Renaissance Sees Beyoncé Walk Down Her Throne and onto the Dance Floor

Written by T. Tian, Photography press supplied

For the fifth time, Beyoncé lost her nomination for Album of the Year at the Grammy Awards. Even with the loss, she made history by becoming the most decorated Grammy winner in history. Scoring her the record-breaking 32nd Grammy in the Best Dance/Electronic Album category, Beyoncé’s seventh solo studio album Renaissance is a celebration of dance music and Queer Culture.

Categorized as a dance album, Renaissance combines genres from afrobeat and dancehall to house and funk, extracting danceable rhythms from various music styles and blending them seamlessly. With the late disco icon Donna Summer being a tangible influence on the album, not only does the closing track sample her genre-defining Euro-disco classic “I Feel Love,” but the entire album flows smoothly with non-stop-esque track transitions, possibly paying tribute to Summer’s widely acclaimed greatest hits album On the Radio. As music constantly transitions into different styles, we find Beyoncé switching from belting to chanting, then to harmonizing herself in the background. For production of the album, she enlisted a star-studded group of producers that range from long-time collaborators like Mike Dean and The-Dream, to new faces like Chic legend Nile Rodgers and PC Music pioneer A. G. Cook, capturing sounds from both the past and the future.

Underneath the surface, buried in the stomping electronic percussion and Beyoncé’s chameleonic vocal styles is the message of self-empowerment. Known to be a social activist advocating for feminism and racial justice, Beyoncé voices her support and appreciation towards the LGBTQ+ community, ever so blatantly and unapologetically for the first time, by channeling the iconic Ballroom Culture on Renaissance. Queerness is the throbbing heartbeat of the album: it penetrates the gay club with anthems “Heated” and “Pure/Honey” when she brings the audience to the middle of the Ballroom. It can be heard loud and clear when she announces that she is “unique” and “too classy for this world” on “Alien Superstar.” It glows like the spectrum of a rainbow when she demands everyone stand up for themselves on “Break My Soul,” as the boldness and extravagance of the queer community never lived without the struggle of blood, sweat and tears for equality.

Since the beginning of her career, Beyoncé has marched cautiously yet firmly towards the status of pop empress. The first two albums saw her make her solo breakthrough with a bunch of hit singles, and I Am… Sasha Fierce further proved her hit-making capacity. Album 4 and the self-titled album marked her transition into an album artist and showcased her craftsmanship in making cohesive full-length projects. As if that was not enough, Lemonade took her career to an all-new level with a record-breaking world tour. At this point, the public had already embraced Beyoncé as one of the most important megastars in the history of pop music, yet it could also be an unsteady and dangerous position to be at - each step with the crown gets harder than the one before. The question for her is posed: how can she keep outdoing herself?

After six years of crafting her answer to that question, Beyoncé gave us Renaissance, a critical next step after a streak of successful projects. She is well aware of the nickname the world gave her fondly - the “Queen Bey” - and here we find her turning the word “queen” from a symbol of fans’ worship to a call for self-empowerment for everyone, with the help of Queer Culture. Without the people there wouldn’t be a queen, and this is an album for the people, where everyone is a queen on the dance floor. Just like how Cady Heron tore her tiara to pieces and shared it with the crowd at the end of Mean Girls, Beyoncé urges you to sing along and groove along to the rhythm she garnered. As you’re lip-syncing “Cozy” and moving your body - the one you’re really comfortable in - you’re part of the Renaissance.