Knowles' music is generally contemporary R&B, but she also incorporates pop, funk, hip hop, and soul into her songs. While she almost exclusively releases English songs, Knowles recorded several Spanish records for the re-release of B'Day. Prior to recording the Spanish titles on the album's re-release, Knowles was coached phonetically by American record producer, Rudy Perez.[125] She also recorded a Spanish song during her time in Destiny's Child, and received favorable responses from their Latin fans. Knowles learned Spanish in school when she was young, but can now only speak a few words of the language.
Since Destiny's Child, Knowles has artistically been involved in her career.[24] She received co-writing credits for most of the songs recorded by the group, as well as her solo efforts. Known for writing personally driven and female-empowerment themed compositions, Knowles has stated that having Jay-Z in her life has changed a few of her thoughts about how men and women relate to one another, which helped her transition from writing songs such as "Independent Women" and "Survivor" to man-tending anthems such as, "Cater 2 U" in which she sings about bringing him slippers and drawing his bath.[126] Some of her songs are autobiographical, which she has admitted are taken from personal experiences, as well as her friends'.[127] Knowles has also received co-producing credits for most of the records in which she has been involved, especially during her solo efforts. However, she does not formulate beats herself, but typically comes up with melodies and ideas during production, sharing them with producers.[128] Knowles was recognized as a songwriter during the run of Destiny's Child in the 1990s and early to mid-2000s. She won the Pop Songwriter of the Year award at the 2001 American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers Pop Music Awards, becoming the first African-American female and second female songwriter of all time to accomplish the feat.[16][127] Knowles received songwriting credits in a single year for co-writing "Irreplaceable", "Grillz" and "Check on It", all of which reached number one on the Hot 100, the only woman to have written three songs which went to number-one in the same year since Carole King did it in 1971 and Mariah Carey in 1991. In terms of credits, she is tied with Diane Warren at third with nine number-one singles.[129]
Knowles possesses a mezzo-soprano[130] vocal range that spans more than three octaves. She has often been identified as the centerpiece of Destiny's Child.[131] Jon Pareles of The New York Times commented that she has the voice that defines the group, writing that her voice is "velvety yet tart, with an insistent flutter and reserves of soul belting".[132] Other critics praise her range and power. In reviewing her second album B'Day, Jody Rosen of Entertainment Weekly wrote "Beyoncé Knowles is a storm system disguised as a singer. On her second solo album, B'Day, the songs arrive in huge gusts of rhythm and emotion, with Beyoncé's voice rippling over clattery beats; you'd have to search far and wide—perhaps in the halls of the Metropolitan Opera — to find a vocalist who sings with more sheer force...No one—not R. Kelly, not Usher, to say nothing of her rival pop divas—can match Beyoncé's genius for dragging her vocal lines against a hip-hop beat."[133] Chris Richards of The Washington Post wrote, "Even when she's coasting, she soars above her imitators. It's all in her voice—a superhuman instrument capable of punctuating any beat with goose-bump-inducing whispers or full-bore diva-roars. Smitten, scorned, amorous, antagonistic—Beyoncé sings from all of these vantage points with undeniable virtuosity."[134] Cove magazine ranked Knowles seventh on their list of "The 100 Outstanding Pop Vocalists", giving her 48 out of 50 points based on several criteria ranging from her vocal ability to range to harmony.[135][136]
Knowles has often been criticized for oversinging. A prominent employer of melisma, she earns frequent comparison to such artists as Mariah Carey, whose vocal embellishments have been known to detract from the melody of their songs.[123] Editors from Eye Weekly wrote, "There’s no question that Beyoncé is one of the best singers in pop, maybe one of the best alive...[However] as judicious as her singing can be, the effect in sum is still like being hit in the head with a fist in a velvet glove."[137] In November 2009, Gary Trust writing for Billboard Magazine commented that Knowles' third studio album, I Am... Sasha Fierce "clearly represent[ed] four very different sides" of the singer artistry, judging from the fact that "If I Were a Boy" was "an intimate, acoustic turn", "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)" oppositely aimed for more R&B/hip-hop audiences and ultimately become a pop-culture crossover smash, "Halo" fared best at mainstream top 40 radio and "Sweet Dreams" is "perhaps the most pure dance song Beyonce has ever released." He concluded by writing that the variety of sounds in the album's singles follows the tradition of albums that "not only produced a bounty of radio hits, but also an artistic mini-reinvention on each track."[138]
