Wednesday, March 1, 2017

Beyonce: Lemonade

Before our Women’s Studies assignment, and presentation I heard a fair amount about Beyoncé and her album Lemonade.  Before watching the visual album I understood the message she was trying to convey through her song “Formation”.  It was in a project that I did last year, where I compared her “Formation” video and her performance at the Super Bowl, to the 1968 Olympics where two African-american athletes conducted a political statement using the Black Power Solute. During Laurie Nardone’s presentation she mentioned the 2016 Super Bowl half time show and why it was right in a lot of ways for Beyoncé to use that as a platform to advertise her beliefs. Both of these events were very controversial and there was a lot of backlash for both, but in these instances there were also positive outcomes.  After further watching the entire visual album and hearing from Laurie Nardone, I realized how all of Beyoncé's songs and videos made a connection. Between each song, and through the images in the videos she accentuates her feminism. It became more apparent that every choice Beyoncé made in her videos was completely intentional. Because she is one of the most popular artists of our generation, it makes so much sense that she uses her fame to put her ideas out there so much.
Laurie Nardone described Lemonade like “a piece of art”. I couldn’t agree more with that comment. I think that there are so many pieces to how Beyoncé created her visual album and the fact that every thing was connected and premeditated really added to the depth of discussion. During Laurie’s presentation it was really interesting to hear about the “Appropriation and Subversion”. She explained that it was taking something, and turning it on it’s head. It was clear in Beyoncé’s “Hold Up” video that she was appropriating sites of masculinity like the bat, and the monster truck, and then again during the visual album she shows the New Orlean’s football stadium, and she even talks about balls in her song “Sorry”. In her last song “Formation” she really conveys power as her own. In the lines “I might just be a black bill gates in the making”, “I might get your song played on a radio station”, and “if he hit it right I might take him on a flight in my chopper” all express this message that Beyoncé doesn’t believe that she has to be lesser then her man, or that she needs someone else to be supporting her financially through life. She says constantly throughout the visual album that your “best revenge is your paper”.
Beyoncé is by far a very iconic artist of our generations and will be to the other generations to come. I don’t believe that after she is gone that she will be forgotten. She has made such a powerful statement through Lemonade, as well as all of her prior albums. I can proudly say that I am a very big Beyoncé supporter but that also comes with saying that I stand for every feminist remark that she makes through her music or not.

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