Diane Warren’s songwriting is what the modern, jaded type might refer to as “schlock.” Maudlin, antiquated shite about yearning and pining that doesn’t actually exist. And some of us only believe it does precisely because of people like Warren, who herself has found true love solely in her métier. That said, the aura of innocence and naïveté that she brings to her songwriting cannot be discounted when reflecting on what she asked of Beyoncé’s “Alien Superstar.”
The question came on August 1st, via her Twitter account. Simple and to the point, Warren inquired, “How can there be 24 writers on a song?” It was the eye roll emoji that went with it which lost her the leeway to follow up with, “This isn’t meant as shade, I’m just curious.” A.k.a. “Asking for a friend.” But, of course, Warren, more than anyone, should know how songwriting credit works, and how quickly the contributing names can add up when samples are involved. Nonetheless, she decided to play a bit dumb (complete with spelling errors) when she concluded, “Ok, it’s prob samples that add up the amount of writerrs.” But it was too late. The damage had already been done. The indefatigable stingers of the Beyhive had been launched into defense mode. That Warren has, in fact, worked with Beyoncé before made no difference to them. Gave Warren no “pass” on perhaps genuinely asking out of interest in the songwriting process. For if thou speak’st against Beyoncé—or in any way that is perceived as such—thou shalt die. This has been a hard and fast rule for some time. Not just amongst the Beyhive, but society at large. No one really knows when it started, when Bey became untouchable in the eyes of all… but it definitely happened at a point after she was caught fraternizing with Sisqó circa ’00 and being high as a kite in an interview with Destiny’s Child circa ‘01 (even though, being Beyoncé, she had to debunk that “myth” in order to ensure she remained true to her image of “perfection”)
It hasn’t really been until Renaissance—regardless of its overwhelming acclaim (despite being an incohesive hodgepodge)—that more “leash” has been “given” to those who might want to say something “against” “Queen” Bey. This has included not only Warren (though not really, since she got too scared and apologized right away), but also Kelis and Monica Lewinsky. And, of course, non-ableists. For anybody who took one listen of “Heated” ought to have been immediately aware that the line, “Spazzin’ on that ass, spaz on that ass” was not going to sit well with the very community Hannah Diviney rose up to defend when the dam broke with Lizzo back in June for using “spaz” in her single, “Grrrls.” For whatever reason, the coterie of songwriters on Bey’s team (including Drake) didn’t think to use that moment as a cautionary tale of what might happen if they persisted in using the word in their own song. Maybe Beyoncé’s ego was the very thing that caused this oversight. Too big and too wide to see past the fact that even she, “godlike” as she is, was not going to eke by with use of this word (not even “just” once, but twice). As a testament to how shitty the lyric is in the first place, it doesn’t sound much better with the new substitute word: “Blastin’ on that ass, blast on that ass.”
It was on June 12th when Diviney tweeted at Lizzo, “My disability Cerebral Palsy is literally classified as Spastic Diplegia (where spasticity refers to unending painful tightness in my legs). Your new song makes me pretty angry + sad. ‘Spaz’ doesn’t mean freaked out or crazy. It’s an ableist slur. It’s 2022. Do better.” Here, however, Diviney verges on her own dangerous territory of being “insulting.” For “reining in” spaz from being used by the Black community in particular raises another issue: once again, silencing Black people from self-expression. Because just as the Black community has repurposed the hurtful n-word slur into a term of endearment, so, too, has “spaz out” come to mean something entirely different in AAVE: “out of control,” “freaking out” or “wild.” Hence, its frequent presence in numerous rap songs that have yet to be spotlighted as being due for a re-recording. For instance, Bey’s own boo Jay-Z got away with saying, “To the death of me, I spaz like I’m on ecstasy” on 1998’s “Reservoir Dogs.”
Maybe Warren is also thinking to herself that she would never use the kind of language to have gotten Bey in such “heated” water. Indeed, Warren’s work seems to bestow an automatic halo upon everyone, including Lady Gaga with “Til It Happens To You.” Accordingly, after Warren worked with Beyoncé on “I Was Here,” which is very on-brand for both in its joint level of cheeseballness, an accompanying performance video was made in August of 2012 to support the UN’s World Humanitarian Day initiative. In it, Beyoncé appears in a trite sequined ball gown as she, once again, talks about herself and her own impact in a way that has absolutely nothing to do with humanitarian aid workers passing out a lone bottle of water to a frenzying crowd. In fact, the juxtaposition of such scenes with Beyoncé in her luxurious ensemble and cush background are nothing if not in ill-advised taste. Much the way that the Beyhive felt Warren’s seemingly arbitrary callout of Beyoncé was.
But let’s not forget that Warren, who always writes a song alone, was likely “spazzing out” (as Bey would say) over how many songwriters it took to create something as “simple” as “Alien Superstar.” Though it’s certainly not as simple as the limited instrumentation and stripped-back vocals of “I Was Here.” For Warren, such a “collaborative” process is totally anathema, and maybe even negates the entire art of songwriting to her. After all, she’s of an era when it meant something to get an unshared Academy Award for one’s work… an award she still didn’t get a thirteenth time around at this year’s Oscars in spite of being the only one who truly cared about it. And, speaking of that event, Warren caused another controversy on Twitter this year when she tweeted a meme of herself with a revamped sign from the red carpet that read, “Ok so who do I gotta slap to get an Oscar?” Obviously, a reference to the now forever notorious “Oscar slap” between Will Smith and Chris Rock. So sure, Warren can be a bit “kooky” and “out there” when it comes to expressing “jocular jealousy.” But should that invoke an automatic backlash just because Beyoncé is involved? Hardly.
Especially because Warren, famously able to pen all of her work alone, likely blew a gasket at such a number of contributors to one composition. Yet, being Diane Warren, she probably also knows a thing or two about intellectual property law in songwriting. Which dictates that those sampled in a new song with the interpolation or lyrics must also get songwriting credit. Yet another reason why only someone like Beyoncé, as “big ticket” as she is, would be inclined to sample from whoever the fuck she wants without worrying too much about how that vastly diminishes the earnings pie for the producers.
Ariana Grande took the same risk on “7 Rings” in 2019, and it paid off in a big way with the single’s success, which she went on to address with her usual brand of arrogance on “Monopoly” with the lyrics, “You’d be straight for life if I gave you my PIN/Even though we gave up that ninety percent for the win.” Said amount referring to ninety percent of the songwriting royalties going to Rodgers and Hammerstein. Or rather, the “Estate of.” So, although that song has ten writer credits, the bulk goes to the duo’s Estate. Which makes the fifty percent Gwen Stefani had to offer to use “The Lonely Goatherd” in “Wind It Up” feel like an extremely fair deal.
In these instances, it makes sense to want to take such a loss on publishing rights. For, as Madonna once noted in reference to using ABBA’s “Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)” for “Hung Up,” if you’re going to sample, you should sample from the best. That really isn’t what’s happening on Renaissance, with Bey opting for esoteric references that seem less designed for her to “celebrate the marginalized” and more a bid to keep listeners from noticing that things are sampled at all. This, too, could have been part of Warren’s ostensibly “random” question. One that was followed up on August 4th by her trying to (fearfully) laugh off the Beyhive’s contemptuous comments with, “Haven’t been on Twitter for a few days, did I miss anything?” Not really, just that everyone continues to fear the wrath of Beyoncé. Or rather, her fans. Who Kelis recently called “a joke” for their blind levels of devoutness at the cost of never seeing any evil.
