Exploring Beyoncé's Foray Into Rock With 'Lemonade'

When Beyoncé dropped her sixth record, Lemonade, this weekend as part of an HBO special that aired on Saturday, fans and the music industry alike were stunned by the pop star's very public and apparently self-referential airing of her marital difficulties, the concept of infidelity, the influence of her parents on her life as well as her raw, powerful representation of black feminism.

The aesthetically pleasing visual film aside, perhaps one of the most captivating parts of Lemonade's release is the well of musical genres Beyoncé has used as a vehicle to express such things, calling on rock and indie royalty such as Father John Misty, Vampire Weekend's Ezra Koenig and The White Stripes' Jack White to help with songwriting, and even slotting in lyrical and musical nods to Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Animal Collective and Led Zeppelin. Rock wasn't the only genre she explored at length — Lemonade also delves into influences from James Blake, Kendrick Lamar, The Weeknd and Andre 3000.

hold up

Featuring songwriting credits from Father John Misty's Joshua Tillman and Ezra Koenig (who is also credited as a producer alongside Beyoncé herself and Diplo), the dub-influenced track also boasts lyrics from Yeah Yeah Yeahs' Maps in the hook — "they don't love you like I love you". As Pitchfork reports, Tillman penned lyrics and the melody to the verse and refrain, after a demo of his was shown to Beyoncé. 

"About a year and half ago, my friend Emile Haynie played Beyoncé some of my music, along with some tunes I've written for other people, back when she was looking for collaborators for the record… Pretty soon after they sent along the demo for Hold Up, which was just like a minute of the sample and the hook. I'm pretty sure they were just looking for lyrics, but I went crazy and recorded a verse melody and refrain too that, unbelievably - when you consider how ridiculous my voice sounds on the demo - ended up making the record - right between picking up the baseball bat and decapitating the fire hydrant. 

"I was mostly kind of in the dark, my involvement with the record kind of ends with me just sending off the demo, it wasn't until she came to my Coachella set in 2015 and told me personally it had made the record that I really had anything concrete with which to convince my friends that I hadn't actually gone insane."

Koenig also took to Twitter to explain how a tweet referencing Maps eventually became Hold Up as it is on Lemonade. He says, "I think "what if it was 'hold up' instead of 'wait'?" and tweet a tweet" ... Originally it was "there's no other God above you, what a wicked way to treat the man who loves you.""

Replying to fans on Twitter, Koenig was asked how Beyoncé makes her music her own when others write her music for her, to which Koenig replied, "well, i think it's quite a feat to weave the contributions of many different writers/producers into a cohesive song that tells your own story. to bring your voice to a song like that & have it feel unified is special — it's a form of orchestration. all my favorite artists do this one way or another."

slow down...they don't love u like i love u

— Ezra Koenig (@arzE) April 24, 2016

it's not that complicated - but some ppl are confused so here's the short version: pic.twitter.com/Ma7P4HEngP

— Ezra Koenig (@arzE) April 25, 2016

songs become tweets, tweets become songs - it's the way of the world

— Ezra Koenig (@arzE) April 25, 2016

don't hurt yourself

The raucous Don't Hurt Yourself — in what seems like a scathing open letter to husband Jay Z —bears the most musical resemblance to what Beyoncé may sound like fronting a rock band. Using Led Zeppelin's iconic When The Levee Breaks as a sample, the song cites the entirety of Zeppelin as writers as well as The White Stripes' Jack White, who features on the song. 

6 inch

The track — which features The Weeknd's Abel Tesfaye on vocals and cites him as a songwriter — also quietly references Animal Collective's My Girls. Producer Boots says Beyoncé's line "She too smart to crave material things" was at first accidental in its similarity to the Baltimore band's "I don't mean to seem like I care about material things". He says on Genius, "The Animal Collective “material things” amalgamation was accidental. similar to when George Harrison got sued for My Sweet Lord. you write it and sing it and think “thats fucking great!!!” and everyone high fives and you’re all geniuses for fourteen seconds but it turns out its great because someone else already fucking wrote it. that song is a jam".