How is Beyonce positioned as an artist through her music videos?
Beyonce is positioned in the music industry as being the elite and at the top of the industry who artists look up to and want to be like. Her reflection of her always being a voice for women to be strong and to stand up for themselves without having a man in their lives. However, some of her music videos when she met ‘Jay z’ changed the interpretation of men and when she got into a relationship with him some of her videos became provocative. In addition to this, the screenshot shows women empowerment as a force of women and being able to come together and Beyonce be the lead who is standing next to a lion anchoring the power of this large cat who is seen to be positioned in a higher power in their usual environment and being able to threaten their predators. This can be used as intertextuality in this screenshot because they are trying to reflect this image and the direct mode of address from eye contact makes them seem intimidating which contrasts the way women are seen in society as they are normally perceived to be vulnerable.
In this music video Beyonce is part of the band in which she used to be in who were ‘Destinys child’ who were a big pop band in the 90’s. As Beyonce grew as an artist she decided that being part of a girl group was not for her anymore and for her to become independent, which has shown today that she is one of the biggest solo artists in the world and her awards adding up to 595 and her being nominated for over 1355 making history as an American female artist.
The notorious criminal couple were a couple who committed multiple crimes together and never did one without one another Clyde's was first arrested in 1926 for automobile theft after failing to return a car he had rented in Dallas to visit an estranged high school girlfriend. The rental car agency dropped the charges, but the incident remained on Clyde’s arrest record. Just three weeks later, he was arrested again alongside his older brother Ivan “Buck” Barrow for an even more farcical crime—possession of a truckload of stolen turkeys. This shows him as being a rebellious human being and Bonnie being his side hustle which goes against the stereotype in society of women being unfortified and being the dominant one who stays at home whilst the man of the house would go out to work however, in these images we can see that Bonnie has the possession of a gun putting her in a position of empowerment and the gun symbolises danger, aggression and her having this was very unusual at this time making it more stand out then then it would in today's society because of the breakdown of patriarchy in society today.
This image is a screenshot from the music video ‘if I were a boy’ which is one of Beyonce's top songs in which she has, and this shot shows her as being pure as she is not seemed to be glammed up with a costume and make-up and hair done like she has been in some of her other music videos with choreography and back up dancers. The lyrics when she explains that if she was to be a boy she would act differently as boys do and how they have an advantage of being treated in society which reflects the idea of her having female empowerment and speaking about such issues as this. The music video shows her being a policewomen in one scene which is stereotypically perceived to be a ‘males' job’ however Beyonce is trying to defeat this image and create a message that women should be treated equally than the opposite sex. This links to the theorist ‘Van Zoonen’ who believes in post colonialism and feminism in society.
The music video ‘Formation’ reflects Beyonce as an important image and as a saint to some of her audience. This is because in this video she addresses challenging issues in the community at the time when there was flooding in New Orleans due to hurricane Katrina and for her to help awareness, she made a music video in this area. The opening images of the video show parts of the city under water, reminiscent of the fatal aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. During the tragedy came controversy, as onlookers believed that New Orleans didn’t receive the attention it deserved because of its mostly black community. (Remember Kanye’s comment that “George Bush doesn’t care about black people?”) Sadly, parts of New Orleans are still uninhabitable, even all these years later. The images work as a silent reminder of that dark time in our nation.
Police brutality has been an ongoing discussion in the black community long before it ever reached a national stage. The conversation especially exploded after the fatal shootings of Trayvon Martin, Mike Brown, and too many other lives lost in recent memory. Several artists and icons have spoken out against the unfair and racist tactics from (mostly white) police officers, and Beyoncé going on record to devote such a powerful image in her music video wasn’t an unconscious choice. She filled the music video with images that ranged from graffiti that read "Stop Shooting Us," to a wall of SWAT officers and literally sunk a New Orleans Police Car into a body of water to let everyone know where she stood on the issues at hand.
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