Paper 1 A - Beyoncé Music Videos

Paper 1 A - Beyoncé Music Videos

Career

Beyoncé is an American singer who is seen as one of the biggest and most important figures of her time because of her music, image and lifestyle. She has been credited for her success which stemmed into inspiring other artists and women of this generation to use her as a role model. She first achieved fame around the year 2000 when was in a girl group known as 'Destiny's Child'. Then around the year 2003, she went solo and released her first solo debut album 'Dangerously in Love' which saw positive reviews on her discography. 

If I Were A Boy

The music video as well as the song is different from Beyoncé's other music as the main meaning on the song is the power of men compared to women. The song's lyrics focus on the misunderstandings between the genders and indicts the male side of relationships. The music video itself is in black and white which is seen for her other music videos including 'Drunk in Love' and 'Sorry'. For this song, it creates an atmosphere which gives the tones of sadness and sorrow. The chosen greyscale colour for the video gives off an old and depressing feeling despite it being a pop song. 

The song is hugely based on stereotypes of men. The narrative follows that Beyoncé is in her boyfriend's shoes and acts like a stereotypical man. She takes the role of being a policeman and challenges the typical conventions of how men are meant to act and the stereotypical male role model in media. She portrays how men are seen as 'emotionless' and only focused on their jobs rather than their girlfriend. The camera closeups with her body also show that despite playing a male role and doing 'tough' roles such as practising her shooting, she is still sexually objectified. 

At the beginning on the video, there is a closeup shot of Beyoncé showing that she has no emotion and is just staring into the camera which is meant to emphasise her male figure in the video. However at the end, there is another closeup which shows her crying which is meant to represent how women are seen as weak and emotional.

Sorry

As for Beyoncé's personality, she is a big advocate for movements which focus on helping the lives of black people including her support for movements such as 'Black Lives Matter'. The song is about black female empowerment and this can be seen through only black women being featured in the video as well as black history iconography. The music video fits in with her 'Lemonade' album which represents black female excellence. 

Similar to her other music video 'If I Were A Boy', the video is completely filmed in black and white. The black and white choice could be so that they purposely remove colour from the video to show that we shouldn't focus on the colour of the women shown in the video and just focus on the message of the video. There are lower camera angles which are focused on the women, though they are not sexualised this way and instead the chosen angles are meant to show power and dominance. 

Serena Williams is featured in the video and she is seen dancing alongside Beyoncé which shows a friendship and not competition. Serena Williams has faced racist and sexist comments about her physique which could be the reason why she stars in the video. In he video, she wears a tank top which reveals much of her skin and she does this to show she is proud of her physique and does not care about the criticism she has faced.

Throughout the video, there are references to key events of black history. For example the bus scenes are meant to represent the bus boycotts that happened during the 1960s and raises the awareness of figures like Rosa Parks who is well known for the bus boycotts. The women in the video are dancing in a plantation style house which is a flashback to how black Americans suffered slavery for 250 years in the southern regions of America. Lastly, Beyoncé is seen sitting in a grand chair in an informal way which shows that she is taking over the house and no one can tell her what to do.