How would you treat your significant other if you were to live a day in their shoes? The song if I were A boy by Beyonc? makes you re-think how great individuals we are, if we just do what makes us happy and if thats a person, dont take them for granted. Take your chance, or possibly lose your opportunity.
The year 2008 Beyonc? release an album called I Am Sasha Fierce. This is a very monumental album for Beyonc? as she inferred in her interview with Essence magazine.
Its broad, but I had to try it because I remember Aretha Franklin said, a great singer can sing anything and make it her own. (Beyonc? 2008). The song soon became # 1 in the UK, this was big even for Beyonc? because it was also her first ever truly solo song. She did have help writing the song from Toby Gad. A bit before the release of this album Beyonc? was cast in the role of Etta James in Cadillac Records.
Beyonc? also mentions how great of an influence this role had on her album and the specific song If I Were a Boy. Etta expressed herself; she was bold. That inspired me to do a lot of things musically that no one else is doing. (Beyonc? 2008). There are many literary devices in this song, like metaphors, first point of view, and imagery to name a few.
The song illustrates the unfair confined gender roles prior to feminism becoming continually popular. This being proven in the imagery she placed throughout the song. As the song goes she often repeats the lyric if I were a boy (Beyonc? 2008) then continues with what she would do. One of which is that shed turn off her phone tell everyone its broken so theyd think that I was sleeping alone (Beyonc? 2008). She not only creates the image of her as a male but also the traits that some males do. Such as ignore text messages, chase after girls and just hang with his friends because no one is going to be able to tell him otherwise when his with them.
When the song starts the beat is low and slow paced, as she talks about some of the shitty things, she had men do to her. Halfway through the song everything completely switches. The beat picks up with the pitch to alto, she starts to belt. The confidence and strength are emphasized through this. In one of the very first lines of the song she puts herself in the shoes of a male right from the beginning. chase after girls (Beyonc? 2008). She wasnt saying she would literally chase after girls; she was saying as a man shed pursue them unlike she does to men now.