To underestimate Knowles and her rotating cast of backup singers is to find yourself on the business end of a No. 1 song. (Destiny’s Child is the most successful female R. & B. group in history.) Yet none of this involved Beyoncé cursing, committing infidelity, or breaking any laws, even in character. The Knowles empire is delicately balanced on one of the thinnest-known edges in pop feminism: as unbiddable as Beyoncé gets, she never risks arrant aggression; and as much of hip-hop’s confidence and sound as she borrows, she never drifts to the back of the classroom. She is pop’s A student, and it has done her a world of commercial good.
I got a call from my mom after the Inauguration, and she said to me, "I don't know if I heard Beyoncé sing before this week. She's really good." Indeed. As Whitney Houston's and Britney Spears' careers collapsed from personal failings, Christina Aguilera failed to recover fully from getting too "Dirrty", Janet Jackson just got weird and Madonna voluntarily backed away from world dominance, Beyoncé Knowles was there to wrestle the crown from Mariah. Is there any reason to think she'll cede it anytime in the next decade?
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