NEW YORK, NY - AUGUST 28: Beyonce performs onstage during the 2016 MTV Video Music Awards at ... [+]
Renaissance, the seventh Beyoncé solo album, dropped today. Its 16 tracks cohesively appeal to an expansive range of listeners and transport them to many exciting places. Every destination inspires an irresistible urge to dance. The album brilliantly blends gospel, Afrobeat, disco, house, trap, bounce, R&B, and a multitude of other feel-good sounds and samples. If diversity and inclusion were a standalone music genre, Renaissance would be its perfect exemplar.
Some music lovers don’t necessarily love diversity. They want artists to stay in the same lane and offer a predictably consistent sound and approach from one album to the next. Rejecting this expectation is one of many reasons why Beyoncé is the female artist who has won the most Grammy awards. Arguably, it is diversity that also makes Beyoncé one of the wealthiest women in the United States – she is No. 61 on the 2022 Forbes America’s Richest Self-Made Women list. No doubt this newest album will make her even wealthier.
No one can say this new Beyoncé sounds too much like the old Beyoncé. Renaissance is so different, which is what fans and critics alike said about the last album and the one before it and the one before that. And then there’s Black Is King, the film and visual album she directed, wrote, and executive produced in 2020. With each of her four most recent music projects, this artist’s style has evolved in ways that somehow is never out of character or unrecognizably disjointed. This explains, at least in part, why the BeyHive has become such a massive global network of devoted fans. Renaissance will surely satisfy and retain BeyHive loyalists, while simultaneously inviting and welcoming newcomers from across the globe.
Beyond its diversity, Renaissance is also inclusive. Certainly inclusive of all the previously mentioned music genres, but also inclusive in other noteworthy ways. Beyoncé dedicates the album to her late gay Uncle Jonny whom she refers to as Godmother and credits for many of Renaissance’s dance-inspiring features. Several songs also include phrases originating and made popular in queer communities. And then there is the inclusion of Big Freedia, one of the world’s most well-known Black queer music artists, on Break My Soul, the first single released from the album last month. Big Freedia made a prior appearance on Formation, a Beyoncé hit released in 2016.
The album is also inclusive of a diversity of other artists and musicians who are listed in the writing and production credits – Grace Jones, Donna Summer, Drake, Skrillex, The-Dream, Syd, Lucky Daye, BEAM, Honey Dijon, Giorgio Moroder (affectionately known as the Father of Disco), Nile Rodgers, Nija Charles, 070 Shake, Tems, and Beyoncé’s husband Jay-Z, to name a few. Including such an impressive and extensive roster of collaborators who span several genres resulted in a project that appeals to a diversity of music appreciators.
Break My Soul made Beyoncé only the third artist in history (alongside Michael Jackson and Paul McCartney) to have 20 or more Top 10 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 chart as a soloist, plus 10 or more as a music group member. For Beyoncé, it is 20 as a solo artist and 10 as the lead singer of Destiny’s Child. At the time of Renaissance’s release, its debut track enjoys the No. 7 slot on the Hot 100 after five weeks on the chart.
Beyoncé has reportedly confirmed that the album released today is Act I of a three-part project. No way Acts II and III will be a mere continuation. They will showcase impressive range and more appreciation for diversity and inclusion. All three parts will afford the artist a fresh take at maintaining her clear identity and powerful brand, while simultaneously experimenting in ways that protect her from becoming a ‘has been’ musician whose best work is behind her. This approach will also keep Beyoncé Knowles Carter among the richest, most influential businesswomen in the world.
Her soul, influence, and records of extraordinary accomplishment will remain unbroken.
