Prince Sales Soar, Beyonce Dominates and More: 5 Things We Loved This Week

By Nicholas Loffredo On 5/1/16 at 6:02 AM EDT

Prince — Prince performs during his "Diamonds and Pearls Tour" at the Earl's Court Arena in London on June 15, 1992. Dylan Martinez/Reuters

Culture Newsweek in Review Prince Video games Netflix

From an explosion in Prince sales to Beyonce dominating the music world, here are five things in Arts & Culture we loved this week:

Music fans dove deep into Prince's catalogue following his untimely death. The pop superstar topped the album charts in the U.S. and U.K. with millions of units sold and downloaded, and was on track to occupy the top five positions on the U.K. charts for the period that ended Friday. It's all the more impressive considering Prince was unlike most artists in tightly controlling the availability of his back catalogue, with his albums only available on Tidal and iTunes, outside of stores.

Cult favorite Wet Hot American Summer, reborn on Netflix this year, will take its characters into the 1990s with a project on the streaming service in 2017. Netflix revived interest in the 2001 comedy flop with a successful prequel series starring the original cast and now will fulfill the characters' plans to "meet in 10 years" with the new project.

04_27_Wet_Hot_American_Summer_sequel — Netflix announced on April 27 that it will release 'Wet Hot American Summer: Ten Years Later" in 2017. Here, an image from its 2015 'First Day of Camp' prequel. SAEED ADYANI/NETFLIX

An academic researcher argues that playing video games has health benefits for older adults, activating the "mind and body, and it facilitates social connectedness." Noting that the adult gamer community has grown rapidly over the past 25 years, Bob De Schutter argues for games to be developed with older players in mind, as uniniated adults tend to struggle with many of today's titles.

04_26_Video_Young_01 — A boy plays ''Gran Turismo'' at the Gamescom 2010 fair in Cologne, Germany, in August 2010. Marketing of video games toward older players has largely focused on health outcomes rather than entertaining or meaningful gameplay, the author writes. Ina Fassbender/reuters

The Monkees are back with their first album in 20 years, and the '60s fabricated pop act have some of today's brightest stars contributing songs to the reunion collection, Good Times!. Weezer's Rivers Cuomo penned "She Makes Me Laugh," with other album submissions from Ben Gibbard of Death Cab for Cutie and Noel Gallagher and Peter Weller.

Beyonce fans have been breathless since she dropped her Lemonade HBO video and album, with lyrics on infidelity sparking speculation on the state of Queen Bey's marriage to Jay-Z. Of course, Lemonade was released on her husband's streaming service Tidal, and J-Hova himself appears on the album, prompting questions of whether it's all just a PR stunt. Regardless of whether there's trouble in paradise, Beyonce surely owned the week in music.

Beyonce and Jay Z — Jay Z and Beyoncé attend the Costume Institute Benefit Gala at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, May 4, 2015. After Beyoncé released a scathing album about infidelity, is the couple on the rocks? Mike Coppola/Getty

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