Nowadays there are beat gurus, sampling scholars, hook doctors, lyrics wizards, instrument aces and a whole host of people whose talents are being curated by, for the most part, Beyonce herself – the only individual with a writing credit on each of “Renaissance’s” 16 songs. Minus Beyonce herself, that leaves 16 original contributors whose work is unaccounted for.īeyoncé, ‘Renaissance’ Review Roundup: Critics Hail the New Album ‘Unmitigated Ecstasy’īut the size of that group speaks to Beyonce’s power to command top talent, her process and modern pop-songsmithing in general. The song that Warren called out for its 24 songwriters - the most we could find on any Beyonce track - has four samples (“I’m Too Sexy” by Right Said Fred, “Moonraker” by the Foremost Poets, “Unique” by Danube Dance and a speech by Barbara Ann Teer) with a total of seven songwriters. Going back to her debut “Dangerously in Love” from 2003, we see 57 songwriters on 15 tracks, for 3.8 per song.

With 16 songs, that’s an average of 10.6 credited songwriters per track.īy comparison, “Lemonade,” her 2016 tour de force and most recent LP, had 74 songwriters on its dozen tracks, for just over 6 writers per. “Renaissance” has 104 credited songwriters (including Beyonce herself), for a total of 170 songwriting credits (since several songwriters work on multiple tracks). Songwriting Legend Diane Warren Dragged on Twitter for Asking Why New Beyoncé Track Has 24 Writersīut a sampling boom doesn’t tell the whole story. As Beyonce has continued to rise in stature, so has her available sampling pool, which has included everything from Donna Summer to Led Zeppelin (yes, Jimmy Page and Robert Plant have songwriting credits on “Lemonade,” and they probably weren’t cheap). Even if a tiny snippet of a song is used, each source-material songwriter gets their name along for the ride, plus due royalties. The prevalence of sampling in modern pop music covers some of it.

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