How did Lemonade become Beyoncé's most unpopular album (outstreamed by ARTPOP)?

[The Music Industry]

Because it was never as big as her stans/the media would have you believe

[Achilles.]

16 hours ago, Dante Silva said:

Nobody wants to focus on her most streamed album or talk about why it is her most streamed album. That album (her third) has become almost shameful and taboo to openly discuss yet it is the album that privately when people are at home, they choose to play most often (over a decade after its release).

I don't think people are actually listening to that album much though. Like 75% of its total streams are from its three smash hits. There are multiple tracks on that album getting less than 2K streams daily.

[Monkey_Juice]

It's her worst album followed by Cowboy Carter

Formation + Formation Tour was the only good thing that came from lemonade tbh 

[swissman]

11 hours ago, The Music Industry said:

Because it was never as big as her stans/the media would have you believe

Ah yes, streaming numbers from 8 years later: the metric of whether or not an album was big in its time!

[swissman]

14 hours ago, Mr. Mendes said:

I just don't see how someone who is selling out stadiums worldwide and is in the top 10 most streamed female artists of all time can be reduced down to just PR

not when every single pop artist out there also has PR teams and marketing budgets and...actually uses them.

[Walk_Away21]

On 11/27/2024 at 10:38 PM, unclefloprry said:

Because it was never that big outside the US

Outside of Tidal's cooked numbers, the album was never that big anywhere.

[Relampago.]

Tbh it's not that easy to listen to, not bad or anything obviously, just kinda heavy and compact. Formation is the biggest bop overall and even that is tied to heavy political events. 

[ImpressMeMuch]

19 hours ago, The Music Industry said:

Because it was never as big as her stans/the media would have you believe

 

[Robyn.]

Because the album does not have "quick lil' singles" as she calls them...

 

Having memorable hit songs is what carries your catalogue, look at Rihanna. 

 

 

[Feanor]

It was fairly big in 2016, but I guess the public just moved on from it after that and never bothered to come back after it was made available for streaming. 

[John Slayne]

this is genuinely surprising though because the album was a big hit that year and yes it only got uploaded on spotify after the era ended but it's still weird how it's her least streamed album 

[John Slayne]

On 12/1/2024 at 4:03 PM, Dante Silva said:

I was kind of shocked SNL got away with this sketch (at the time), I guess the reason they did is because despite being politically incorrect, it is true and it is funny:

 

 

 

i never thought this sketch was politically incorrect, i thought they were poking fun at sheltered, vaguely liberal white people who liked beyonce until she said something they perceived as too political. the joke wasn't that Beyoncé was trying to be white before, but that the perception of her amongst certain demographics changed once she started singing about racial injustice 

[UnusualBoy]

I like Bey but I've always thought Lemonade was overrated, not saying it was bad but it's not all that either, the album is cohesive but there's no much replay value in it and it lacked a big hit which is almost mandatory to carry the recurrent stats of old albums (I mean it's 8yo)

[Born to Run]

omg my first #1 trending thread 

 

 

Edited December 3 by Born to Run

[Isaiah]

On 11/29/2024 at 8:49 AM, swissman said:

If, however, she had gave the single a wide release and the song had a chance to truly because the hit it was sure to be, if she had promoted it like she would have Single Ladies, this would be a different story and surely Lemonade would have more streams today accordingly.

im sorry but there is no universe where formation is a smash hit like single ladies, regardless of promotion  

That song doesn't have a pop hook nor any strong/memorable melodies, so even if she sent it to pop radio properly it was never gonna really take off there

[swissman]

17 minutes ago, Isaiah said:

im sorry but there is no universe where formation is a smash hit like single ladies, regardless of promotion  

That song doesn't have a pop hook nor any strong/memorable melodies, so even if she sent it to pop radio properly it was never gonna really take off there

I didn't say it was or would be a smash hit like Single Ladies, I said if she had promoted like she did Single Ladies then Lemonade would have more streams as it would have been a more established hit. I did, however, say it was sure to be a hit. Because it was. It had immediate attention, praise, and interest. It had a Super Bowl performance. Despite being the last song on the album it was the highest charting song from Lemonade. It doesn't need to have been a smash to have surely been a hit if she had actually released it.

 

Are you arguing that if Beyoncé promoted Formation more in 2016 (which includes putting it on streaming), allowing it to gain more notoriety, that Lemonade would have the exact same amount of streams?

 

Your point about it lacking memorable melodies is also a bit unfounded considering it actually was a highly quotable song in its time, and "okay ladies now let's get in formation" and "I got hot sauce in my bag, swag" both had melodies attached to them, even if they were not exactly "melodic" in the pop sense. Not to mention, Single Ladies sounded nothing like pop radio at the time and yet it was huge, and this is proven by the fact that its popularity came moreso for the dance and video, something Formation had going for it as well.

 

LASTLY
Formation, despite not being released to radio, was Beyoncé's highest debut on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay chart (#11). Even if it didn't do well on pop radio, it was clearly doing to perform well on R&B/Hip-Hop radio which would still have made an impact if it was formally sent there and available for sales/streaming, leading to it becoming a more important and probably more streamed song in the long run. Comparatively we can see how Love on Top, one of Beyoncé's best known songs, only peaked at #20 on the Hot 100 but was the 2012 YEAR-END #1 R&B/Hip-Hop song. It's not always about the pop charts/radio.

 

 

Edited December 3 by swissman

[Isaiah]

Just now, swissman said:

I didn't say it was or would be a smash hit like Single Ladies, I said if she had promoted like she did Single Ladies then Lemonade would have more streams as it would have been a more established hit. Are you arguing that if Beyoncé promoted Formation more in 2016, allowing it to gain more notoriety, that Lemonade would have the exact same amount of streams?

 

 

Your point about it lacking memorable melodies is also a bit unfounded considering it actually was a highly quotable song in its time, and "okay ladies now let's get in formation" and "I got hot sauce in my bag, swag" both had melodies attached to them, even if they were not exactly "melodic" in the pop sense. Not to mention, Single Ladies sounded nothing like pop radio at the time and yet it was huge, and this is proven by the fact that its popularity came moreso for the dance and video, something Formation had going for it as well.

Obviously it wouldn't have the exact same amount of streams, but the difference would be very minimal. 

 

Everyone who was actually gonna listen to formation already knew it existed back in 2016, and promoting it beyond that would've given diminishing returns since its not the type of song that the gp get hooked on.

 

I get the point you're trying to make, but I genuinely don't think there's any timeline where this album is getting more than 600k daily in 2024, even with properly promoted singles. Lemonade was never as big as media/hive wanted us to think it was, but that's okay.

[Isaiah]

5 minutes ago, swissman said:

Are you arguing that if Beyoncé promoted Formation more in 2016 (which includes putting it on streaming), allowing it to gain more notoriety, that Lemonade would have the exact same amount of streams?

No, I'm not, and you know I'm not; so this strawman is stupid 

[swissman]

24 minutes ago, Isaiah said:

No, I'm not, and you know I'm not; so this strawman is stupid 

I asked that because it actually seemed "stupid" (your word, I'd have chosen "silly") to argue that Beyoncé promoting Formation like she did Single Ladies (do I need to go over the promotion it had?) would have had no meaningful effect on the album's overall notoriety and subsequent streaming numbers. 

As we see with most albums, the hits are what keeps the daily streams up. Formation didn't get a chance to even become a minor hit. Beyoncé did literally everything she could to stop it from becoming one.

 

You can argue, as you did above, that "Everyone who was actually gonna listen to formation already knew it existed back in 2016" but that simply is not true, and if it is, that doesn't mean that had she properly promoted it (let alone properly released it) that for those who were going to listen to it, it wouldn't have made them listen to it more and for a longer time period, or that it wouldn't have given them more to engage with in terms of enjoying the song. For the majority of 2016 you couldn't even watch the video on YouTube unless you had the exact link to it.

[CottageHore]

Bcuz the entire album is some "I'm a bad ***** who doesn't tolerate cheating by my husband" vibe and then she proceeded to stay with the man and show it was all some stunt  still her best album, though

[Marioland]

Both Lemonade and ARTPOP are amazing albums and maybe their best respectively for each artist! Nevertheless it doesnt surprise me since quality and commercial success doesnt always come hand in hand!

[swissman]

18 hours ago, CottageHore said:

Bcuz the entire album is some "I'm a bad ***** who doesn't tolerate cheating by my husband" vibe and then she proceeded to stay with the man and show it was all some stunt  still her best album, though

That is categorically false and not even remotely true.

Of the 12 songs on the tracklist, only 3 have anything to do with anger about being cheated on, and only one has the "I'm a bad *****" energy you've cited (Sorry) and even there it also feels like she's convincing herself she's going to be alright, not that she actually is.

 

The songs directly after Sorry (6 inch and Daddy Lessons) are more introspective about what she should or shouldn't do after being on her own a bit... she sings about putting all her attention into her work, she sings about acknowledging the generational pattern of mistreatment towards wives. The songs after that (7-12) all deal with the reconciliation and Formation (song #12) has the "I'm a bad *****" vibe you've mentioned but nothing about not tolerating a cheating husband.

 

If you didn't listen to the whole album, say that. But don't come and claim it does or says something it does not. She's VERY clear about why she took him back, too. To call it all a stunt is also very silly. Beyoncé was strong enough to forgive. That should be applauded not derided as either weakness or fakeness on her part.

[CottageHore]

1 hour ago, swissman said:

That is categorically false and not even remotely true.

Of the 12 songs on the tracklist, only 3 have anything to do with anger about being cheated on, and only one has the "I'm a bad *****" energy you've cited (Sorry) and even there it also feels like she's convincing herself she's going to be alright, not that she actually is.

 

The songs directly after Sorry (6 inch and Daddy Lessons) are more introspective about what she should or shouldn't do after being on her own a bit... she sings about putting all her attention into her work, she sings about acknowledging the generational pattern of mistreatment towards wives. The songs after that (7-12) all deal with the reconciliation and Formation (song #12) has the "I'm a bad *****" vibe you've mentioned but nothing about not tolerating a cheating husband.

 

If you didn't listen to the whole album, say that. But don't come and claim it does or says something it does not. She's VERY clear about why she took him back, too. To call it all a stunt is also very silly. Beyoncé was strong enough to forgive. That should be applauded not derided as either weakness or fakeness on her part.

I have "listened to the full album" dozens of times, I'm a gay man, after all. And idc if it's silly to call it a stunt, it's really never been that serious and even if everything you said was fact, the GP doesn't know about half the **** you just said, all they know is Beyonce wrote a breakup album and then stayed with her man, which is why I answered the question posed by OP the way I did. 

[swissman]

19 hours ago, CottageHore said:

I have "listened to the full album" dozens of times, I'm a gay man, after all. And idc if it's silly to call it a stunt, it's really never been that serious and even if everything you said was fact, the GP doesn't know about half the **** you just said, all they know is Beyonce wrote a breakup album and then stayed with her man, which is why I answered the question posed by OP the way I did. 

Excuse me for correcting you then, but your response wasn't quite clear in what you were arguing.

 

"The entire album is..."

and
"People think the entire album is..."

 

 

Edited December 5 by swissman

[ericcartman]

On 12/3/2024 at 4:42 AM, Robyn. said:

Because the album does not have "quick lil' singles" as she calls them...

 

Having memorable hit songs is what carries your catalogue, look at Rihanna. 

 

 

She's right about quick lil singles. You need lasting hits that people go back to. Unfortunately Lemonade didn't have that either