Read on Twitter
Beyoncé as an amazing & iconic songwriter/producer: A Thread
Q1: Why the standard to be acknowledged as a songwriter is so different for Beyoncé? Why is she expected to write every single song of her 20-year career all by herself to be acknowledged as a songwriter?
Q2: Lemonade did a very good job in terms of crediting samples. However, why are these sampling credits kept being used erroneously to discredit Beyoncé's involvement in the project?
Q3: Why people constantly, incessantly discredit Beyoncé's efforts in her work just because Beyoncé never defends herself, insofar as using social media or doing interviews?
To start with, Beyoncé is the most awarded songwriter/composer in Grammys history.
At 21, Beyoncé became the 4th woman/1st black woman to win ASCAP's most coveted award - Songwriter of the Year.
ASCAP being American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, which is a not-for-profit organization.
ASCAP being American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, which is a not-for-profit organization.
Mariah Carey on Beyoncé: "She's a great writer, a great singer and a sweet person. I love her."
Ezra Koenig (from Vampire Weekend) on Beyoncé: "She's a very accomplished songwriter and producer."
Kelly Rowland: "Beyoncé and Michelle wrote 'Girl' and 'Bad Habit' for me."
Producer Detail: "Beyoncé is a phenomenal writer, she pretty much wrote everything on there, I came with this idea about a situation and she turned it into a masterpiece."
Mike Will Made-It ---- "Beyoncé wrote most of the lyrics on Formation. The whole song is about her family, her heritage, where she comes from. That's something nobody could write the way she wrote it."
Formation is named 38th greatest song of the century (Rolling Stone).
Formation is named 38th greatest song of the century (Rolling Stone).
DJ Swivel detailed how Beyoncé did the complicated layered vocals on "I Care" and this is an essential part of composing the song.
The story of how Beyoncé wrote the song Bootylicious, which made it to the Oxford Dictionary. https://twitter.com/SourceforBB/status/801783184325128192
Producer Anthony Dent on how Beyoncé wrote the song Survivor all by herself. The song stayed No.2 for 7 consecutive weeks and became a signature hit in her career. https://twitter.com/SourceforBB/status/800343545596911616
The story of how Beyoncé wrote the hit song Jumpin' Jumpin' all by herself, which peaked no.3 on the chart https://twitter.com/SourceforBB/status/801377470721114112
Producer Dan Workman: "By the time we got to the 3rd album, it was basically just Beyoncé doing all the writing and producing."
Kelly has confirmed this multiple times in old Destiny's Child interviews. https://twitter.com/SourceforBB/status/801422983747104769
Kelly has confirmed this multiple times in old Destiny's Child interviews. https://twitter.com/SourceforBB/status/801422983747104769
The story of how Beyoncé wrote the song Partition. This is one of the rare glimpses Beyoncé gave fans of her private life, and you can see how she not only wrote the song, but 100% controlled the artistic direction of her music.
Partition is named the best song of 2014 by Cosmo.
Partition is named the best song of 2014 by Cosmo.
Video of Beyoncé writing Kitty Kat with Jay-Z in the studio.
Video of Beyoncé writing Upgrade U in the studio, you can see sh was asking for opinions regarding an idea she came up with but couldn't decide on the best word choice.
How Beyoncé wrote the song Speechless with Angie, one of the best songs on Dangerously In Love. https://twitter.com/SourceforBB/status/800352873376718853
From Diana Gordon, what stands out from the many things Beyoncé did for Daddy Lessons is she added the bridge, which linked Matthew's infidelity and added a generational layer to the Lemonade story. This is hailed as a genius move by critics.
From Vincent Berry, Beyoncé wrote the 3rd verse and produced the song Sandcastles.
The 3rd verse steered the song into a hopeful tone for freedom to fit into the "making lemons into lemonade" narrative and includes the famous line "show me your scars, maybe I won't walk away."
The 3rd verse steered the song into a hopeful tone for freedom to fit into the "making lemons into lemonade" narrative and includes the famous line "show me your scars, maybe I won't walk away."
Beyoncé wrote the feminist anthem Independent Women Part.1, which topped the chart for 11 consecutive weeks. https://twitter.com/SourceforBB/status/798837211365937153
From Destiny's Child to IASF ERA:
There have been so many interviews, different people from different sources, countless awards to confirm that Beyoncé is THE writer/producer in this period of her career.
There have been so many interviews, different people from different sources, countless awards to confirm that Beyoncé is THE writer/producer in this period of her career.
Hypothetically speaking, even if she decides to never write again, she has nothing to prove as a songwriter anymore, iconic songs like "Independent Women", "Survivor" etc. have solidified her status as an iconic songwriter/producer.
In the Post-4 ERA:
Beyoncé has decided to not use social media/do interviews, so it's very hard to get a glimpse of what happened behind the scenes, but from interviews of collaborators, you can tell she's making significant contributions besides being the CEO of each project.
Beyoncé has decided to not use social media/do interviews, so it's very hard to get a glimpse of what happened behind the scenes, but from interviews of collaborators, you can tell she's making significant contributions besides being the CEO of each project.
If you ask someone why they think "Beyoncé can't write", they would say "she has this many writers on this song in Lemonade."
4 reasons why this is not only wrong but just completely ridiculous:
4 reasons why this is not only wrong but just completely ridiculous:
First, these are not writers, but lots of co-writers, co-producers, and also sampling credits.
For example, Beyoncé sampled a few seconds of a 1971 song “When the Levee Breaks” from led Zeppelin (John Bonham, in the credits, already died in 1980). Led Zeppelin did not write the song either. Kansas Joe McCoy and his wife, Memphis Minnie, wrote it in 1929.
Second, regardless of how many people Beyoncé collaborated with, she still co-wrote on every song besides being the CEO of the entire project. The same principle applies to everyone involved in the project.
For example, she credited MNEK as a co-writer on Hold Up for these 3 lines in the bridge. https://twitter.com/SourceforBB/status/824536506186473472
Third, music is inherently a collaborative process, it's never meant to celebrate isolated geniuses. Collaboration is what people have been doing for centuries in every aspect of daily life, but when Beyoncé chose to do it, it suddenly becomes a bad thing. https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2016/04/beyonce-songwriters
As noted in the VF article, historically, this hasn't been asked of Aretha Franklin, Elvis Presley, Whitney Houston. Meryl Streep doesn't have to write her scripts to be the most celebrated actress of all time.
But why is Beyoncé required to be the best vocalist, the top dancer with iconic moves, the sexiest woman (after 3 kids), to act "better" (despite $1B in the box office), but also not only to write songs, but also required to write every single song ALL BY HERSELF?
Above are just some snapshots of Beyoncé as a songwriter/producer/composer, they are by no means comprehensive and all-inclusive. But I feel they are more than enough to prove my points.
James Blake on collaborating with Beyoncé: "She's such an accomplished songwriter." https://twitter.com/BeyLegion/status/728592355046109184
Drake on Beyoncé: "She's a phenomenal writer, she has bars on bars."
Beyoncé talked about how she wrote the anthem Survivor & also came up with the video concept.
She got so much unnecessary hate in the beginning of her career, what did she do? Wrote anthems and turned around to laugh at haters.
Many thanks @PARTITIONSTAN
She got so much unnecessary hate in the beginning of her career, what did she do? Wrote anthems and turned around to laugh at haters.
Many thanks @PARTITIONSTAN
Beyoncé wrote "Independent Women Part.1", which topped the chart for 11 consecutive weeks.
This song is one of the reasons that Destiny's Child got BBMA's "Artist of the Year Award" for both 2000 & 2001. https://twitter.com/SourceforBB/status/798837211365937153
This song is one of the reasons that Destiny's Child got BBMA's "Artist of the Year Award" for both 2000 & 2001. https://twitter.com/SourceforBB/status/798837211365937153
Video: How Beyoncé created the anthem Flawless, which is credited for single-handedly shifting the term "FEMINIST" into the mainstream.
"I woke up and there was a chant in my head, ..." Hear her story:
"I woke up and there was a chant in my head, ..." Hear her story:
Beyoncé is the female artist with the second most Hot 100 #1s based on writing credits, including 5 from Destiny's Child era and 6 from her solo era.
She's only behind Mariah Carey.
https://twitter.com/BeyStats/status/940306985739804672
She's only behind Mariah Carey.
https://twitter.com/BeyStats/status/940306985739804672
1.7M impressions in just the past month. Thank you guys for supporting this thread. More & more threads coming.
Beyoncé talking about writing Bootylicious, "This song is about self-esteem."
Considering @sourceforBB is suspended, I will redo this thread with better materials in the future. Also another thread. https://twitter.com/BeyhiveDexter/status/1155507602064695298
