Beyoncé comparative essay

Essay 2

Beyoncé’s formation is seen as being a major political influential video that brings to light the issue that is the still on-going mistreatment of the black community in America and is a political cry for black women to take pride in them selves and stand tall. Meaning behind the video

The Super bowl 2016 during the super bowl halftime Beyoncé was said to have smoothly and effortless “stole” the spotlight away from Coldplay and Bruno Mars. Her performance of her song formation was heavily influenced on the black panther movement of the sixties and was the singers way of contributing to the on-going battle with the black lives matter movement currently going on across America and reaching around the world. It was said that her performance was like a political cry out for all black women to have pride in New Orleans. Quote “Beyoncé marched onto the football field, clad in skin-tight leather and Michael Jackson style gold military gold sashes, with a posse of impeccably choreographed female dancers dressed like 70s Black Panthers, it was time for an early bath for Chris martin's band”

The scene when the young boy is dancing with a New Orleans Style, in front of an an.-riot line of policemen and they rise their hands, after that the camera shows a graffiti in the wall with the legend "Stop Shoo.ng Us” could be interpreted in many ways, but one of them, is the triumph of the weak using non-violent methods, over those that represent the governmental power. 

Hurricane Katrina and Bounce music Hurricane Katrina was an extremely destructive hurricane the plagued threw the USA in 2005 in response to that some of the people of new Orleans that were affected by this destructive hurricane response in the only way they knew how, through music. Bounce music - the bounce is characterized to be similar to a call and response style of Mardi Gras chants and dance, it is said to be frequently hyper sexualised. It is normally done over triggerman beast, which are beat that are sampled from other sources. Bounce music started up in the early 1990s in New Orleans. The Bounce sound was seen to recycle and imitate the “drag Rap” sounds; frequently using synthesizers and drum machines. Bounce is said to be more of a geographical sound that is only found in New Orleans. 

In the music video, Beyoncé says, “Illuminate mess”, whilst rolling her eyes in the video. This relates to the conspiracies of her being a part of the cult, illuminate. Therefore, it shows her rejecting these ideas and these beliefs that she is part of such group, and is telling everyone that she is herself, and has different views and beliefs, such as equal rights, and black power.

With in the music video there are also intertextual references to other medias When you see the lone boy dancing, it is actually a reference to when a lone man Broke out into dance in the middle of the Baltimore riots* in 2015 which was caused by the hospitalization and death of Freddie Gray a 25 year old African American and was a cry for the end of police brutality in America against black citizens. There are also references to a bounce documentary named B.E.A.T that talks about the bounce music in the new Orleans. 

The miser en scene in the formation video help set the tone for the music video; expressing a political statement in the for of a music video In terms of the costumes Beyoncé is seen sitting in what looks like an old Victorian new Orleans house, dawning an antebellum dresses surrounded by others in similar artier. The antebellum dress was a dress that was worn by the southern bells of new Orleans during the antebellum era* the dresses were typically worn by the unmarried women in the plantation owning southern upper call of society The antebellum era was between 1783-1861 and was also known as the plantation era during this time during the American revolution despite the efforts of some slavery was still very prominent and many high class households still had slaves and many of them work on plantation farms due to the need for economic rise in the US. During her video she also takes to dancing in a house of the same Victorian Antebellum style in a red costume

There is a direct reference to feminism and women leadership when she says: "Okay, ladies, now let's get in formation”. Within the music video we can see a number of scenes that challenge stereotypes. For example, when Beyoncé says, “Okay, ladies, now lets get in formation”. This creates a challenge against stereotypes as stereotypically women sit back and let the men be in charge with what goes on. However, we can see that this is not evident within this music video, as Beyoncé is taking charge, and is showing her dominance and leadership skills. This quote also links to feminism, as she is preparing the women, and she is speaking to women across the world that are watching the music video, therefore, she is wanting women to take charge, and do something about feminism, therefore, they need to get in formation.

Andrew Goodwin- The style of music video that Formation falls into is a performance music video, which is common among most Trap, and Bounce, which falls in to its genre characteristics. There are multiple shot of Beyoncé dancing and lip-syncing to the song. You can argue the music video has a narrative but I would say that the video has an overarching message, that relates to the political significances that music video has in relation to the BLM movement. Whi8ch can be seen in the sequence of the young boy dancing in front of a line of armed police.

Relationship between visuals and lyrics and visuals and music for example, on the line “I slay” she (Beyoncé) caresses the under of her chin with the back of her hand relating the words “I slay” to her self indicating to the audience that this line is directed at her. Also on the beats during the break at the beginning of the song Beyoncé is seen wearing a large hat wearing and black dress and gold accessories, on each of the beats her head flicks up not showing her eyes, but being accented by the large hat on every beat. 

Notion of Looking - objectification of women When looking the notion of looking and the objectification of women there aren’t many that can be seen as notable. An example of some parts of the video that can be classed as objectifying women, this medium shot of Beyoncé sitting on the chair in the short antebellum style legs spread open. 

Throughout the music video, Beyoncé is pictured wearing revealing and expensive outfits, such as Gucci. Therefore, this supports the notion of looking, and she is not doing anything to challenge this by wearing revealing outfits. Therefore, Beyoncé is focusing more on trying to sell her music video, as she wears revealing outfits to attract men as well as women, as sex sells. Therefore, she is not using feminism and equal rights to sell her music video, even though it is what she sings about throughout.

Formation in terms of Gender representation breaks away from what you would be considered the norm in music videos, the women in this video seemed to be insured with a sense of independence and female empowerment. Rather than having all the women draped over the men or being and object to look at while taking the back seat and inevitably becoming a background prop; the men are the secondary genre in the video standing in the back while the woman (Beyoncé) in centre stage and powered. (There are no set gender role that are displayed in this video) A shot that also helps with the positive representation of women on the is the shot of Beyoncé standing on top of the police car arms extended outwards, by her standing like this it suggest a strong sense of power and self confidence

In the music video we see Beyoncé dressed in a old upper class white dress, where she says “baby hairs and afros”, and “Jackson Five nostrils”, which shows that she is proud of all of these stereotypical features that are related to black people. Therefore, it shows that she is supporting black people, and fighting for black people, and equality. Therefore, it suggests to us that her song is about black power rather than other things we consider her songs to be about, such as feminism. We also hear her sing about her family history in the same clip, when she says “My daddy Alabama, my momma Louisiana”, and it uses an editing technique of cut away to cut to pictures of both her mother and father, when she says this. This relates the lyrics to the music video, and this allows the audience to understand what is going on in the music video and what she is singing about. It is also effective a

The racial representation in the video also links back with to videos political standpoint and relation to the BLM. All the actors and people that you can see in the video are of an ethnic background from the men to the women. This wouldn’t seem like a major element to take from the video as there are many music videos that have an all Black or Ethnic minority based cast, however most of these videos are RnB, Rap or Grime based and are predominantly men. In the formation video all the women are of an ethnic minority, and while you do see diversity in the cast o f dancers or actors in music videos in the media, when it comes to music videos for female artist it is very rare that you see and all black or ethnic cast of women presented.

Age representation within the video is seen to be pegged to no age Beyoncé having women of all ages in the video, which can be seen as breaking away from the norm of what we see in a music video of having a group of people perceived to be the same age. In the formation music video Beyoncé has her daughter Blue Ivy feature in a few shots between two other children, which could tell us that she wants life as a young black female to be better for her daughter. This suggests that she wants a change, and by including her daughter, it tells us that it is a personal matter and this affects her in her life. We see the young girl Blue Ivy dressed in a high-class white gown, therefore, it suggests that she is privileged which is stereotypically a binary opposite. Therefore, it creates meaning and allows the audience to want to change the societies views, as they are stereotypical, and unfair. 

In terms of whether or not the video falls into a patriarchy the video seems to counters the idea of sociality falling under a patriarchy, having the men being the dominant character and “ruling over” the women and women being secondary to that. At the same time the video doesn’t seem to have a relation to patriarchy but leans to strongly counter it with its depiction of strong independent women standing on their own to feet.

Laura Mulvey theory states that music videos and the media we consume if directed, produced, photographed or in anyway controlled by a man then that produced will subject the in that medium to the male gaze. The male Gaze being the idea that the audience's view would be from the heterosexual males point of view. When it comes to whether or not the Mulvey's theory can relate with the formation music video, it can be said that in small parts it can. From this shot of Beyoncé the camera is looking down on her from a high angle view - which can connote a feeling of the vulnerability and can also be seen as the audience looking on her and praying on her maliciously and sexually. In this shot the is a line of women crouching down in a way that can be seen as slightly provocative and sexualised, facing away from the camera. However I believe that the video for the most part highly counters tis theory, as the majority of cast in the music video are women but are depicted more in a way that tries to pull away from this idea of women being the object of and for men, and rather has them standing strong and independent.

In many of Beyoncé’s songs, she fights for girl power, and asks women to come together to be powerful, and do something about feminism. However, we do not see Beyoncé fighting for equal rights and feminism outside of her music, therefore, it could be more of a publicity stunt, to make her look like a feminist, to gain more support from those who do something about equal rights. The fact that she doesn’t do anything about feminism outside of music, suggests that she isn’t really a feminist, and doesn’t do anything about equal rights even if she may want equal rights.