One weekend. Nearly one million copies sold. The statistics are crazy, record-shattering, and can only be attributed to Beyoncé Knowles. In a single span of three days, Beyoncé defied the music industry and shocked the world with the surprise drop of her fifth studio album—the fastest selling album of all-time—Beyoncé, released December 13, 2013.
Normally, a pop music veteran and icon such as Beyoncé who has achieved worldwide success, toured the world, and headlined events such as the Super Bowl Halftime Show would only be expected to release albums of “Greatest Hits” or remixes of past works. However, Beyoncé—a visual album—boasts fourteen new tracks, each one with an accompanying video, showing the visions and ideas behind each song.
The most insane aspect of the album is the fact that its exact release was unknown to everyone. Although Beyoncé has been hinting at the release of a new album since the beginning of her Mrs. Carter World Tour last year, no full songs or videos leaked, thus surprising fans with tracks featuring husband Jay Z, Frank Ocean, Drake, and her daughter, Blue Ivy. And now, after just a few weeks, the album has gone platinum.
The lack of marketing completely paid off; when the album was released early Friday morning, Beyoncé immediately sold a whopping 800,000 copies within three days. When comparing Knowles’ success to the other pop releases of 2013 such as Prism, Bangerz, and ArtPop, it is apparent that Katy Perry, Miley Cyrus, and Lady GaGa’s immense spending on extravagant and provocative performances for record sales hardly measures up to Beyoncé.
The first notification of this surprise album was given to many fans Friday morning from Beyoncé herself—the artist posted a brief video snippet of the visual album to her eight million followers on Instagram, a popular account she has been habitually updating with pictures and videos for over a year. However, the uproar of the surprise album was seen all over social media. Despite having only tweeted a total of eight times herself, Beyoncé’s twitter handle was tagged hundreds of thousands of times over the weekend of the release.
The constant buzz was appropriate and well-deserved for Beyoncé, as the fifth studio album features fourteen unique songs that reveal a different side of Knowles. The first track, “Pretty Hurts,” embodies Beyoncé’s vision for the entire album. The overall tone is that imperfections, flaws, and a childhood lost to show business are worthless compared to Beyoncé’s adult life as wife, mother, and overall performer.
Most notable on the album is Beyoncé’s collaboration with husband Jay Z on “Drunk in Love.” A ten year sequel to 2003’s hit “Crazy in Love,” the song features an irresistible beat and accompanying sultry, black-and-white beach music video of the dynamic duo. Another featured aspect of Beyoncé’s personality is her sense of female empowerment. Her song “**Flawless,” a combination of the previously leaked “Bow Down/I Been On”, features the TED talk monologue of Nigerian feminist and author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, entitled “The Danger of A Single Story.” In fact, many of the tracks on Beyoncé feature audiotapes of Knowles’ past and present. The start of Beyoncé’s eerie and partially spoken “Haunted” begins with an old clip of Beyoncé receiving an award for Female Pop Vocalist and “**Flawless” begins with the recording from an old episode of StarSearch where young Beyoncé’s group, Girls Tyme, just barely lost to the previous champion, Skeleton Crew.
One of the most popular tracks, “XO,”—seamlessly formed with stadium-sounding echoes throughout the chorus—has been one of the most radio-friendly tracks, but also one of the most controversial. The song is under fire for its introductory recording taken from a tragic day: the 1986 explosion of the Challenger space shuttle. On it, former NASA public affairs officer Steve Nesbitt responds, “Flight controllers here looking very carefully at the situation. Obviously a major malfunction.” The tape, which contrasts the fun, upbeat song and video filmed at an amusement park at Coney Island, has deeply offended many families and friends who lost loved ones in the incident. Although Beyoncé issued a statement defending her usage of the recording as intented to help those who have lost loved ones, many of the affected remain skeptical.
Other collaborations on Beyoncé feature the talents of rapper Drake and singer Frank Ocean. On “Mine,” a haunting melody is transformed into a hopeful song, as Beyoncé includes Drake to help accomplish this transition. In “Superpower,” the talents of writer Pharrell are seen in the old-timey, sweet, cinematic duet of Beyoncé and Frank Ocean. Lastly, the inclusion of a sound bite from Beyoncé’s daughter, Blue Ivy Carter, is a cute addition to the sentimental track “Blue” that shows Knowles’ love for motherhood and her child.
Additionally, the album has been accompanied by a series of YouTube blogs by Beyoncé called “Self-Titled.” The brief video series shows a behind-the-scenes look at the making of Beyoncé that includes the recording process and production of music videos. In these videos, Beyoncé reveals that in the past few years she produced about 80 songs and then chose the 14 that came most naturally to her to appear on Beyoncé. Furthermore, the “Self-Titled” series has generally given fans a more in-depth look at the creative process and mature ideals of Beyoncé Knowles. In speaking about her album in “Self-Titled, Part 1” Beyoncé said, “I see music. It’s more than just what I hear.”
With every solo album she’s produced, Beyoncé Knowles transforms, matures, and redefines that aspect of success in the music industry. Many fans noted the release of Beyoncé arrived to serve the purpose of causing journalists to change their ‘Best of the Year’ lists to reflect the impact of this explosive album. With the advent of the new year, fans are left to wonder what Beyoncé will achieve after her domination of 2013. Knowles proves time and time again that she can defy the expectations of music and create beautiful art in the process.
