The Washington Post ranks Lemonade by Beyoncé as the most influential work of art from 2015-2025 in their decade-by-decade look at the books, music, art and ideas that shaped society.

It was clear from the surprise first single, “Formation,” that whatever Beyoncé’s next project was, it would take her in a new and starkly political direction: The Melina Matsoukas-directed video found the superstar in the parlor of a plantation house and atop a police car sinking into floodwaters evoking Hurricane Katrina.

Two months later, Beyoncé would drop the genre-transcending “Lemonade” without prior announcement and with a corresponding 65-minute visual album full of A-lister cameos, arresting gestures toward African and African American history, and haunting spoken-word interludes that traced the Kübler-Ross model of human response to trauma. And somehow, the album was still more audacious and ambitious than that description implies.

Matsoukas later explained that Beyoncé’s thesis statement for “Lemonade”* *was that slavery was still affecting Black men and women, and the Black family: “how we’re almost socialized not to be together.” Classes on “Lemonade” promptly sprang up at universities such as Harvard, Penn and the University of Texas (among others).

“Lemonade” repopularized both the visual album and the secret album release. And in the years since, cuts from “Lemonade” have continued to soundtrack dialogues about the unfinished work of racial equality in America. The Kendrick Lamar collaboration “Freedom” became an anthem for Black Lives Matter activists after the murder of George Floyd in 2020, and it featured prominently in Kamala Harris’s historic presidential campaign in 2024. — Ashley Fetters Maloy

Constance Bailey, who teaches African American literature and folklore at Georgia State University, led a Beyoncé course at the University of Arkansas. The magic of “Lemonade” was that “it made the concept of intersectionality accessible to everyday women,” Bailey says. “Lemonade” moves between multiple gender and racial identities seamlessly. “It’s not just ‘I’m Black,’ but ‘I’m a Black woman, and I’m a married woman.’”

Other notable works

“Atlanta,” Donald Glover, 2016-22

“Whole Lotta Red,” Playboi Carti, 2020

“Reservation Dogs,” Sterlin Harjo and Taika Waititi, 2021-23

The Eras Tour, Taylor Swift, 2023-2024

“Debí Tirar Más Fotos,” Bad Bunny, 2025

https://www.washingtonpost.com/style/interactive/2026/07/15/25-most-influential-works-american-culture/?utm\_campaign=wp\_main&utm\_source=twitter&utm\_medium=social