Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie‘s TEDx Talk Crosses 500k Views

Call it the Beyoncé effect

After Beyoncé dropped her eponymous album in December, the internet went crazy with think pieces focusing on the singer and how—or, if—she fit in the feminism spectrum. In fact, the response was so overwhelming that if you type in “think pieces” into Google, it will suggest “think pieces Beyonce” [sic], aided no doubt by the satirical #beyoncethinkpieces meme that cleverly skewered the hand-wringing. What’s less been discussed are the tangible effects of Beyoncé and Beyoncé and that’s a shame.

One quantitative effect is easily seen: ever since the release of Beyoncé the TEDx talk by Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie on feminism sampled on the track “Flawless” has exploded in views. Prior to “Flawless,” the talk had accumulated 200,000 views, not shabby by any means but also not a blockbuster. (Some TEDx talks hit the high six-figure and low-millions in views.) Post-Beyoncé, the talk has nearly tripled with over 530,000 views as of writing. Looking at the statistics on YouTube, it’s clear that once “Flawless” was released, the views rocket up including around 50,000 views the first day. Since then, the views have settled down but remain steadily in the high four-digit range.

Now, let’s put this into context. Beyoncé has sold nearly 2 million copies globally and about 330,000 people watched a 30 minute discussion on feminism as a result. Granted, not all the views are from Beyoncé buyers, but it’s clear that all the publicity from the album led to the increase.

Not only that, but as has been reported by the Atlantic, sales of Adichie’s book Americanah rose significantly higher in the Amazon charts after the release of Beyoncé, jumping from #861 to #179.

The album and the artist both aren’t short for controversy, whether reductive (the sample at the beginning of “XO”) or legitimate (the Anna Mae reference in Jay-Z’s “Drunk In Love” rap), and there’s room for discussion over both. However, what makes think pieces often obnoxious is how they seemingly pull their arguments from thin air: here’s hoping for the discovery of more solid numbers to anchor the conversation around the effect of Beyoncé and Beyoncé.