{"id":11625,"date":"2022-08-04T15:13:22","date_gmt":"2022-08-04T15:13:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/scienceandnerds.com\/2022\/08\/04\/beyonce-edits-two-songs-on-renaissance-after-social-backlash\/"},"modified":"2022-08-04T15:13:23","modified_gmt":"2022-08-04T15:13:23","slug":"beyonce-edits-two-songs-on-renaissance-after-social-backlash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scienceandnerds.com\/2022\/08\/04\/beyonce-edits-two-songs-on-renaissance-after-social-backlash\/","title":{"rendered":"Beyonc\u00e9 edits two songs on Renaissance after social backlash"},"content":{"rendered":"

Source: https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/2022\/8\/3\/23290473\/beyonce-renaissance-twitter-kelis-slur-lewinsky<\/a>
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Even Beyonc\u00e9 is not immune to the cycle of outrage. Though her critically acclaimed<\/a> latest album, Renaissance<\/em>, has been out for less than a week, Beyonc\u00e9 is already making changes to two of her songs after being called out on social media.<\/p>\n

The singer got into a beef with Kelis for interpolating a portion of her 2003 hit \u201cMilkshake\u201d in \u201cEnergy\u201d without giving her a heads-up. (Kelis is not a credited author on the song.) \u201cI heard about this the same way everyone else did,\u201d Kelis said in an Instagram comment<\/a>. As of Wednesday, the interpolation had been removed<\/a>. <\/p>\n

The song \u201cHeated\u201d originally included lyrics featuring the same ableist slur<\/a> that got Lizzo into hot water on Twitter only a few weeks ago. On Monday, only three days after the album\u2019s release, it was reported<\/a> that Beyonc\u00e9 would swap out the word. As of Wednesday, the song\u2019s lyric has been changed from \u201csp***in\u2019 on that ass\u201d to \u201cblastin\u2019 on that ass\u201d on YouTube, Apple Music, and Spotify (though the written-out lyrics on Spotify still have the old version<\/a>). <\/p>\n

The Kelis situation is specific and likely more about her feud with Pharrell<\/a> than it is about her relationship with Beyonc\u00e9. But the slur in \u201cHeated\u201d is part of a long industry tradition of retroactively editing songs<\/a>. It\u2019s almost a right of passage \u2014 an artist writes a lyric that ages poorly and is eventually tweaked or removed altogether. In the past, that process could take years, and the original versions would be preserved in physical albums or prior song downloads. The changed lyrics would only be evident in rereleases or when the song would be played at concerts. In the age of Twitter and Spotify, that response is as immediate as the backlash.<\/p>\n

Once a track is changed and rereleased on streamers, that is the only version that will be in circulation beyond TikTok snippets and a handful of CDs and vinyl copies. Kanye West took advantage of that flexibility in 2016 with his updates to The Life of Pablo<\/em><\/a>. Beyonc\u00e9, one of the industry\u2019s savviest artists, knows that the quicker she moves on edits, the less likely it is anyone will remember it was changed in the first place.<\/p>\n

The edits also prompted Monica Lewinsky to suggest her name be removed<\/a> from Beyonc\u00e9\u2019s 2013 song \u201cPartition.\u201d The Beyhive has been less amenable<\/a> to that change.<\/p>\n