Discography
99 releases – 44 under her own name, 34 in other groups and 22 credits on others' music Edit
- Show everything (99)
- Released as Beyoncé (44)
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In other groups (34)
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Credits on others' music (22)
- Tracks on others' music (191)
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In the News
( 7 stories between 6th November 2008 and 14th May 2011 )Narcissism and Anger In Music On the Rise
May, 14 2011
A recent study confirms that narcissism and hostility are increasing in popular music.
Several years ago psychologist Nathan DeWall heard Weezer frontman Rivers Cuomo singing to a familiar 19th-century Shaker melody: “’Tis the gift to be simple, ’tis the gift to be free,” but Cuomo sang: “I’m the meanest in the place, step up, I’ll mess with your face.” In place of love and humility, Mr. Cuomo proclaimed over and over, “I’m the greatest man that ever lived.”
While Cuomo may have parodied other singers, DeWall hypothesized the words “I” and “me” now appear more frequently along with anger-related words, while there’s been a corresponding decline in “we” and “us” and the expression of positive emotions.
His study looked at song lyrics from 1980 to 2007, controlled for genre to prevent the results from being skewed by the growing popularity of rap and hip-hop. The song-lyric analysis, published in the journal Psychology of Aesthetics & Creativity, shows a decline in words related to social connections and positive emotions and an increase in words related to anger and antisocial behavior.
Songs in the 1980s were more likely to emphasize happy togetherness, like the racial harmony of Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder’s “Ebony and Ivory” or the group exuberance promoted by Kool & the Gang: “Let’s all celebrate and have a good time.”
Today’s songs are more likely be about one person: the singer. “I’m bringing sexy back,” Justin Timberlake proclaimed and Beyoncé crowed about her dancing, “It’s blazin’, you watch me in amazement.” Cee-Lo Green’s “F*ck You” is overtly hostile.
And anyone familiar with LSD (Lead Singer Disease) is aware of the megalomaniacal tendencies of lead singers. Yet regardless of whether these popular artists really mean it, there’s clearly a market for these sentiments.
-Court
Mr & Mrs Carter Combine To Coin $145m
Jul, 20 2010
Forbes magazine has revealed its annual list of the highest earners in music, with Irish rockers U2 firmly ensconced in first place thanks to their record-breaking 360 Tour. But the highest earning solo artist, and the highest earning female, is Beyoncé, whose $82m income placed her third overall after U2 and AC/DC.
Her husband Jay-Z earned $63m last year, according to Forbes, making the Knowles-Carter household the highest earning in music. Both earned the majority of their money through large-scale tours, but Beyoncé also benefited from endorsement deals with Nintendo and L'Oreal, while Jay-Z earned millions from investments in the New Jersey Nets NBA team, the 40/40 nightclub chain, and the hit Broadway musical about Afrobeat pioneer Fela Kuti, Fela!.
Bruce Springsteen was the second highest earning solo artist, and fourth overall on the list, thanks to a $68.7m income, just ahead of Britney Spears ($64m) and Jay-Z. On a list of long-established superstars, the only new artist in the top ten is Lady Gaga, who earned an estimated $62m in the last twelve months.
Beyoncé
Oct, 22 2009
In a week when Beyoncé has joined Avril Lavigne, Gwen Stefani, Rihanna and the Black Eyed Peas in having her proposed Malaysian tour appearance blocked by the Malay government on grounds of immorality, we are reminded of another example of governmental interference in listening habits. Soviet history blog The People’s Cube has found a list dating from 1985 of almost forty music groups who, according to a government youth organization, should not be heard in youth clubs because their “repertoires contain ideologically harmful compositions.” That Black Sabbath, Alice Cooper and the Sex Pistols appear on the list is less surprising than the unexpected condemnation of Spanish crooner Julio Iglesias (for “neofascism”) and the nutty ska-pop group Madness (for “punk” and “violence”). Talking Heads received a special mention because they apparently encouraged the “myth of the Soviet military threat,” and Pink Floyd may have been more popular behind the red curtain had they not made references to Soviet aggression in Afghanistan in their 1983 release, The Final Cut. The exact details may change, but the impulse to blame pop and rock stars for wider moral problems remains.
