Beyoncé (album)
Beyoncé is the self-titled fifth studio album by American singer and songwriter Beyoncé. It was released on December 13, 2013, through Parkwood Entertainment and Columbia Records. Developed as a visual album, every song is accompanied by a non-linear short film that illustrates the musical concepts. Beyoncé's desire to assert her full artistic freedom served as inspiration for the album's dark, personal subject matter, which incorporated feminist themes of sex, monogamy, beauty standards and relationship problems.
Beyoncé
December 13, 2013
2012-2013
- Fetalmaus, Jungle City, MSR, Oven, and Sterling Sound (New York City)
- Kings Landing (The Hamptons, New York)
- Mirrorball and Westlake (West Hollywood, California)
- Russell's of Clapton (London)
- Tritonus (Berlin)
- Trackdown (Sydney)
66:35
- Beyoncé
- Jonas Åkerlund
- Ed Burke
- Francesco Carrozzini
- Pierre Debusschere
- Bill Kirstein
- @lilinternet
- Melina Matsoukas
- Jake Nava
- Terry Richardson
- Ricky Saiz
- Todd Tourso
- Hype Williams
- 40
- Ammo
- Andre Eric Proctor
- Beyoncé
- Bobby Johnson
- Boots
- Brian Soko
- Caroline Polachek
- Detail
- Greg Kurstin
- HazeBanga
- Hit-Boy
- Jerome Harmon
- Justin Timberlake
- Key Wane
- Mike Caren
- Pharrell Williams
- Rasool Diaz
- Rey Reel Music
- Ryan Tedder
- The-Dream
- Timbaland
The album's initial recording began in New York City, where Beyoncé invited the "world's best" producers and songwriters to live with her in a mansion for a month. During extensive touring the following year, the album changed as she conceived of creating a visual accompaniment to its songs and resumed recording sessions with electronic producer and rock musician Boots. Their collaboration led to more sonically experimental material, which combined contemporary R&B with electronic and soul music. Throughout this period, the album's songs and videos were composed in strict secrecy as Beyoncé devised an unexpected release.
Beyoncé was released digitally on the iTunes Store, early in the day and without prior announcement or promotion, and debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200, earning Beyoncé her fifth consecutive number-one album on the chart. The album sold over 617,000 copies in the United States and 828,773 copies worldwide in its first three days of sales, becoming the fastest-selling album in the history of the iTunes Store up to that point.[2] In the 19 days between the album's release and the end of 2013, Beyoncé sold 2.3 million copies worldwide, finishing the year as the tenth-best-selling album globally, according to the IFPI.[3] The album has sold over 5 million copies worldwide. The album was supported on two tours: the 2014 leg of The Mrs. Carter Show World Tour, and the Jay-Z co-headlining On the Run Tour.
Beyoncé received widespread acclaim from critics upon release who praised its production, exploration of sexuality, vocal performance, as well as the album's surprise release strategy which was subsequently replicated by many artists.[4] In 2020, Beyoncé was ranked 81st in Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time list.[5]
Beyoncé and its release is frequently credited with inventing the modern definition of the visual album, popularizing the surprise album release strategy, and provoking the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) to change the day of the week when music is released worldwide from Tuesday to Friday.[6]
Background and development[edit]
Following the release of her fourth studio album 4 (2011), Beyoncé gave birth to her first child, Blue Ivy on January 7, 2012.[7] Just four months after labor, she pursued a three-night residency at Revel Atlantic City's Ovation Hall, entitled Revel Presents: Beyoncé Live.[8][nb 1] The choice to hold concerts so soon was purposeful; Beyoncé intended to demonstrate to mothers that they need not halt their careers despite having had children.[10] Most of the summer following the residency was spent in The Hamptons, New York, where she took time out from the public to spend time with her daughter and to begin sessions for her next album.[11] She resumed work in early 2013, performing "The Star-Spangled Banner" at President Barack Obama's second inauguration and headlining the Super Bowl XLVII halftime show, where there were expectations she would debut new music, although these rumors never materialized.[12] She also released a self-directed autobiographical documentary in February, entitled Life Is But a Dream.[11]
In March 2013, a two-part hip hop track entitled "Bow Down/I Been On" was released onto Beyoncé's SoundCloud account.[14] "Bow Down", produced by Hit-Boy, was written after Beyoncé woke up one morning with a chant stuck in her head, feeling angry and defensive.[13][15] This was melded with a Timbaland-produced second half "I Been On" that makes prominent use of a pitch-distorted vocal as a homage to the Houston hip hop scene.[16][nb 3] Michael Cragg of The Guardian described the song as "brilliantly odd", commending its loud, abrasive production,[14] while Pitchfork's Lindsay Zoladz noted the song's assertiveness and believed it served as an introduction of what was to come.[16] "Bow Down/I Been On" was perceived as a significant departure from Beyoncé's existing catalogue, particularly for its aggressive nature.[14][16] The song's atmosphere and its controversial "Bow down, bitches" refrain drew a mixed reaction from those who questioned whether the lyric was aimed at women or merely a moment of braggadocio.[13][18] Beyoncé clarified after the album's release, where elements of "Bow Down" appear on the track "Flawless", that the song and its refrain were intended as a statement of female empowerment.[13]
Neither Beyoncé or her representatives commented on the release of "Bow Down/I Been On", and many journalists questioned the nature of its release in the context of the release of her upcoming album.[16] Further confusion was created when portions of other tracks "Grown Woman" and "Standing on the Sun" were used for television advertising campaigns, with a similar lack of explanation as to their purpose.[19] Through much of 2013, the media intermittently reported that the album was delayed or scrapped, with one story alleging Beyoncé had scrapped fifty songs in favor of starting again. In July 2013, a spokesperson for Beyoncé denied speculation that her album had been delayed, stating there was no official release date to begin with and that when a date is set, it would be announced via an official press release.[20] There was considerable confusion among music journalists and fans as Beyoncé engaged in extensive touring, while not discussing the album or its release.[12][19]
Singles[edit]
Two lead singles were released from Beyoncé. "XO" impacted contemporary hit radio in Italy and hot adult contemporary radio in the United States on December 16, 2013.[103][104] The following day, it impacted urban contemporary, rhythmic contemporary and contemporary hit radio stations in the United States.[105][106][107] "XO" peaked at number forty-five on the US Billboard Hot 100 and reached the top twenty in charts around the world.[108]
Accompanying the release of "XO", the other lead single "Drunk in Love" was serviced to urban contemporary radio stations in the United States on December 17, 2013.[109] It peaked at number two on the US Billboard Hot 100 and number one on the US Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs and Rhythmic charts.[110] "Drunk in Love" also peaked at number seven in New Zealand and number nine in France and the United Kingdom.[111][112] The song was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), denoting sales of one million digital copies.[113]
"Partition" impacted urban contemporary radio in the United States on February 25, 2014, as the album's third single.[114] It peaked at number twenty-three on the US Billboard Hot 100 and number one on the US Dance Club Songs.[108][115]
On April 24, 2014, the music video for the fourth single "Pretty Hurts" was made available for streaming via Time magazine's official website to accompany Beyoncé's feature as one of the world's most influential people.[116] The song impacted contemporary hit and rhythmic radio in the United States on June 10, 2014[117] and contemporary hit radio in the United Kingdom on June 23, 2014.[118]
A remix of "Flawless" featuring rapper Nicki Minaj was released as the fifth single from the album on August 12, 2014. "7/11" and "Ring Off", from the Platinum Edition reissue, were released as the album's sixth and seventh singles on November 25 and November 28, 2014 respectively.[119][120]
Accolades[edit]
Despite being released in December when several publications had completed their year-end lists,[129] Beyoncé was ranked the best album of the year by Billboard,[130] Houston Chronicle[131] and Los Angeles Times,[132] while Spin ranked it the best R&B album of the year.[133] As of January 2015, Billboard also named Beyoncé as the second best album of the first half of the 2010s.[134] The album was ranked within the top ten on lists by Associated Press,[135] HitFix,[136] MTV News,[137] Club Fonograma[138] and Digital Spy.[139] Beyoncé was ranked at number eleven on Metacritic's twenty-five best-reviewed albums of 2013.[140] On the annual Pazz and Jop mass critics poll of the year's best in music, the album was ranked at number four.[141] Robert Christgau, the poll's creator, ranked it eighteenth on his own year-end list.[142] Some publications included Beyoncé on their 2014 lists, and it was deemed the best album of the year by Vibe, Pretty Much Amazing and Nate Chinen of The New York Times.[143] Consequence of Sound listed the effort as the eighteenth best one from 2014[144] and Tiny Mix Tapes, the fortieth one.[145] Pitchfork named Beyoncé the fourteenth best album of the decade (2010–2014) so far;[146] Fact listed the album as the ninth best one from the same period.[147]
Beyoncé was included in best-of lists of the 2010s decade by several publications, including Pitchfork (3rd),[148] The Associated Press (3rd),[149] Stereogum (7th),[150] Billboard (11th),[151] Rolling Stone (26th),[152] Consequence of Sound (79th),[153] NME (55th),[154] Uproxx (33rd),[155] Tiny Mix Tapes (35th),[156] Paste (40th)[157] and Spex (57th).[158]
Spin considered the album the thirty-eighth best one of the past thirty years (1985–2014)[159] and Q named it one of the greatest albums of the past thirty years.[160] On Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time list, Beyoncé was placed at number 81, citing the album's "musical scope and feminist outreach" and adding that it "proved that nobody else was on her level".[161] The Guardian included the project at number 9 on their ranking of the 100 best albums of the 21st century.[162] Beyoncé was also included on the 2016 update of the 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.[163] Consequence of Sound named the album the 37th best one of the last 15 years (2007–2022).[164]
The album was nominated for five Grammy Awards at the 57th Annual Grammy Awards (2015), including Album of the Year, Best Urban Contemporary Album, Best Surround Sound Album and Best R&B Song and Best R&B Performance for "Drunk in Love",[165] winning the latter three. In a recreation of an infamous incident at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards,[nb 7] Kanye West briefly appeared on stage during the presentation of the Album of the Year award to Beck's Morning Phase (2014) in protest of Beyoncé not winning.[167] While it initially appeared to be a joke as West returned to his seat, he said in comments following the ceremony that Beck "needs to respect artistry and he should have given his award to Beyoncé".[168] He later apologized for his comments.[169]
At the 2014 MTV Video Music Awards, Beyoncé was presented with the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award for her work on the visual album, performing a sixteen-minute medley of its songs. Van Tofler, president and CEO of Viacom, noted that their choice for the Vanguard Award was influenced by this project, saying, "when [she] put out the record and the way she did it in such a visual way, she was the most obvious choice".[94] She won a further three awards, Best Collaboration for "Drunk in Love", and Best Cinematography and Best Video with a Social Message for "Pretty Hurts".[170] The album was nominated for World's Best Album at the 2014 World Music Awards and Album of the Year at the 2014 MTV Video Music Awards Japan.[171][172] It also received two nominations at the 2014 Billboard Music Awards for Top Billboard 200 Album and Top R&B Album, while "Drunk in Love" was nominated for Top R&B Song.[173] At the 2014 mtvU Woodie Awards, Beyoncé won in the category Did It My Way Woodie, awarded for the album's release strategy.[174] It won in the category for Album of the Year at the 2014 Soul Train Music Awards and Favorite Soul/R&B Album at the American Music Awards of 2014.[175][176]
Commercial performance[edit]
During its first day of release in the United States, Beyoncé sold 80,000 units in three hours[177] and a total of 430,000 digital copies within 24 hours.[178] In its second day, the album sold 120,000 units, which brought its two-day sales total to 550,000.[179] Billboard predicted it to sell around 600,000 digital copies by the end of the tracking week on December 15, 2013.[178] Beyoncé debuted at number one on the Billboard 200, with three-day sales of 617,213 digital copies.[180][181] This gave Beyoncé her fifth consecutive number-one album, making her the first female artist to have her first five studio albums debut atop the chart, beating Britney Spears' record of four in a row.[181] It also became the largest debut sales week for a female artist in 2013, and the highest debut sales week of her solo career. The album also gave her the three largest sales weeks by any female and she became the only female to sell 300,000 copies within a week in 2013 and became the first person in the 2010s to score 300,000 copies in each of its first 3 weeks.[181][182] Beyoncé marks the fourth-largest sales week of an album during 2013, behind Justin Timberlake's The 20/20 Experience, Eminem's The Marshall Mathers LP 2 and Drake's Nothing Was the Same.[181]
In its second week, the album remained at number one, selling an additional 374,000 copies.[183] Ten days after its release, Beyoncé had sold 991,000 copies in the US, making it the best-selling album by a female artist in 2013.[183][184] A third week at number-one with sales of 310,000 copies brought the album's US sales to 1.3 million after 17 days of release,[185] positioning it as the eighth-best-selling album of the year, and the first to enter the year-end top 10 based on just three weeks of sales availability in the Nielsen SoundScan era.[186] In its fourth week, sales reached 1.43 million, surpassing the total sales of Beyoncé's previous album, 4, which was released in 2011 and had sold 1.39 million in total in the two years since its release.[187] Following Beyoncé performing at the 2014 MTV Video Music Awards, sales of the album in the US increased by 181%.[188] The record sold 878,000 copies in the US in 2014 alone, becoming the sixth-best-selling album of the year.[189] As of August 2022, Beyoncé has been certified five-times platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA)[190] for the sale of five million units, and all fourteen tracks are certified gold or higher for the sale of 500,000 units, making it the fourth female album in history to have all its tracks RIAA certified.
On December 16, Apple Inc. announced that Beyoncé was the fastest selling album in the history of the iTunes Store, both in the United States and worldwide.[180] It sold 828,773 digital copies worldwide in its first three days, and topped the iTunes Store charts in one-hundred-and-four countries.[180] Six days after its release, Beyoncé had sold one million digital copies on iTunes Stores worldwide.[191] Beyoncé debuted at number five on the UK Albums Chart on December 15, with two-day sales of 67,858 digital copies.[192][193] The Official Charts Company's chief executive Martin Talbot noted that "few (if any) albums have sold as many digital copies in such a short space of time."[193] In its fifth week, the album climbed to a new peak of number two.[194] It was certified platinum by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) on February 7, 2014, denoting shipments of 300,000 copies. As of April 2016, Beyoncé has sold 505,000 copies in the United Kingdom.[195] On August 3, 2018, Beyoncé was certified double platinum by the BPI, denoting shipments of 600,000.
The album entered the Canadian Albums Chart at number one, with 35,000 digital copies sold.[196] It debuted at number twenty-four on the French Albums Chart with two-days sales of 12,100 digital copies, and peaked at number thirteen in its fifth week.[197] The album debuted atop the Dutch Albums Chart, giving Beyoncé her first number-one album in the Netherlands.[198] In Australia, Beyoncé entered the ARIA Albums Chart at number two, with first-week sales of 31,102 digital copies.[199] The album topped the chart in its third week, becoming Beyoncé's first number-one album in Australia.[200] It spent three consecutive weeks at number one and was certified platinum by the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) for shipping 70,000 copies.[201] In New Zealand, Beyoncé debuted at number two and was certified gold by Recorded Music NZ (RMNZ) for sales of 7,500 copies;[202] it was later certified platinum.[203] According to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), within the last nineteen days of 2013, the album sold 2.3 million units worldwide, becoming the tenth-best-selling album of 2013.[204] The album also went on to become the 20th-best-selling album of 2014.[205] Worldwide, Beyoncé has sold more than five million copies as of November 2016[195] and has generated over 1 billion streams as of March 2015.[206]
In 2014, Beyoncé was ranked as the second-most popular album of the year on the Billboard 200, only behind Disney's Frozen soundtrack.[207]
Impact[edit]
According to Billboard, as of 2022, Beyoncé is one of the 15 best-performing 21st-century albums without any of its singles being number-one hits on the Billboard Hot 100.[208] The surprising release of Beyoncé caused "hilarious, honest and hysterical" reaction among Beyoncé's fans,[209] and "shock" among other musicians in an effect coined as "Beyoncé Syndrome" by the BBC.[210][211] According to data provided by Twitter, the release generated over 1.2 million tweets in twelve hours.[210]
Rolling Stone's Rob Sheffield wrote: "The whole project is a celebration of the Beyoncé Philosophy, which boils down to the fact that Beyoncé can do anything the hell she wants to."[46] Peter Robinson of The Guardian hailed the shock release as "Beyoncégeddon", describing it as "a masterclass in both exerting and relinquishing control".[129] Henry Knight for the BBC said "Beyoncé's self-titled album not only proved innovative musically, it rewrote the business model of the industry."[211] Forbes' Zack O'Malley Greenburg included Beyoncé on his "Music Industry Winners 2013" list, noting that the singer "didn't make use of any of the perks of [being signed to a large record label]—the "machine" we're told is so necessary. There was no radio promotion, no single, no advance press of any kind".[212] The marketing strategy of releasing an album with little or no notice was the subject of a case study at Harvard University School of Business.[213] Beyoncé is credited with the popularization of the surprise album, and the act of releasing a project without prior announcement has subsequently been executed by many artists, including Drake,[214] Kanye West,[215] Kendrick Lamar,[216] Rihanna,[217] Azealia Banks,[218] Nicki Minaj,[219] Miley Cyrus,[220] U2,[221] Frank Ocean[222] and Eminem.[223] Canadian musician Grimes named Beyoncé as one of the albums that changed her life, saying that it "revitalized the art of the album" for her".[224]
After the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) announced Friday as the global record release day, Billboard's Andrew Flanagan thought the album release was among the influencing points in the decision, writing: "After seven months of semi-public back-and-forth, a conversation instigated in part by Aussie piracy and Beyonce's surprise release in December 2013 has resulted in the global recording industry accepting Friday as the release date for new albums."[225] Time named Beyoncé as one of the most influential people of 2014 due to the album release, writing: "In December, she took the world by surprise when she released a new album, complete with videos, and announced it on Facebook and Instagram. Beyoncé shattered music-industry rules – and sales records".[226]