Beyoncé has always been a powerhouse -- everyone knows that. She is the definition of a hardworking woman that is deserving of everything she gets, and is so different than any other woman in the music industry, let alone anyone in the world.
She incorporates different sides of pop culture that many people have not seen yet and she mixes it into her music and visuals. In her self-titled album, "Beyoncé," she added Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's poem about feminism and the difficulty of a powerful woman that she found from YouTube into her song "Flawless," which gained attention not only for her empowering lyrics but for the poem she incorporated into her song. It changed the way people defined feminism and opened their eyes to a different side of what it means to be a powerful woman and also be married and have a kid.
Now with her latest album, titled "Lemonade," she bases this album off of going back to her Southern roots and brings the renowned poet, Warsan Shire, who provides the spine to this album. She is credited for the film adaption as well as the poetry in “Lemonade.” She started on Tumblr and her poetry blew up throughout the media and out of the media to the publishers, giving her a voice to write two poetry books.
It makes sense that people would find this written only for black women because it does talk mainly about strong black women and stars popular black women in our culture today. However, the first time I actually sat down and watched this album all the way through, I was with six guys and three girls who, after the album, were very empowered and inspired from watching it and loved every second of it. And they were all white. Now, I am not saying that "Lemonade" isn't an album that empowers black women. It definitely is, and it intentionally was written for black women. But, in my experience, it is empowering each and every one of us in a different way. Beyoncé is an artist now, that is going to affect everyone of us with anything she puts out just because she is that big an artist. Even if we try not to care about Beyoncé, we are all engrossed in a social media or pop culture topic that will most certainly mention this album or Beyoncé herself.
Beyoncé is changing and will keep changing the world through a form of media that suits her artistry. I highly recommend watching this album because it is a form of art that is rapidly changing our society in ways that are not tangible. It is a visual representation of issues that are currently in the media, as well as what we all face. It's forcing all of us to take a look at the raw problems that we have in our country, like discrimination and women empowerment. This album is not an album that was written casually nor was written to have all the songs be top 40s. It was a consciously written album that the artist wanted to have a powerful influence on the listener. And it is an album that will go down in history for changing what most people think of an artist like Beyoncé. This album is so important to our culture, and it is going to keep inspiring the music industry even after Beyoncé is long gone.
