Beyoncé is a lot of things: singer, songwriter, dancer, producer, actress, award winner, business woman, mother, wife. Amongst everything, she is a trend setter.
When Beyoncé released her eponymous fifth solo album without prior warning on December 13, 2013, she “changed the game with that digital drop”. It was one of the most memorable surprise releases in pop-culture with no promotional single, video or even so much as an Instagram post in the weeks ahead of its release. Beyoncé wanted to reinstate an album’s importance, proving that a full body of work was still exciting in a time full of hype-led singles. And so, Beyoncé was born, a fourteen-track masterpiece of an album, accompanied by individual music videos for each track, as well as three extra videos for Haunted, Partition, and bonus track Grown Woman.
The surprise drop undoubtedly influenced others such as Drake, Solange, Rihanna, Frank Ocean, J Cole and Ariana Grande to follow suit in the coming years. Beyoncé continued her trend of randomly releasing albums with Lemonade in 2016 and Everything Is Love, her collaboration with husband Jay-Z, in 2018. Not only that, Beyoncé's influence was undeniable when the global release date was changed from Monday to Friday following the release of Beyoncé.
The release of the visual album in 2013 established Beyoncé as one of the most talented and influential musicians of all time. This was only further proved with ‘Beychella’, her headline Coachella performance from 2018, later released as Homecoming, a Netflix documentary/concert film and live album a year later.
“Instead of me pulling out my flower crown, it was more important that I brought our culture to Coachella.”
Homecoming was unapologetically black and paid tribute to HBCUs and black college culture with influences from marching bands, majorette dancers and Greek-lettered fraternities and sororities. Beyoncé also paid homage to her 20+ year long career with reimagined versions of her most loved hits. It was a celebration of her artistry and vision.
The documentary shows us how much planning, preparation and effort had gone into this performance. Beyoncé spent over 115 days rehearsing for her Homecoming, working tirelessly to bring her ambitious vision to life. Homecoming has seamless musical transitions from song to song, guest appearances from Solange, Jay-Z and Destiny’s Child, alongside near perfect editing from Alexander Hammer that weaves footage from both Coachella weekends into one.
When the world witnessed Beychella, something changed in Beyoncé’s musical peers. She inspired many to really master on-stage performing – mixing flawless vocals with high energy choreography, inspired visuals, beautiful costumes and an impressive stage design. Homecoming was a worldwide phenomenon and has inspired the likes of Kid Cudi, Billie Eilish, Rihanna, Lizzo, Taylor Swift, Justin Bieber, Rita Ora, Westlife and even actress Sandra Oh.
Beyoncé is the celebrity’s celebrity, and there’s no wonder so many artists today cite her as an influence.