Video Analysis: Beyoncé's 'Formation'

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

All, of the dancers in this music video are African-American, and it is very clear. None of their hair is straightened, they are all in Black Panther-esque outfits, and they are “unapologetically black.” The concept of this video is head-on addressing systemic racism. An obvious example is the dancers but there are also many more. For one, the opening scene, as referenced earlier, includes Beyoncé herself standing on a police car flooded in water while a clip saying “What happened in the New Orleans?” plays in the background. This artist is using her platform to bring attention to the hurricane in New Orleans and how there was little to nothing done by police there. She is calling out the system in this video.

One of the most prominent visuals in Lemonade is the setting of New Orleans, Louisiana. In current times, New Orleans is most closely associated with the Hurricane Katrina disaster of 2004, in which a strong hurricane devastated the city and left many killed, injured, or homeless. There was national criticism of the government’s handling of Katrina, stating that the government took too long to respond to the crisis due to the city being mostly populated by blacks. However, this is not the only aspect of New Orleans that is central to Lemonade’s narrative. The video also shows staples of the old American South during the time of slavery, such as plantation homes and slave quarters. In this setting, Beyoncé indulges a fantasy of an all-black utopia dominated by women, who dress up, take photographs, and

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.

analysis and inspiration. Something that jumps out during this video that needs analyzing is the racial stereotypes. In the unit two reading, it talks about a problem within hip-hop music videos. The videos supposedly put out bad messages and “perpetuate” stereotypes upon themselves. Fans of hip-hop say that “hip-hop music is a reflection of the realities of life in much of black America” (Caliendo 35). Although this music video has characteristics of stereotypes, they don’t seem offensive. Big Sean, Kanye West, and John

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

In 1982, Michael Jackson released one of the most iconic songs/music videos the world has ever seen. “Thriller” is a Halloween classic, and has been a hit since the day it was released. The Thriller Music video is roughly 13 minutes long, and is classified as a “short film”. 34 years later, the iconic Beyoncé released her album “Lemonade.” Lemonade is made up of 12 songs, and each song has its own separate video, but all the videos somehow connect and the videos were turned into an hour-long film. For this blog, I will compare/contrast the two videos.

Over the past few years, racial tensions in America have heightened. During this period, Black America undergo the daily struggle of witnessing the killing of unarmed black men and women. Victims of these endless killings and police brutality, turned into one of many hashtags, which led to the formations of the Black Lives Matter movement. Solange Knowles, younger sister of Beyoncé, soul singer and songwriter was viewed as the angry black woman. Solange used her platform to speak up. She became the most outspoken black artist for black activism in recent years. She embodies the image of a carefree black girl who is willing to let the world know that she is proud of her blackness.

Following the acquittal of George Zimmerman for the death of Trayvon Martin, Patrisse Cullers retweeted a friend’s Facebook status with the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter. In collaboration with other friends they shared their experiences and stories on other social media platforms and subsequently created a socio-political campaign. Soon it became a powerful force of hashtag activism that is now an international movement that has more than 26 chapters globally. According to it founders the activist movement follows guiding principles that support “an ideological and political intervention in a world where black lives are systematically and intentionally targeted for demise.” It was the emergence of a movement like this that destroyed the newly formed notion of a post-racial America. This notion was heavily influenced by the election of the United States’ first African American president, Barack Obama. Embracing intersectionality, #BlackLivesMatter was started by three black women, two of whom are queer and one who is Nigerian American.

Person, and Chris Riotta. ""Formation" Lyrics: Meaning Behind Beyoncé's New Black Power Anthem." Mic. N.p., 07 Feb. 2016. Web. 03 May 2016.

The artist, Destiny Frasqueri, explores what it means to be young and brown in today’s America through her spoken word poem “Brown Girl Blues.” Frasqueri informs listeners of the hardship and oppression on the black community and the racial divide the government keeps on society. This argument makes sense. With the pandemonium that appears on the news and the riots that happen daily it’s obvious the reasons behind Frasqueri perspective. Though Frasqueri is talking on such deep and demanding material she stills keeps an optimistic disposition on the topic. Destiny Frasqueri has spent her whole artistic career writing about the injustice of minorities. Many of her other pieces have a more dark and isolated tone, but not “Brown Girl Blues”. The jazzy and soulful instrumental integrated with a video of young, black, powerful females gives a unique and hopeful vibe to

If you walk down the street and ask several strangers if they know who Beyonce is, chances are that most of those individuals will be able to answer in the affirmative, or with song references. Beyonce is a female, African-American, singer/songwriter who has been utterly successful in living the American Dream. Beyonce’s works including Run the World (Girls), Single Ladies, and If I Were a Boy, all share the common theme of empowering women. In her most recent anthem for womankind, Formation, Beyonce narrows her audience down to solemnly African-American women, yet the music video for Formation branches out to relate to many other peoples. When Formation was first released, it took hold of screens big and small all over the world because the

Zandria Robinson’s article for Rolling Stone was amazing, articulate, and highly controversial. I appreciate Robinson’s attention to the details of the underlying facets of Beyonce’s work, and how they connect to black women all over the world. Robinson explores the idea that Beyonce uncovers the collective struggles of life that many black women hide. In my experience at Spelman, especially true is Robinson’s idea that, “part of Black women’s magic, born out of necessity, has been the ability to dissemble.”

“Formation” was the most popular on the Lemonade album, and help the album achieve the great success it did. Without the song, the album may not have done as well as it did, but if the debate is which one is better based on profits, the album would win by a long shot. This is usually the case when it comes to profits regarding singles and albums. The small three million dollars “Formation” made compared to the ten million Lemonade made the first week proved that. In the end, like hit singles, “Formation” put up a good fight, but in the end, like most albums, it was no match for

This captivating black power anthem riddled in slang terms, speaks to black women and encourages black women to break the barriers, fight constraints and to importantly love their melanin as well as never forget their upbringing. I have chosen both Formation and Flawless as source materials due to the fact that it epitomises the beauty and struggle, the beauty of the struggle of black feminism and adversities endured by black women. Firstly, in the Formation video itself, there are a