Flashback Friday: Beyoncé - Green Light | Go! Beep-beep, bitch.

It's Beyonce's birthday, so it makes sense to Flashback this Friday to a cut from B'Day.

B'Day managed to a basis for everything that Beyoncé would do next on follow-up albums and set a precedent for things she would go on to be known for. There wouldn't have been a "Single Ladies" without "Get Me Bodied". The ambitious decision to shoot so many videos in such a short time was what brought Beyoncé with director Melina together, who would go on to direct many of her videos. Shooting videos for every song would be a staple for Beyoncé later in her career. And working with Pharrell Williams for a third time (fourth if you count "The First Time" after the remix of "Emotions" and "Work It Out") would lead to a long-term working relationship. Oh. And speaking of Beyoncé and Pharrell; let's talk about B'Day cut "Green Light". One of the best songs on B'Day.

Yes bitch. It is.

I always felt and still feel to this day that "Green Light" should have been pushed much harder as a promotional single. This should have been the follow up to "Deja Vu" instead of "Ring The Alarm". Shit. Sometimes I think that it could have been a great lead single.

B'Day is an album which holds so much more weight and relevance now than it did back then, when a lot of people didn't really 'get it'. And it's understandable given how messy the roll-out was. But it was quite fascinating to me watching the whole thing unfold, and for a star who seemed to have her shit altogether for her first album kinda fumble over trying to course correct. The thing that always interested me most about B'Day was seeing it do a lot of what we see now in Western music, and had been seeing in the Japanese and Korean music industry. Just throwing singles out quickly one after the other to see what sticks, as artists do now all the time with digital singles just as an album is on the way. Shooting a whole bunch of music videos, as the likes of Ayumi Hamasaki had become known for doing, something Namie Amuro would also do. Releasing a deluxe edition of the album which was pre-ceded by a new single. (K-Pop repackage anybody?). The release of B'Day may not have been the cleanest, but fans had no shortage of content, and it seemed to work. A lot is owed to B'Day. We probably wouldn't have gotten the self-titled album, Lemonade or The Lion King: The Gift as we known them without it.

In summary, "Green Light" is still that bitch. Dark haired Yonce is the one. B'Day is the most influential of Beyonce's albums on her own career.

💿 Album reviews: The Lion King: The Gift | Lemonade | Beyoncé | 4 | I Am... Sasha Fierce