Beyoncé Formation Music Video

Beyoncé Formation Music Video

Context

As Beyoncé is one of the biggest artists in the world, she uses her popularity to raise awareness about important issues going on in America. Just like many of her other songs which are linked to the subject of 'Black Lives Matter', her controversial song 'Formation' was very spoken about back at its time of release. The song was released the day before her Super Bowl performance for her album 'Lemonade'. It seems as if she did this on purpose so that she could grab all the attention and as a way of promotion from the Super Bowl event which is watched by around 100 million people.

In the music video, the first line of lyrics is by Messy Mya who was a popular YouTuber and rapper before he was shot and killed in 2010. He says 'What happened at the New Wil'ins?'. Since he was born and raised in New Orleans it is an intro to what the video is about and refers to Hurricane Katrina which was one of the deadliest hurricanes which caused many deaths and extensive damage in Louisiana. Beyoncé decided to bring up the topic despite it occurring 16 years ago to raise awareness about how the government failed to protect the people of New Orleans as it has a big African-American population and is seen as what has motivated racism in the US. 

Video

The video starts with Beyoncé laying on top of a police car which is being submerged in the water. This already shows a clear message that the police are 'drowning' as in she wants to show that she has power over the police whilst it's being submerged by the flood water. She also sings to the camera in a close-up shot of her whilst laying in a seductive way on the police car to show she is sexualising herself which is seen throughout the video. Sexualising herself is not new and she has based her sexual image in many of her other music videos. There are then scenes throughout which show her in an elegant black dress and surrounded by multiple black men who are wearing suits which is meant to challenge the idea that normally white families are meant to dress that way and seem 'posh' and 'upper-class'. The man in the back wearing the red hat is a reference to the group of men who would service loans to the black community in the 'Jim Crow' era where black people could not get loans from mainstream banks. 

Something which is similar to her other music video for her song 'Sorry' is that there are no non-black people present through the entire video. This could be because she wants to audience to focus on how black people can take on the stereotyped 'white' roles of dressing up in formal suits and dancing in an antique house. Beyoncé sexualises herself in many instances throughout the video despite her trying to focus on African-Americans being neglected in America. These moments include her dancing in the house in revealing clothes which shows she does not want to follow the rule of dressing modestly and having to act a certain way. Another scene shows her leaning out of a car whilst staring into the camera which is normally an unusual thing for a woman to do but she does so as a male voice is heard saying 'Oh yes, I like that' which is 'catcalling' but also seen in a negative light because it counts as sexual harassment. Despite the comments being used at her, she does not seem to mind.

Towards the end of the video, there are police with riot gear who are standing in formation against the protesters. There is then a close-up shot of a wall which has graffiti on it writing 'Stop Shooting Us'. The shot of the graffiti message and the scene of the riot police is meant to show how riots happen after police shootings which are deemed unfair. It even is important after four years as the George Floyd killing caused Black Lives Matter protests all over America to stand against police who shoot and kill black people unfairly and accusing them of being suspects. The end of the video returns to the scene of Beyoncé on top of the police car which she is likely to have chose to do to show that whilst she wants to show she has power over the police, she also sinks with the car to show that she still shows support for police and focuses the issue on the government's lack of support and the few officers that fatally shoot innocent black people.