Beyond Beyonce

When pop historians inevitably look back at 2013, they'll likely declare it the year of Beyoncé. She started things off with the presidential inauguration, hair-flipped her way through one of the best Super Bowl halftime shows ever, traveled the globe on her much-beloved Mrs. Carter Show World Tour, and then dropped a career-defining opus, Beyoncé, without any pre-promotion or fanfare. She's a game changer, sure. But Beyoncé follows in the footsteps of several other boldfaced names — including Justin Timberlake, David Bowie, and her husband, Jay Z — who all tried innovative ways to present their albums to the public this past year. Bowie capitalized on the element of surprise when he released The Next Day, his first album in 10 years, with only weeks of warning. Hova chose a more bombastic approach, premiering his Magna Carta…Holy Grail on Samsung phones and plugging the release through a series of commercials directed by Mark Romanek that began airing during the NBA Finals. In terms of sheer scope, no campaign was bigger than the returning Timberlake's, whose push for The 20/20 Experience included a spot on the Grammys, a weeklong residency on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon, and cross-promotional ads with Budweiser. So now, as we ring in 2014, what can we take away from these freethinkers?