If I Were A Boy - Composition and Lyrical Interpretation

Composition and Lyrical Interpretation

"If I Were a Boy" is a midtempo pop and folk rock ballad with influences of soft rock music. The song was composed using common time in the key of G major and has a moderate tempo of 90 beats per minute. It was written in the common verse-chorus form; the verses are supported by four chords and follow a vi-IV-I-V chord progression in the form Em₇–C–G–D/F♯. Ed Masle of The Arizona Republic noted that the progression is reminiscent of Nirvana's 1991 song "Smells Like Teen Spirit". Instrumentation is provided by a piano, acoustic guitars, live drums, and strings. Knowles' vocals span the range from a low of G♯₃ to the high of E₅. Her singing gets higher and louder as she employs melodic crescendos. Critics noted that Knowles delivers a tormented performance with unwavering sentiments.

The lyrics of "If I Were a Boy" are about a gender-swapping thought experiment, through which Knowles analyses the ideologies of a tense relationship. As she sings about things she would do if she were a boy, Knowles highlights the vulnerability of a woman and ponders how things would be different if men had women's sense of empathy. During the first part of the ballad, Knowles alternates between the role of her flawed partner and that of the better man she would be. In the first verse, she envisions herself impersonating her unfeeling love interest as she sings about consuming beer with other men, chasing after girls, and treating her lover cruelly, before adding that she would never be confronted for it. Knowles then sings the chorus, in which she gives her vision of life as a better man, "I think I could understand / How it feels to love a girl / I swear I'd be a better man", because she knows "how it hurts when you lose the one you wanted / 'cause he's taken you for granted and everything you had got destroyed".

In the second verse, Knowles resigns herself and continues to sing about cruelties that men often inflict on women. Still imagining herself impersonating the man who has wronged her, she highlights how some men switch off their phones to avoid ex-lovers after having found another girl. Knowles continues, "I'd put myself first / And make the rules as I go / 'Cause I know that she'd be faithful / Waitin' for me to come home". She then repeats the chorus; the intensity with which she sings gradually increases until she hits her upper register and seems close to crying. During the bridge, Knowles stops singing about the male behaviors she would indulge in if she were a man and addresses her callous lover directly. As Knowles emphasizes how it feels to be cheated on, she sings her vocal lines an octave higher than the she did in the rest of the song. She finally tells him that it is too late to come back and apologize. In the last verse, Knowles concludes, "But you're just a boy". Fraser McAlpine of BBC Music notes that she " her voice into a thin, pleading whine" at this point. With a squeak in her voice, she repeats the chorus for the final time as she fights to remain strong, not allowing her agony bring her down.