"How are media language and representations used to create emotional responses in the audience?"
Beyonce is known to be one of the most influential iconic artists who works towards empowering beliefs on feminism and the black movement. Her single Formation for the album Lemonade was released on February 6th 2016- a day before the Superbowl. The music video gained a lot of attention due to it revolving around the historical events of Hurricane Katrina, black culture and feminism.
The music video starts off with Beyonce standing on top of a half submerged police in the flood initiates an emotional response from the viewer. The use of this wide-shot invokes the aftermath of the Hurricane Katrina, this devastation reminds people of the damage that had been caused and introduces some of the components of the music video. Beyonce may have wanted to address the matters of social values that still exist today, Hurricane Katrina was historically significant as it was once of the worst disasters in American history where the federal government failed to equally support both races in the time of need. Beyonce's music video allows people to look back at that time and maybe feel empowered to continue allowing our society to accept equality amongst races.
The shots of the sinking police car signifies the failure of the police doing their job to protect civilians, instead they had been shooting those of minority from the African-American community. This binary opposition of good versus evil makes us question whether we can rely on the police to protect us; they are believed to have many connotations such as doing good, enforce the law, protect civilians and stand for justice. However, throughout the music video the police are represented to be seen as the villain: there are shots where they point a gun at an innocent child. Furthermore, during the aftermath of the hurricane, many people of the minority were left with no aid of help and some were even shot by police due to rumours of shootings and riots made by the media, this made people afraid to save those who were being portrayed as thugs and thieves. Some audiences may be able to sympathise with the injustice and racial discrimination that are still going on with our society.
Throughout the music video, Beyonce reframed the demeaning stereotypes towards African -Americans into empowering messages which should be something to be proud of. For example, "I like my baby heir with my baby hair and afros/ I like my negro nose with Jackson Five nostrils; which addresses to the social hate towards young girls with afros and natural features which are insulted towards. Viewers who may have these features can learn to embrace themselves more and feel more self-loved. Andrew Goodwin identifies that the lyrics amplify with the visuals which helps define the concept of the music video. We see a quick jump-cut of Beyonce's daughter Blue Ivy and two other children all with afros- their body languages convey power and pride. This perfectly sends a positive message out of celebrating your own hertiage and establishes her ethos of "this is who I am". It also suggests, that historical significant black figures such as the King of Pop Micheal Jackson(Jackson Five nostrils) are looked up to by millions of people, and they are changing the way society views coloured people- that black people can be as successful.
Formation is categorised as the genre bounce/trap music, which is a popular New Orleans style of hip hop. There were a few controversies where audiences became enraged because of existing footage from the New Orleans "The B.E.A.T" was used. It was supposed to be used as an intertexual reference to promote and bring out the bounce genre. However, as a negotiated reading audiences may refer to this as plagiarism or unoriginal. The fact that Beyonce is a massive star who can afford for a large production for her music videos, makes viewers question why she couldn't create her own footage. This is quite shocking due to the juxtaposition because throughout the music video there are many use of consumer items even though she talks about poverty/distribution.
For feminist empowerment, bell hooks' idea that race and class as well as sex determine the extent to which individuals are exploited, discriminated against, used to be an issue and it still is today; however Beyonce wanted to challenge this idea by converting the positions of patriarchy and slavery back in the 1600s. By putting herself and the other black women with her in a nice mansion in rich, stylish clothes she seems to be saying "we belong here". Female empowerment is also encouraged during the chorus where there's black women getting in a formation dancing in sync with each other. Beyonce can be seen as an archor for this formation to form- rather then dictate over the women, she joins the formation to show that she is also an equal regardless of her famous background. She is calling out all the beautiful, strong black women which which can represent how no woman is more significant then the other regardless of where they come from and that they equally move together to uplift each other.
The music video starts off with Beyonce standing on top of a half submerged police in the flood initiates an emotional response from the viewer. The use of this wide-shot invokes the aftermath of the Hurricane Katrina, this devastation reminds people of the damage that had been caused and introduces some of the components of the music video. Beyonce may have wanted to address the matters of social values that still exist today, Hurricane Katrina was historically significant as it was once of the worst disasters in American history where the federal government failed to equally support both races in the time of need. Beyonce's music video allows people to look back at that time and maybe feel empowered to continue allowing our society to accept equality amongst races.
The shots of the sinking police car signifies the failure of the police doing their job to protect civilians, instead they had been shooting those of minority from the African-American community. This binary opposition of good versus evil makes us question whether we can rely on the police to protect us; they are believed to have many connotations such as doing good, enforce the law, protect civilians and stand for justice. However, throughout the music video the police are represented to be seen as the villain: there are shots where they point a gun at an innocent child. Furthermore, during the aftermath of the hurricane, many people of the minority were left with no aid of help and some were even shot by police due to rumours of shootings and riots made by the media, this made people afraid to save those who were being portrayed as thugs and thieves. Some audiences may be able to sympathise with the injustice and racial discrimination that are still going on with our society.
Throughout the music video, Beyonce reframed the demeaning stereotypes towards African -Americans into empowering messages which should be something to be proud of. For example, "I like my baby heir with my baby hair and afros/ I like my negro nose with Jackson Five nostrils; which addresses to the social hate towards young girls with afros and natural features which are insulted towards. Viewers who may have these features can learn to embrace themselves more and feel more self-loved. Andrew Goodwin identifies that the lyrics amplify with the visuals which helps define the concept of the music video. We see a quick jump-cut of Beyonce's daughter Blue Ivy and two other children all with afros- their body languages convey power and pride. This perfectly sends a positive message out of celebrating your own hertiage and establishes her ethos of "this is who I am". It also suggests, that historical significant black figures such as the King of Pop Micheal Jackson(Jackson Five nostrils) are looked up to by millions of people, and they are changing the way society views coloured people- that black people can be as successful.
Formation is categorised as the genre bounce/trap music, which is a popular New Orleans style of hip hop. There were a few controversies where audiences became enraged because of existing footage from the New Orleans "The B.E.A.T" was used. It was supposed to be used as an intertexual reference to promote and bring out the bounce genre. However, as a negotiated reading audiences may refer to this as plagiarism or unoriginal. The fact that Beyonce is a massive star who can afford for a large production for her music videos, makes viewers question why she couldn't create her own footage. This is quite shocking due to the juxtaposition because throughout the music video there are many use of consumer items even though she talks about poverty/distribution.
For feminist empowerment, bell hooks' idea that race and class as well as sex determine the extent to which individuals are exploited, discriminated against, used to be an issue and it still is today; however Beyonce wanted to challenge this idea by converting the positions of patriarchy and slavery back in the 1600s. By putting herself and the other black women with her in a nice mansion in rich, stylish clothes she seems to be saying "we belong here". Female empowerment is also encouraged during the chorus where there's black women getting in a formation dancing in sync with each other. Beyonce can be seen as an archor for this formation to form- rather then dictate over the women, she joins the formation to show that she is also an equal regardless of her famous background. She is calling out all the beautiful, strong black women which which can represent how no woman is more significant then the other regardless of where they come from and that they equally move together to uplift each other.
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