One year later – Beyoncé’s ‘Lemonade’ is more relevant now than when it was released

On April 23^rd, 2016, Beyoncé set fire to the cultural landscape with the messages in her visual album Lemonade. In a world that is far different than we could ever have imagined in 2016, what does pop music’s most definitive cultural statement in decades mean on its first anniversary?

Change takes time. I know, profound, but that’s the first thing I thought a little over a year ago when my wife, The Admiral, suggested that we sit down on a Saturday night and watch whatever this new Beyoncé thing was. I had long been immune to the charms that formed the Beyhive, seeing the former Ms. Knowles as a vapid pop artist who changed with industry trends but never defined herself.

That changed the first time I saw the video for 2014’s Pretty Hurts, and that entire self-titled project flipped my perspective of the generational pop talent of the 2000’s. I was willing to take the Lemonade ride, because I thought that maybe, just maybe, she might have something to say. In what turned out to be the understatement of the year, I hoped Beyoncé would give my wife and I something to talk about that Saturday night.

SONIC BOOM

The songs on Lemonade are Beyoncé’s most ambitious to date, eschewing her proficiency with making R&B pop hits in favor of using blues and rock elements to express her emotional journey through infidelity. The key changes between Pray You Catch Me and Hold Up foreshadow one of her most prominent themes: she will not stand idly by while her man, any man, disregards her. Most interestingly though, is the lack of a key change as the album flips again. Both 6 Inch and Daddy Lessons remain in A-major, keeping an upbeat energy while transitioning topically from a completely independent woman—financially and, emotionally grinding on her own terms—to one who recognizes the importance and lessons of a father who helped teach her about her own agency.

Daddy Lessons is the fulcrum on which the album pivots, the jarring singularity in Beyoncé recording history separating the fuck-you-I’m-done energy of the first five songs from the forgiveness that dominates the second six. To truly forgive, both sides must be honest with each other, and Daddy Lessons makes the honesty on both sides of the track list resonate.

A THOUSAND WORDS

Watching Lemonade for the first time is one of the more exhilarating experiences I’ve had, made even more so by the novelty of its subject matter. Tabloid rumors about Jay-Z’s infidelity are a staple of the hip-hop gossip engine, and these ratcheted up after security footage from the Standard Hotel showed Beyoncé’s sister, Solange, attacking Jay-Z in an elevator after the 2014 Met Gala. Beyoncé—who stands strangely passive on the left side of the screen during the incident—completed the On The Run tour with her husband after the incident, choosing to ignore the incident in favor of a statement only Olivia Pope could have produced.

That event is precisely what went through my mind as soon as that yellow Roberto Cavalli dress gets accessorized by a black baseball bat in, Hold Up. Smashing windows with a specifically colored phallic symbol, driving out in a monster truck, and channeling the Yoruba goddess of love, all speak with the ferocity of an active volcano. Beyoncé never says any names, because she doesn’t need to—we all know who she’s talking about; we just don’t know how far she is going to take this very public retribution.

The visual journey is a cohesive statement about her life that literally had me on the edge of my seat, and at that moment she could have burned the yacht from Big Pimpin’ with lasers from her eyes, or put Jay-Z in the maze from The Running Man. Nothing is off limits, making every lingered frame hold your attention in ways nothing in pop music has before.

DIVINELY FEMININE

Lemonade’s imagery manifests more strong themes of female empowerment, unity, and blackness than just about any female pop artist has put into their combined work. Her contrast of the primal beauty of the antebellum South—Spanish moss, placid lakes, plantation houses—and the antipathy of so many black female faces perfectly drive home her point: we have been ignored for too long, and we will not be oppressed any longer.

Oh my god I have never felt more female #LEMONADE

— Melanie Lynskey (@melanielynskey) April 25, 2016

Lemonade was at least a rare glimpse inside the carefully constructed persona of Beyoncé the pop star, if not a look at who Beyoncé Knowles the actual person is. Yet we still find ourselves looking at a former pop diva pivoting to an album that visually, and musically addresses the consequences of ignoring women. You cannot expand health care, increase LGBT equality, and believe Black Lives Matter, while refusing to recognize women’s oppression at the hands of a demonstrably patriarchal society. This is the root of intersectional feminism. You can’t pick and choose your battles. We are all in this together. And ultimately, contrary to her critic’s belly-aching, Beyoncé proposes a solution of forgiveness, and love.

OUT OF FORMATION

The video for Formation was the ripest berry on the Lemonade album, and would become the most dissected live performance of her lifetime. Beyoncé’s attempt to reinforce the themes of the song with imagery drawn from the 1950’s and 60’s era Black Panther Party did not go over well with many Americans. Whatever intentions Beyoncé had for her Super Bowl performance, the themes of female empowerment, unity, self-love, and black pride were largely dismissed by certain segments of the media who saw black leather, natural hair, and post-Katrina shots of New Orleans East and thought—this is hate speech. Lyrics like “I dream it, I work hard, I grind till I own it” were viewed as anti-law enforcement, and police unions in various cities refused to perform security at her concerts. In a trend that would be repeated throughout the coming months, the content and context of a woman’s statement would be derailed by something ancillary to the point she was trying to make.

REFLECTION

The themes of this past presidential election cycle hold a strange funhouse mirror to Lemonade. Usually, comments dismissing a U.S. Senator’s time as a prisoner of war, or the characterization Mexican immigrants as rapists, and holding the opinion that if you are famous enough you can grab a woman however you please would torpedo a campaign to become the next manager at your local Arby’s. The US elected that man president. Lemonade shines a light on a society filled with people that have such blatant disregard for anyone different from themselves, whether it be racial, cultural, sexual or gender based. Its relevance is even more important now than when it was first released, as so many people have been galvanized into action following the inauguration of our newest president.

In many ways, the political and social climate in America is an entirely different than when Beyoncé released Lemonade. There seemed to be a temporary stall in the progress the country had made as it pertained to race relations, and gender equality. The Black Lives Matter movement was met with All/Blue Lives Matter, and Bill O’Reilly still made millions of dollars sexually harassing women at work, but post-45, social action and engagement seems more prevalent. People show up to city council meetings, rally at their elected officials’ offices, demand equal reproductive rights, and hold powerful straight white men accountable for their actions. Lawyers drove to airports around the country to make sure the Customs and Border Protection agents – put in a terrible position by hastily written bigotry – were following the letter of American law. Perhaps this wasn’t the world Lemonade imagined, but its full of the flavor of its creator’s intentions. That is what you do with sour fruit, after all.

Michael Gardner, Culture Correspondent, Lima Charlie News

Michael Gardner is a former officer in the US Coast Guard, serving seven years in a variety of anti and counter-terrorism capacities and deploying to support National Special Security Events including the 2011 H8 Summit and 2011 Republican National Convention. Michael graduated with a BS in Government from the US Coast Guard Academy, and is currently a medical sales professional based out of Hoover, AL, having worked with the public health departments of both Alabama and Florida on large-scale health events. An avid tabletop gamer and moviegoer, he also has the misfortune of being a lifelong San Diego (Los Angeles) Chargers fan.

Follow Michael on Twitter | @MGardnerLC 

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