Beyoncé Bold Reason For Keeping Her Albums ‘Renaissance’ and ‘Cowboy Carter’ Audio Only is Something Even Taylor Swift Has Been Following Lately

In today’s world of the music industry, visuals are equally important as the music itself. Beyoncé is one such artist who has always stood out for her vocal skills as well as cinematic visual albums and solid performances. From her self-titled Beyoncé album to her politically charged Lemonade, her work has always shown what music videos can achieve.

However, her latest albums, Renaissance and Cowboy Carter, have no accompanying music videos. Although this might seem surprising, her decision is influenced by her evolving artistry and a deeper intent behind her music.

Beyoncé’s Reason for No Music Videos

Earlier, visuals played a huge part in Beyoncé’s music. Her 2013 album Beyoncé had music videos for each song, and Lemonade was a visual album that had full-length visual projects. They were in a way used to give a cinematic experience to her fans and listeners in general.

Music videos are also used to boost streams, enhance the storytelling, and maintain visibility. However, Beyoncé’s choice to go audio-only is a bold statement. Talking about it in a GQ interview, the singer said,

I thought it was important that during a time where all we see is visuals, the world can focus on the voice. The music is so rich in history and instrumentation. It takes months to digest, research, and understand. The music needed space to breathe on its own. Sometimes a visual can be a distraction from the quality of the voice and the music.

Beyoncé believes that for an album that took over 4 years to complete, “the music is enough.” The fans will become the visual ultimately when they enjoy the music on her tour, which she got in her film as well.

But now, it seems like she is not the only one who has felt the need to reduce visuals from music. Lately, Taylor Swift has also decided to reduce the number of music videos, as can be seen in her latest album, The Tortured Poets Department.

Swift is known to have big-budget music videos that often feature celebrities, like Bad Blood, I Don’t Wanna Live Forever, End Game, You Need To Calm Down, and so on. However, The Tortured Poets Department has only one music video for the song Fortnight, which features Post Malone.

Although it is true that music videos help to boost the songs, sometimes it can become higher than the music itself, which no singer-songwriter would want. Moreover, both Beyoncé and Taylor Swift are at that stage in their careers and popularity where they don’t need any video to make a song chartbuster.

Beyoncé’s Anti-Trend Approach Is Not New

Beyoncé’s decision can be a statement against the current industry trends in a way. Today, record labels and marketing firms often push artists to create something visually appealing in order to make it viral online. However, this is not the first time Beyoncé has gone against any trend.

In her 2011 album 4, she deliberately decided to move away from pop and dance music, as they were everywhere at that time. In her GQ interview, she explained that although she respected pop music, she wanted her to give a different direction to her career. 

Her album was a mix of pop, soul, funk, and R&B, as Beyoncé firmly believes that genres should not restrict artistry. This anti-trend approach has become a sort of specialty of her career. In the interview, she mentions how she uses her craft to liberate herself from beliefs and prejudices.

Working on the music for Cowboy Carter and launching this exciting new project feel nothing like prison, nor a burden. In fact, I only work on what liberates me. It is fame that can at times feel like prison.

Beyoncé believes “good music and strong messages will never retire.” She revealed that her knee injury changed her perception of her craft. The singer started focusing less on what’s popular and more on creating evergreen music after that, and that’s probably the reason why she has earned respect from her listeners as well as her peers.