THE PULP: Beyonce's Blunders

horrible and tentative title, fun little pop culture piece i did for next Pulp issue:

In lieu of a predictable review of the ‘deluxe’ version of her last studio album, I instead would like to take the time to analyze the failure of Beyonce Knowles most recent venture. Of course, I am using the word ‘failure’ in the most relative of terms – B’Day‘s first week sales outsold her previous solo venture “Dangerously In Love,” hitting a whopping 541 000 copies in the US alone. But in the context of a singer who sold 30 millions albums before she was 24, the standard is high. The title track off the album, ‘Déjà Vu,’ only hit number four on the Billboard charts (as opposed to “Crazy in Love” which hit number one) and the album met lukewarm if not poor responses from critics. Personally, I adored ‘Dangerously in Love’ – if popular music insists on producing formulaic music, they should take a cue from this record -- an album that, while generic, still maintains a semblance of good music. When I listened to B’Day, I was disappointed. The makings of a bad album marketed to the ears of the undiscerning masses are all found here; contemporary production, easy subject matter and an LP where one song rarely relates to another. The pieces fit: apparently Beyonce created this entire album in a span of two weeks. Typical mainstream artist errors aside, there is something even more striking about B’day than its economically-minded creation. Throughout the disc and in the related propaganda – music videos, concerts, photo shoots etc – Beyonce paints herself as some sort of angry powerhouse. Many of the songs reveal an aggressive attitude and the song “Ring the Alarm” even features her shouting the chorus. Not that there’s anything wrong with that; Kelis did it superbly on her “Caught Out There” track. But this persona is taken well beyond a few screamed lines – her video for “Déjà vu” essentially consists of the Knowles dancing around with a take-me-seriously look on her face, a video which displeased her fans to the point where they began an online petition for her to make a new one. Further, her video for “Ring the Alarm” is a creative marvel -- she lip syncs to the camera while a police officer ‘holds’ her back. Apparently, B’Day was influenced by her role in the motion picture “Dreamgirls”, playing a backup singer who rises up against her manipulative manager. This is where Beyonce went very wrong. Essentially, Beyonce created this image of herself of an oppressed-diva type, and her art reflected that. As with all people, conceptualizing of oneself like this or in any way – an idea which many people would define as ego – is limiting and often destructive. Toying with your imagine in the media is usually a bad idea for any celebrity – Britney Spears went from the promiscuous virgin to just promiscuous and many people would argue that the hyper-sexuality she used to promote her last album led to the decreased interest in her music. The only person in the industry who has succeeded in the chameleon approach to fame would be Madonna, the sex-pot come Hindu come Kabbalist come resurrect dance queen/adoptive mother. Everyone said that Britney was the new Madonna, but look where that led her. If mini-Madge can’t do it, Beyonce, word of advice: neither can you.