I remember the day it happened perfectly. It was another cold December morning in Virginia, a school day, and I walked into the halls of my high school trudging, tired, and already prepared to go home. I thought it was going to be a normal, boring day, but December 13, 2013 proved to be different. Overnight, Beyoncé dropped her self-titled fifth album, accompanied by music videos for each song, and the whole world was at a standstill to listen. A new Beyoncé came to life right in front of us, one who expressed insecurities yet also showed freedom within herself. Audiences resonated with the lyrics and the music videos that paired with them. Videos about feeling fierce, or vulnerable, or simply having fun in a skating rink gave us the images Beyoncé imagined from the first bass line, and emphasized the lyrics we sang along to even more. Not only could we listen to the new music, but we could watch it, as well. It was all anyone could talk about for weeks, and the album is still talked about today for the impact it had on music in recent years.

The release of "Beyoncé" was met with praise for three main reasons: the musical drought fans felt from Beyoncé, the visuals, and the surprise release done well. When the album came out, the music world was seeing a decline in people listening to full albums. Numbers showed listeners were more inclined to listen to singles rather than the entire album. Artists were more focused on making the number one single in the country rather than the number one album. With the want for full albums dwindling from the public eye, Queen Bey decided to reintroduce the technique of “shocking” audiences with a full-length album release all at one time. By not dropping the album single-by-single and then in full later, people were forced to listen to the whole album in order to determine their favorite songs, with no help from labels or radio stations pushing certain ones.

Though Beyoncé isn’t the first person to release an accompanying video/film with an album, or a surprise album, period, she’s definitely influenced a new era of doing such a thing. All of the original aspects that drew people to listen to "Beyoncé" have been recreated over the years. Nowadays, artists are taking more risks or making more moves when it comes to releasing new music. Justin Bieber released professional dance videos on YouTube to the songs off his latest album "Purpose" the day after its release. People had been anticipating the release of Frank Ocean’s sophomore album for four years and responded well to its drop mid-August, along with another album that featured a visual and magazine. Album announcement and release dates are either released closely together or continuously pushed back in order to build anticipation for the album's release date in stores on and offline, like Rihanna’s "Anti" and Drake with "Views," the gimmick working in both artists’ favor. "Views" wasn’t even Drake’s first sudden release. His mixtape "If You're Reading This It's Too Late" was released on iTunes early 2015 with no warning, too. Sometimes, there isn’t even an option to buy individual songs, making the listener buy the whole album if he or she wants to listen to it. With more and more streaming services on the horizon, such as Apple Music and Spotify, artists continuously cut deals with certain companies to have their album exclusively on that service, creating more appeal for listeners to want to hear the full album and not just the lead singles.

Beyoncé recreated what she did, and started, nearly three years ago with her sudden release of "Lemonade," a storytelling experience that also features an hour-long movie that shows a tale of infidelity one track at a time. The album itself is just as popular as its visual-album predecessor. In response to the general public's dwindling desire for full-length albums, Queen Bey pushed—and continues to push—the envelope in order to get albums back into the limelight, each time gaining another jewel in her crown. Without "Beyoncé" being released in the manner it was, there’s no telling whether we would anticipate the release of new music the way we do now.