Beyoncé Giselle Knowles-Carter was born September 4th, 1981 in Houston, Texas. At a young age, Beyoncé entered various sing and dance competitions. She rose to fame in the 1990s as the lead singer for a girl-group called Destiny’s Child. Beyonce became a solo artist in 2006, and throughout her solo career she has sold over 100 million records, earning her the title of one of the best-selling music artists of all time. Beyoncé’s music is described as R&B, pop, and hip-hop. Her latest album, Lemonade, debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200, her sixth studio album listed on the chart, as well as all twelve tracks of Lemonade featured on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Lemonade has sold over 1.5 millions copies in the United States. On the …show more content…
Beyoncé starts the video laying on top of a submerged New Orleans police car. This takes one back to the 2008 Hurricane Katrina disaster in Louisiana. The video’s main focus is on African-Americans and their living conditions. The video switches from flickering lights to flooded homes and ghetto streets. Throughout the video, Beyoncé is shown in multiple eras, ranging from the victorian era to the present 2000s. This demonstrates how long African-American and minority groups have been suffering. The featured dancers, whom are all African-American, have no distinct emotion while Beyoncé sings. The refrain, “I like my negro nose with Jackson five nostrils,” are an appreciation for her looks and her life. They illuminate the message that every minority should love who they are and what they look like. These empowering lyrics correlate with her bold dance moves and creates an emotional charge towards the audience when the chorus is sung “I slay… I dream it, I work hard” and “I just might be a black Bill Gates in the making” because she is displaying her pride and what she has done. Further into the video, an image of black, spray painted letters says “Stop Shooting Us” appears for a split second after the scene where a little black boy dances in front a line of white policemen in riot gear. The emotional charge that this creates can relate to the past police shootings of innocent black men and …show more content…
The video changes from scene to scene featuring expressionless black males and females showing their living conditions in ghettos and poverty-stricken neighborhoods with their poorly constructed homes and electrical systems. The video shows clips of submerged houses from the 2008 Hurricane Katrina that impacted all of New Orleans and southern Louisiana. This disaster footage after Hurricane Katrina is narrated by a voice over of Messy Mya, an African-American gay rapper. African Americans are shown throughout the entire song dancing with one another throughout NOLA. The video was a clear reminder of two things-- that music unites us across all races and genders and that Hurricane Katrina was real. Beyoncé’s dancing contains bold moves that have been originated from the black culture. Furthermore, “X” formations are also seen in a variety of scenes most likely as a reminder to the people and as a tribute to Malcolm X, a main figure in the Civil Rights Movement. Towards the end of the song, Beyoncé expresses her wealth and fame and appreciation for her heritage when she says “I like my baby heir with ba by hair and afros”. This addresses the culture of open social hate and discrimination towards girls like Beyoncé, her daughter, and her husband, all of whom are often mocked for their physical appearances. In this way, Beyoncé provides a safe
In this piece, Beyoncé is telling her man that she is so much better than him that she can get any man she w...
... song entitled “Formation”. The filming took place in Los Angeles, but features references to Hurricane Katrina, with Beyoncé on top of a police car in a flooded street and later cuts to a man holding a newspaper with Martin Luther King Jr.’s face on it with the title “The Truth”. Later a young hooded boy dances in front of a line of police officers with their hands up before the video cuts to a graffitied wall with the words “stop shooting us “ tagged on it, at the end of the video the police car sunk with her on top. Not only did this song, bring awareness to the 10th anniversary of hurricane Katrina it also brought awareness to police brutality, racism, and the “black lives matter movement”. I stand with Lil Wayne, Beyoncé, the people of New Orleans and the countless others who are pushing for a change in the way minorities and the lower class citizen are treated.
Black consciousness has awoken the black community, and has forced us to revolt against the injustice that constantly live through. From the civil rights movement being expressed through Nina Simone’s songs to the black lives matter movement being lived and sung by Solange Knowles these artists are strong activist for the issues in their time period. The song “F.U.B.U” song by Solange has a deeper meaning than just revolting against isolation. While listening to the song thoroughly in the second verse of “F.U.B.U” by Solange she sings strongly about who she wrote the song for, she sings, “All my niggas let the whole world know
Nina Simone used music to challenge, provoke, incite, and inform the masses during the period that we know as the Civil Rights Era. In the songs” Four Women”, “Young Gifted and Black”, and Mississippi God Damn”, Nina Simone musically maps a personal "intersectionality" as it relates to being a black American female artist. Kimberly Crenshaw defines "intersectionality" as an inability for black women to separate race, class and gender. Nina Simone’s music directly addresses this paradigm. While she is celebrated as a prolific artist, her political and social activism is understated despite her front-line presence in the movement.
To start with, Armstrong’s take on “Black and Blue” – originally written about a dark-skinned woman lamenting her lighter-skin lover’s infidelity – transcends one person’s microhistory and functions to poignantly address racism and its effects on African-American macrohistory (Alger). Through key diction choices, including repetition of the words “old” and “all,” Armstrong describes the omnipresent force that is racism and how it has affected the African-American community for generations (1-2; 3-4). In doing so, the singer transforms a song about infidelity into an anthem that directly comments on whites cheating African Americans out of life. As such, Armstrong’s “Black and Blue” is aimed at uniting an African-A...
Prior to 2005’s Hurricane Katrina, Atlanta rapper Jadakiss expressed his discontent in his 2004, chart topping single “Why?” This song, filled with skepticism, questioned President George Bush, the Republican administration, the 2000 national election and the events of September 11, 2001. For these reasons, “Why?” received
Roberts, Robin. “Ladies First: Queen Latifah's Afrocentric Feminist Music Video.” African American Review. 28.2 (1994): 245-257.
Taylor Swift’s Shake it off video contains elements of cultural appropriation that exhibit stereotypical tropes which have been used to define African American women and, in particular, their sexuality for years. The video perpetuates the negative stereotypes that have placed Black women on the opposite side of respect for centuries. The video involves White women twerking in a way that conforms to the male gaze, for profitable success. Twerking involves thrusting hip movements, low squatting stance, and shaking of the derriere. White women are able to perform the twerk without being socialized as hyper-sexual, whereas Black women are. Hence, the different conceptions of White and Black womanhood. The inability for Black women to escape their skin color is the one of the many reasons they are ridiculed. Their skin color assigned them to the category that defines them as unholy, dirty, and promiscuous White women have the ability to hide behind their skin color, which classifies them as pure, and innocent in society eyes. The cultural appropriation of twerking is an exercise of White women’s privilege. Black women are judged harshly for
Alicia Keys was born in 1981, in New York. From the young age of 7 years old, she began piano lessons. After graduating from the Professional Performance Arts School, she signed a deal with Clive Davis, the head of Arista Records. Davis left Arista to start J Records and Alicia Keys followed. Her album Songs in A Minor released in 2001, and went platinum five times over and earned her five Grammys. She followed up with hit albums such as The Diary of Alicia Keys released in 2003, As I Am in 2007 and Girl on Fire in 2009, all of which won the her Grammys.
As it opens with imagery reminiscent of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, an event that devastated the black communities in the areas affected. The delayed assistance in New Orleans by the U.S. government stirred some controversy that led many to question how much America really cares about its black communities. Nonetheless, Beyoncé’s video is full of imagery that is associated with black culture, including historical references to black communities in the south. But what is really important about “Formation” are the lyrics. With lyrics like “My daddy Alabama, Momma Louisiana, You mix that negro with that Creole make a Texas Bama” and “I like my baby hair with baby hair and afros, I like my negro nose with Jackson Five nostrils,” Beyoncé is undoubtedly declaring her pride for her blackness as well as defending her child Blue Ivy who has always been scrutinized for the way her hair looked. Thus, this song is obviously geared toward the Black community which is obvious due to the lyrics and the imagery in the music video. To put it plainly, this song is a proclamation of Black pride and shouldn’t be thought of in any other way. However, after performing it at the Super Bowl people of other ethnicities became aware of the song and became offended by her performance as well as the lyrics. Controversy arose as people pointed out her backup dancers were dressed similarly to the Black Panther
In 2013, the self-titled visual album BEYONCÉ sold almost eight hundred thirty thousand digitally in the first three days, while her sixth number one and second visual album, Lemonade, only sold four hundred ninety thousand digitally in the first week. Although Beyoncé’s second visual album wasn’t numerically successful, both show a vulnerable, an artistic, and a controversial side of Beyoncé. Both albums have surprising visuals and stunning lyrical content with either an obvious meaning or a meaning we have yet to figure out, such as the famous line, “You better call Becky with the good hair.” (Beyoncé, “Sorry”). BEYONCÉ and Lemonade show that Beyoncé tries to better herself as an artist and make herself more vulnerable.
Mclune (2015) is an African American woman who is opposed to sexism on black on females in the hip –hop culture and wants this nonsense to come to an end once and for all. As a Black lady, Mclune (2015) voices and reveals her angry and frustration in her article. Mclune (2015) discusses how black women are frowned upon by hip-hop male singers in the music industry and the affects this has on the women. The hip-hip male singers do this by showing black women as
Beyoncé born in September 4th 1981 is known for her fierce look and electrifying sound that has been present in the entertainment industry since she was 15 years of age. Beyoncé’s ability to perform with unparalleled confidence and exuberant passion has won her twenty Grammy awards, three world music awards, six American music awards, and eight billboard awards.
Don’t touch my hair: this should be a sentiment simple enough to understand. However, for many black women this establishment of boundaries can be broken repeatedly and without any regard for personal space. Solange Knowles’ song “Don’t Touch My Hair” and accompanying music video takes this declaration of self and creates an anthem for the empowerment of black women and dismissal of microagressions, white beauty standards, jealousy and appropriation. Her lyrics emphasize the emotional connection that black women have to their hair. But, beyond this pride is an act of self-love militant and radical against white standards of beauty; or is this self-love subscribing to the notion that black women’s hair is an object detached from their personhood- objectifying themselves to other’s gazes and not subverting them? In order to answer this question, theories from Helen
It has been played in many other countries and is listed in many major hit charts in those countries. It became one of her best-selling singles. Beyoncé has been singing about women’s independence since she was in the hit group “Destiny’s Child”. Many of her songs support women’s lifestyle and keep cheering up girls with her powerful and expressive vocals (Armstrong). In addition to her songs and lyrics, her beautiful appearance fascinates many female audiences and influences from teenagers to grown-ups as if she was a role model. A negative side of the video is that the video gives the impression that men are always to be blamed and women are always “victims” of the relationships, which is not