On the day before the July release of Renaissance, her management team announced in a press statement that the record would not include visual elements. It said that it was a chance to be a listener and not a viewer. It was odd, if a little disappointing, that the choice was made for the sole reason that Bey continues to be one of the top image-makers of our time. In addition to the surprise release of the singer's self-titled album, in 2013, and of Lemonade, in 2016 there was a breathtaking suite of music videos that rewrote the rules of modern artistry. The videos for Lemonade were made into a movie. Nowadays, when she does speak outside of an album cycle, it's mostly through carefully selected posts on social media. The fact that Renaissance wouldn't have its own visual language was puzzling.
The dominant record of this generation is image culture. We are in and out of screens. Our most prescient social media apps allow for an exchange of views. The power to create what they wanted was given to everyday users by the foundation of our looking video bazaar. It was impossible to live without a seductress like that. The idea of being watched was built into the economy by influential people. TikTok is the new frontier of cultural production, where moving images flicker across our phones with a persuasive, practically irresistible sense of attraction.
As the digital age became inescapable, social media magnified my looking, a nearly endless lens through which I watched. It's a province for me to find meaning from all manner of visual depictions. Images make us true. In most of my group chats, I use the phrases "memes" and "giphys" There are nights when I look at the grid of hookup apps and seeangled faces, and the promise of everything they have to offer. The bloated streaming age has provided me with a lot of content and imagery. There are pictures around us. It makes sense to want to find new permutations to define ourselves.
I was listening to Renaissance. Listen and listen. And I comprehended. The songs are meant to live in us, not as a reflection of Bey's artistic invention but as a reminder of our own fantastic possibility in spite of the surrounding hardship. She wasn't the only one in this project. Other marquee artists tried to make music that was meant to be experienced on a more human level.
It can feel like you are watching the History Channel when listening to Drake. His six solo albums are a mix of global influences and local scenes. There was a surprise-released in June. It was like Renaissance in that it sought a more analog moment when digital terrains didn't dictate so much of how we interact, create, and make ourselves. Drake drew inspiration from Baltimore and Jersey club music, setting the mood with leg-twisting production like Black Coffee. We were urged to get on our feet and move this year by Bad Bunny. The sound of the earthquake of Bad Bunny's song "Titi me pregunto" can still be heard even now. It was the sound of a city coming back to life.
Five months have passed since the release of Renaissance and the call for visuals hasn't stopped. Renaissance was not about what she could see through her eyes. Our joy was realized when we saw the very images we sought. We were turned into our own version of creation and meaning by the music. Whether it was singing the lines "comfortable in my skin" on "Cozy," randomly blurting out "unique!!" or even losing yourself in the sparkling production of "Virgo's Groove", that was where the album most came alive. Those are the pictures that last. Renaissance will always show us celebrating ourselves.
I lost a friend to suicide and my grandmother to dementia by the summer. Other losses were also present. There was a time when everything felt finite. The music that saved me was bright and messy. It made clear what was going on. It made the fog lift. The best of the year's musicians got us moving again, not to the office, that bygone invention of pre-pandemic life, but back into the world, and onto the dance floor. We all have electricity and intentions. We are rebuilding life after death.
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