Music as Art by acemyhomework

Beyonce’s “Lemonade” as Art Introduction Music is considered a form of art because it expresses an individual’s creativity and emotions, and appeals to people through its beauty and emotional power. For many years, experts in the fields of biology, psychology, neuroscience, physics and neuroscience have individually and collectively researched the structure, effects and functions of music. For instance, scientists have been able to learn more about the brain from the way music alters its structure (Mieke, 1999). Music is also a form of treatment for patients with certain illnesses and brain dysfunctions. Music is powerful, and in some cases, it transcends mere entertainment and becomes art (Fiske, 2007). Art is a human performance that conveys one’s emotions and feelings. Music is categorized as a form of art whose medium is sounds and silence that occurs in time. Like art, there are also different genres of music to suit the tastes and preferences of different individuals (Wolf, 1999). This paper discusses how Beyonce’s music is considered as art rather than mere entertainment. It also links the success of the album in conveying various emotions to its use of rock music (Frith, Straw & Street, 2011). Buy this excellently written paper or order a fresh one from ace-myhomework.com

Beyonce as an Artist Beyonce is arguably among the world's greatest music artists. She is an established singer, dancer, and actor, having begun her career early by taking part in several music contests in her hometown. She started her international career in her teens and to date has sold tens of millions of albums, won twenty-three Grammy Awards and hundreds of other music awards. Her vocals, videos and live shows are exceptional and distinguish her from other artists. In recent years, Beyonce has emerged strongly as a believer in the equality of the sexes, and an advocate for the end of gender and racial-based oppression. Beyonce is recognized not only as a musician but one of the greatest inspirations of our generation. Her music career has grown steadily from the 1990s to date, and her art is continuously evolving. She only gets better with time and consistently sets new standards for the music industry. In recent years, Beyonce has used her platform boldly to discuss societal issues such as Black empowerment, politics, body positivity, and feminism (Hilton, 2015). Beyonce’s solo career began in 2003 with the release of her album “Dangeously in Love”. She followed it up in 2006 with “B-Day”. In 2008 she launched her third solo album “I Am… Sasha Fierce”. It is one of Beyoncé’s most successful albums to date; it won her six Grammy Awards and various other music awards. In 2011, she released her fourth album, “4”, although not as successful as her previous work, it was recognized for its mellower and experimental music. In 2013, she released the self-titled visual album, “Beyoncé” with no prior promotion or announcement, and sold over one million albums within the first three days (Adamczyk, 2014). In 2016, "Lemonade" was released. It is one of her boldest and personal albums to date. It explored the themes of infidelity in marriage, anger, and

forgiveness. It also contains songs that make a powerful political statement such as "Formation" (Knowles-Carter, 2016). . In 2018, she collaborated with her husband Jay Z and together released the album. "Everything is Love". Beyoncé's album sales are an indication of her massive international fame; in her solo career, she has sold approximately 100 million albums and 60 million albums with Destiny’s Child. “Lemonade” Beyonce’s album, ‘Lemonade’ is her sixth studio album. It was released on April 23rd 2016 by Columbia Records and Parkwood Entertainment. ‘Lemonade’ is a multi-genre album whose genres include; pop, rock, reggae, hip-hop, country, gospel, funk and Americana. However, its main style is R&B. In its first week of the debut, it sold over 480,000 copies, and by the end of the same year, it had sold over 1.5 million album copies in the United States alone. It is estimated to have sold 2.4 million copies of albums globally. According to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), ‘Lemonade’ was the most popular and best-selling album that year (Empire, 2016). Rolling Stone magazine also called it the number one album of 2016. Beyonce’s creativity and ability to convey a message through rock music enables her to use her music to speak about pressing social and political issues and thus make a positive impact (Frith, Straw & Street, 2011). Lemonade is her most politically and socially conscious album to date. In the album, she uses her influence and power in society to weigh in on heavy issues that are experienced by African Americans, and particularly African-American women. She uses her success to show that it is possible to realize the American Dream, and it is also crucial to make sure that you use it to influence positive change. The reactions to ‘Lemonade’ by most music and film critics were positive; they recognized that it was more than just an

album. It had a deeper message for the African-American community and their oppressors. However, conservative media outlets critiqued it for being harsh, using coarse language and violence. The Use of Rock in “Lemonade” In the “Lemonade” album, Beyonce incorporates rock music to give the first part of the album a grungy tone which is symbolic of her anger and vengeful. In ‘Don’t Touch Yourself’ where she confirms that her partner is indeed unfaithful, she ventures fully into rock to express her anger at the betrayal. Rock gives her the raw unhinged vocal and instrumental style that she needs to successfully give the music a darker tone. The use of rock together with RnB and other music genres produces an uptempo blues-rock sound, which is a more modern version of rock. To further incorporate rock into the album, she uses the track of Led Zeppelin’s popular song, “When the Levee Breaks”. She also uses the blues-rock style in “Daddy Lessons” where she uses the more traditional forms of rock to talk about her family history. Rock, therefore, gives the album the internal complexity it needs to convey heavy emotions such as hurt, anger and betrayal. The album highlights the modernist authenticity approach (Frith, Straw & Street, 2011). Analysis of the Chapters of “Lemonade” The five main singles in the album were; Freedom featuring Kendrick Lamar, All Night, Daddy Lessons featuring the Dixie Chicks, Sorry, Formation and Hold Up. Following the global success of the album, in April 2016, Beyonce began the Formation World Tour which saw her perform in North America and Europe. The success of the album was further solidified by her nomination for nine Grammy Awards in 2017, where she won two awards in the categories; Best Urban Contemporary Album and Best Music Video.

Lemonade is a 12-track album accompanied by an hour long film whose lyrics and visuals address Jay-Z’s infidelity (Knowles-Carter, 2016). The album was created out of Beyonce’s personal experiences in her marriage, therefore, unlike most of her other albums it is raw, aggressive and reflective. It is a work of art because it is Beyonce’s most personal album to date. Lemonade was released at a time when there was a significant amount of discrimination against Black people in the United States, and in a strong show of solidarity, Lemonade seems to be tailored specifically to black listeners. ‘Lemonade’ makes a bold artistic statement because in the album, Beyonce makes a clear stand about everything she believes in. For instance, in ‘Formation’ Beyonce sings about taking pride in her husband’s and child’s black features in the lyrics, “I like my baby heir with baby hair and afros / I like my negro nose with Jackson Five nostrils”(Knowles-Carter, 2016). In the Super Bowl 50 Halftime performance of ‘Formation’ Beyonce and her dancers were dressed in Black Panther-style outfits to show her support for the black community, and more so the Black Lives Matter movement. In the album, Beyonce fully embraces who she is and what she stands for. In the song, Lemonade, Beyonce walks down the street flashing a bright smile, then she pulls out a bat and starts smashing store windows and car windows. In the video, she appears to be angry, heartbroken, and vengeful. Unlike most albums of recent times, ‘Lemonade’ is a challenging album due to the nature of its content. It discusses infidelity, betrayal, heartbreak, racial oppression and forgiveness. In the first part of the album, the artist’s tone is angry and bitter. She takes off her wedding ring and angrily throws it away, and glaring at the camera, tells her husband that she would leave him if he was ever unfaithful

again. However, in the second half of the album, she forgives her husband and reconciles with him, in songs such as ‘All Night Long’. ‘Lemonade’ is more than an album, it is a work of art about the issues that black women experience in their daily lives and relationships. In the film, Beyonce quotes Malcolm X statement that society does not accord black women the respect and honor that they deserve. The name of the album is inspired by Jay-Z’s grandmother, who says that she was given lemons and made Lemonade out of them. In April 2016, Beyonce was asked in an interview what she would like to achieve in the next phase of her career and she replied that she would like to create art that brings healing to people, and makes them proud of their struggle. Like most works of art, the production of Lemonade was a lengthy process. The twelve songs in the album were written in stages and recorded between June 2014 and July 2015. Jay-Z and Beyonce used the making of the album as part of the therapy to heal their marriage. She recorded the album with many collaborators such as MNEK, Jack White and MeLo-X, Beyonce’s artistry was evident throughout the entire creation of the album. She oversaw every part of the process, produced, altered and arranged tracks and proposed ideas for improving the sounds and scenes. ‘Lemonade’ Concept and Themes Lemonade is more than music. It is an art album that details the emotional rollercoaster that a woman goes through on discovering that her husband is unfaithful to her and their marriage. The art is relayed in the form of music, lyrics, visuals and poetry. Apart from ‘Formation’, instead of songs, it is divided into chapters. The eleven chapters are: ‘Intuition’, ‘Denial’, ‘Anger’, ‘Apathy’, ‘Emptiness’, ‘Accountability’, ‘Reformation’,

‘Forgiveness’, ‘Resurrection’, ‘Hope’, and ‘Redemption’ (Knowles-Carter, 2016). The first six chapters discuss the marital infidelity and betrayal, while the other five chapters discuss reconciliation and healing. The album is highly artistic because Beyonce connects her personal experience to her ancestry and particularly to African-American women. The album attests to the struggles and experiences of American-American culture and its history. According to the director of the ‘Formation’ music video, the concept behind ‘Lemonade’ was to relate the struggles of black love to the trauma caused by slavery. During the slavery period, black men and women were socialized not to love each other wholesomely and build cohesive families. As a result of this period, there is a strong pattern of broken relationships and unstable families among the black community. ‘Lemonade’ is thus a work of art because it causes the listener to relate pain and struggle to their history. The turning point of the album is ‘Daddy Lessons’ where Beyonce sings about her parents’ broken marriage due to her father’s unfaithfulness, and connects it to her own marital issues where her husband also cheats on her (Knolwes-Carter, 2016). She also describes her own grandmother who made something beautiful out of her challenges and with the instructions she got from her, she was able to overcome the challenges that had been passed down to her, just like a lemonade recipe. There’s also a theme of reclaiming the culture and heritage that was taken from African-Americans during slavery and the resultant racial discrimination. For instance, Beyonce shoots the films for ‘Daddy Lessons’ and ‘All Night’ in the ruins of Fort Macomb, a place that was previously a stronghold of the Confederate States Army. In All Night’ Beyonce walks on the ruins of the fort in an African-inspired dress. One of the central features across all the films is the use of black men and women. In ‘Freedom’ Beyonce and a wide cast of

black women are seen on a plantation, not working as slaves but dining, taking photographs and performing shows for themselves. In the album, Beyonce also appropriates other great works of art by musical greats such as Led Zeppelin. Lemonade is rich in symbolism as demonstrated through another of the key themes; African spirituality, culture and history. At the beginning of the film, there is a scene showing the dungeons of Elmina Castle, Ghana, the point from which Africans were sold to merchants as slaves. Beyonce wears a tiginon, an outfit that was worn by AfricanAmerican women to distinguish them from Caucasian women. In the next film, ‘Hold Up’ Beyonce is dressed in yellow just like the Yoruba goddess of sensuality Oshun (Wright, 2017). Like the goddess, she is surrounded by water and laughs as she destroys evil. ‘Sorry’ carries symbolism of ori, a Yoruba tradition where women applied body paint on their bodies The Importance of Lemonade ‘Lemonade’ has been described by most music critics as Beyonce’s most personal work of art to date. From the lyrics and the visuals, it is evident that the key themes are infidelity, betrayal and revenge. Being a powerful work of art, the listener feels Beyonce’s different emotions, from her anger at the beginning of the album, to her calmness, love and forgiveness at the end of the album. It takes the listener on a musical journey by fusing a wide variety of music genres, from country, to hiphop. The Chapters of Lemonade Just like a book, Lemonade tells a story articulately, from beginning to end, thus is arranged in chapters. It begins with ‘Pray You Catch Me’ where Beyonce suspects her husband of cheating on her. In ‘Hold Up’ she confirms that her husband is cheating on her with a mistress who she refers to as ‘Becky with the good hair’. However, she is in denial

because the thought of the infidelity hurts her. In ‘Don’t Hurt Yourself’ she is visibly angry and snarlingly warns her husband that if he cheats on her again she will leave him. In ‘Sorry’, Beyonce is no longer angry about the cheating, she seems to be indifferent saying that she has written him a note and by the time he gets to see it she will already have left (Knowles-Carter, 2016). He also tells her to call ‘Becky with the good hair’, who in this case, is Jay-Z’s supposed mistress. In ‘6 Inch’ she is still apathetic and willing to leave her marriage but towards the end of the song, she seems to be mellowing as she tells her partner to come back. In ‘Daddy Lessons’, Beyonce talks about her, Matthew Knowles and the fact that he cheated on her mother, Tina. She says that if she forgave her father for his misdeeds, perhaps she can also forgive her husband for cheating. This is the turning point of the album and from then on, she develops a less harsh and reconciliatory tone. In “Sandcastles”, she reaches out to her husband realizing that he too is hurt. Despite being angry at him earlier, she now decides to forgive him. In ‘Forward’, she makes the decision to let go of the hurt and betrayal and forge a new leaf with him. In “Freedom’, Beyonce relates her marital struggles to those of other African-American women. She says that it is perhaps due to the hostilities experienced and division of families during slavery that there is a higher rate of relationship struggles among African-American couples, as well as broken homes. The arc ends with ‘All Night’ where having gone full circle, from anger to acceptance and now forgiveness and redemption, she sings a love song to her husband professing her deep love for him and telling him how much she missed him. The album concludes with ‘Formation’ which is a black power anthem. ‘Lemonade’ is more than just an entertainment; it is a multi-themed complex work of art (Frith, Straw & Street, 2011).. On the surface, it might appear to be about Beyonce’s

personal grief and struggles in her marriage, but it is also about African-American women’s trauma. She discusses her parent’s marriage, her grandmother’s mantra and that of Jay-Z’s grandmother as well. In the album, she also addresses and strongly condemns the historical and current injustices against Black people in the United States. The album delves deeper into historical issues, that is, slavery and the worship of the ancient gods in the ancestral lands of Africa. The album is therefore not just about her relationship; it is a strong political statement as well as a call for self-love and acceptance among Black people. ‘Lemonade’ the Film Lemonade is one of the most artistic albums released in recent years. It is both a film and audio album. The film was aired on HBO on April 23rd 2016 to an audience of over 780,000 people. It is divided into eleven chapters, which together, form an arc. The film features the spoken-word poetry of Warsin Shire. The poems used in the film are “The Unbearable Weight of Staying”, “Dear Moon”, “How to Wear Your Mother’s Lipstick”, “Nail Technician as a Palm Reader”, and “For Women Who Are Difficult to Love” (Hess, 2016). The film’s cast also features many of the US’s celebrated African-American actors and personalities. The film samples the work of the renowned civil rights leader Malcolm X Album Title and Art The name “Lemonade” was inspired by Jay-Z’s grandmother who on her 90th birthday in 2015, was recorded in a short clip saying that she turned the lemons that life gave her into Lemonade. She also quotes her grandmother, Agnez Dereon, who despite having gone through many challenging situations, decided to find healing and forgiveness where it did not exist before (Petridis, 2016). And in the same manner, just like a lemonade recipe passed down from generation to generation, the ability to heal was passed down to Beyonce.

Factors that contribute to Lemonade being a Work of Art Lemonade is considered a work of art and not just entertainment because of its use of poetry, storytelling, dance, gallery art, film and symbolism. It has layers of meanings and inferences. Therefore, its meaning and intention cannot be taken on the surface level. Like most works of rock music, Beyonce takes the listener through an emotional roller coaster; from anger and betrayal to love and passion, and also cultural pride (Frith, Straw & Street, 2011). The two distinct tones of the album show that there is a thin line between love and hate. The same intensity with which one loves, is the same one with which one hates. Due to the raw honesty and range of emotions in the album, it has been described as her most emotionally extreme and adventurous work to date. It reaches out historically, drawing comparisons between her personal pain and that of her ancestors. “Lemonade” is considered an art album because it goes beyond music, it uses movement and motifs, themes, a rich storyline and artwork. Its breadth and depth give it the complexity. It is a work of art that exists in different forms; as a music album that has twelve songs, a visual album, an art film that has a well-scripted music video for each song, poetry by Warsan Shire, costumes, a complex storyline that is told in eleven chapters and highly entertaining and educative live performances. To understand the factors that make Lemonade a work of art, it is important to also analyze its impact. Lemonade is a complex artwork that integrates a wide range of visual and auditory media and aesthetics. As a work of art, it combines mass culture, technology, and public dialogues. It therefore functions as a means of creating social and cultural enlightenment. It has helped to create awareness on the problems affecting the black community, and where they originated. Two months before releasing the album, Beyonce performed “Formation” at

the Super Bowl halftime show where she and her dancers were dressed as the Black Panthers to symbolize the African-American’s struggle for the recognition of their rights (Robinson, 2016). The album was published at a time where there were widespread injustices against black people. Beyonce is one of the most influential people in the world, therefore, it is crucial to analyze the meaning of her art to her global audience. Lemonade is a unique work of art because it requires the viewer or listener to disseminate the information and the meaning behind it keenly. To convey the deep message contained in the song, she used sounds, poetry, artifacts, costumes and symbolism. Impact on Modern Culture Lemonade can be considered as a work of art because several other genres besides music have drawn inspiration from it, and also due to its massive impact on the works it mentions or uses in the album. These genres include theatre, film, art, and literature. Several stylists have paid tribute to the album in their creations. For example, Salvador Camarena created a room that was fashioned after the theme of the album during the 2016 Modernism Week. “A Phoenix Must Burn” drew inspiration from Lemonade to recreate a storyline that narrates the struggles and triumphs of being African-American in the United States. The sales of Warsan Shire’s poetry grew exponentially following the use of her poetry in the album. It reportedly experienced an increase of up to 800%, making her a household name, increasing her popularity almost overnight. The designers of the costumes that Beyonce and her cast wore in the making of the film also saw a sudden spike in sales due to the exposure their work got. In the song, “Formation” Beyonce mentions, Red Lobster, an American restaurant chain.

The restaurant experienced a sudden increase in sales, which continues to date. To honor the mention, it has named some of its menu items after Beyonce. Conclusion In Lemonade, Beyonce proves that her music is not just for entertainment but it is also a work of art that contains layers of messages. She uses different musical genres and styles, and makes strong statements using a wide range of artistic styles. There is an interplay between poetry, music, costumes, visuals, danced, photography, home videos, documentary films, acting and performances. It also uses a variety of music styles and genres such as hip hop, jazz, R & B, country, rock, reggae and blues. It is not only a music album, it is also a film, and a socio-political statement that addresses both historical and modern issues. Understanding that Lemonade is more of a work of art than a music album enables the listener to decipher the deeper meaning. The use of different media in the creation of the album also contributes to increasing its complexity as an artwork (Bolter, & Grusin, 2000). Art is used to create awareness, shape public conversations about a contentious topic, and change people’s perspectives positively.

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