Jane Dark Sugarhigh blog on Beyonce's "Irreplaceable" restoring "melodic range to pop"

Frank Kogan to thread. He can probably convey numerous reasons why teenpop arose (again).

Here's him talking about "Crazy in Love": >"And this is the story that "Irreplaceable" begins to narrate. It's a good song, not a great one; nobody thinks its within seven rungs of "Crazy in Love" on the ladder of the Ideal Pop Song. That song had decent range as well, but it also had other things on its mind, and returned relentlessly to the three-note theme. "Irreplaceable" seems to have as its main purpose the restoration of melodic range to pop. That it found traction with an audience that had proved itself indifferent to the far-narrower B singles that preceded it is the most telling fact — not in the least in that it demonstrates how Beyonce had better dance to the tune of the times, having lost the imperious capacity to make the times dance to her own tune."

Uh, Josh/Jane maybe the earlier singles from the latest album were not as good as "Crazy in Love," as opposed to being out of "tune with the times." In his theory, is he giving Beyonce all the credit for restoring "melodic range to pop" with "Irreplaceable" ? He does not even mention the other songwriters--Amund Bjorklund, Espen Lind, Mikkel S. Eriksen, Tor Erik Hermansen and Ne-Yo ...

Only recently did I really pay close attention to all the lyrics (after hearing Beyonce talk about how the song was an empowerment anthem). The lyrics have now been appropriated for all kinds of uses--I heard a sports talk show host going "To the left, to the left" in an "Irreplaceable" style melody as a way of describing his feeling watching a missed NFL field goal not go in between the vertical cross bars

Alfred, she hasn't just dumped anybody in her own life, why do you think that this is the first ballad that she is fully comfortable singing? I think she's sung ballads convincingly before, as have other r'n'b singers (and gotten them on the radio) despite Josh/Jane's contention that "Irreplaceable" is the first one to restore a melodic range to r'n'b/pop hits.

Except it's really downcast for an empowerment anthem, isn't it? She sounds like she's trying to half-convince herself that she can pack up all his shit in boxes.

On second thought I don't like the way "above-average intelligence" sounds. I'll just say that it's cool Beyonce can flesh out doubt and pain like the Diana Ross she wants to be.

Well, most of Beyonce's ballads have sucked, to my ears. There's any number of ballads by Blige, Ne-Yo, and Carey I've liked in the last couple of years, so I don't buy the Jane/Josh argument either.

In the interview she suggested she was singing this for other women.

And that isn't enough, of course. It isn't enough just to think about stuff in a complex and original manner. If the post was completely off-base, all the above criticisms would make sense. But it isn't completely off-base. It makes a great deal of sense on a number of levels.

The desire of many R&B artists over the past decade-plus to present a tougher, more serious public image seemingly has resulted in sleek, minimal, rap-inflected and melodically restrained performances. And teenpop really did step up into the resulting void to offer unrestrained melodic pop with all of its unserious/unsexy baggage. That's the central point (the Beyonce tune just being an intellectual hook), and it's completely valid.

But the most interesting thing about the article is the way it centers the locus of authority in the discourse. I mean, it's a truism that hip-hop is "the center of authority in popular culture." Sure, but I like the way Jane asserts that teenpop is (by implication) the center of non-authority and goes on to explore the consequences.

Hip-hop, a profoundly masculine expression, assumes cultural authority, but must dispense with anything that might symbolically feminize it: melody, (most) sentimentality, love, compassion, weakness, etc. Teenpop, on the other hand, accepts its own lack of (masculine) authority, and this frees it to express/explore a much wider musical and emotional scope. R&B is caught in the middle, stretched between the repressive authority of hip-hop and the naive freedom of teenpop.

Come on, that's a really fucking cool idea, and at least half convincing.

The Beyonce tune may not be the only successful, mature, melodically wide-ranging and powerfully sung R&B tune to chart in recent years while still maintaing a measure of adult authority, but it's one of only a few to do so. And worth noting as such.

P.S. I like the article's underlying implication that pop history can be looked at as a back-and-forth pendulum swing between serious, adult authority and childish, naive expression. Pop forms arise young and foolish, then attempt seriousness as they age, only to be reinvented again and again in bright cartoonish colors, 'cuz the essentially juvenile appeal of pop will not be denied. After the exploratory excesses of the late 60s and 70s, rock becomes childish in the 80s. So, grunge comes along with a more self-important (but, really, no less juvenile) vision of rock authority, and out go the hair bands. Punk becomes the new rock Bible, and bands are expected to be angry, dark, brooding, introverted. But kids figure out that punk can be fun, too, so tons of mallpunk bands spring up, holding on the new version of rock authority, but subverting it in favor of a less serious approach. And so on.

There's a strong idea and argument here, but the writing is a goddam prepositional trainwreck.

if anything it's mainstream hip-hop which has been embracing melody more and more with its increasingly massive riffs (eg 'what you know'), catchy choruses (chamillionaire, fiddy &c &c), opulent arrangements (kanye) et al.

paris hilton is the only one who ties the two together! that one slightly rocky cassie album track which sounds like h duff notwithstanding.

Good point, Lex. OTM, of course. But that's really just the other side of the same coin.

It is arbitrary to pick this tune as thee single song that's gonna save R&B from itself, or whatever. We Belong Together is just as good a candidate, sure.

I just think that Jane's larger arguments are interesting and compelling completely independent of this particular song.

(unless i'm forgetting a bridge)

who are these by?

surely this is also about performance as much as actual melody - if yr aesthetic is to emphasise the big chord changes and so on you'll sing them with a lot more gusto than if you want to play it ice-cold. i suspect a lot of melody gets hidden beneath how various r&b ice queens choose to play it. people who know about music theory beyond grade 5 feel free to correct me.

The cool thing about r&b right now -- and the reason why a lot of it has been really interesting over the past decade or so -- is that it's poised right between those two things. It's borrowed that repeating-groove aspect back from hip-hop, as well as hip-hop's advancement into synthetic and electronic sounds. But the connection to singing ballads and gospel keeps the other foot in the singing-songs-with-chord-changes turf. It has the opportunity to do whatever it wants, really, and so it's not surprising that some of the big smashes of the past years have been expensive combinations of those camps -- Timbaland/Timberlake "Cry Me a River"/"My Love" stuff is suspended just about exactly halfway between chord-changing ballad and static hip-hop (or really it's kinda fully both, not a difference-splitting but a way of having both entirely).

Okay, a song like She Loves You is fluid melodically in the way that something like Losing My Religion isn't.

if we're talking fluidity, i don't think 'irreplaceable' is at all fluid - it seems awkward, gulpy, which of course is entirely fitting thematically - it's this which undercuts the "female empowerment" of the lyrics. 'we belong together' is totally fluid though.

Jesus Christ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3CGL4Wjg_0k

wtf, "Crazy in Love" was mediocre and "Irrepaceable" is FANTASTIC. I don't think there's some great mystery at work here, it just has a really good melody.

It would have made more sense actually had he drawn attention to Ne-Yo's involvement - having also penned "So Sick" and "Unfaithful" he's the posterboy for Respectable Ballads in the 06, so he works as a figurehead for one end of the dialectic in a way that Beyonce doesn't really.

Perhaps where Joshua's article falls short is that by setting up this process as a pendulum swing he's simplyfing the dialectic. To some extent Beyonce's problem to date has been finding ways to make ballads which don't abandon the qualities which her uptempo singles formerly possessed in spades. "Irreplaceable" actually works because it's less "full of big chord changes, key changes, chromatic developments" than most of her previous ballads, so it retains some of the tension and tautness of, say, "Say My Name" or "Baby Boy". I'd have to listen to it again but I was under the impression that "Irreplaceable" doesn't even have a big key change, although the middle-eight packs an equivalent punch.

This is not to say that it isn't notable that the biggest single from Beyonce's new album is a ballad-of-sorts - but I think one reason it's big is that it's a ballad that people who have only liked Beyonce's uptempo work can click with.

Well, right, that's what I'm saying: it doesn't have any great significance, it's just a really good song. Those do tend to come along every once in a while, and sometimes the temptation to read too much into them is overwhelming. Hell, I've been known in moments of argumentativeness to claim that it will singlehandedly save the album format.

RANDOM SIDENOTE: I know an inexplicably large number of women who completely hate this song and, by extension, any man who enjoys it. I've heard multiple suggestions that guys "only like it because of the video" (haven't seen it yet, but judging by tone of the song, I wouldn't exactly expect a Pussycat Dolls-style skank-o-rama -- am I way off base here?); one woman I work with actually said she "lost respect for [me]", and I got the feeling she was only half joking. Beyonce for Mariah of the oughties?

02/02/07
http://www.starpulse.com/news/index.php/2007/02/02/beyonce_still_irreplaceable_on_top_of_th

"Beyonce Knowles' Irreplaceable has notched up a ninth week at the top of the US singles chart.

The hit, which first hit number one in early December, has kept Fall Out Boy's This Ain't A Scene, It's An Arms Race at number two and Nelly Furtado's Say It Right at number three for a second successive week.

The highest debut on the new Billboard chart belongs to Brit Lily Allen, whose Smile enters the countdown at number 83."

Basically all this song has shown me is that Beyonce sometimes says some stupid shit when she gets mad; "Ring The Alarm" is a much more coherent take in terms of narrative sense as well as being much more successful in making me identify with the protagonist. Also, the transition into the chorus of "Irreplaceable" is a big pile of unimaginative shit.

still, in spite of or because of all that, a 100 percent pop classic. (which "ring the alarm" is not quite, despite being a better song.)

this isn't what she says at all. she mentions the car because it's an insult-to-injury thing, like he's slept with another girl in HER BED.

Also, if this is an "empowerment song", why is she so hell-bent on picking up another meaningless boytoy whom she can disdain into cheating on her?

well it's not a straight-up empowerment song, is it? it's an expression of all the confusion/pride/conflict one feels when a relationship ends, and this totally includes meaningless casual sex as revenge on yr ex.

Finally, exactly what is the point of telling someone "don't think you are irreplaceable" as you're kicking them out? Isn't it kind of obvious at that point that you think they're replaceable?

well, no, not at all, not if you’ve been left no other option than to kick them out after you discovered that they were being unfaithful! beyonce is underlining, to him, that she’s not simply doing this to save her pride, but she really will get over him just like that. (of course, she’s lying to herself, which is what makes the song so effective.)

Basically all this song has shown me is that Beyonce sometimes says some stupid shit when she gets mad; "Ring The Alarm" is a much more coherent take in terms of narrative sense as well as being much more successful in making me identify with the protagonist.

this is true, and it’s exactly why ‘irreplaceable’ is the more emotionally affecting song (though ‘ring the alarm’ is fabulous’ as well). incoherent stupid shit when you’ve just been emotionally shattered? EXACTLY.

'telling me / i ain't going to find another man like you'
man clearly does not think he's irreplacaeble! presumably he thinks she'll come crawling back, but she's never going to do that, she's too strong, she never needed him anyway, he was just some man, etc etc etc.

keep trying to formulate response along the lines of - the fact that it's a ballad in the first place creates this fundamental disjoint between the words and the music, the independent-woman braggadocio fronting which comes out of beyoncé's mouth (inc the inevitable focus on the economics of it all) at complete odds with not just her overtly emotional delivery but also with the sappy acoustic guitar and predictable ballad chord changes. it hasn't come out right though.

also: she has built up very effectively, that exact image many, many times before! it's virtually her default persona. so we know what beyoncé sounds like when she's being empowering, we know she's very good at it, and we know that this is not it.

It really makes me wonder, though: I think Beyonce puts in a really great performance on the song, she knows how to sing it - and then she goes around acting like she can't see any of the subtlety, and I start to think 'maybe she has to believe in its literal truth to sing it as well as she does...' so that, I don't know, every performance is at the emotional point before you realise you're lying to yourself, or something.

yes to recognisable signifiers of ballad form affecting perception etc.

unless the song is about pride rather than enpowerment. perhaps you might say they are the same thing. but i'm not sure about that.

?

or maybe she is STILL lying to herself, and still in denial!

or: sometimes, even after you've admitted to yourself that you're lying to yourself, and have come to terms with that...you're still not going to give the other party the pleasure of seeing it, so you carry on with your public face at all times.

precisely! especially as it's the kind of song where you hope by repeating its words to yourself enough times, you will eventually believe them. any public concession to their untruth would SHATTER YR FRAGILE EMOTIONAL WORLD, etc.

it's virtually her default persona
but you can't mesh it with the buckwild crazy needy mad-eyes persona (cf deja vu etc), or the service-your-man one (cf cater 2 u, naughty girl, etc).

lex you sound like you're implying it's based in real life, watch it. :(

every time Beyonce opens her mouth to talk about this song, I think she gets dumber

but you can't mesh it with the buckwild crazy needy mad-eyes persona (cf deja vu etc), or the service-your-man one (cf cater 2 u, naughty girl, etc).

indeed, though for whatever reason submissive/needy solo beyoncé hasn't stuck as a persona in the way that shark-eyed businesswoman DC beyoncé did. i guess until now she's backed it up with some pretty no-nonsense beats.

every time Beyonce opens her mouth to talk about this song, I think she gets dumber

no, dan's completely wrong, we have established exactly why it would be a bad idea for beyoncé (or any pop star doing a similar song) to openly talk about how it's a lie! it doesn't matter what she says in interviews, anyway.

xpost

What she says in interviews is irrelevant.

I'd love Dan's take.

This remark should be posted atop every rock critic's computer. It's probably the most compelling statement regarding a critic's obligation to delineate why an artist is or isn't worth his/her time.

What complete and utter horseshit. Has this idiot NEVER heard other people's renditions of "And I Am Telling You" (including the one they all rip off, Jennifer Holliday's) and seen the glaring interpretive contrast between what every random screamer does (YELL YELL YELL YELL YELL MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE) and what Jennifer Hudson does (tender start, build in emotion, out of control bridge leading to a massively impressive phrase that shows breath control that Beyonce has never once exhibited in any of her singing)? This is completely setting aside differences in timbre; Jennifer Hudson has a darker, richer, rounder sound than Beyonce does. Also, Jennifer doesn't belt "Love You I Do" and she doesn't belt the verses of "Move"; that is saved for the coda. That nonsense was written by someone who is too busy jizzing over Beyonce's weave to give anyone else a fair shake (Anika Noni Rose could easily have outsung both of them had her big number not been cut from the movie, BTW, so this is not just the same argument from the "RAH RAH JENNIFER" perspective).

no, dan's completely wrong, we have established exactly why it would be a bad idea for beyoncé (or any pop star doing a similar song) to openly talk about how it's a lie!

Petulantly stamping your foot and shouting "I DECREE THIS, THEREFORE IT IS TRUE" is not a universally-accepted way of establishing a point, Lex.

you must not know 'bout me

Lex, you do realize that there are different opinions from yours, I hope.

different opinions != ad hominem attacks. ilx is a fucking hive of incivility these days.

ihttp://datacore.sciflicks.com/dr_strangelove/images/dr_strangelove_large_06.jpg

"celebrated"

Not to interrupt or anything, but does anyone know which of the credited writers penned the lyrics, or was it a team effort of some sort? (and you can explain whether you think it matters)

I would say "feel free to continue reading whatever motives you want into what threads I decide to follow" but I have the sneaking suspicion that you're going to do that anyway.

this is complete bollocks though and either you know it, or you have read about four things i've written ever and thus have no licence to be talking shit about how i write.

YOU WILL.

And the company that will bring it to you is AT&T.

I'd like to point out that Beyonce and crew lifted the whole falling melodic hook from Joan Osborne's "Poison Apples" song. Or not.

Either way, meep.

http://www.planbmag.com/content/view/404/39/
http://www.planbmag.com/content/view/434/39/
http://alexmacpherson.livejournal.com/

Lex's writing about rock is indeed often more focused on an idea of rock rather than the music itself. But Lex's writing about rock is the minority of his writing. Check him on R&B, hip hop, dance music etc.

You've never once written anything that gives me the impression you know the slightest thing about music; fashion, image and public relations are way more your bag.

is not so much pompous as remarkably catty?

I don't really understand what the fuck happened there - this seems a really weird thread to be all 'oh lex you know nothing about music, only about the externals' on, especially, Dan, when your recent posts have been about the interviews and rhetoric surrounding 'Irreplaceable' and your annoyance with its straightforward narrative. idk maybe that's just me but that seems a bit further from the music than Lex saying 'perhaps one reason why cis can't believe beyonce in this song is because it's full of weepy ballad signifiers, not empowering anthem ones'. I'll grant that he's not identifying anything as specific as a clunky pre-chorus, but he is dealing with the music, and in a thread where both you and I have been talking about being blindsided by image!

I don't know if "Irreplaceable" would be nearly so interesting if it was sung by a singer of whom we didn't already have a fairly detailed "image". It's precisely because it doesn't seem to accord with Beyonce's prior character that it's so startling (this sense of startlement has unfortunately begun to fade due to the song's ubiquity).

I'm not sure that Beyonce is more memorable for being shark eyes (god I hate that term though!) than for her submissive songs/ballads/etc. It's more the case that her ballads have never been as conflicted as they are here. As I think I've said before, Beyonce is usually very literal, esp. in her ballads and love songs. "Irreplaceable" is the first time she's introduced dramatic irony into that setting.

The song in her back-catalogue it's actually most like is "Survivor", which when you think about it has the exact same message and vulnerabilities - Beyonce espousing "you don't/can't affect me, I'm better than that" while the force of her performance convinces you otherwise.

It's actually Kelly who sings it (as if this matters: the Survivor era DC is swallowed up by Beyonce personality-wise), but the middle eight in "Survivor" is most on-point here: Kelly lists all the things she's too classy or morally superior to do, but it's clear that just by making the list she has thought about it, been mighty tempted, perhaps even wrote out a long diss on the internet which she deleted only after their mouse button had hovered over "submit" for a good five minutes.

I loved Beyonce singing "Listen" in Dreamgirls (a mostly patchy film, although I liked Jennifer Hudson too). Not sure how I feel about it as a single - hasn't been released here properly yet.

http://blog.streaming.jp/user/christomoko/blog/image/39.jpg

yeah this is completely on point, though again i think the music is key - the lyrics hint at kelly's inner conflict but the momentum of the beats and the massive, propulsive strings leaves us in no doubt that she's convinced herself she's "better than that", and ultimately reinforces the DC image as the strong, business-like survivors they say they are. i'm not sure what the same kind of treatment would do to 'irreplaceable' - though there's a cod-reggae remix which gives it a far lighter, breezier and less conflicted feel.

-- lexpretend (lexusjee...), February 14th, 2007.

erm, no; the lyrics do not "hint at kelly's inner conflict"; tim is possibly right that "it's clear that just by making the list she has thought about it, been mighty tempted", but it's only clear from the delivery, not from the actual lyrics themselves. the lyrics are lock-step with the production.

likewise if 'irreplaceable' has an (entirely unremarkable in the context of this kind of song) inner conflict between the words and the feelings behind them, whether we think beyonce lands it or not is a) likely to be inflected by how beyonce talks about it herself, like it or not and b) will depend on how we hear her delivery.

Um, I don't think that anyone really believes on any level that this song is about kicking Jay-Z to the curb.

Also I can't see why it's important that it's Beyonce-the-star singing it, my love for it is due to B's performance irrespective of anything around it - and also that it's a great song - all this different levels of emotion that Lex is peeling off the music in Survivor are present here in the lyrics - along with one that I'm surprised no-one has mentioned, the regret that she thought he was irreplacable for a while, but it turns out that he's another in a long line of scumbags, and here's the next along in a minute.

these days, and not only in pop music, it seems like because jumping up and down scales has been such a big thing in the past, sticking to a few notes in an intriguing way is even more, like, captivating.

sorry it's early, and this has probably been said. meow.

wtf is "shark eyes"

homegirl prolly wasn't thinkin of any dramatic irony, she was just bustin out a few good hooks

i have to say that i did hear "rip off" the first time i heard it cuz that part in the middle reminds me of this christina aguilera song off the first album where she's like "a love for al lseaons a love for all time"

ANYWAY, what i think, about this song is that yes it's DIFFERENT from like say my name, bills bills bills - i think because it's way more cut and pastey

but i LIKE cut and pastey, i find it deft and clver, so i say goo girl.

beyonce girl u own this song i know jay z was embarresed when he heard this wit his big lip self u need to have this on radio its to good to have to search for it and u sho right u can have a nuther him in a minute u go girl tell yo man cuz sum people just be like oh its ok he wont do it again but u told him he must not know bout u lol

NEW YORK - Beyonce has hit another high note, claiming the coveted cover shot of this year's Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue in a yellow-and-pink bikini.

"The Dreamgirl As You've Never Seen Her," a cover headline teases. There's also a photo spread inside the magazine.

The 25-year-old singer-actress ("Dreamgirls") posed on a Florida beach in the bikini designed by House of Dereon, the fashion label she started with her mother, Tina Knowles.

The 2007 swimsuit edition continues with a music theme inside, featuring scantily clad models posing with Kanye West, Aerosmith, Kenny Chesney, Gnarls Barkley and Panic! At the Disco.

A five-page spread featuring Russian Anne Vyalitsyna was shot at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland in September.

"Once the decision was made to have a music hook, one of the first settings to come up was the Rock Hall, because it's such an iconic place," said Sports Illustrated spokesman Rick McCabe. "It was a natural fit."

Vyalitsyna posed with Jon Bon Jovi's motorcycle and other Rock Hall items.

The magazine portrayed the museum with respect, said Todd Mesek, Rock Hall spokesman.

"We felt it would've been an omission if we weren't included," he said.

___

Well, I like "Irreplacable" more than most of those songs, including "Unpretty", and don't necessarily agree that she gives better performances on all of them, so taste is a bugger, etc.

And how is "Irreplacable" a ripoff of "Unpretty" other than that both are R&B songs built around an acoustic guitar?

-- max (mreadn...), February 13th, 2007.

WTF? When did singing a song that's not actually about one's own life become something only decipherable by "super formalist" readings??? Did Johnny Cash actually kill a man?

Dan, as long as Sugababes' "Ugly" it's hard for me to take this accusation seriously.

surely 'ring the alarm' rather than 'irreplaceable' though? the rihanna/teairra mari rumours, and so on. i basically agree that this tabloidy method of consumption is a worthwhile angle though.

----

If I bought it nigga please don't touch
And keep talking that mess, that's fine
But could you walk and talk at the same time
And It's my mine name that is on that Jag
So remove your bags let me call you a cab

Standing in the front yard telling me
How I'm such a fool - Talking about
How I'll never ever find a man like you
You got me twisted

You must not know about me
You must not know about me
I could have another you in a minute
matter fact he'll be here in a minute - baby

You must not know about me
You must not know about me
I can have another you by tomorrow
So don't you ever for a second get to thinking you're irreplaceable

So go ahead and get gone
And call up on that chick and see if she is home
Oops, I bet ya thought that I didn't know
What did you think I was putting you out for?
Cause you was untrue
Rolling her around in the car that I bought you
Baby you dropped them keys hurry up before your taxi leaves
Standing in the front yard telling me
How I am such a fool - Talking about
How I'll never ever find a man like you
You got me twisted

You must not know about me
You must not know about me
I could have another you in a minute
matter fact he'll be here in a minute - baby

You must not know about me
You must not know about me
I will have another you by tomorrow
So don't you ever for a second get to thinking you're irreplaceable

So since I’m not your everything
How about I'll be nothing
Nothing at all to you
Baby I wont shead a tear for you
I won't lose a wink of sleep
Cause the truth of the matter is
Replacing you is so easy

To the left
To the left
To the left
To the left
To the left
To the left
Everything you own in the box to the left

To the left
To the left

Don't you ever for a second get to thinking you're irreplaceable

I thought the album version was the same as the single edit but apparently not!

the part where I think most analysis of Beynoce's relationship songs being about Jay falls apart is when she seems to be singing from the perspective of a relationship where either she (in "Ring The Alarm") or he (in "Irreplaceable") is financially dependent on the other, that one would be broke if the other dumped them, which obviously isn't the case. but then maybe she's just trying to frame the songs in such a way that people who aren't extravagantly rich can identify with them (as opposed to, say, "Upgrade U," where I've never even heard of half the brands they're babbling on about).

no swearing on my copy of the album!

i think beyoncé's return, again and again, to the theme of economics is essential to both the persona she builds up of herself as popstar, and to enable her songs to ring true to 'normal' life. she's consistently used financial security/superiority to represent more than just what it is; and, far from rendering her heartless and cold, the way she constantly returns to it kind of proves that she's more in touch with the sometimes-unpleasant details of how real-life relationships (both within & without her income bracket) function than any number of singers who prefer to sing about the more romantic, rose-coloured picture. what's that statistic again, half of all relationships end because of financial disagreements/incompatibility?

she doesn't offer any comment on how unpleasantly materialistic life can get, just affirms it; and by affirming it by talking about ridiculous fucking bullshit brands, sports cars, and war diamonds yay, she really isn't on the side of the poor lex.

She then didn't add a "Why you frontin' wigga?" style html mark-up box.

Fair enough, but that doesn't really answer my question. I didn't ask how they are similiar, (and half of that is based on circumstance, rather than anything within the songs. the circle-of-fifths thing may be a good point, but my knowledge of music theory is rather rudimentary) I asked how one is a ripoff of the other. I don't see any reason to assume that Beyonce was consciously or even subconsciously setting out to make a song that sounds like "Unpretty".

I did not use the word "ripoff" to imply intent on the part of Beyonce. I used the word "ripoff" to imply similarity, chronology and how I view the relative quality of both (I am not a fan of "Unpretty" but I would rather listen to that any day over "Irreplaceable", despite Beyonce being a much better singer than anyone in TLC).