B'Day
B'Day is the second studio album by American singer and songwriter Beyoncé. It was released on August 31, 2006, by Columbia Records, Music World Entertainment and Sony Urban Music. The album was recorded in April 2006, and was produced by Beyoncé herself, alongside Darkchild, Nellee Hooper, Ne-Yo, The Neptunes, Stargate, and Swizz Beatz, among others. The album features two guest appearances from Beyoncé's then-boyfriend Jay-Z, with deluxe and international editions including Bun B of UGK, Slim Thug, Shakira, and Alejandro Fernández.
Originally set to be released in 2004, B'Day was planned as a follow-up to Beyoncé's solo debut Dangerously in Love. However, it was delayed to accommodate the recording of Destiny's Child's final studio album Destiny Fulfilled and Beyoncé's starring role in the film Dreamgirls. While on vacation after filming Dreamgirls, Beyoncé began contacting various producers and rented Sony Music Studios, completing the album within two weeks during April 2006. Most of the album's lyrical content was inspired by Beyoncé's role in the film, with its musical style ranging from 1970s–1980s funk influences and balladry to urban contemporary elements such as hip hop, pop, and R&B. Live instrumentation was employed in recording most of the tracks as part of Beyoncé's vision of creating a record using live instruments.
Upon its release, B'Day received generally favorable reviews from music critics, who directed most of the acclaim towards its sonic quality and Beyoncé's vocal performance. The album charted at number one in Canada, Taiwan, and the United States while reaching the top five in Germany, Greece, Ireland, Japan, the Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. Among numerous additional accolades, it won Best Contemporary R&B Album at the 49th Annual Grammy Awards. B'Day Anthology Video Album, which featured 13 music videos to accompany the album's tracks, was released alongside the album's reissue, subtitled Deluxe Edition, in April 2007. B'Day has been certified multi-platinum in Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, Russia, and the United States. As of 2013, it has sold over 8 million copies worldwide.
B'Day produced six singles. "Déjà Vu" peaked at number four on the US Billboard Hot 100, while "Ring the Alarm" became Beyoncé's highest-debuting single at the time but broke her string of top-ten singles after peaking at number 11. "Irreplaceable" became her fourth Billboard Hot 100 number-one, while the deluxe track "Beautiful Liar" peaked at number three. Both singles achieved widespread international success. "Get Me Bodied" was released exclusively in the United States, while "Green Light" was released internationally; neither replicated the success of their predecessors. To further promote B'Day, Beyoncé embarked on her second solo concert tour The Beyoncé Experience. A live album titled The Beyoncé Experience Live was also released.
Background and development
Between March 2002 and March 2003, Beyoncé had productive studio sessions while recording her debut solo studio album Dangerously in Love, recording up to 45 songs. After the release of Dangerously in Love in June 2003, Beyoncé had planned to produce a follow-up album using several of the leftover tracks. However, on January 7, 2004, a spokesperson for her record label Columbia Records announced that Beyoncé had put her plans on hold in order to concentrate on the recording of Destiny Fulfilled, the final studio album by Destiny's Child, and to sing "The Star-Spangled Banner" at the Super Bowl XXXVIII in Houston, Texas, which was a childhood dream of hers. Furthermore, she starred as Xania in the 2006 comedy-mystery film The Pink Panther, which was filmed in 2004. She also spent the following two years promoting Destiny Fulfilled and Destiny's Child's first greatest hits album #1's, embarking on their final world tour Destiny Fulfilled... and Lovin' It; the group would disband in 2006.Beyoncé originally recorded "Check on It" for The Pink Panther soundtrack; although its soundtrack inclusion was cancelled, it was released as the second single from #1's in December 2005 and became Beyoncé's third solo US Billboard Hot 100 number-one single, later appearing as a bonus track on the international editions of B'Day. In late 2005, Beyoncé decided to postpone the recording of her second studio album because she had landed the lead role in Dreamgirls, a film adaptation of the Tony Award-winning Broadway musical of the same name. As she wanted to focus on one project at a time, Beyoncé decided to wait until the film was completed before returning to the recording studio. Beyoncé later told Billboard: "I'm not going to write for the album until I finish doing the movie."
Recording and production
While having a month-long vacation after filming Dreamgirls, Beyoncé went to the studio to start working on B'Day. She said: " I had so many things bottled up, so many emotions, so many ideas", prompting her to begin working without telling her father and then-manager Mathew Knowles. Beyoncé kept the recording somewhat quiet, telling only her artists and repertoire executive Max Gousse, and the team of producers they contacted to collaborate with on the album. She began working with songwriters and producers Rich Harrison, Rodney Jerkins, Sean Garrett, Cameron Wallace, the Neptunes, Norwegian production duo Stargate, and American hip hop producer and rapper Swizz Beatz. Two female songwriters, who helped structure the album, were also a part of the team–Beyoncé's cousin Angela Beyincé, who had previously contributed to Dangerously in Love, and up-and-coming songwriter Makeba Riddick, who made her way onto the team after writing "Déjà Vu", the lead single off the album.Beyoncé rented the Sony Music Studios in New York City, and was influenced by her now-husband Jay-Z's method of collaborating with multiple record producers; she used four recording studios simultaneously. She booked Harrison, Jerkins and Garrett, each with a room to work in. During the sessions, Beyoncé would move from studio to studio to check her producers' progress, later claiming this fostered "healthy competition" among producers. When Beyoncé conceived a potential song, she would tell the group who would deliberate, and after three hours the song would be created. While Beyoncé and the team brainstormed the lyrics, other collaborators such as the Neptunes, Jerkins and Swizz Beatz would simultaneously produce the tracks. They would sometimes spend up to 14 hours a day in the studios during the recording process. Beyoncé arranged, co-wrote and co-produced all of the songs on the album. Riddick, in an interview with MTV News, recounted her experience in the production:
had multiple producers in Sony Studios. She booked out the whole studio and she had the biggest and best producers in there. She would have us in one room, we would start collaborating with one producer, then she would go and start something else with another producer. We would bounce around to the different rooms and work with the different producers. It was definitely a factory type of process.
B'Day was completed within three weeks, ahead of the originally scheduled six weeks. Swizz Beatz co-produced four songs for the album, the most from a single producer in the team. Beyoncé recorded three songs a day, finishing recording within two weeks in April 2006. Aside from the Sony Music Studios, additional recording locations included Great Divide Studios in Aspen, Colorado, where "Freakum Dress" was recorded, and Los Angeles recording studios Lair Studios, where "Irreplaceable" was recorded, Henson Recording Studios, where bonus track "Check on It" was recorded, and Record Plant, where "Kitty Kat" and "Green Light were recorded and "Déjà Vu" was assisted. 25 songs were produced for the album; ten of the tracks were selected for the standard edition track listing, and were mastered in early July by Brian "Big Bass" Gardner at the Bernie Grundman Mastering in Los Angeles.
Music and lyrics
Many of the themes and musical styles of B'Day were inspired by Beyoncé's role in Dreamgirls. The plot of the film revolves around "The Dreams", a fictional 1960s group of three female singers who attempt success in the mainstream music industry with the help of their manager Curtis Taylor Jr.. Beyoncé portrays Deena Jones, the lead singer of the group and the wife of Taylor, and is emotionally abused by him. Because of her role, Beyoncé was inspired to produce an album with an overriding theme of feminism and female empowerment. On the track "Encore for the Fans", Beyoncé said: "Because I was so inspired by Deena, I wrote songs that were saying all the things I wish she would have said in the film." B'Day was influenced by a variety of American genres, and, like Dangerously in Love, incorporated urban contemporary elements such as contemporary R&B and hip hop. Some songs showcase 1970s and 1980s styles, achieved through record sampling. "Suga Mama", which employs blues-guitar samples from Jake Wade and the Soul Searchers' "Searching for Soul", contains a 1970s funk and 1980s go-go-influenced melody. "Upgrade U" uses a sample from Betty Wright's 1968 song "Girls Can't Do What the Guys Do". "Resentment" used Curtis Mayfield's "Think" from the 1972 Super Fly soundtrack. "Déjà Vu" has 1970s influence, "Green Light" has a classic groove, and "Get Me Bodied" features twang, a musical style that originated from Texas.File:Beyonce Freakum Dress Live.jpg|thumb|right|Beyoncé performing "Freakum Dress" during The Mrs. Carter Show World Tour in 2013
Beyoncé crafted most songs on B'Day through live instrumentation and diverse techniques. This is evident on "Déjà Vu", which utilizes bass guitar, conga, hi-hat, horns and the 808 drum; it also features rap vocals by Jay-Z. In an interview with MTV, Beyoncé said: "When I recorded 'Déjà Vu' I knew that even before I started working on my album, I wanted to add live instruments to all of my songs..." Lyrically, the song details a woman being constantly reminded of a past lover, shown in the lines: "Is it because I'm missing you that I'm having déjà vu?" "Get Me Bodied" is a moderate R&B and bounce track, which displays influences of dance-pop, dancehall, and funk. Lyrically, it speaks about a female protagonist going out and dressing up suitably to leave a lasting impression and get what she's looking for. The third track "Suga Mama" is a moderate R&B and soul track displaying influences of the 1960s, as well as 1970s funk and rock, also containing limited elements of the 1980s go-go, while more closely resembling live music than Beyoncé's previous recordings. Lyrically, it features the female protagonist offering up the keys to her house and car, and her credit card just to keep her love interest and his "good loving" at home, presumably so that he can listen to her collection of old soul records. Those interpretations are shown in the lines: "It's so good to the point that I'll do anything just to keep you home... Tell me what you want me to buy, my accountant's waiting on the phone..." The protagonist also sees the man as a sexual object, asking him to sit on her lap and "take it off while I watch you perform".
"Upgrade U", which features Jay-Z, speaks about a woman offering luxuries to a man in order to upgrade his lifestyle and reputation, similar to the concept of "Suga Mama". Musically, it's a hip hop track with influences of pop, soul and R&B. The album's fifth track and second single "Ring the Alarm", which is an R&B song incorporating elements of punk rock, is noted for the use of a siren in its melody and "shows a harder edge to Beyoncé's sound". Lyrically, it features Beyoncé as the female protagonist impersonating a threatened woman involved in a love triangle and is unwilling to allow another woman to profit from all the efforts she put on to make her lover a better man. "Kitty Kat" is a hip hop-influenced smooth R&B track speaking about the female protagonist who feels that her love interest has underestimated her. "Freakum Dress" features a crescendo using a two-note riff and galloping beats. The song "advises women who have partners with straying eyes to put on sexy dresses and grind on other guys in the club to regain their affections". Meanwhile, the use of the "uh-huh huh huh" vocals and brassy stabs in the R&B-funk break-up song "Green Light" is a direct echo to Beyoncé's single "Crazy in Love", according to Peter Robinson of The Guardian. "Irreplaceable" is a midtempo ballad with pop and R&B influences, and speaks of a breakdown of a woman's relationship with a man after she discovers his infidelity. The standard edition's closing track "Resentment" is a soul and soft rock ballad about a gritty, agitated goodbye, which adds a "different kind of overwrought drama".
"Beautiful Liar", the opening track of the Deluxe Edition reissue of B'Day, is an R&B-pop duet with Shakira. Lyrically, it speaks about two women who chose not to end a friendship because of a man who had cheated both of them; its main theme is female independence. "Welcome to Hollywood" is Beyoncé's solo version of Jay-Z's song "Hollywood", on which she was featured. It's a disco-influenced R&B track which lyrically details tiredness celebrities sometimes feel. "Flaws and All" is an R&B and trip hop track on which Beyoncé shows appreciation for her love interest, who sees through all of her flaws and loves her unconditionally. "Still in Love ", which was later replaced by "If", is a cover of Des'ree's pop ballad "Kissing You". "If" is a ballad on which a female protagonist expresses disappointment with her love interest's mistreatment of her. "World Wide Woman" is an uptempo R&B track on which Beyoncé calls herself "a worldwide woman", a play on term World Wide Web. The Deluxe Edition also includes "Listen", which previously appeared in Dreamgirls and its accompanying soundtrack. A soul-R&B ballad, it was declared a song on which Deena Jones is exclaiming: "You don't know who I am, and I know I do" by its co-writer Anne Preven.