See the Far-reaching Impact of Beyoncé's Lemonade
Ashley Hoffman
12:59 PM EST

Yes, Lemonade, Beyoncé's powerful survival tale was a colossal hit—so much so that the high-concept visual album leads this Sunday's Grammy Awards with nine nominations, including Album of the Year.
But beyond shattered records, intense engagement and passionate analysis, Lemonade had a wide-ranging impact: it's rare that one album breaks through to change the emoji keyboard, land on a Marvel cover and boost businesses riding its wave. Influential in its year and beyond, see all the ways that Lemonade stands out as a cultural phenomenon.


After Lemonade, emoji took on a new lasting meaning.Courtesy of Twitter

First Stop: the Lemon Emoji
Lemonade earned the unusual distinction of altering the language of emoji by permanently redefining a fruit. “Before Lemonade, the lemon emoji had no meaning. Since the launch of Lemonade, the emoji has taken on a meaning of its own,” a Twitter spokesperson tells TIME.
Lemonade was one of the top music stories that drove the conversation online; a recordbreaking two million tweets contained the lemon emoji on Twitter in April. Lemon action on Twitter spiked again when MTV announced Lemonade’s VMA nominations, and again during the broadcast when she performed hits from the album, according to Twitter.


This Marvel comic book cover is a tribute to one of Lemonade's most iconic images.(Credit: Joe Quinones/Marvel)

A Superstar Superhero Mashup
Lemonade was so widely recognized that it even hit the world of superheroes.
Nearly a full year post-"Formation" drop in January, illustrator Joe Quinones revealed that the Marvel comic book cover of America, the story of a dimension-hopping queer Latina hero, was an American flag-style tribute to the most iconic image from Lemonade.
"I realized early on that Gabby [Chavez] and I were both Bey fans and knew we had to homage her in the book," he tells TIME. "America is a comic that is all about representation, feminism and fighting for what’s right. America Chavez hits hard, looks fabulous and makes no apologies along the way. I could think of no better parallel than Beyoncé."


Red Lobster's sales "grew significantly" soon after Lemonade's release.Getty Images

Red Lobster Got a Taste
Lemonade topped Twitter's most popular food-related hashtags of the year—but over in real life, Red Lobster got a healthy splash of Lemonade too. Thanks to Beyoncé’s shoutout to the casual dining chain as a reward for good sex in the “Formation,” sales “grew significantly” the weekend after the Super Bowl Half-Time show performance, according to Red Lobster.


Warsan Shire's moving poetry book - a key Lemonade component - expanded its audience.Courtesy of Parkwood Entertainment

A Sales Spike For Warsan Shire
Sales for Warsan Shire’s 2011 chapbook Teaching My Mother How to Give Birth, which Beyoncé recited throughout the album, also spiked thanks to the powerful dose of publicity. The week before Lemonade dropped, 2014’s Young Poet Laureate of London’s pamphlet sold 78 copies. The week after: 764. (According to Nielsen, in the nine months pre-Lemonade, 3,400 books were scooped up, but since the release, 17,200 copies have been sold.)

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Beyonce performs on stage during The Formation World Tour at the Citi Field in New York City on June 7, 2016. Larry Busacca/ Parkwood Entertainment

The Hat Was Major
Fans flooded the custom hat maker behind the “Formation” hat with requests for the statement piece, according to Baron Hats in Burbank C.A. But the sky-high cone, which the company fashioned on 100-year-old machinery for Beyoncé, was impractical and too pricey for the masses, so owner Mark Mejia plans to create a smaller, more affordable version to meet the demand.

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Dr. Kinitra D. Brooks leads the class discussion on Ashleigh Shackelford’s critique of Beyonce’s Lemonade titled “Bittersweet like me: Lemonade and fat black femme erasure” on November 18, 2016.Courtney Campbell

Dropping Knowledge
If Lemonade fades, it will be inked permanently on college transcripts. University of Texas professor Dr. Kinitra D. Brooks uses the album as the entire framework for her course “Black Women, Beyoncé & Popular Culture.” Brooks views Lemonade as much deeper than anything the pop star’s done before. “She’s having a conversation about how black women can heal from pain,” Brooks tells TIME.
There was a waiting list for the class until Brooks announced how hard it would be. After all, this was no Beyoncé fan club. “Beyoncé’s not saving the world. People shouldn’t look to her as a god. She’s trying to open up a broader dialogue,” Brooks says. “We don’t hold Lemonade up as the perfect document. We interrogate it.” In that questioning spirit, students from various backgrounds learn about West African spiritual practices and the conjuring traditions of the American South the videos featured.


Donna Neddo recreated the look from Beyonce’s Lemonade for Halloween on Oct. 31, 2016.Donna Neddo

It Celebrated Hair
Lemonade gave plenty of airtime to hair, too. After speaking at a natural hair expo in Johannesburg, South Africa, Donna Neddo, 30, of Chicago was so inspired by the pop star's range of hairstyles, that she recreated the look from “Love Drought” for Halloween.
She clipped on a layer of synthetic hair, and sectioned her pigtails into four separate bubbles with tiny black rubber bands. Using white eyeliner, she penciled in the face pattern, and wrapped fabric-covered beaded necklaces around her neck.
For Neddo, Lemonade's visuals resonated in a way the star's other work hadn't. “Beyoncé got a lot of negativity for wearing weave. I think with this last album, she showed a lot of hairstyles that black women can wear.” Neddo's costume is just one example of the hit's permeating influence.


Jenny Ly at her Relay for Life Lemons to Lemonade fundraiser event on August 28, 2016.Photo by Randy and Joyce Herbon.

A Party With a Rebuilding Theme
For some listeners, Lemonade's message hit especially close to home—like bride-to-be Jenny Ly, 26, of Long Beach, California. After she broke off her engagement following a five-year relationship, an idea struck her: in the spirit of Lemonade’s message, when life serves up lemons, she would “make lemonade.” Instead of canceling her would-be wedding venue, she decided to use it for a fundraiser for American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life for her family, friends and cancer survivors.
Even though people wanted a wedding, it was still happy affair. Guests shared survival stories of their own over lemonade-spiked cocktails and a lemonade-themed sheet cake, and the event raised $3,203 for research the American Cancer Society's Relay For Life.
“I turned a sour situation into a sweet one,” Ly says. “To me, the songs are about how you have the ability to cut bad things off, and that’s exactly what I did.”


A portrait of 2nd Liutenant Deuntay Diggs taken on August 16, 2016 at an event where he sang the national anthem.Shannon Howell

"Formation" Was About Community For This Cop
With “Formation,” Beyoncé raised her voice about "police brutality and injustice"; protests from cops arguing that some of her songs were "anti-police" followed. But the openly gay deputy sheriff Deuntay Diggs, from Stafford County, Va., got nothing but support from his fellow officers when his "Formation" dances at North Stafford High School went viral.
The 31-year-old Beyoncé fan, whose moves made headlines, tells TIME he feels the anthem's about getting the community together, which is the very same reason he danced to the song for the students. “She’s not anti-law enforcement. She’s talking about police brutality in law enforcement," he says of Beyoncé. "There are instances when law enforcement has done things inappropriately, and there’s nothing wrong with addressing these issues. What I’m asking the community to do is not paint with a broad brush. Not all law enforcement are out to kill minorities.”

Is a little over the top to talk about social impact, i don't know.

214 said:

Far-reaching indeed, for the milky way.

dancerella said:

Good for her. Lemonade is one of the only mainstream albums recently released that I've listened to over and over again as a complete body of work, not skipping songs. She's making albums pieces of art again. Go ahead and say whatever you want, but when it comes to the mainstream market, she's at the top. And she can perform very well, especially when compared to rappers today, artists like Rihanna and the Weeknd, Justin Bieber, and many other artists. She's the closest that my generation has to a true pop icon, that is deserving of the title may I add.

Where's the Blu-ray edition?

I just couldn't resist:

dancerella said:

Why is everyone up this broads ass? I'm seriously baffled. What fucking impact??

Couldn't agree more. I wouldn't even recognize one song off of it. I don't get why people love putting her on a pedestal.

SoulAlive said:

The album is ok........but is it really is up there with Songs in the Key of Life, What's Going On or Rhythm Nation 1814? nope but time will tell.

Haven't you heard? Beyonce is better than both Stevie and Marvin! They never released an album as powerful and profound as Lemonade

Goddess4Real said:

The album is ok........but is it really is up there with Songs in the Key of Life, What's Going On

SoulAlive said:

Haven't you heard? Beyonce is better than both Stevie and Marvin! They never released an album as powerful and profound as Lemonade

Goddess4Real said:

The album is ok........but is it really is up there with Songs in the Key of Life, What's Going On

You left out Janet! shame on you

Is Lemonade better than this album?.......I don't think so

Janet Jackson - Rhythm Nation 1814 (Full Album)

[Edited 2/18/17 16:54pm]

Goddess4Real said:

SoulAlive said:

Haven't you heard? Beyonce is better than both Stevie and Marvin! They never released an album as powerful and profound as Lemonade

You left out Janet! shame on you

Is Lemonade better than this album?.......I don't think so

Janet Jackson - Rhythm Nation 1814 (Full Album)

[Edited 2/18/17 16:54pm]

>

Hmmm an early incarnation of the "visual album".

CynicKill said:

Goddess4Real said:

You left out Janet! shame on you

Is Lemonade better than this album?.......I don't think so

Janet Jackson - Rhythm Nation 1814 (Full Album)

[Edited 2/18/17 16:54pm]

>

Hmmm an early incarnation of the "visual album".

Yuuuuup and here it is.......Janet Jackson’s Rhythm Nation 1814 Film (1989) https://vimeo.com/177506514

Rhythm Nation 1814?

I missed the 200th anniversary

khill95 said:

Good for her. Lemonade is one of the only mainstream albums recently released that I've listened to over and over again as a complete body of work, not skipping songs. She's making albums pieces of art again. Go ahead and say whatever you want, but when it comes to the mainstream market, she's at the top. And she can perform very well, especially when compared to rappers today, artists like Rihanna and the Weeknd, Justin Bieber, and many other artists. She's the closest that my generation has to a true pop icon, that is deserving of the title may I add.

I like Beyonce. She's a great singer, performer and I love many of her tracks, but Lemonade fell flat for me. Yes, its visually stunning, and the poetry (that she did not write) was thought provoking, but the songs were so forgettable and boring, except for the anthem lyrics of sorry not sorry, get in formation, I mean she knows that fans are gonna eat that up. Fans like me are not fooled by the visual arts and gimmicks, we want good music and Lemonade, when you take away the videos just falls flat. Take Hold Up, I do love it,but its like combination of how many dance hall grooves from the 90s Ive heard before, but the video was great. Rhythm Nation did what Beyonce failed to do to me. Even with Janet's weak voice, the music was excellent. The production of each song was stellar for a socially conscious album. Art and music is good. But the music should be as good as the art. Why do you think Prince rose to fame prancing around in leggings and high heels? the music kicked ass!

It's to the point now where I hope Beyonce does not perform at any more award shows if she gonna continue with these long drawn out intros which are getting tired. Too gimmicky. I could feel the music breath again when Bruno performed after her, even with the message delivered from Tribe Called Quest. Beyonce does not need gimmicks. She's too talented.

[Edited 2/19/17 9:36am]

wonder505 said:

I still say Solange made a more impactful statement, and made the album that will stand the test of time.

Man i'm so god damn sick of Beyonce literally i've had threats from people because i don't think she gave birth to music. Lemonade is actually an alright album i listened and i can see why it means a lot for people. And i can also see how the album can be emporing especially to black people. But man it's like you can't say ANYTHING against he ror her fans come by the millions to try and gouge your eyes out. Especially here in LA the liberal crowd seems to have deemed her their head in chief of the world

Gunsnhalen said:

I don't know what was so great about Lemonade. I never heard anything about the music. All I heard was Becky with the "good hair" Rachel Roy. I don't like that she and her people feel entitled to a grammy for Lemonde. It shows she is not really genuine with the so call massage of the record.

MotownSubdivision said:

kitbradley said:

Just another article Beyonce's folks paid for. If the album was so impactful, why havent i heard a single song from it? It impacted her delusional fans, not anyone else. I dont hear people talking about it. I have never heard black women discussing it. People will not be talking about the album a few months from now. Like all of her other albums, it will be forgotten. Time magazine will contine to write fairytales as long as Beyonce pays them enough.

Nobody that I know talks about Lemonade,or Beyonce at all,for that matter Her camp and her fans have created this phony narrative,suggesting that the entire world is so "moved" and in awe of every piece of music that she puts out,LOL.

khill95 said:

MotownSubdivision said:

Thank you for your impartiality.

I think people who don't like Beyonce (such as myself) wouldn't dislike her as much if she weren't put on a pedestal for just about everything she does.

It's one thing for people to think that Lemonade is a good album and specifically her best album but people are acting like Lemonade is some innovative masterpiece the likes of which has never been heard before. Janet did it far better 27 years ago with Rhythm Nation and that's just a drop in the bucket of socially-conscious albums that have been recorded throughout the history of music yet Beyonce apparently makes one of her own and suddenly it's some one-of-a-kind project? I don't think so.

What's next? Her next album is the soundtrack to her semi-autobiographical motion picture and then the media is going to suddenly forget about Purple Rain and herald Beyonce for being the first to ever pull off such a thing? She creates a music video about dancing with zombies and Thriller suddenly no longer exists?

The media seems to erase parts of the history books for Beyonce and that shouldn't fly with anybody.
[Edited 2/19/17 10:19am]

Yes Rhythm Nation is a great album, and I'm sure it was even more thrilling when it was released 27 years ago. But I wasn't born then, my friends weren't born then, so we have no idea what that was like. This is our generations version of something like that. And I HIGHLY doubt that'll happen where people forget Purple Rain and Thriller People are still talking about The Beatles almost 50 years after they broke up.