4 is the fourth solo studio album by American singer Beyoncé. It was released on June 24, 2011, by Parkwood Entertainment and Columbia Records. Beyoncé eschewed the music of her previous releases in favor of an intimate, personal album. The album’s early musical direction was influenced by Nigerian Afrobeat musician Fela Kuti.
About 4 (Beyoncé album) in brief
4 is the fourth solo studio album by American singer Beyoncé. It was released on June 24, 2011, by Parkwood Entertainment and Columbia Records. Beyoncé eschewed the music of her previous releases in favor of an intimate, personal album. 4’s lyrics emphasize monogamy, female empowerment and self-reflection. It is her fourth consecutive album to debut at number one on the US Billboard 200, and it also reached number one in Brazil, France, Ireland, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. As of December 2015, 4 has sold 1. 5 million copies in the United States. The album’s early musical direction was influenced by Nigerian Afrobeat musician Fela Kuti, whose passion for music motivatedBeyoncé. She worked with the band from Fela! the Broadway musical based on Kuti’s life. In 2015, The-Dream revealed that he and Beyoncé had composed a whole album based on Fela’s music, although this was scrapped in favor of creating 4. The song One—Party was recorded because she wanted to see what she would develop with DJ Swivel, the engineer she worked with on My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. Three months later, Beyoncé was featured on Kanye West’s My Beautiful Twisted Fantasy, only the only artist featured on the album not to have worked with him before. She also used hip hop to bring a grader sound back to her singing, and looked back to the grittiness and brassiness in her voice that people hear in her live performances, but not necessarily on my records.
In May 2011, Beyonce submitted seventy-two songs to Columbia Records for consideration, twelve of which appeared on the standard edition. 4 was promoted in mid-2011 by television performances and festival appearances, such as Beyoncé’s headlining Glastonbury Festival set. It received generally positive reviews by music critics; several publications included it on their year-end lists. In an interview for Complex, Beyoncer expressed dissatisfaction with contemporary radio. She intended 4 to help change that status, commenting, “I tried to mix R&B from the ’70s and the ’90s with rock ‘n’ roll and a lot of horns to create something new and exciting.’” In a separate interview, she said, ‘The album is definitely an evolution. It’s bolder than the music on my previous albums because I’m bolder. The more mature I become and the more life experiences I have, the more I have to talk about. I really focused on songs being classics, songs that would last, songs I could sing when I’m 40 and when I’re 60.” She also said that 4’s inspiration came from ‘touring, travelling, watching rock bands and attending festivals’ and ‘End of Time’ was heavily influenced by Earth, Wind & Fire, Lauryn Hill, Stevie Wonder, and Michael Jackson.
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