April 23, 2016. 

Studio album.

This album seems to connect people in a strong way because of one of its main messages and battles: self-worth. In an album, Beyoncé has created music that is both uncomfortable and rejuvenating. The music speaks to people of all ages, and can reach many generations to come. 

Released on April 23, 2016, Beyonce’s Lemonade is claimed to be a piece of musical history. Amy Zimmerman writes fondly of the album in The Daily Beast in 2016: “Beyoncé creates a fantasy world out of the broken pieces of her reality.” The performer was credited with bringing conversations about black feminism and empowerment into the mainstream. Lemonade also inspired a movement of black women to celebrate their identities and advocate for themselves. Based around the aftermath of infidelity, this twelve-song album includes subjects of apathy, strife, forgiveness, and politics.  In a New York Times article in 2016, Jon Pareles touches on the range of emotion: “Her reactions swing from sorrow to rage to determined loyalty.” One of the album’s most iconic moments comes in the form of the song “Formation,” which includes a powerful reference to police brutality against black people, and to the Black Lives Matter movement. As an article from 2016 by Carol Vernallis in Film Criticism stated, “Lemonade focuses on difficulties with marriage and monogamy; the popular press has described it as a commentary on Beyoncé’s marriage to Jay-Z. But it is equally about African American history. It’s a call to action... Besides the narrative of Beyoncé’s marriage (expressing anger, fear, grief, reconciliation and reintegration), Lemonade develops historical strands about Africa, the Middle Passage, slavery, reconstruction, lynching, neo-liberalism and the disinvestment of black neighborhoods at the beginning of the 1970s, Hurricane Katrina, and the police murders of African-Americans."

There are two songs that create an idea of the range of emotion dealt with in this album: “Hold Up” and “All Night.” The detail of disbelief in infidelity is explored in “Hold up.” This can be seen in the lyric “Can’t you see there’s no other man above you? What a wicked way to treat the girl that loves you.” Beyoncé is examining her anger and displaying it in her typical stoic and elegant demeanor. This song is an upbeat, major key jam, which contradicts the true content. 

On the other hand, “All Night” is a ballad that carries a trusting message. Bey says: “They say true love’s the greatest weapon to win the war caused by pain.” A lot of the instrumentation cuts back when she begins this line, emphasizing the voice and words. It’s the lead guitar left, along with a multitude of voices that give the sound of a choir on the word “pain,” almost yelling the word. The word painting is sure to stir emotions in the listener. Her pen shows us a wise love, one that is worth fighting for. We understand this album shows us her position at this point in her career in the public eye. 

This personal experience only elevated her craft, through her ability to show how she turned her turmoil into triumph — in other words, turning lemons into lemonade. This album title originates from Jay Z’s grandmother. As an article from 2016 by John Parales in the New York Times stated, Jay-Z’s grandmother said, "I was served lemons but I made lemonade.” In “Freedom,” Beyoncé uses the pentatonic scale as a form to express her strong fight in life, and it incorporates in the chorus the lyrics, “I break chains all by myself, won’t let my freedom rot in hell,” with melismas. The pain she goes through fighting to get her freedom back won’t be in vain. 

Questions for Classroom Discussion

1. If you were in Beyoncé's  position, would you bring such a personal matter into your craft? Why or why not?  

2. What feelings or emotions do you feel the music displays, if any? If you were the artist performing this music, how would you communicate those feelings, and what would they be?

3. How would you feel if you were discussed so heavily in this album, as Jay-Z is? If you were the artist, would you be that honest, and if you were in Jay-Z’s position, would you feel comfortable being so exposed? Why or why not?

4. How does police brutality against Black people reflect the themes in this music? How does the meaning of the album change over time in regards to social movements regarding Black people in America? 

5. Why is Lemonade an apt name for the album — or not? Would you propose an alternative title, and why?  

Bibliography/Further Reading

Primary Sources

Bradley, Regina. "Close to Home: A Conversation About Beyoncé's 'Lemonade.'" The Record Blog (April 2016).

Caramanica, Jon. "Refracted in the Prism of 'Lemonade.'" New York Times (April 2016): C1.

Pareles, Jon. "Making 'Lemonade' Out of Strife." New York Times (April 2016): C1. 

Peisner, David. "The Small Army Behind 'Lemonade.'" Rolling Stone 1261 (May 2016): 12.

Zimmerman, Amy. "Beyoncé Calls Out Jay Z's Cheating in 'Lemonade,' A Celebration of Black Girl Magic: The HBO Special." The Daily Beast (April 2016).

Secondary Sources

Hearn, Kyoko Shoji. "Violence, Storm, and the South in Beyoncé's 'Lemonade." Literature, Interpretations, Theory 30, no. 2 (2019): 155-169.

Nell Edgar, Amanda and Ashton Toone. "'She Invited Other People to That Space:' Audience Habitus, Place, and Social Justice in Beyoncé's 'Lemonade." Feminist Media Studies 19, no. 1 (2019): 87-101.

Vernallis, Carol. "Beyoncé's 'Lemonade,' Avant-Garde Aesthetics, and Music Video: 'The Past and the Future Merge to Meet Us Here.'" Film Criticism 40, no. 3 (2016): 1.