Goodies (album)

Background

In her mid-teens, Ciara formed the all-girl group Hearsay with two of her friends. The group recorded demos, but as time went on, they began to have differences and eventually parted ways. Despite this setback, Ciara was still determined to reach her goal and signed a publishing deal as a songwriter. After leaving the group Hearsay, Texas native Ciara earned a writing job via her manager, for Atlanta's Tricky Stewart and The-Dream's RedZone Entertainment, penning songs for Mýa and Fantasia among others. According to Ciara, no one believed in her dreams of hearing her own music on the radio until she met producer Jazze Pha in 2002. Within five months of meeting her, Pha signed her to his Sho'nuff label and they had already recorded five tracks. About Ciara, Jazze Pha said, "What was really lacking is the Janet Jackson, high-energy dance [music]. Ciara fills that void. She's pretty, she can dance, she can write music, and kids love her. Everyone loves her."

Recording

After graduating from Riverdale High School in Riverdale, Georgia in 2003, she was signed by LaFace Records executive, L.A. Reid, whom she was introduced to by Jazze Pha. She began production on her debut album later that year. Recording sessions for the album took place at Chocolate Factory, Chicago, IL; Circle House Studios, Miami, FL; Darp Studios, Atlanta, GA; Doppler Studios, Atlanta, GA; Futuristic Recording Studios, Atlanta, GA; Ground Breaking Studios, Atlanta, GA; Hit Factory Criteria, Miami, FL; Hitco, Atlanta, GA; Patchwerk Recordings, Atlanta, GA; Phoenix Ave. Studios, Atlanta, GA; Sony Music Studios, New York, NY; Studio 609 Recordings, Philadelphia, PA; The Studio, Philadelphia, PA.

In early 2004, Ciara wrote a demo with record producer Sean Garrett, co-writer of Usher's crunk hit "Yeah." After hearing a demo, crunk producer Lil Jon, who also produced and was featured on "Yeah", began to work on the full record, to have it released on LaFace, which was also Usher's label. Originally, Ciara was reluctant to work with the track produced by Lil Jon, reportedly disliking crunk music at first. However, she decided to use the song to go against the grain and deliver lyrics in contrast of female promiscuity lines delivered by fellow female artists. To give her a title to stand out, Lil Jon dubbed Ciara as the "Princess of Crunk&B." Dubbed the female counterpart to "Yeah" and fellow crunk hit "Freek-a-Leek" by Petey Pablo, it looked to capitalize on the success of the previous songs. In addition to working with Jazze Pha, who produced most of the album, Lil Jon, and Garrett, she worked with several other Atlanta-based writers and producers including Bangladesh, Johntá Austin, Jasper Cameron, and others, while featuring collaborations from Atlanta's T.I. and Ludacris. R&B singer R. Kelly wrote and produced a track.

When talking about the album's theme, Ciara said it was universal, stating, "It's about everybody. You'll have songs with different emotions, happy, sad, 'my heart is broken.' What everybody goes through." On her success with the preluding title track, Ciara said, "I'm very content right now. I take everything a day at a time. Every time I hear good news, I'm shouting out, 'Praise God.' Everybody around me is so excited, I still haven't got it. I haven't really felt it like they're feeling it for me."

Composition

The album consists of bouncy dance music mixed with crunk, combined with either R&B, pop or hip hop music. The ballads on the set utilize Ciara's breathy vocals, as the uptempo pieces. Lyrical content varies on the album. Songs like "Goodies" issue a message of female empowerment and abstinence, and this is contradicted as she hints at teasing sex. Slant Magazine compared this to Britney Spears-esque "layer of tease to the mature" in her early work. Utilizing influences from 80's dance music, qualities of the work of Destiny's Child and Aaliyah are evident.

"Goodies" is heavily influenced by male counterpart crunk song "Yeah" and also has been compared to Kelis's "Milkshake." The song makes use of a repeated whistle, "faux operated vocals" in parts and a western guitar riff near the end. "1, 2 Step," which continues the club music theme, is built around a simple dance and features Missy Elliott in a pas de deux. and according to Mike Pattensden of The Times, "owes plenty to classic New York electro." "Oh," a downtempo song, features a heavy bassline and has been called "brooding electronic grind," and, according to Dorian Lynskey of The Guardian, "sounds like R&B reimagined by Gary Numan." "Pick Up the Phone" was described as a rip-off of Aaliyah's "Rock the Boat" by Sal Cinquemani of Slant Magazine. "Next to You," written by R. Kelly, is part of the album's second half of ballads, and was said to capture "Ciara's youthful indecisiveness." "Hotline" features a "funky clap" and beatboxing.

Singles

Goodies' lead single, the title track, featuring Petey Pablo, was released on June 8, 2004. Conceived as a crunk female counterpart to Usher's "Yeah," the lyrical content goes against the grain, speaking of abstinence, rejecting advances because "the goodies will stay in the jar". Critics hailed it as an "anthem of the summer" and one of the best singles of the year, complementing its dance-feel and beat, and the irony of the "clever" lyrics. The single performed well worldwide, topping the charts in Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom, and charting in the top ten of other charts, receiving Platinum certification in the United States. The music video shot for the song features Ciara partying with friends. "1, 2 Step", featuring Missy Elliott, was released as the second single, incorporating a hip-hop and dance-pop feel, deriving influences from 1980s electro music. While topping the charts in Canada, it additionally appeared in the top ten of six other countries, and was certified Platinum or Gold in multiple regions. The accompanying music video features Ciara and others performing the dance. The song was nominated for Best Rap/Sung Collaboration at the 48th Annual Grammy Awards. "Oh", featuring Ludacris, proclaimed as a love song to Atlanta, was released as the album's third single on March 5, 2005. Carrying a slow, dark tone, critics noted "Oh" as a standout track from Goodies. The song performed well worldwide, appearing the top ten of seven charts, and certified either Platinum or Gold in multiple regions. The song's music video, which is similar to that of "Goodies", takes place at a block party, and was nominated for Best R&B Video at the 2005 MTV Video Music Awards. The album's final single, "And I", was released on August 30, 2005, and only managed to peak at ninety-six on the Billboard Hot 100. The music video for "And I" is loosely based on the 1992 film, The Bodyguard, and NBA player Carmelo Anthony portrayed Ciara's love interest.

Critical reception

Raymond Fiore of Entertainment Weekly gave the album a B and commented, "If Aaliyah had lived to make another CD, it might have sounded like Goodies," and said that other album cuts "prove she's no one-track pony." Noting the singles "Goodies," "1, 2 Step," and "Oh" as standout tracks, Allmusic gave the album three and a half out of five stars. Steve Jones of USA Today said, "The voice doesn't blow you away, but as with Goodies, she takes a lyrically intriguing offbeat path from time to time. Though not every song is a goodie, she does have a few treats in store." Even though he said the album wasn't a perfect work, Azeem Ahmad of musicOMH said, "The talent is obviously there but if we are to carry out Ciara's wish of forgetting about "the other chicks" then there's some fine-tuning needed. For now there's no direct threat to any other hip-hop divas, but the void left by Aaliyah is still there for someone to try and fill. There's no reason why Ciara can't one day hold her own with the best." Jalylah Burrell of PopMatters commented that "Goodies is nothing new, but it is executed well."

Although pointing out the flaws of Goodies, Dorian Lynskey of The Guardian said, "Ciara has no conviction as a sweet-talker but her disconnected style clicks perfectly with the cold, clinical (in a good way) hits." Mike Pattenden of The Times said, "Goodies has some tasty treats, but they're all stacked on top of the jar," commenting that Ciara's "whispery, girlish voice that is often relegated to the background by stronger performers, suggesting she is little more than a pretty mouthpiece for Jon and his posse of producers." Slant Magazine's Sal Cinquemani compared it to the work to Aaliyah, stating some of it was not up to par with the late singer, but complimented the title track-esque tracks.

Commercial performance

The album debuted at number three on the US Billboard 200, selling 124,750 copies in its initial week. It topped the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart, before being dethroned by the Usher's Confessions. Goodies had a seventy-one week stint on the Billboard 200, and certified three times-Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America on October 10, 2006, and has sold around 2.7 million copies in the United States as of June 2010.

Charting at twenty-two on the Canadian Albums Chart, it was certified Platinum by the Canadian Recording Industry Association. The album charted at twenty-six in on the UK Albums Chart, and spent twenty weeks on the chart. It was certified Silver by the British Phonographic Industry, remaining to be Ciara's sole certified album in the UK. Goodies charted moderately in other countries, including the top forty on the New Zealand Albums Chart and Irish Albums Chart. The album has sold 6 million copies globally.

Legacy

With the release of her debut single "Goodies", Ciara was referred to as the Princess of Crunk&B. Allison Stewart of The Washington Post commented that she has a "reedy, agile voice, capable of conveying the only three emotions (sexy, sassy, sad) an R&B singer needs. Randall Roberts of Los Angeles Times commented that "Ciara has been the most synthetic of the R&B divas over the past decade, an electro-leaning vocalist whose instrumental palate has heavily favored stark 808 beats, sassy and seductive vocal lines." In the early to mid-2000s, some crunk music hits like "Get Low", "Goodies", "Yeah!" and "Freek-a-Leek" produced by Lil Jon climbed to the Top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100 charts. Both "Yeah!" and "Goodies" were the first tracks to introduce the substyle of crunk music and contemporary R&B, called crunk&B, to the public. Both of those tracks (performed by Usher and Ciara, respectively) were the main mainstream hits of 2004. Since then, crunk&B has been one of the most popular genres of sung African-American music, along with electropop, the genre that replaced crunk and crunk&B in the charts in 2008. After the album's lead single reached the summit of the US Billboard Hot 100, it spent seven weeks at number one, becoming the longest-running number-one debut single by a female artist since 1977

The album's lead singles success exemplified urban music's commercial dominance during the early 2000s, which featured massive crossover success on the Billboard charts by R&B and hip hop artists. In 2004, all 12 songs that topped the Billboard Hot 100 were African-American recording artists and accounted for 80% of the number-one R&B hits that year. Along with Usher's streak of singles, Top 40 radio and both pop and R&B charts were topped by OutKast's "Hey Ya!", Snoop Dogg's "Drop It Like It's Hot", Terror Squad's "Lean Back", and Ciara's "Goodies". Chris Molanphy of The Village Voice later remarked that "by the early 2000s, urban music was pop music."

The work helped Ciara earn several nominations, including Best New Artist at the 48th Annual Grammy Awards. Several Goodies singles received several nominations at different ceremonies, which included "1, 2 Step" being nominated at the 48th Grammy Awards for Best Rap/Sung Collaboration. The song "1, 2 Step" from the album Goodies has received numerous awards, including both "Best Performed Songs in the ASCAP Repertory" and "Most Performed Songs" from the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, "Best Collaboration" from the BET Awards, and "Best Dance Cut" from the Soul Train Lady of Soul Music Awards, and "Choice Music R&B/Hip Hop Track" from the Teen Choice Awards. Ciara has received nine nominations from the BET Awards, winning one of them.

Track listing

Notes

Personnel

Adapted from Goodies at Allmusic.