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theblvcksupreme · 5 months

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BEYONCÉ: The Visual Album (10 Year Anniversary)

A decade ago on December 13th, 2013 Beyoncé changed the industry forever after releasing her Self-Titled Visual album, exclusively on iTunes at Midnight, as a complete surprise which shocked fans and critics alike. Developed as a visual album, every song is accompanied by a short film that illustrates the musical concepts conceived during production. Beyoncé's desire to assert her full artistic freedom served as inspiration for the album's dark, personal subject matter, which incorporated feminist themes of sex, monogamy, beauty standards, relationship problems and criticism of capitalism. its release is frequently credited with inventing the modern definition of the visual album, popularizing the surprise album release strategy, and provoking the IFP Industry to change the day of the week when music is released worldwide from Tuesday to Friday.

Beyoncé was released digitally on the iTunes Store without prior announcement or promotion, and debuted at #1 on the US Billboard 200, earning Beyoncé her fifth consecutive #1 album on the chart. The album sold over 617k copies in the United States and 828k copies worldwide in its first 3 days of sales, becoming the fastest-selling album in the history of the iTunes Store up to that point, also becoming Bey’s 1st album to sell 1M copies in 6days. In the 19 days between the album's release and the end of 2013, Beyoncé sold 2.3 million copies worldwide, finishing the year as the tenth-best-selling album globally. The album has sold over 12M copies worldwide and has generated over 1 billion streams.

Beyoncé received widespread acclaim from critics upon release who praised its production, exploration of sexuality, vocal performance, as well as the album's surprise release strategy which was subsequently replicated by many artists, including Drake, Kanye West, Kendrick Lamar, Rihanna, Nicki Minaj, Miley Cyrus, U2, Frank Ocean, Eminem & many more.