Over the past few years tragic events seem to be surrounding our society. An array of killings, social protests, police brutality and racism have startled the nation. Lately celebrities have been addressing these issues more and more on TV, in interviews and in the public eye. One incredible artist just used her talent to address all of these issues and more in her new music video "Formation". Beyoncé is an iconic figure in our culture, spreading her talent, feminist views and activism worldwide. This video is one of a kind. It is not centered on her but on Black America. There have been many critics disagreeing with Beyoncé 's video. They felt that she spread negative messages of police throughout her video. Others, however, loved her video. They felt she used her platform to reach out and address issues. Supporters and critics of the video have expressed their opinions in many different ways. In this paper I will analyze this video that has been shared worldwide. The question I ask is: "How does Beyoncé depict the complexity of Black Americans?" In order to answer this question, I will apply Pentadic criticism to analyze this discourse. Beyoncé recently released her music video on Saturday February 6, 2016. Beyoncé 's "Formation" video forms messages in text and visuals that fits today 's social issues. They call attention to the audience mainly for women and Black America. This piece of rhetoric creates meaning in society by giving us events and visuals to help the
Beyoncé Knowles’s Lemonade video album brings the words of Beyoncé into a visual media and shows the viewer a deeper meaning behind the album. After this video came out many articles came forward analyzing Lemonade. One article, in particular, that was intriguing is Bell Hooks “Moving Beyond Pain.” Hooks starts her article saying that the Lemonade video was created as a money-making, business strategy, but as the text continues the reader can conclude that “Moving Beyond Pain” is actually about African American women, and women in general, standing up for themselves.
Beyoncé Knowles, a well-known singer, songwriter uses two of her songs: “Freedom” and “Formation” to tell the story of herself. “Freedom” is the beginning of her story where she is searching for freedom and equality showing that there is still much inequality and injustice for African Americans in America today. The song slowly transitions to a more positive tone when she seems to have made something beneficial out of her difficult situation. “Formation,” however, has a completely different tone. While she does address negative situations from the past at the beginning of the song, she quickly transitions to a more positive tone full of pride in where she came from, who she has become, and what she has overcome. Together, the two songs
Double-consciousness, as coined by W.E.B. DuBois, refers to the struggle of oppressed groups in an oppressed society, and viewing those struggles through the eyes of the majority. Despite its incarnation over a hundred years ago, it is still just as relevant to today’s society as America still struggles with racial injustice and oppression. Beyoncé Knowles, one of the most prolific music artists of the 21st century, examines these injustices in her controversial visual album, Lemonade, which highlights the struggle of minorities through culture, oppression, and feminism, using imagery and song.
For nearly twenty years, Beyoncé has lived her life in the public eye yet she has always kept her cool, been submissive, and rather quiet when it came to her personal endeavors however after releasing the film “Lemonade”, we are able to see her in a vulnerable light. In Jeremy Helliger’s article: “Dear Beyhive: Stop Whining. Beyoncé Still Hasn’t Earned Her Album Of The Year Grammy” he addresses the idea that although Beyoncé was able to encourage black women to be proud and free, she also she missed the mark by adding raunchy, over the top content to her vulnerability.
First, Frasqueri’s video for her poem, filmed by Tai Cruz, begins with beautiful black women laughing, dancing, and posing in front of the camera. As this images are being shown across the screen the words, “The government is lying, they wants us to keep dying, and damn, you think, what is even the point of trying?” are being spoken. This establishes strong pathos to the viewers. It sparks emotion in the viewer by implying that the people in charge of our country do not care about minorities living here. By seeing the women on the screen the audience will begin to wonder why this country would oppress an array of joyful and flawless women like the black ones shown in the video. Making the viewers feel empathy towards them. She continues to spotlight the hardships of the black community while a continuous stream of colored women are shown celebrating in every shot. Frasqueri makes a logical statement
Beyonce Giselle Knowles is a African American lady that is very known in the music world in pop. Her music is great in society in many ways. The music Beyonce’ makes is for women and speaks to them to speak up for your rights and fight for them. Her song ‘Lemonade’, is also known to be a song for our society because of what she's talking about; slavery and
Doug E. Fresh, a popular beat-boxer in rap music today, has been quoted saying, “Hip-hop is supposed to uplift and create, to educate people on a larger level and to make a change.” Although this is the original intention of hip-hop music, public opinion currently holds the opposite view. Since the 1970’s musical artists have changed the face of hip-hop and rap and worldwide, people – mostly teens—have been striving to emulate certain artists and their lyrics, which has created negative stereotypes for hip-hop music and also for those who choose to listen to it. With vulgar lyrics referencing drugs, alcohol, sex, and aggression, it’s no wonder these stereotypes exist. However, is music really the direct cause of how teens act,
Im gunna state the story of the self, the story of us, and now. Beyonce needs a gladly references various parts of dark culture and needs you to recall where they originate from. Beyonce was born in Houston, Texas. Beyonce is of African-American and creole descent. Dark culture has been winding up continuously popular. Beyonce needs you to comprehend our columbusing. All black lives matter in the why we’re all at the of stigmatized right now being watched and told standard by our light color assistants. Beyonce recovers dark culture and reveals insight into the shameful acts tons of shading. Beyonce in the video try’s to stand up for her darkness, readily and lastly should a connection. According to Eric Liu “The day when a majority of Americans
Misogyny and degradation of women is present in almost every genre of music, yet the one genre that completely revolves around demeaning women is rap. Over the years rap and rap music videos have continually become more sexual and degrading towards women. Rap has been criticized numerous times for this reason, and that is because rap is one of the most popular genres of music for the younger generations. It is more than a genre of music, it is a complete industry filled with clothing and other merchandise. The reason this constant demeaning of women exists is because rap as a genre that rewards the objectification of women. The excuses used to justify the misogyny in rap are incomplete and lack accurate support. The most effective way
Music is a very dominate tool to connect with listeners and get across the intended message they are singing about. Using a music video, the song is brought to life and gives viewers a visual image of what the song is portraying. Beyonce, a singer, songwriter, and actress, uses this idea to illustrate an issue that is so close to her. Although born and raised in Houston, Texas, Beyonce comes from parents raised in Alabama and Louisiana. Coming from a family in the South, she is very aware of her cultural originality and very passionate about it. With this in mind, she uses her music video for “Formation” to get across the issues of Black Lives Matter and police brutality, knowing millions of fans would see. Formation, meaning the evolution
In her 2016 VMA performance Beyoncé ended her song formation with a giant neon sign behind her reading ‘feminist.’ Her live performances have often been a way for her to portray political views and catch global attention. Feminist is a word for some that has a negative connotation associated with it. Beyoncé is aware of her influence and by standing next to the notorious word she is using her brand to help create change in society. Global praise has also been given to her for her “****Flawless” music video. The video begins with a 9 year old Beyoncé auditioning for star search the music proceeds. At the end of the video it shows the girl group losing the competition. Though she often preaches the perfection of women this shows that we all have our imperfections and sometimes you lose. Beyoncé is empowering women by showing that no one's too good to lose, its part of life. The songs also contains an excerpt from (Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s ‘We Should All Be Feminists’) speech:
Tearing down the idea of conforming to any standard and preaching self-love, was a song created to push the importance of being yourself and doing for yourself; Beyoncé’s Formation is a song that challenged the standards. Formation led to black women taking a second look at everything they were taught. Beyoncé showed everyone who she was when she released this song, she spoke her mind and didn’t care what anyone had to say in response. As someone who has faced criticism and discrimination, but never let it stop her, Beyoncé uses her song Formation to call out other black women on how they tend to attempt to tear each other down while also promoting being proud, unapologetic, and carefree.
In Anthea Butler’s response to Melissa Harris-Perry’s “The Pain and the Power of ‘Lemonade’”, she argues that we are finally seeing the “real Beyoncé.” That she’s creating a well-constructed visual album that conceals her real feelings and
Beyonce's video formation is based off of black lives matter movements. Beyonce is getting tons of publicity on this video because she was not only showing that she reps new orleans by not only the fact that she is in new orleans in the video but by the fact that she released the video the weekend of mardi gras, so that gave the video more publicity with people who are from there.In the video Beyonce is showing images of her in new orleans going under water on top of a police car to show that after hurricane katrina hit, all that the government did was tear the rest of whoever lost their homes down. Instead of them creating a way to build those peoples houses back up the government went and moved all those people to different places that they
The video begins in black and white with Beyoncé’s soft-spoken voice stating the directions to her grandmother’s fresh squeezed lemonade, while three young girls run out of the house in dresses. The visuals for All Night were captivating as it flashed various images and universal symbols of love and life, personal moments such as wedding videos, pre and post pregnancy footage and of random couples on the streets with footage of various sexual preferences and various colors and creed. This video was the ending to Beyoncé’s critically acclaimed rocky love story turned visual album “Lemonade”. The narration in this video really pulled the visuals to another level as she spoke on almost divorcing her husband of coming up on ten years Sean “Jay-Z” Carter. To want to give their relationship another shot despite the infidelities to make it last a lifetime. This video aims to show that love has its ups and downs but the ups usually will always prevail.