credit.
Bonus beat: Spice Girls producers Biff Stannard and Matt Rowe used the same method when working up material for the Spice Girls debut album.
Beyonce - 5th album - post kid, "expanded" sounds, and "deeper"content (maybe).
Janet had two albums then had Control & Rhythm Nation - 2 huge joints, and then takes it somewhere else w/ Janet.
Got that hardcover limited edition booklet w/ the (bonus track) Jacksons( Randy written/sung) cover - One More Chance...from Victory.
Beyonce had a big debut, B-Day was fire.....then I Am... Sacha Fierce was a ONE tracker, and the last album i let slide so i cant comment.
A completely different lane, but KA did it for Grief Pedigree last year.
Kool..i didn't think her crew would be at the forefront of this shit.
:icegrill:
I tried, oh I tried and other than Mine, I could not get through one video.
Her whole sex and sexy thing is wholly unbelievable. She is a stunning looking woman with an incredible body who can dance her and yours and my ass off but everything is SO CALCULATED and she is trying SO HARD to be hot and sexy that there is actually nothing sexy about it at all. It's a lot of skin and posing but absolutely no heat.
She is not raw or messy or relaxed or real enough to be what she is trying so hard to convince everyone she is. It just doesn't make for fun viewing.
btw, no single of "Single Ladies" for the ladies who like record singles played during the bouquet toss. :cry:
I will say, though, that she is definitely a worthy successor to Aretha and Whitney when it comes to kicking that street talk unconvincingly. Lucinda Dickey-level gangster, your girl.
Hey, did her all-woman band thing ever happen? I remember hearing about that and thinking it seemed cool and worthwhile, but I can't remember whether the endeavor ever made it out of the Beyonc??verse into the actual world.
Solange is kinda bunk, too.