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4 (Beyoncé album)

4 is the fourth studio album by American singer-songwriter Beyoncé. It was released on June 24, 2011, by Parkwood Entertainment and Columbia Records.

4

June 24, 2011 (2011-06-24)

March 2010 – May 2011

R&B

46:28

Following a career hiatus which reignited her creativity, Beyoncé was inspired to create a record with a basis in traditional rhythm and blues that stood apart from contemporary pop. Her collaborations with songwriters and record producers The-Dream, Tricky Stewart and Shea Taylor produced a mellower tone, developing diverse vocal styles and influences from funk, hip hop, and soul music. Severing professional ties with father and manager Mathew Knowles, Beyoncé eschewed the music of her previous releases in favor of an intimate, personal album. Lyrical themes of 4 emphasize monogamy, female empowerment and self-reflection, a result of Beyoncé considering a maturer message to contend artistic credibility. In May 2011, Beyoncé submitted 72 songs to Columbia Records for consideration, 12 of which would appear on the standard edition.


4 was promoted in mid-2011 by television performances and festival appearances, such as Beyoncé's headlining Glastonbury Festival set. The album received generally positive reviews by music critics; several publications included it on their year-end lists. It was her fourth consecutive album to debut atop the US Billboard 200, and it also reached number one in Brazil, Ireland, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. The album spawned seven singles–"Run the World (Girls)", "Best Thing I Never Had", "Party", "Love On Top", "Countdown", "I Care" and "End of Time". At the 55th Annual Grammy Awards (2013), "Love On Top" won Best Traditional R&B Performance. As of November 2016, 4 had sold 5 million copies worldwide.

Background and development[edit]

Following the release of her third album I Am... Sasha Fierce (2008) and a world tour, Beyoncé took a career hiatus in 2010 "to live life [and] to be inspired by things again".[3] During her hiatus, she "killed" Sasha Fierce, the alter-ego used in her previous studio album, as she felt she could now merge her two personalities.[4] She severed professional ties with father and manager Mathew Knowles, who had guided her career since the 1990s with Destiny's Child,[5] noting that the decision made her feel vulnerable.[6]


In an interview for Complex, Beyoncé expressed dissatisfaction with contemporary radio.[7] She intended 4 to help change that status, commenting, "Figuring out a way to get R&B back on the radio is challenging ... With 4, 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. I wanted musical changes, bridges, vibrata, live instrumentation and classic songwriting."[7] On her website she wrote, "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 that I could sing when I'm 40 and when I'm 60."[8] Beyoncé also sought to make more artistic music, rather than purely commercially oriented songs.[9]


Although much of 4's inspiration came from "touring, travelling, watching rock bands and attending festivals",[11] the album's early musical direction was influenced by Nigerian Afrobeat musician Fela Kuti, whose passion for music motivated Beyoncé. She worked with the band from Fela!, the Broadway musical based on Kuti's life.[10] DJ Swivel, one of 4's engineers, later described how Kuti's use of percussion and horns influenced the track "End of Time".[12] In 2015, The-Dream revealed that he and Beyoncé had composed a whole album based on Kuti's music, although this was scrapped in favor of creating 4, therefore explaining how "End of Time" became so heavily influenced.[13]


She also found additional influences in Earth, Wind & Fire, The Stylistics, Lauryn Hill, Stevie Wonder, and Michael Jackson.[14][15] She used hip hop for a "broader sound" and looked to bring soul singing back, stating, "I used a lot of the brassiness and grittiness in my voice that people hear in my live performances, but not necessarily on my records."[14]

Singles[edit]

4 was Beyoncé' first album that yielded no number-one singles in the United States, as no song from 4 reached the top ten on the Billboard Hot 100.[77] "Run the World (Girls)" was released internationally as the lead single from 4 on April 21, 2011.[78] It reached number twenty-nine on the Billboard Hot 100 chart[79] and number eleven on the UK Singles Chart.[80] "Best Thing I Never Had" followed on June 1, 2011.[81] It fared much better on national charts, reaching number sixteen in the United States,[79] number five in New Zealand[82] and number three in the United Kingdom.[80]


"Party" was released as an urban contemporary single in the United States on August 30, 2011;[83] its remix, featuring J. Cole, was released in the United States, Canada and some European countries on October 24, 2011.[84][85][86] "Love On Top" was released in Australia as a contemporary hit radio single in September 2011;[87] it was released in Italy, Belgium and the United States later.[88][89][90] It topped the US Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs for seven consecutive weeks.[91] "Countdown" was released in the United States and parts of Europe, beginning October 4, 2011.[92] "I Care" was released exclusively in Italy on March 23, 2012.[93] "End of Time" was released exclusively in the United Kingdom on April 23, 2012.[94][95] 4 is Beyoncé's only studio album to not house any top 10 hits on the Billboard Hot 100.

Commercial performance[edit]

On its first day of release, 4 sold around 20,000 copies in the United Kingdom.[142] According to the Official Charts Company data, this was more than the combined sales of its three nearest challengers: Adele's 19 (2008) and 21 (2011) and Lady Gaga's Born This Way (2011).[142] After a week of sales, 4 debuted atop the UK Albums Chart on July 4, 2011, with first-week sales of 89,211 copies,[143] staying there for a second week with sales of 44,929 copies.[144] By May 2013, it had sold 603,548 copies in the United Kingdom.[145] 4 opened at number two on the Australian ARIA Charts, giving Beyoncé her highest chart debut there.[146] 4 debuted at number three on the Canadian Albums Chart, selling 8,700 copies in its first week.[147] It debuted at number two in France, selling 12,393 copies in its first week.[148] According to the Japanese music charting site Oricon, the album debuted at number ten, selling 18,984 copies for the week ending July 11, 2011.[149]


In the United States, 4 debuted at number one on the Billboard 200, with first-week sales of 310,000 copies.[150] This gave Beyoncé her fourth consecutive solo album to debut at number one on the Billboard 200 album chart, making her the second female artist, after Britney Spears, and third artist overall, tied with Spears and DMX to have her first four studio albums debut atop the Billboard 200.[150] 4's first-week sales became Beyoncé's lowest sales start with a studio album to date.[150] Keith Caulfield of Billboard magazine noted that the album was not released during the festive season and that Beyoncé was so far lacking a hit single, which could help explain the album's softer entry.[150] It marks the third-largest sales week of the year, after the number-one bows of Lady Gaga's Born This Way and Adele's 21.[150] 4 became the ninth numerically titled album to top the chart since 1956.[151] In its second week, the album remained at number one on the Billboard 200, despite a 63% sales decrease, selling 115,000 copies. It hence became the first album by Beyoncé to top the Billboard 200 albums chart for more than one week; an effort succeeded by her self-titled fifth studio album (2013) that remained there for three weeks.[152][153] On August 1, 2011, the album was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), having shipped one million copies to retail stores. As of August 2022, the album is certified four-times platinum.[154] As of December 2015, it had reached sales of 1.5 million copies in the United States.[155] As of November 2016, it had sold over 5 million copies worldwide.[156]

List of number-one albums of 2011 (Ireland)

List of number-one albums of 2011 (Spain)

List of number-one hits of 2011 (Switzerland)

List of UK Albums Chart number ones of the 2010s

List of UK R&B Albums Chart number ones of 2011

List of Billboard 200 number-one albums of 2011

List of Billboard number-one R&B albums of 2011

at Discogs (list of releases)

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