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| Last album = ''Heat'' (2010) | This album = ''4'' (2011) | Next album = ''4: The Remix'' (2012) | Misc = }} ''4'' is the fourth studio album by American singer Beyoncé. It was released on June 24, 2011, by Parkwood Entertainment and Columbia Records. Following a career hiatus that reignited her creativity, Beyoncé was inspired to create a record with a basis in traditional rhythm and blues that stood apart from contemporary popular music. Her collaborations with songwriters and record producers Terius "The-Dream" Nash, Christopher "Tricky" Stewart, and Shea Taylor produced a mellower tone, developing diverse vocal styles and influences from funk, hip hop, and soul. Severing professional ties with father and manager Mathew Knowles, Beyoncé eschewed the music of her previous releases in favor of an intimate, personal album. ''4''s lyrics emphasize monogamy, female empowerment and self-reflection, a result of Beyoncé considering a maturer message to contend artistic credibility. The album was praised by critics for its fusion of various genres and for Beyoncé's vocals; many publications included it on their year-end lists. In May 2011, Beyoncé submitted seventy-two songs to Columbia Records for consideration, twelve songs of which appeared on the standard edition. ''4'' was promoted in mid-2011 by television performances and festival appearances, such as Beyoncé's headlining Glastonbury Festival set. It was her fourth consecutive album to debut at number one on the US ''Billboard'' 200, and it also reached number one in Brazil, France, Ireland, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. ''4'' spawned the international singles "Run the World (Girls)", "Best Thing I Never Had", "Party", "Love on Top" and "Countdown". "Love on Top" won the Grammy Award for Best Traditional R&B Performance at the 55th annual ceremony. As of 2015, ''4'' has sold 4 million copies worldwide and, as of 2014, 1.41 million copies in the United States. ==Development== Following the release of her third album ''I Am... Sasha Fierce'' (2008) and a world tour, Beyoncé took a career hiatus in 2010 "to live life () to be inspired by things again". During her hiatus, she "killed" Sasha Fierce, the alter-ego used in her previous album, as she felt she could now merge her two personalities. She severed professional ties with father and manager Mathew Knowles, who had guided her career since the 1990s with Destiny's Child, noting that the decision made her feel vulnerable. In an interview for ''Complex'', Beyoncé expressed dissatisfaction with contemporary radio. She intended ''4'' to help change that status, commenting, "Figuring out a way to get R&B back on the radio is challenging ... With ''4'', I tried to mix R&B from the '70s and the '90s with rock 'n' roll and a lot of horns to create something new and exciting. I wanted musical changes, bridges, vibrata, live instrumentation and classic songwriting."〔 On her website she wrote, "The album is definitely an evolution. It's bolder than the music on my previous albums because I'm bolder. The more mature I become and the more life experiences I have, the more I have to talk about. I really focused on songs being classics, songs that would last, songs that I could sing when I'm 40 and when I'm 60." Beyoncé also sought to make more artistic music, rather than purely commercially oriented songs. Although much of ''4''s inspiration came from "touring, travelling, watching rock bands and attending festivals", the album's early musical direction was influenced by Nigerian Afrobeat musician Fela Kuti, whose passion for music motivated Beyoncé. She worked with the band from ''Fela!'', the Broadway musical based on Kuti's life.〔 Jordan "DJ Swivel" Young, one of ''4''s engineers, later described how Kuti's use of percussion and horns influenced the track "End of Time".〔 In 2015, The Dream revealed that he and Beyoncé had composed a whole album based on Kuti's music, although this was scrapped in favor of creating ''4'', which meant that "End of Time" became so heavily influenced. She also found additional influences in Earth, Wind & Fire, The Stylistics, Lauryn Hill, Stevie Wonder, and Michael Jackson.〔 She used hip hop for a "broader sound" and looked to bring soul singing back, stating, "I used a lot of the brassiness and grittiness in my voice that people hear in my live performances, but not necessarily on my records." 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「4 (Beyoncé album)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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