Analyzing Beyoncé's 'Lemonade'

A powerful part in the Lemonade video that Hooks touches on is a Malcolm X quote "The most disrespected person in America is the black woman. The most unprotected person in America is the black woman." This quote is from a speech Malcolm X gave in 1962 but these words are still very relevant. Throughout Lemonade Beyoncé illustrates, with her words and with the video, the emotional pain an African American female must endure during their lifetimes. Hooks says that voicing this pain is a “vital

Beyoncé Knowles, a well-known singer, songwriter uses two of her songs: “Freedom” and “Formation” to tell the story of herself. “Freedom” is the beginning of her story where she is searching for freedom and equality showing that there is still much inequality and injustice for African Americans in America today. The song slowly transitions to a more positive tone when she seems to have made something beneficial out of her difficult situation. “Formation,” however, has a completely different tone. While she does address negative situations from the past at the beginning of the song, she quickly transitions to a more positive tone full of pride in where she came from, who she has become, and what she has overcome. Together, the two songs

As the title of the paper suggests, I chose Kendrick Lamar’s song “Blacker the Berry” off the To Pimp A Butterfly album. When selecting a song, I actually took to Twitter to ask my followers what song I should write about. I personally do not listen to Kendrick Lamar so I decided to ask people who enjoy his music to recommend songs that an analysis should be written over. Several people mentioned “Blacker The Berry”. Although I did not hear the many rhymes and metaphors at first, after reading the lyrics along with listening to the song I was quick to realize how creative, witty and almost unintentional the rapping’s of Kendrick Lamar are. Another reason I decided on this song is because he raps about current violence of high profile crimes

One of the most prominent visuals in Lemonade is the setting of New Orleans, Louisiana. In current times, New Orleans is most closely associated with the Hurricane Katrina disaster of 2004, in which a strong hurricane devastated the city and left many killed, injured, or homeless. There was national criticism of the government’s handling of Katrina, stating that the government took too long to respond to the crisis due to the city being mostly populated by blacks. However, this is not the only aspect of New Orleans that is central to Lemonade’s narrative. The video also shows staples of the old American South during the time of slavery, such as plantation homes and slave quarters. In this setting, Beyoncé indulges a fantasy of an all-black utopia dominated by women, who dress up, take photographs, and

"When life gives you lemons, make lemonade" this is an old phrase used to inspire hopefulness and an encouraging, positive can-do attitude in the wake of hardship or disaster. Lemons symbolize the inevitable sourness or difficulties in life, while lemonade is the sweet drink that is the product of the lemons. Often life offers trivial disappointments with almost no explanation and sometimes it seems almost impossible to break the misfortunate spell. However, for some people, each mishap in their lives leave them not only perplexed but eager to see the glass half full rather than empty. Beyoncé is a prime example of making the best out of a bitter situation. On April 23, 2016, Beyonce released her groundbreaking fully visual album “Lemonade”. Lemonade debuted as number one album on the billboard charts and allowed Beyoncé to have the biggest first-week sales count. Nevertheless, with greatness comes a few flaws and “Lemonade” was no stranger to faults. To some, “Lemonade” was the cultural awakening that they needed but for many it was the conversation starter that would strike both emotionally and politically which is why it is such a powerful album but an even more important conversational piece.

In 1982, Michael Jackson released one of the most iconic songs/music videos the world has ever seen. “Thriller” is a Halloween classic, and has been a hit since the day it was released. The Thriller Music video is roughly 13 minutes long, and is classified as a “short film”. 34 years later, the iconic Beyoncé released her album “Lemonade.” Lemonade is made up of 12 songs, and each song has its own separate video, but all the videos somehow connect and the videos were turned into an hour-long film. For this blog, I will compare/contrast the two videos.

Beyonce is an African American female artist making incorporating empowering messages for women around the world. She is creating work that speaks to an audience that might not receive authentic mainstream. Beyonce ultimate goal is to visually and sonically entice wisdom through her music. Recently in a shocking video release, Beyonce debuted a new song “Formation” as well as a politically charged music video. This song was an uproar in the music industry worldwide. Millions of people around the world negatively viewed this song as a controversy. The music video and song caused many people to debate and cause a worldwide conflict.

Although the critically acclaimed album titled Lemonade received positive feedback for the way its visuals captured the struggles of black Americans, specifically black women, there is one song off the album that obviously emphasizes the adversities they are facing. In the beginning of the first verse of Freedom (featuring Kendrick Lamar), she uses the imagery of storm to reference her struggle towards being free. This is a reoccurring theme throughout the song, she continues to use words that are synonymous to disaster and generally negative.

In lemonade beyonce touches on different issues. like, racism, women oppression and police brutality. At the same time she is also telling a story about how She dealt with Jay Z’s infidelity and how all those problems are connected to her problem. This is shown in “Sandcastles” when she is shown with Jay Z and says, “Show me your scars and won’t walk away.” that is meaning that after reflecting she understands that this is an issue that has been happening for a while and that it's an issue like racism, that happens over and over in history because culture is not changing with time. Do to the fact she does not blame Jay Z anymore but she blame his past and culture.

Released in 2016 Lemonade is the sixth album recorded by American singer and songwriter Beyoncé Knowles. The famous artist was born in Houston, Texas to parents of African-American and Louisiana Creole descent. This has shaped a lot of her music in today’s industry, especially in this most recent album. Beyoncé is known as one of the most influential voices of popular culture since her rise to fame as a part of former R&B girl-group Destiny’s Child in the 1990s. The album covers countless of today’s world issues, but most importantly racial discrimination against African American women. The artist speaks up about this prejudice and attempts to empower listeners of the same background through her lyrics as well as her music videos.

Beyonce Knowles is a well-known Grammy winning artist whose songs have been featured in the Billboard Hot 100. This female singer and songwriter's hits have been known to encourage feminist views and female empowerment. Feminism, which first gained popularity in the nineteenth century, is an ideology that advocates social, political and economical rights for women. There are several types of feminism that each seek to establish gender equality through different methods. Beyonce is credited for having aspects of both cultural and radical feminism in her work.

The author of the album LEMONADE is R&B singer Beyoncé Knowles-Carter. Her background sort of does create bias, because she is mostly known for writing love/breakup songs. The authority that I can attribute to her is power. She is a very well known in music and entertainment. I believe the purpose of this album was to tell a story of how you can take all of your obstacles in life and turn them into something great. The title and message says when life gives you lemons, make lemonade. It also has other messages that coincide with each song along with the visuals. Current and past events most definitely could have inspired this work. Such as, her marriage, her parent’s marriage and life in general. The intended audience is obviously her fans but it can also be for people who has had similar dilemmas. She displays her tone by the melody of the music along with the lyrics. The visuals also send the tone of the message.

Beyonce has made memorable albums in the past, but if we’re talking albums that are Library of Congress worthy…..I’m betting on Lemonade 25 times.

While on her previous albums, Beyoncé was trying to empower all women, on Lemonade, Beyoncé speaks directly to black women. “As Jacqui Germain astutely noted on feministing.com, ‘Beyonce using the specific cultural marker of ‘Becky,’ [a social trope for white womanhood] in Lemonade is less a question of who’s excluding whom and why, and more so just us watching Beyonce be the ... multi-layered Black woman’” (Thompson, C., 2016). It was through this album that Beyoncé changed how the public thought of her. She was no longer afraid to not fully share what she wanted to say about current culture, and finally talked straight to black women to raise them up. It was also through this album that Beyoncé changed her image. Before her sixth album, Beyoncé definitely had feminist songs, but with Lemonade, she used rage to share her message, a message telling women that even after getting married, a man may not always be right for

I chose this song because it is a song that I have never heard before but also because I have so much respect and love for Beyoncé. She is such a powerful singer and I couldn’t think of anyone more talented to sing this song with power behind it.