Category: Voices

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Beyoncé: Megastars of pop music in the early 21st century

In a previous episode, I described how skillful producers are betting that new songs will achieve high sales. At the time, I used songs by Beyoncé and Rihanna as examples. In separate posts, starting with this one, I will pay attention to both mega-stars. The story about the development of prog rock will continue in the next post.

Beyoncé Giselle Knowles-Carter is born in Houston, Texas, in 1981. Her name is an homage to her mother’s birth name (Tina Beyincé Carter). She owned a hair salon, and her father was a sales manager at Xerox. As a child, Beyoncé was a steady participant in singing and dancing competitions. At her 7the, she won a talent contest with John Lennon’s song Imagine. She pursued a musical education. Due to the requirements of her fast-developing career, she did not finish it. 

From the age of eight, she attempts to become known on the girl groups circuit. Her father quit his job to become a full-time manager, bringing the family to the brink of poverty. At her 15th, success glimmered when the group signed a contract with Columbia Records, resulting in the first album ‘No, no, no’, The group was called Destiny’s Child from then on, inspired by the Bible book Isaiah. Large success came in 1999 with the group’s second album ‘Writings on the wall’, and with the third album ‘Survivor’ that followed a year later.  

Listen to the song ‘Say my name’ from the second album

In the meantime, Beyoncé struggled with severe depression. In varying line-ups, the group would go on to become the best-selling girl group ever. Beyoncé was the brains behind the music and choreography.  The group went on a lengthy successful world tour. After slowing down and producing another album, the group broke up amicably. 

Before Destiny’s Child ceased to exist, Beyoncé released a solo album “Dangerously in love”.  It sold 11 million copies, and she received 5 Grammy Awards for it, the highest accolade in music.

From her debut album, you can see the best-selling single here. The recording also captures the large-scale set-up of her shows, which would continue to grow with each subsequent tour. Today, she is considered one of the best entertainers, surrounded by extremely costly and sophisticated choreography, for which the world’s best dancers are hired. So far, only Taylor Swift has caught up with her on this.

The second solo album followed in 2006. The third ‘I am… Sacha Fierce’ (2008) consists of two parts.  In the first part, she is herself; in the second part, she ‘plays’ ‘Sacha Fierce’, her ‘alter ego’.  The first part contains more quiet songs, while the second reveals more dance influences.  This album added eight Grammys to her collection.

Now, you can listen to the ‘quiet’ Halo, not a live performance, but a music video. A halo is an attribute, with which statues of saints were generously provided. 

From the album ‘4’ (2011) Beyoncé’s lucky number, you can listen here to ‘(Girls) run the world’, performed on the 25th anniversary of the Opray Winfrey show, also her last one. 

Each new album received more rave reviews from public, press and music critics.  This was especially true of album six, ‘Lemonade’, the best album of the entire decade because of the music, but also the cocktail of styles. The album is a modern form of R&B primarily, but it has also components of reggae, blues, rock, hip-hop, soul, funk, americana, country, gospel, electronics and rap. It also contained frank lyrics, for example about her husband’s infidelity. Beyoncé calls herself a “modern-day feminist” and many of her songs are about love, relationships, female sexuality and independence.

With music mainly from this album, she toured all major stadiums around the world from 2016, the ‘Formation tour’, named after one of the songs from the album ‘Lemonade’. Here the song ‘Formation’. On 16 July 2016, she performed at the Amsterdam Arena.

Her seventh album, ‘Renaissance’ (2022) was also particularly well received, and it is the basis for the world tour Beyoncé just finished. The song that you can listen to now is ‘Break my Soul’ and was filmed at the London performance of the show in June 2023. Electronic dance music dominates. More than 80 performances of this mega-show were scheduled. The cheapest tickets in London cost around €250; in Toronto, you could go for €100 less.

Even before the tour is over, Beyoncé has achieved just about everything imaginable musically before Taylor Swift took over.  Never has an artist has earned 28 ‘Grammys’.  She has now sold 200 million albums (physical and digital), which can be added to the 60 million together with Destiny’s Child. Leading magazines like Billboard and Time name her as the best female artist of the 21stecentury. She is on the list of the 100 most influential people in the world. Beyoncé’s nickname is ‘bee queen’ and her fans are called the bee-hive.

Finally, some details about the context of her life. Beyoncé married (also) world-famous rapper Jay-Z on 4 April 2008. Here, the couple is pictured together. They have a daughter aged 11 (Blue Ivy) and twins born in 2017 (Rumy and Sir).

Beyoncé was the face of her own fashion line, House of Deréon, which she set up with her mother in 2006: ‘Where sidewalk and catwalk meet’.  Their clothes were wildly popular among fans, but sales declined eventually due to a lack of innovative momentum.  The line was discontinued in 2012, partly after a fuss about overly sexy clothes for young girls. It has been revived in 2020 in connection with the then upcoming world tour. Later Beyoncé launched a swimwear line with Adidas. Now she is working in partnership with Balmain. Several perfumes have been named after her. Beyoncé has further appeared in numerous films, such as Pink Panther. Her voice is also heard in Lion King (Nala).

According to US business magazine Forbes, Beyoncé’s wealth is about $540 million. She has earned most of it from her singing, but the clothing line and her long-term association with Pepsi, for which she received $50 million, also contribute. From the ongoing world tour, whose gross proceeds are estimated at $2 billion, she is also sure to make several hundred millions.

It wasn’t just making money that rang the bell. Beyoncé also collaborates on campaigns to encourage schoolchildren to exercise. A nice clip to illustrate.

Beyoncé’s fortune stands in the shadow of that of her husband, rapper Jay-Z, whose name is derived from the two underground lines (J and Z) that run through Brooklyn. He grew up in one of Brooklyn’s most dangerous neighbourhoods, repeatedly got into trouble with the police but managed to break away from the criminal milieu and became a successful musician and businessman. Unlike Beyoncé, he owes his fortune mainly to successful business activities; besides his own record label (Roc-A-Fella), he invests in beauty products and in expensive champagne and cognac brands. He owns his own film company and finally, he owns a large collection of works by Jean-Michel Basquiat. Forbes estimates his wealth at over $2.5 billion. This makes him the richest hip-hop artist in the world, falling just short of the 1,000 richest people in the world (place 1208). In June 2023 Jay-Z and Beyoncé bought the most expensive house ever sold ($200 million) in the state of California.

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The making of megahits

Clockwise, starting from upper left: Stargate (producers), The calm of the procurer’s space, the notes of a top-liner, Esther dean (top liner)

Creating songs that have great chances of becoming global blockbusters and casting their performers is billion-dollar business.

In this post, I will elaborate a couple of examples: Two female superstars as examples: Beyoncé and Rihanna. Hard-working and talented artists in terms of voice and performance, equipped with a well-stocked wallet and surrounded by an endowed staff. Later, I will return to both, focusing on their work and person.

Brain Research

A lot of research has now been done on factors that explain the popularity of hits. This research often starts with the way the brain processes information. Our brains is lazy, or rather, it strives for maximum efficiency. The brain prefers information it can process smoothly: Think of:

  • Short sentences;
  • Easy or intriguing words;
  • Alliterations (Liesje leerde Lotje lopen op de lange Lindenlaan’) ;
  • Rhyme;

Most songs are written in English and much of the audience barely understands the song’s lyrics. The aim therefore is to enable listeners humming along with the chorus after just one or two listens. Understanding the content may possibly come later. Or never.

Hooks

The first ten seconds are crucial in this respect. The beginning must sound familiar: the lyrics, sound or rhythm contain ‘hooks’ that grab you. If not, listeners will zap the song away, except for a few connoisseurs who think they have discovered something special. 

‘Hooks’ are short rhythmic or verbal themes that constantly recur.  A potential top hit has several ‘hooks’. Examples of ‘hooks’ are:

Opening

  • Rhythmic hand clapping.
  • Common chords (think Boogie Woogie).
  • A simple sequence of nonsense words: ‘nananana nananana’.
  • An explosion of sounds.

Intro

  • Words that arouse curiosity.  Often the title of the song is repeatedly.
  • Words that touch you (‘catchy’).

Chorus

  • Brief.
  • Repetition of rhyming phrases and sounds.
  • Comes back often.

The song ‘Ra Ra Rasputin’ by Boney M. is full of ‘hooks’. Just read the chorus and then listen to the whole song. 

Ra Ra Rasputin. Lover of the Russian queen. Ra Ra Rasputin. Russia’s greatest love machine.

Verses

Opening, intro and chorus are a whole that logically’ leads to the next verse. In most songs their subject and meaning are of secondary importance. A verse prepares listeners for joining the next chorus.

We listen to Rihanna’s controversial song S&M. This was produced by Stargate and Frenchman Sandy Julien Wilhelm. Again, the hallmarks of a megahit immediately stand out:

  • The intriguing sounds at the beginning: ‘na na na na na na come on’.
  • The dance rhythm.
  • The intro, with the sweet little voice.
  • The fusion of lyrics and rhythm in the chorus: “sticks and stones may break my bones but chains and whips exite me”.
  • The repetition of intro and chorus.

You can read the full text here

Producers and top liners

The above knowledge alone will not enable you to make a megahit. Therefore, craftsmanship is needed. The music industry relies on experienced and artistically gifted teams, whose members have mastered the required skills and add a dose of creativity.  Such a team includes among others ‘producers’ and ‘top liners’. This dichotomy replaces the familiar division of labor between composers and lyricists.  Many megahits come from a limited number of teams. In this way, plagiarism can also be limited. Lines of communication are short, and producers and ‘topliners’ know ‘their’ artists and they exchange ideas on newer songs. 

Stargate

Stargate is a team of producers. They are long-time Norwegians Mikkel Eriksen and Tor Erik Hermansen.  They spend days at a time producing ‘tracks’, say sound clips.  Two or three of them sit behind keyboards and computers and fiddle away, until a ‘catchy’ series of sounds rolls out.  This is by no means always a whole song, but rather an intro or chorus. They listen to these tracks until the best ones remain. The lesser ones are sometimes used for commercials.

The more than 100 songs they have produced can be found here. Many of them have landed in charts around the world.

Esther Dean

As soon as there are a dozen or so potentially good ‘tracks’ on the shelf, producers invite one of their ‘top liners’ for a multi-day session. Esther Dean is one such top liner.  Here is a list of all the songs (117) she co-authored. She was involved in some of Beyoncé’s and especially Rihanna’s biggest hits, whose voice she feels and can imitate particularly well. 

Esther places herself in a soundproof cell and listens to a track. She has prepared by writing down hundreds of short phrases, catchy words, from newspapers and other sources. The beginning of a song is nothing but her singing into a track with combinations of these words. She is extremely gifted at fusing words and sounds, even if the words are meaningless for the time being. She keeps repeating this dozens of times until she feels something good is coming.  She plays with sounds, words and phrases until there is a catchy intro and chorus. Together with the producers they finish the song for 90%. When the producers are satisfied, they write the intermediate verses

By the end of a multi-day session, about five potential mega-hits have been set to lyrics and music, including all musical effects, with no musical instrument other than the electric ones involved. Later, the shows usually will deploy a live orchestra. The most promising hits are submitted to record companies and top artists like Beyoncé and Rihanna listen in critically.

At least 10 highest-grossing hits of Beyoncé and Rihanna were produced by Stargate in collaboration with Esther Dean, who as a result easily made several million dollars per song.

Things may also turn out differently than intended

Finally, we listen to a song produced by Ryan Tedder. He sent a track to a top liner who turned it into the song ‘Halo’ for Beyoncé. We listen to Halo, a quiet song, now with the singer in the picture. The stylistic features mentioned earlier stand out again. The listener is increasingly drawn into the ‘halo’ as the song progresses.

Something went wrong, however, as Ryan Tedder also gave the track to Kelly Clarkson, who created her own lyrics to it: ‘Already Gone’.

Obviously, Kelly was very angry because her song appeared later, but legally there was nothing wrong. 

Kelly is certainly Beyoncé’s inferior as a singer, but she is also a theatre personality, so she allows herself to feature the chorus of Beyoncé’s song ‘Halo’ in her song when appropriate. An otherwise rare and poor recording of this can be heard here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x0stee65ba4

There are also audio freaks who have created a mash-up of both songs. A mash-up is the musically sound mixing of two or more music tracks. Fans view an example here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGuJQPWjk1Q

The repetition effect. Also, for the song as a whole.

Of paramount importance for the music industry is the repetition of intended hits on radio or television, the so-called plugging of songs. Also, airtime is bought in commercial breaks for which millions are invested in catchy videos.  Moreover, ‘free’ artist performances are offered to program makers and organisers of music. Here, Rihanna sings her song Diamonds on the catwalk of Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show. This high-profile (under)fashion show is usually graced by top artists who come to plug their latest hit. A ‘win-win’ situation, obviously only for top artists.

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Becoming ‘moved’ by music (2): Voices

Pop choir Just4Fun from Oosterwolde

In the previous post, I explored the impact of the interplay of rhythm, tempo and timbre. For a while we ignored the role of melody by focusing at the effect of percussion instruments. The combination of these three elements has a huge influence on our experience. It is hard to stay in your seat with a band like ‘Slagerij van Kampen’. This is thanks to a brisk tempo, a stirring rhythm, the balance between repetition and variation and the variety of percussion instruments, each of which has its own unique timbre. 

In the final performance, however, melody was reintroduced. By combining percussion and other instruments, the timbre became more varied and touching. This added to the overall experience.

Given de added value of melody, let’s focus on the impact of the human voice. To amplify its effect, we will not listen to individual singers with their particular characteristics but compare several choirs. In the first recording, the effect on the audience of human voices united in a chorus is immediately apparent. This is a performance by ‘John’s Boys’, an all-male choir from Wales.

The singing is like a warm bath. It gives you goose bumps, just like the jury members. You become emotionally involved in the content of the song, even though you hardly understand it, because of the polyphony and the changes in volume. It is also an indication of how important it is to have a look at the singers, which makes the emotions come across much more strongly.

I go one step further.  The Belcanto Choir from Vilnius sings a composition by composer Karl Jenkins (also from Wales), titled Adiemus, from the 1995 album ‘Adiemus: Songs of Sanctuary’. The lyrics consist only of meaningless words. The singing voices acts as instruments but at the same time no instrument can match the effect. The music itself contains Celtic and African elements. 

Like the first song, the singers’ enthusiasm is infectious and the polyphony, solo accents as well as the alternation between loud and soft bring the variation that keeps the listener enthralled. 

In both cases, the audience will literally move, but more so emotionally. That this succeeded is also proven by the long-standing listing of this piece of music on the NPO Radio 2 Top 2000.

Now, I compare the impact of both performances with that of two other choirs. Both perform the song ‘Can you feel the love tonight’, composed by Elton John in 1994 for the film ‘The Lion King’.  At first, we listen to the giant San Francisco Gay Men’s Choir, with orchestral accompaniment.

The massiveness, the polyphony and the swelling crescendos make the performance impressive, but what is missing is the emotion that played such a central role in the previous examples. Then again, the human voice is a wonderful ‘instrument’, but apparently it takes more than a perfect performance to bring about the emotive involvement in the listener. The question then is what that ‘more’ consists of.

You can listen and watch now the same song, ‘Can you feel the love tonight’, sung by a small choir called The King Singers.  Two things are different.  First, the choir succeeds in conveying the emotional value of the song through their expressive way of singing. Second, the variation in timbre goes far beyond polyphony alone. The singers’ individual voices are blended with the collective voices, and the registers from high to low are fully utilised.

Both heart and body are engaged when percussion instruments are added to a choir. The penultimate song that I’m going to present is the choral arrangement of the popular song “Africa”. This song was released by Toto for the first time in 1982 and is still on the NPO Radio 2 Top 2000 list. It is an ode to Africa, tropical showers included. The song owes part of its popularity to the fact that ik makes you feel a touch of Africa. The Angel City Chorale also from Los Angeles essentially conveys that by its vivid impression of the tropical rain. The experience that his choir creates cannot be substituted by any orchestral presentation. Responsible for this are the imitation of rain and thunder, the enthusiastic presentation of singers and soloists, the polyphony and the way the singers move. The musical accompaniment enhances this effect but never dominates the choir.  The effect of rhythm and tempo does strengthen it.

In the final show everything comes together: the subdued nature of the sung word is suddenly reversed and, through a change in tempo, rhythm and timbre, leads to a complete turnaround in the audience’s perception. The audience, who at first listened breathlessly, now breaks into applause and dancing here and there. A performance that moves the ‘whole person’. I will follow him” was originally sung by Petula Clark in 1961. Now you listen to André Rieu and his Johann Strauss Orchestra.