This week, despite being roughly a third of the way through two other books, I decided to start a third. “Vanished Kingdoms: The History of Half-Forgotten Europe” by Norman Davies, to be exact. And it has me thinking about the stories we tell ourselves about ourselves. On the bus rides to and from work, I read Davies exploring how the various nation-states of Europe -the cities, duchies and kingdoms- became what we only think of today as a clutch of Imperial superpowers. These giant conglomerates brought together for resources in search of more resources (he compares this to corporate takeovers at one point), coalescing into where we are today.
To those who have witness my sporadic babbling on Twitter about history, I’ve sometimes bemoaned that Europe gets boring as these nations stabilised into what we know today. And I hold to that. There’s something uniquely fascinating about small cultural groups who exists beside each other, rather than the flatness of a monolith, like France, or Britain, or Germany. The past, like art, is more interesting when there’s more going on to dissect.
Anyway this is about Beyonce.
A renaissance is happening, and it’s called Renaissance. 16 tracks that’s been described as a wall of sound, a lead single that’s sonically leaning into house music, and a set of lyrics where Beyonce plays the part of You. The 9-5 worker who needs a break as the economy falls apart yet again and looks to the clubs. We’re even getting a roll out this time, suggesting that maybe Mrs. Knowles-Carter is keyed in that nobody has the funds to just drop a few thousand on an album and concert ticket.
The music is good. It isn’t necessarily her best, but that was also true of her last real lead single roll out with Run The World (Girls). 4 is still a fantastic album. This clearly isn’t Lemonade, or Everything Is Love, or even The Gift. It’s a proper pop album roll out, the likes of which we only really get nowadays from stars too big to fail or too small to matter. Or independent superstars like Tinashe. But at the crux of it, something bigger has my heart this time around.
It leaked.
I don’t know where you were in 2011-2014, but there was a time when album roll outs were as fun as the music you were getting. Stan culture was definitely a thing, but the actual enjoyment came from every little detail being unleashed on the fans bit by bit.
A magazine cover would pair with a few details from the album.
A snippet would play on the radio.
A random demo from a few years back would be released and cause chaos online.
Then, like clockwork, the album would leak. Sometimes up to a month in advance. Not everyone would listen, but if you cared, you’d have sometime to digest the song before gaining legitimate access. It was thrilling.
Now, obviously albums are still happening. As are leaks. Nothing I listed in that paragraph is strictly from the past. But it feels like, as the faces of pop have shifted from the last of the megastars that ruled the 2000s and early 2010s into the more intimate, more available pop stars of the now, that there isn’t as much happening. The hype is obviously there (look at the engagement on anything where Doja Cat is performing) but the albums don’t exist in the same sphere as they used to. The leak now doesn’t END the campaign, but it dampens the excitement, rather than build it. Not just because the music might be bad, but because we access it differently.
Streaming has clearly shifted how we interact with pop. Not just in that it’s both aided and destroyed the album experience, but because it has made it too easy. Much like how Instagram has completely reshaped the cult of celebrity, I would argue streaming music has reshaped how audiences interact with pop. Crafting an era is much harder as theres no separation for anyone post release. Prior to something like Spotify, you had to buy the album post-release to listen to it. You had to own it. If not, the average listener would just hear and buy the singles. That doesn’t happen anymore.
Beyonce’s song leaking felt exciting because, like pop music used to do all the time, it added to the hype. The surprise album for her has become a surprise single (kind of), which means we can all get excited again. She’s clearly crafting something more elaborate than simply dropping an album and running.
Yes, the leak was unmixed and thus sounded way worse than the official release does, but we got a Beyonce song 2 hours early. People are clearly still consuming this pop product, not just because it’s good, but because it feels like an event. It actually was an event.
Recently, we got another moment in pop music that felt like an event. Dua Lipa’s Future Nostalgia. Not just because it’s dance music, but because she held the reins and produced an ongoing and exciting album roll out. Singles upon singles. Then came Planet Her. Billie Eilish tried it out with Happier Than Ever. We’re seeing that streaming hasn’t destroyed the hype that pop music, and pop culture in general, has at it’s best.
Much like how European history is better when there’s more going on, pop is better with more to watch.