Mp3 Killed the Radio Star: Beyonce Proves Me Wrong Again

How was I suppose to know that the week after I post this blog, "Beautiful Liar" would jump 91 spots to No. 3 on the pop singles chart, the biggest single-week jump in Billboard history. I questioned the strategy of not releasing the song until a month after it was released to radio and MTV, having already peaked on those countdowns and starting to drop. But I guess enough demand built up so a lot of people bought it. I still don't think it's a good song. In fact, the really long lead time before it's sales release let a song that didn't exactly grab radio airplay by storm to get into people's heads and build a demand. So I stand by my opinion that it's not a really good song. And I don't know if it'll boost sales of B'Day. But as for the single, Beyonce can claim another big hit.

It took about a month after it hit radios and MTV, but Beyonce and Shakira’s “Beautiful Liar” is finally available as an EP and iTunes. Can’t say, I or anyone for that matter, have been begging for this song, its pretty average. Even though one sings in Spanish and the other in Beyonce, I can’t really tell the difference between the two. Production work was by Stargate, a Norwiegan dude who wrote the deservedly massive hit, “Irreplaceable.” Like most Europeans, he can drop killer pop hooks all day, but any attempts at aping Stateside hip-hop beats are bland. “Beautiful Liar" rides a vaguely Spanish acoustic guitar riff, a few horn punches and hand claps. This is the first song that made me wish Pharrell produced it instead since it’s kind of similar to “Like I Love You,” and I thought I’d never, ever wish that in this age and time.

I’ll be more interested in seeing how “Beautiful Liar” helps the commercial prospect of B’Day, since that album’s been pretty disappointing overall. The first single, “Déjà Vu” sort of sucked and it barely cracked the top 10 singles chart. It took five months after the albums release before people actually started buying it, thanks to the one great song on the album, “Irreplaceable.” At first, I wondered why it took so long to release “Irreplaceable;" if it was the first or second single, B’Day could’ve came out of the gates huge. Instead, it was labeled a modest hit, nowhere close to the success of Dangerously In Love, and only around Christmas did the album start sneaking back up the chart. But then her PR campaign was in full “Beyonce was the actress, Jennifer Hudson the supporting in Dreamgirls” mode and B'Day was on the backburner.

Now that Oscar delusions have subsided, Sony is trying to wring more sales and hits out of B'day. The problem is, there are no more “Irreplaceable’s” on the album. Hence the last resort that is "Beautiful Liar," tacking on the new single on a more expensive, deluxe-edition version of the same album. You can buy “Beautiful Liar” as an EP or single. But the record label is really hoping you drop $20 for a double-disc deluxe edition of B’Day, now with “Beautiful Liar,” that comes out in April. Lots have already been written about this tactic three years ago, about how slimy it was that major labels tried to get fans to buy the same album twice. It was yet another reaction against the label’s fear of illegal downloading and iTunes ruining sales of the more profitable albums. Usher released a deluxe edition of Confessions with “My Boo” tacked on and a new album cover that was um, “sexier.” Not a whole lot of people bought the special edition, but it sold just enough to extend Confessions run on the album chart, which was devious. And then there’s Nelly, who ridiculously released Sweat and Suit, forcing his fans to cough up $30 for both albums. Months later after one lone hit (on the country charts with Tim McGraw, of all places), Nelly dropped some of the weak tracks, tacked on “Grillz” and released two versions of Sweatsuit, one basic album and another with a bonus DVD. A former co-worker of mine was a huge Nelly fan and to put it nicely, she was not happy. A look at buyer’s comments on Amazon showed a similar response. Instead of encouraging people to buy albums, fans who didn't want to drop $50 for three Nelly albums started looking for just the hits to download, and you really couldn't expect a business model as effective as that from a major label.

So we have another attempt at repackaging and re-selling a product to a public that never really asked for it. But “Beautiful Liar” isn’t exactly a song to get people to spend more money, outside of a dollar on iTunes. Despite having two chart-topping divas listed as artists, the song hasn’t exactly taken off. It peaked at #4 on the R&B Billboard chart, but it’s languishing at #93 on the Hot 100 Singles Chart, which means it isn’t crossing over. And the song peaked on MTV TRL weeks ago. The only way you can get people to buy an album twice is if they REALLY want that song. It has to be an anthem that everyone knows. I mentioned this song to some friends at a bar yesterday and half of them have never heard of it. I doubt enough people will cough up $20 again to give B’Day to extend its run for too much longer. After a year when Beyonce was a Golden-Globe nominated “lead” in a big musical, broke the record for the longest #1 chart position by a single (“Irreplaceable”), sold two million copies of her last album and released a new song with an equally hot girl in Shakira that could’ve been massive, we’ve seen her most as the cover girl for Sports Illustrated’s swimsuit issue and as Jennifer Hudson’s co-star. Not a bad year, but I don’t think those were her career goal either.