On a Sunday afternoon a couple weeks ago, my best friend sent me a text that said, “Have you listened to Beyoncé’s album?” I was surprised she even mentioned the album, considering she is not a Beyoncé fan by any means. She preemptively responded to my confusion by explaining that this wasn’t just any standard Beyoncé album: this was a work of art. Curious to see what all the hype was about, I started my 30-day free trial on Tidal and watched Lemonade in its entirety.
In case you haven’t seen it, here’s a quick logistical recap of the visual album:
Split into eleven segments (Intuition, Denial, Anger, Apathy, Emptiness, Accountability, Reformation, Forgiveness, Resurrection, Hope, and Redemption), Lemonade chronicles Beyoncé’s marriage with Jay Z, her relationship with her father, and the implications of being a black woman in America. The album received both praise and criticism for incorporating many different music styles, such as rock, country, blues, trap, and pop.
It is easy to see why Lemonade became such an instant hit. By combining so many different genres, the music appeals to a wide variety of people. Furthermore, even if you’re not a die-hard member of the BeyHive, the cinematography is beautiful enough to impress even the non-Beylievers.
Of course, immediately after the album dropped, the BeyHive flocked to the Internet to share their best Lemonade jokes and to roast Jay Z for disrespecting their queen.
(And here are some more.)
By vaguely referring to her husband’s mistress as “Becky with the good hair,” Beyoncé almost indirectly invited her fans to investigate the identity of this other woman. Internet amateurs started to scour the web for clues, and before long Beyoncé fans started attacking speculated mistresses from Rachel Roy to Rita Ora to Rachel Ray.
Many people worried that this album was Beyoncé’s way of announcing her divorce from Jay Z, but those people neglected to recognize that the second half of Lemonade centers on the idea of reinvigoration and growth. This week, Tina Knowles-Lawson, Beyoncé’s mom, offered her two cents on the tone of the album. She commented, “If you really listen to the poetry, it is one of hope and redemption and hopefully that can be healing for people.” Beyoncé isn’t announcing her defeat but rather her comeback. However, this doesn’t mean she is tolerant of Jay Z’s affairs; in the track “Don’t Hurt Yourself,” she sings, “This is your final warning/ You know I give you life/ If you try this sh*t again/ You gon’ lose your wife.”
Another crucial component of this album was its messages regarding race. One of the most powerful race-related quotes in Lemonade was Malcolm X’s statement, “The most disrespected person in America is the black woman.” As Beyoncé has become increasingly candid in discussing her race, more black women have started identifying with her music on a more personal level. (For more on black women’s responses to Lemonade, click here, here, and here.)
My friend, who first recommended the album to me, wasn’t the only one who became a Beyoncé fan following this album. Almost all music-lovers can testify to the masterful execution of Lemonade. This visual album revolutionized the music world by combining music and image in a totally unique way. It is too early to say whether future artists will continue to produce visual albums like this one, but for now, suffice it to say that Lemonade has started a massive conversation regarding music, race, feminism, and of course Jay Z. Whether or not the phenomenon of the visual album continues, Lemonade was undoubtedly a musical milestone, and everyone who participated in conversations regarding this phenomenon should consider themselves a part of this monumental moment in music history.