10 Classic Albums That Came Out Of Nowhere

Every musical titan has been known to play up their album releases in the past. Take the turn of the century, for instance, when everyone from Arcade Fire to U2 to Kanye West were making lavish rollouts for their records, from TV specials to phone deals to flashing their songs on the side of buildings. If you're Queen Bey though, you just buck the trend and release your tunes without any warning.

During the age of Lady Gaga's Applause reigning supreme across the radio, Beyoncé's self-titled album was a real shakeup to the way album rollouts were done, being thrown out onto streaming services and YouTube without any form of heads up. Even though this kind of thing should spell career suicide for your brand, Beyoncé already had the star power to pull off a power move like this.

Also being one of the first visual albums that had a music video released with every single song, Beyoncé really had a story to tell with this record, with songs like Flawless and XO being some of the most openhearted and poignant topics she would ever write about.

This would likewise set her up for even more raw performances later on on Lemonade. As much as Beyoncé stans have been calling her a Queen since the beginning of her career, this is the moment where she truly capitalized on that promise.