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“The Decade Beyoncé Made Herself Into A Legend - BuzzFeed News” plus 2 more

Chinka Temmuz 03, 2021

“The Decade Beyoncé Made Herself Into A Legend - BuzzFeed News” plus 2 more

The Decade Beyoncé Made Herself Into A Legend - BuzzFeed News

Posted: 20 Dec 2019 07:50 AM PST

Kevin Mazur / Getty Images

Beyoncé performs onstage during the Grammy Awards in Los Angeles, Feb. 12, 2017.

"How would you like me to describe you?" asked journalist Liam Bartlett in a 2007 60 Minutes Australia interview with Beyoncé, who at the time was only 25 years old. "A legend in the making," she responded.

It's safe to say that by 2019, after dropping two critically acclaimed albums, a documentary and a film, winning 23 Grammys, and headlining Glastonbury and Coachella (the first black woman to do so), she's undoubtedly made that happen.

At the start of the decade, however, in 2010, Beyoncé was at a crossroads. She had always been a talented performer. Her solo music was upbeat and catchy; she had bona fide hits with "Irreplaceable" and "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)," both topping Billboard's Hot 100; her dance moves sparked viral parodies; and her vocal performances were commendable.

But in a world where a new class of pop stars were emerging — from the eccentric Lady Gaga, to the chameleonic Rihanna, to the hit-making machine Katy Perry, those traits were not enough for Beyoncé to stand out from her contemporaries in any significant way. (In fact, Beyoncé herself later admitted to Access Hollywood in 2011 that two previous solo albums, 2006's B'Day and 2008's I Am... Sasha Fierce, weren't classics.)

Her 2011 album 4 became the lowest-selling record of her career, and her first attempt at documentary filmmaking, 2013's Life Is But a Dream, was criticized for being shallow and self-involved. So how did Beyoncé go from clearly talented, but merely mortal pop star, to the woman behind some of the decade's most memorable, politically radical works of art, credibly claiming the mantle of King of Pop? Through determination, self-discipline, and a notable thwarting of pop music conventions. Bow down.

Ian Gavan / Getty Images

Beyoncé performs live during the Glastonbury Festival in Glastonbury, England, June 26, 2011.

In 2010, Beyoncé had just completed a successful world tour (grossing nearly $120 million worldwide) for her third solo album, 2008's I Am... Sasha Fierce. That era presented the public with two Beyoncés: Beyoncé the entertainer and Beyoncé the person. One way of looking at the project is that she was splitting herself in two. By employing the gimmicky Sasha Fierce as an alter ego, she was able to silo different music genres on the album — R&B and pop, placed on separate discs — as a means of appealing to a broad audience. But the move felt like a transparent attempt to please everyone, and while the album generated some hits, including the smash single "Single Ladies," and topped the charts, moving 482,000 copies, it wasn't a very memorable album. Its success was simply par for the course for a performer of Beyoncé's level. And Beyoncé seemed burned out.

In January 2010 after her tour was over, she told USA Today that she'd "like to take about six months and not go into the studio." That sabbatical, which lasted nine months, was eventually captured in 2013's Life Is But a Dream, an HBO documentary Beyoncé directed, wrote, and produced that was met with lackluster reviews. (Critic Rachel Kaadzi Ghansah later referred to it as a "video-length selfie.")

Beyoncé seemed burned out.

Though the reviews for the film were mixed, the break itself inspired her album to come. In 2011, she released "Run the World (Girls)," the lead single for her new record 4. It was a song that heavily sampled Major Lazer's "Pon De Floor" and echoed themes Beyoncé had sung about before, with lyrics about women who were "smart enough to make these millions, strong enough to bear the children, then get back to business." Her extravagant May 2011 Billboard Music Awards performance solidified this idea. Flanked by an army of majority-women dancers, Beyoncé powered through the visually stunning performance with a stamina and intensity that drew widespread acclaim and sparked an iconic GIF.

The performance indicated that Beyoncé was striving for all-time greatness, a message she would also convey with the artwork for her second single, "Best Thing I Never Had." The art depicted Beyoncé looking at a mirror in a wood-paneled room, with the phrase "King B" scribbled in lipstick on the mirror's surface. By refusing to use her customary nickname Queen B, it was clear she was coming for everybody's wigs, men included.

But while her die-hard fans appreciated the gesture, 4 only sold 310,000 copies in its initial week, Beyoncé's lowest-performing album to date. All of the singles from the album underperformed as well, with none of them going No. 1 on the Hot 100. (Though some songs like "Countdown," "Love on Top," and "Schoolin' Life" have since become fan favorites.)

Beyoncé appeared mostly unbothered by 4's lackluster commercial performance, at least publicly. "I wanted to bring chords, bridges, and melody back on the radio. I thought I've earned the right to make artistic music and not just radio songs," she told Good Morning America in July 2011.

But after the commercial disappointment of 4, Beyoncé began making business decisions that worked for her as both an artist and a brand, essentially creating her own rules and measures of success. In 2012, she inked an unprecedented $50 million deal with Pepsi, which would not only make Beyoncé the face of the brand with commercials and print ads, but would fund her creative projects as well.

In 2013, she headlined the Super Bowl. The much-anticipated sporting event, which typically attracts around 100 million eyeballs, was overshadowed by people talking about how the NFL was hiding a "Beyoncé concert in the middle of a football game."

Joe Amon / Getty Images

Beyoncé performs the halftime show at the Super Bowl, February 2016.

Once her 13-minute set was complete, the lights in the arena cut out, prompting jokes that it was caused by the singer's greatness. It would have made sense to release a new album as a follow-up to the Super Bowl, as fans were speculating. But that wasn't Beyoncé's move. In retrospect, this was a sign that the singer was playing a long game, but no one would see that until later in the fall.

Instead of a new album, she delivered a song — for free — called "Bow Down/I Been On" the next month, which revealed a new, angrier Beyoncé.

"I wanted to bring chords, bridges, and melody back on the radio. I thought I've earned the right to make artistic music and not just radio songs." Beyoncé told Good Morning America. 

The gutsy anthem, which included lyrics like "I'm so crown, bow bow down bitches" rubbed some people the wrong way, including singer Keyshia Cole and some professional critics who felt the song was out of step with the singer's anthems about women's empowerment. But Beyoncé herself didn't see it that way. In interviews, she said she woke up and "had a chant in my head, it was aggressive." She added that she "felt the need to defend herself," but she didn't elaborate what from. Perhaps it was her way of pushing back against people who felt that — after her notable pregnancy announcement at the end of her VMA performance in 2011 and the subsequent birth of her first child, Blue Ivy, in 2012 — it was time for her to put her career on hold. Maybe she was just having fun, something that seems to rattle people who often project their own feelings of inadequacy onto Beyoncé. Or maybe, it was a warning that she was preparing the public for something much bigger.

Two years after her Super Bowl performance, without any promotion or prior announcement, in the early morning hours of December 13, 2013, the singer dropped Beyoncé, a 14-track album with 17 accompanying music videos. The album was a major success, both critically and commercially, shipping more than 800,000 units worldwide in its first three days, becoming one of the fastest-selling albums in iTunes history and securing Beyoncé a fifth consecutive No. 1 album on the Billboard 200. (She was the first woman to ever accomplish that feat.) By the album's fifth day of release, it had sold more than 1 million copies.

Though surprise album drops weren't new (David Bowie and My Bloody Valentine had pulled them off before), the fervor around Beyoncé was unprecedented, driven in part by social media and the nature of Beyoncé's huge mainstream celebrity. And then there was the music. The songs were sexually explicit and intimate, exploring the sexual escapades of the singer and her husband, Jay-Z, from their nights surfborting while alcohol is free-flowing on "Drunk in Love," to their sneaky sexual adventures in back of limousines on "Partition." She sang about her own sexual pleasure on tracks like "Blow," instructing her lover on the exact way to devour her "Skittle" while she leans back and enjoys the moment. While past Beyoncé songs have talked about sex, none of them were ever this explicit.

Larry Busacca / Getty Images

Jay-Z and Beyoncé perform onstage during the On the Run tour in Chicago, July 24, 2014.

The album wasn't just about sex, however. After years of creating women's empowerment anthems like "Independent Women" — and some not-so-empowering bops like "Nasty Girl" from her Destiny's Child days — Beyoncé also notified the world about her thoughts on feminism. On the track "Flawless," Beyoncé smartly fused lyrics from "Bow Down/I Been On" with the sonorous voice of writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, turning a song that had been criticized for pitting women against each other on its head as Adichie preached about equality among the sexes. She sang about having a miscarriage in "Blue," and in "Rocket," she mentions how "comfortable" she is in her own skin while briefly throwing shots at "cyclical trends," a reference to her desire to break out of the music industry's conventional approach to, well, everything.

Critics were breathless with adoration for the new, bolder Beyoncé. The New York Times called the project "steamy and sleek, full of erotic exploits and sultry vocals"; Rolling Stone described it as "moodily futuristic R&B, strongest when it goes for full-grown electro soul with an artsy boho edge"; and Pitchfork, which gave the album an 8.8 and called it Best New Music, said the album "finds Beyoncé shifting gears to pull off her most explicit and sonically experimental music to date, exploring sounds and ideas at the grittier margins of popular music."

Though surprise album drops weren't new (David Bowie and My Bloody Valentine had pulled them off before), the fervor around Beyoncé was unprecedented, driven in part by social media and the nature of Beyoncé's huge mainstream celebrity.

But Beyoncé wasn't interested in obsessing over her accomplishments. In a candid moment about the process of making Beyoncé, the singer touched on the emptiness of sacrificing the most important things in life for ephemeral things like trophies and awards. "I have a lot of awards and I have a lot of these things and they're amazing and I worked my ass off, I worked harder than probably everybody I know to get those things," she said. "But nothing feels like my child saying mommy, nothing feels like when I look my husband in the eyes, nothing feels like when I'm respected when I get on stage and I see I'm changing people's lives."

Perhaps what's most striking about the album is that she didn't have to sacrifice parts of herself to make it or create an alter ego to express things about herself that might've soured some listeners. And she didn't make herself beholden to the same measures of success of previous albums. Instead, Beyoncé chose not to shy away from topics of sex, politics, and motherhood and its complications, and as a result, fans related to her in a deeper, more meaningful way. And both Beyoncé and her following album, 2016's Lemonade, were much more personal than previous albums. As exemplified on tracks like "Sorry" and "Don't Hurt Yourself,"Beyoncé suggests that Jay-Z cheated on her, an implication Jay-Z appeared to confirm when he released his own soul-baring project, 4:44, in 2017. Her pivot to a more seemingly authentic approach to her music would continue to be evident in the music and films she released in the latter half of the decade.

The release of 2016's "Formation" continued the theme of Beyoncé highlighting touchier subjects in her art, a decision that terrified white people. The song's lyrics were unabashed when it came to praising black physical features — "I like my negro nose with Jackson Five nostrils," and the singer's own black Southern roots — "My daddy Alabama, momma Louisiana / You mix that negro with that Creole make a Texas bamma." The music video was just as black, highlighting black joy and pain in various forms, and featured Beyoncé taking a purported anti-police stance, as she crouched on top of a cop car being submerged in water. That message in the New Orleans–set visual is enhanced with the words "Stop shooting us" spray-painted on a wall and an imposing flank of cops in full body armor standing in line as a young black boy wearing a hoodie dances in front of them.

Larry Busacca / Getty Images

Beyoncé performs onstage during Coachella in Indio, California, April 14, 2018.

When you think about the seemingly countless publicized deaths of young black boys, such as Tamir Rice, Michael Brown, Jordan Davis, and Trayvon Martin, the imagery in the video is especially profound. The Black Lives Matter movement was one of the most important social movements this decade, and for one of the biggest stars in the world to use her influence and privilege to echo its aims was tremendous. Beyoncé further leaned into making Americans — and the rest of the world — reckon with the pain and trauma of black people in her art with the release of Lemonade, an album and accompanying film that focused heavily on the black woman experience, with themes of love, infidelity, and forgiveness. The mothers of young black boys and men who were killed by police were featured in the accompanying HBO movie, looking solemnly at the camera while holding photographs of their deceased children.

The premonitory nature of "Formation" as a protest song speaks volumes when you consider that the track was released in February 2016, nine months before Donald Trump, the "mendacious racist," won that year's presidential election. Beyoncé's venture into protest music — expanded upon with the track "Freedom" featuring Kendrick Lamar and her decision to pay homage to the Black Panthers in a performance at the 2016 Super Bowl — ruffled the feathers of various police unions around the nation. The singer addressed these concerns in a 2016 Elle interview, saying, "I'm an artist and I think the most powerful art is usually misunderstood. But anyone who perceives my message as anti-police is completely mistaken." She added that she had "so much admiration and respect for officers and the families of officers who sacrifice themselves to keep us safe. But let's be clear: I am against police brutality and injustice. Those are two separate things."

The Lemonade era arguably came to a close when Beyoncé, pregnant with twins and dressed as a golden goddess, invoking both Madonna and the Yoruba deity Oshun, gave a memorable performance at the 2017 Grammys. That same night, she won the award for Best Urban Contemporary Album, even though she absolutely should've won Album of the Year, and Adele, who took home the top award, even admitted as much. The speech Beyoncé delivered encapsulated what may ultimately be the lasting legacy of Lemonade. "My intention for the film and album was to create a body of work that would give a voice to our pain," she said, "our struggles, our darkness, and our history, to confront issues that make us uncomfortable."

In the years since the release of Lemonade, Beyoncé has been committed to uplifting black artists within her own work, from being adamant that Tyler Mitchell photograph her on last year's September issue of American Vogue (the first black person to photograph a Vogue cover) to her Homecoming Coachella performance and subsequent 2019 documentary, where the overwhelmingly white festival was treated to one of the blackest concerts in recent memory.

Among Beyoncé's contemporaries, there is no one else who has the same work ethic or who inspires the same reverence from fans — both online and off. She is one of the few marquee names in music who can command our undivided attention in an increasingly crowded pop culture landscape. Her surprise album drops have set a trend that other music heavyweights emulated, including Frank Ocean and Drake. Even her outlook on success has changed. She once talked about how she wasn't pressed to be No. 1 on the charts anymore, and why should it matter, especially since she has more Grammy Awards than any other woman artist, with the exception of Alison Krauss?

During a rehearsal for her Coachella performance, highlighted in Beyoncé's Netflix documentary Homecoming, the singer begins a prayer and says to God: "I ask that we're able to touch people and give them hope, to make people feel beautiful, strong, and united." Her ascent to becoming the King of Pop was hard-won, but what makes her dominion significant is that she understands the transformative power of using art and performance to enrich people's lives, most especially black people, so that they can finally see themselves reflected in it. ●

'Lemonade' by Beyoncé named the AP's Album of the Decade - NBC News

Posted: 13 Dec 2019 11:16 AM PST

NEW YORK — The top 15 albums of the decade by Associated Press Music Editor Mesfin Fekadu:

1. Beyoncé, "Lemonade": At the beginning of this decade, Beyoncé was already the greatest singer of her generation. She won a record six Grammys in a single night, had women AND MEN "oh-oh-oh'ing" to the fun sound of "Single Ladies" and continued to be a beast of a performer. But somehow Superwoman — shoot, she's Superman, too! — found a way to do more: Like a boss she launched her own company, Parkwood Entertainment, and really took the bull by the horns of her career. In 2011, she released the R&B adventure "4," featuring classics like "Countdown," "Love on Top," "Party," "End of Time," "I Care" and "I Miss You." Three years later — in surprise form — came "Beyoncé," her bold, audacious and daring album that showcased a new side of Beyoncé: Goodbye was the girl who cared about topping the charts, and born was an artist, a true storyteller, a grown woman. Somehow, she topped herself again with "Lemonade," which still tastes as good as it did when it was released in 2016. The usually private Beyoncé bares her soul on the album, singing about a troubled relationship, black pride and motherhood in a brave way. Lyrically, she's on point and honest over beats and sounds that range from rap to rock to country and pop. "Who the (expletive) do you think I am," she brashly asks on "Don't Hurt Yourself," which co-stars Jack White. The answer: the greatest of all time.

2. Rihanna, "Anti": Something was in the water in 2016: Beyoncé delivered "Lemonade" and Rihanna gave us the best album of her career with "Anti." Rihanna had been moving like the Energizer Bunny since releasing her first album in 2005. She also put out albums in 2006, 2007, 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012 — showing that she was a singer who knew how to pick a hit, record it and make it sound better than any other artist could. But she took four years to create "Anti," and the time was used wisely. No need to hit the skip button on this album as Rihanna shows her sultry side on "Kiss It Better," her twerk side on "Work" and her vocal chops on "Love on the Brain." Her hard work, work, work, work, work, work has truly paid off.

3. Beyoncé, "Beyoncé": See earlier entry.

4. Adele, "21": Back in my day — well in 2010 — record labels sent albums months in advance, and in November 2010 I received Adele's "21." Everything else around had to be turned off. I was sucked in. Months later, so was the world. THE ENTIRE WORLD. Adele was impressive on her 2008 debut, especially on "Hometown Glory," but with "21" she went deep, too deep, she was rolling in the deep! Literally. Each song made you feel something — sad, lonely, bouncy, fired up, calm, angry, lost. And nine years later, each song sounds as classic as they did at first listen, especially "Turning Tables," "Set Fire to the Rain" and the incomparable "Someone Like You."

5. Kendrick Lamar, "good kid, m.A.A.d city": All of Kendrick Lamar's albums released this decade have been masterpieces, including the 2011 independent release "Section.80" as well as the major-label projects "To Pimp a Butterfly" and "DAMN.," which won him the Pulitzer Prize for music as he made history as the first non-classical or jazz artist to win the prestigious prize. Lamar has profoundly mixed his poetry with hip-hop, jazz, soul, funk and African music to create songs that tackle blackness, street life, police brutality, survival and self-worth. And with 2012's "good kid, m.A.A.d city," this great kid immediately raised the bar not in only in hip-hop, but in music period, forcing his peers to do better and try harder.

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6. HAIM, "Days Are Gone": The sister trio HAIM reached perfection on their debut album. Hit play. And that is all.

7. SZA, "Ctrl": SZA is masterful and introspective on her confessional debut album, which follows a young woman going through life and the turbulent experiences that come with it, from dating dusty boys to dealing with self-doubt.

8. Janelle Monáe, "The ArchAndroid": According to contemporary pop folklore, Janelle Monae arrived on the pop landscape from another planet, and boy do we need more artists from that sphere to land here now. On the beautifully theatrical "The ArchAndroid," she brilliantly paints the picture of an android, Cindi Mayweather, who finds out she is the chosen one and is trying to figure out how to handle her newfound mission. The versatile album has so many highpoints, including the Fela-flavored "Dance or Die," the playful "Tightrope," the groovy "Locked Inside" and the addictive "Faster."

9. Katy Perry, "Teenage Dream": I'll quote the opening line of my 2010 "Teenage Dream" review, which came before the album matched the record Michael Jackson's "Thriller" set by launching five No.1 hits: "Katy Perry's new CD is like a magical slot machine: Select any song and you'll hear a hit."

10. Bruno Mars, "24K Magic": Bruno Mars released three epic albums this decade, but "24K Magic" was a whole mood.

11. Solange, "A Seat at the Table": Solange's art-piece of an album will move you to think, and sing along, at the same time.

12. Sam Smith, "In the Lonely Hour": Unrequited love ruled Sam Smith's debut album, introducing the world to a piercing voice that is brave and honest.

13. Nas, "Life Is Good": Nas is still the best rapper alive. Don't at me.

14. Taylor Swift, "1989": After dabbling in it on "Red," former country singer Taylor Swift hopped, skipped and jumped into the pop music world with "1989," an adventurous album full of hits, hits and more hits.

15. Kacey Musgraves, "Golden Hour": With timeless songs like "Space Cowboy," "Butterflies," "Slow Burn" and "Lonely Weekend," Kacey Musgraves proved to not just be golden, but grand.

Beyoncé mocked for Ivy Park outfit resembling grocery-store uniform - Business Insider

Posted: 18 Dec 2019 12:00 AM PST

The internet is going to town over Beyoncé's new Ivy Park x Adidas collection — specifically, an orange-and-maroon "track top bodysuit" that she unveiled in an interview with Elle earlier this month.

Some of Beyoncé's followers were quick to point out that the colors of her new design bear a striking resemblance to the uniform worn by employees of the UK supermarket chain Sainsbury's.

Because of this, the internet was flooded with memes mocking Beyoncé's creation. Some superimposed photos of her wearing it in the aisles of Sainsbury's, while others posted side-by-side shots of it and the Sainsbury's uniforms.

The jokes go on:

A post shared by Fat tony (@dj_fattony_)

This isn't the first time a brand has been mocked for something of this sort. In 2017, Puma faced a nearly identical situation after online shoppers discovered that one of its jackets sold on Asos also used the signature Sainsbury's maroon and orange.
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