BEYONCÉ became the first visual album released simultaneously with a video for every track.
Beyoncé released the self-titled album without advance notice on December 13, 2013, exclusively through the iTunes Store at first. The project contained 14 songs and 17 videos, including a video for each song and additional visual material. Its surprise arrival changed expectations for how major albums could be announced and marketed.
The project is commonly called a visual album because the music and films were designed as a connected artistic experience. Songs such as “Drunk in Love,” “Partition,” and “Flawless” were accompanied by videos that helped define the album’s themes and presentation.
Lemonade was also a visual album, but it arrived in 2016 through a different release strategy and was connected to an hour-long film. Renaissance used visual ideas and later spawned related projects, but it was not released with a video for every track in the same way.