“The terms of approbation applied to Beyoncé could not be more rockist. Deep, meaningful, political, Zeitgeist-y, content-heavy, Arty, etc etc. The work is celebrated in the same way as Sly Stone or Bob Marley or Public Enemy etc were incorporated within rock discourse. Whereas Ohio Players, Brass Construction, Rob Base ‘It Takes Two’ etc never were, because not about capital-C Content or redeeming social value -  just about dance energy and function. So in fact this particular form of poptimism — annotative, parsing, interpretation-slanted — is just rockism with an expanded* sense of who the auteur is." 

thought circa Lemonade, newly applicable 

* But not really even expanded much, since rockism always had space for the Black Pop Statesman, always granted respect to the What's Going On move. It was the "trivial", just-pure-fun stuff made by white and Black alike that wasn't taken seriously.