#JN201 Media blog project #2
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| A screenshot from the beginning of the visual album, "Lemonade." |
On April 23, 2016, Beyonce released one of her most epic and controversial albums ever accompanied by a visual album. The visual album, "Lemonade," went through deep renditions that merged her own life experience of love and heartbreak, to the hardships black women face and the deep rooted issues of black love. "This body of work is dedicated to black women," wrote Sydney Gore, in the Nylon article "‘Lemonade’ Is A Love Letter From Beyoncé To Black Women."
She continues, "If you’re not black, that doesn’t mean that you can’t appreciate Lemonade for what it is—you’re just not going to be able to relate to it, and that’s okay because not everything is about you."
Regardless of how viewers responses, Beyonce exposed her heart and even wrote her own relationship into the narrative, for the entire world to see. She went through all of the emotions and feelings of Black Love, making this one of the biggest statements that I feel an artist in this millennium has made. The album was labeled a "visual masterpiece" by Billboard.
I chose to review this video because of the power and passion it holds. "Lemonade" does a beautiful job of incorporating deep spoken word poetry, music, lyrics, visual effects, and passion. When Beyonce released this visual album, it was only available on Tidal and Comcast on demand. Millions of people subscribed to Tidal just to see the video, I was one of them.
This album was in the media being talked about for months and was the talk of the town. I chose this video because of the rawness, the realness, and although I don't personally know Beyonce, I am so proud of her for showing what so many in this world has gone through and is still going through. I really feel like she changed the game with this album, the levels of real are unbelievable and I think that she helped a lot of people to overcome heartbreak with it.
"Lemonade" included seven directors: Kahlil Joseph, Melina Matsoukas, Dikayl Rimmasch, Todd Tourso, Jonas Akerlund, Mark Romanek, Warsan Shire and seven cinnemetographers: Chayse Irvin, Khalik Allah, Par Ekberg, Santiago Gonzalez, Malik Sayeed, Dikayl Rimmasch, Reed Morano.
These mixtures of directors and cinematographers have worked with many artists and contributed to making this album a modern day classic. This album was Beyonce's sixth album and was nominated for nine awards. It won for Best Urban Contemporary Album and Best Music Video, and sold 56,000 copies in the first week.
The visual album included 12 different music videos that pieced together to create a full movie effect. Throughout the one hour and five minute movie, there are five different chapters: "Intuition," "Denial," "Apathy," "Emptiness" and, eventually, "Resurrection." After each chapter, there is a spoken word and song that follows. Each of the pieces flow together to create a story line that tells of love, heartbreak, and healing. The visual album features people off the streets, high-powered black women and men, high-profile collaborators, dancers, Beyonce's grandmother, father, mother, and her long time spouse Jay-Z.
Not only is there professionally produced videos, but there are a lot of home footage that is incorporated throughout the album. This gives the effect of realness throughout the video because it draws more attention and makes it feel like you are not watching a movie, but a life story.
The initial introduction starts with visuals and a spoken word piece and then is followed by the song, "Pray you catch me," and ends with one of her current most popular songs, "Formation."
Throughout the whole video, she goes through not only love and heartbreak, but some of the problems that Blacks in America face. She shows real people from the streets, real people in poverty, and she even gives a voice to the mothers of Black victims of police brutality. The mothers that she included in the film are widely known through the media because their sons, Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, and Eric Gardner, were victims of police brutality and lost their lives.
Beyonce portrays the struggles that Black women in America face. Initially, this visual album may seem like it's solely about love and heart break, but to be quite frank, the message is deeper than that. In the Nylon article, Gore states, "She [Beyonce] presents these issues in the form of 11 parts that operate like the stages of a vicious cycle: intuition, denial, anger, apathy, emptiness, accountability, reformation, forgiveness, resurrection, hope, and redemption."
Beyonce included sound clips from the great Malcolm X saying, "the most disrespected woman in america is the black woman," and profound poetry from a Black poet, Warsan Shire.
This album differs greatly from all five of her previous albums because this is one of her most controversial pieces. All of her previous work and albums, although still amazing, were by far not as tendentious as "Lemonade." Beyonce's other work, are mostly about love and life. She uses her passion and voice to demonstrate things that we all go through as humans -- love, heartbreak, and life. However, "Lemonade," speaks solely on the Black woman experience.
This makes this album so powerful, one of a kind, and gives voice to all of the voiceless Black women around the world. I feel like this is is actual in its own category. Although there are many artists who are trying to portray the same message and support #blacklivesmatter, for instance, J. Cole released a song in 2014 called "Be Free," which was dedicated to Michael Brown, I feel like Beyonce is sending the same message but adding visuals puts this in a class of its own.
In 2014, J. Cole used his platform to really spread awareness about the Michael Brown case and to tell the world that, "All we wanna do is be free." He used this song to speak for the many black men and women that have become victims of police brutality. This song spread like wildfire, and was used as background for protests and posted all over the media.
I think that Beyonce incorporated this type of awareness, but elevated it because she added visuals and effects. She made the viewer see and feel what is actually going on. For that reason, I believe that Beyonce's "Lemonade" is in a class of it's own, and so far, nothing compares.
This piece of art is extremely important because honestly the issue that's going on right now and throughout history with oppression is real. The target audience for this video is Black women, but I think that it represents black men and women. This is one of the first pieces that is dedicated to Blacks that has gone viral throughout the media. I think that that is a huge deal because of the way that America treats Blacks and most of the time doesn't recognize them.
Throughout history, we've seen what Blacks have had to endure. We see the struggles they've had to overcome and this album just brings to life the real issues that are at hand. It gives us the perspective of a Black woman and that is so powerful to me because for the longest time, Black women have not had a voice.
I truly believe that this is Beyonce's best work yet. This album is so powerful and so well thought out, every single part is strong. The lyrics, the poetry, the visuals -- have so much meaning and are so very powerful. In the Rolling Stone magazine, they give Beyonce five stars and say that, "The queen, in middle-fingers-up mode, makes her most powerful, ambitious statement yet."
I think that this album is one of the most memorable albums out, and will never be forgotten. It's almost one year later and I still hear some of the songs from it on the radio. Beyonce has 97.6M followers on Instagram, basically, she is a living legend. I always look her up on YouTube and have even subscribed to Tidal just so that I can keep re-watching the Album "Lemonade."
While doing this critique, I've learned that this visual album was in fact dedicated and for Black women in America. At first glance, I thought that it was about Beyonce going through heartache from her husband, but while watching it more, I see that she included him and her daughter in the videos. From doing more research, I learned that this hour long short film is so much more than an album. I commend Beyonce and her entire crew for creating this visual masterpiece, and I wouldn't expect anything less from her.
I chose to review this video because of the power and passion it holds. "Lemonade" does a beautiful job of incorporating deep spoken word poetry, music, lyrics, visual effects, and passion. When Beyonce released this visual album, it was only available on Tidal and Comcast on demand. Millions of people subscribed to Tidal just to see the video, I was one of them.
This album was in the media being talked about for months and was the talk of the town. I chose this video because of the rawness, the realness, and although I don't personally know Beyonce, I am so proud of her for showing what so many in this world has gone through and is still going through. I really feel like she changed the game with this album, the levels of real are unbelievable and I think that she helped a lot of people to overcome heartbreak with it.
 |
| A clip of Beyonce in one of her scenes from the album. |
"Lemonade" included seven directors: Kahlil Joseph, Melina Matsoukas, Dikayl Rimmasch, Todd Tourso, Jonas Akerlund, Mark Romanek, Warsan Shire and seven cinnemetographers: Chayse Irvin, Khalik Allah, Par Ekberg, Santiago Gonzalez, Malik Sayeed, Dikayl Rimmasch, Reed Morano.
These mixtures of directors and cinematographers have worked with many artists and contributed to making this album a modern day classic. This album was Beyonce's sixth album and was nominated for nine awards. It won for Best Urban Contemporary Album and Best Music Video, and sold 56,000 copies in the first week.
The visual album included 12 different music videos that pieced together to create a full movie effect. Throughout the one hour and five minute movie, there are five different chapters: "Intuition," "Denial," "Apathy," "Emptiness" and, eventually, "Resurrection." After each chapter, there is a spoken word and song that follows. Each of the pieces flow together to create a story line that tells of love, heartbreak, and healing. The visual album features people off the streets, high-powered black women and men, high-profile collaborators, dancers, Beyonce's grandmother, father, mother, and her long time spouse Jay-Z.
Not only is there professionally produced videos, but there are a lot of home footage that is incorporated throughout the album. This gives the effect of realness throughout the video because it draws more attention and makes it feel like you are not watching a movie, but a life story.
The initial introduction starts with visuals and a spoken word piece and then is followed by the song, "Pray you catch me," and ends with one of her current most popular songs, "Formation."
Throughout the whole video, she goes through not only love and heartbreak, but some of the problems that Blacks in America face. She shows real people from the streets, real people in poverty, and she even gives a voice to the mothers of Black victims of police brutality. The mothers that she included in the film are widely known through the media because their sons, Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, and Eric Gardner, were victims of police brutality and lost their lives.
 |
| A clip from "Lemonade" of Trayvon Martin's mother, Sybrina Fulton, holding a picture of her son Trayvon Martin who was fatally shot by a neighborhood watchman. |
Beyonce portrays the struggles that Black women in America face. Initially, this visual album may seem like it's solely about love and heart break, but to be quite frank, the message is deeper than that. In the Nylon article, Gore states, "She [Beyonce] presents these issues in the form of 11 parts that operate like the stages of a vicious cycle: intuition, denial, anger, apathy, emptiness, accountability, reformation, forgiveness, resurrection, hope, and redemption."
Beyonce included sound clips from the great Malcolm X saying, "the most disrespected woman in america is the black woman," and profound poetry from a Black poet, Warsan Shire.
This album differs greatly from all five of her previous albums because this is one of her most controversial pieces. All of her previous work and albums, although still amazing, were by far not as tendentious as "Lemonade." Beyonce's other work, are mostly about love and life. She uses her passion and voice to demonstrate things that we all go through as humans -- love, heartbreak, and life. However, "Lemonade," speaks solely on the Black woman experience.
 |
| Five of Beyonce's previous albums before she released "Lemonade." |
This makes this album so powerful, one of a kind, and gives voice to all of the voiceless Black women around the world. I feel like this is is actual in its own category. Although there are many artists who are trying to portray the same message and support #blacklivesmatter, for instance, J. Cole released a song in 2014 called "Be Free," which was dedicated to Michael Brown, I feel like Beyonce is sending the same message but adding visuals puts this in a class of its own.
In 2014, J. Cole used his platform to really spread awareness about the Michael Brown case and to tell the world that, "All we wanna do is be free." He used this song to speak for the many black men and women that have become victims of police brutality. This song spread like wildfire, and was used as background for protests and posted all over the media.
I think that Beyonce incorporated this type of awareness, but elevated it because she added visuals and effects. She made the viewer see and feel what is actually going on. For that reason, I believe that Beyonce's "Lemonade" is in a class of it's own, and so far, nothing compares.
This piece of art is extremely important because honestly the issue that's going on right now and throughout history with oppression is real. The target audience for this video is Black women, but I think that it represents black men and women. This is one of the first pieces that is dedicated to Blacks that has gone viral throughout the media. I think that that is a huge deal because of the way that America treats Blacks and most of the time doesn't recognize them.
Throughout history, we've seen what Blacks have had to endure. We see the struggles they've had to overcome and this album just brings to life the real issues that are at hand. It gives us the perspective of a Black woman and that is so powerful to me because for the longest time, Black women have not had a voice.
I truly believe that this is Beyonce's best work yet. This album is so powerful and so well thought out, every single part is strong. The lyrics, the poetry, the visuals -- have so much meaning and are so very powerful. In the Rolling Stone magazine, they give Beyonce five stars and say that, "The queen, in middle-fingers-up mode, makes her most powerful, ambitious statement yet."
I think that this album is one of the most memorable albums out, and will never be forgotten. It's almost one year later and I still hear some of the songs from it on the radio. Beyonce has 97.6M followers on Instagram, basically, she is a living legend. I always look her up on YouTube and have even subscribed to Tidal just so that I can keep re-watching the Album "Lemonade."
While doing this critique, I've learned that this visual album was in fact dedicated and for Black women in America. At first glance, I thought that it was about Beyonce going through heartache from her husband, but while watching it more, I see that she included him and her daughter in the videos. From doing more research, I learned that this hour long short film is so much more than an album. I commend Beyonce and her entire crew for creating this visual masterpiece, and I wouldn't expect anything less from her.
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