Task 1B - Prep Work: Case study Major artist (Beyonce)

Case Study: Major Artist

Beyonce: 

Brief background: 

Beyonce Knowles was born on September 4th in 1981 in Houston. Beyonce also known as 'Queen B' is a singer, actress, writer and performer. Beyonce started singing when she was very young. Beyonce started her career in 1997 and that is when she formed a group called 'Destiny Child' with Kelly Rowland, Nina Taylor, Nikki Taylor and Latavia Roberson. Before Beyonce's father, 'Mathew Knowles', created this group Beyonce would compete in different events and win them because of her talented abilities of dancing and singing.

Her image:
'No, no, no' - 1998
In this music video, which was Destiny Child's first single, has a narrative at the beginning of the song introducing Destiny Child to the stage to sing 'No, no, no'. This music video also has choreography, and also they're close up on the girls then there will be a close up of the men around watching them, this is called sexualising women and this has been going from the early times when music videos started. The setting in is in a club with people dancing around them and people watching them. The body language reflects the lyrics to the song. The meaning of the song is that they know the guys want them but they will be saying no but they are really saying yes, and the reason why the body language resembles this is because the men are constantly staring at the women and in different shots the men are really close to the women. This reflected on their image because the looked innocent and sexy and to prove that a lot of men want them.
This type of style of music would relate to a young adults 18+ and an audience thhat likes to listen to slow R&B.

In 2006 the group Destiny Child broke up and Beyonce became a solo artist. However made her first track as a solo artist before the group split up. The track was called 'Dangerously in love' and this was made in 2006. Her other two major solo hits were 'Crazy in love' and 'Baby boy' and with these songs Beyonce won 5 Grammy awards. Beyonce did become depressed after the group broke up because of how they broke up and this lasted for 2 years. Throughout Beyonce's life she has been doing interesting things, such as she performed for the Obama's family on 6th February in 2009. She met her husband, Jay Z who she is now happily married too with a daughter named Blue Ivy. She released a document called 'Life is but a dream', in this documentary it reveals her personal life and what she went through giving birth.

In the music video 'Crazy in love' portrays Beyonce from being to a good, kinky girl to a bad fierce girl. In the middle of the music video she is trapped in a car that she sets on fire and walks into the scene a different person because of the fact she was wearing more innocent clothing and colours such as white which represents innocence therefore she was an innocent girl, but after she sets the car on fire she comes out a more bad fierce women and now she calls herself 'Sasha Fierce'. She transformed from young teenager to a grown woman. This music video also sexualises women because of how they are dressed and portrayed and this will attract male audiences. This music video has the conventions of lip-syncing, choreography and montage.


People started to say that Beyonce, Sasha Fierce is a demon possession. Beyonce quoted saying 'When i see video of myself on stage or TV i'm like "who is that girl". That's not me, i wouldn't dare to do that' here she is saying that she is not Sasha fierce of stage but when on stage she is. She also said 'I created my stage persona to protect myself, so that when i go home, i don't have to think about what it is i do. Sasha isn't me' here she is saying that Sasha Fierce is her shield and protects her from what she does. The song 'Diva' which was made in 2008 portrays Sasha Fierce. It has narrative at the beginning of her smoking and walking then the track starts with her lip-syncing and there is also choreography. The song is show that she is a Diva and shes explaining how far she has gone get where she is now.

Beyonce's recent album called 'Lemonade' 2016, this album portrays on how her husband Jay Z cheated on her. This album sold so quickly because it related to so many women around the world. It had over 500,000 sales. This re[resents the affair because in the track 'sorry' she says 'looking at my watch he should have been home, today i regret that night i put that ring on, he always got the fucking excuses', This relates to her other album named 'Beyonce' when rumors went around that Jay Z cheated on Beyonce and this was when Beyonce's sister 'Solange Knowles' attacked Jay Z in the elevator and 2 years later she makes another album representing the same thing. In this music video there is a narrative at the beginning as like she is talking to Jay Z because she say 'So now what you going today now that you've killed me' this is a metaphor for trying to say he's hurt her so badly it's like he has killed her. This video is different because it has been made in an modern era but the whole music video is black and white like old music videos e.g.Nat King Cole - Firm fram sauce.


In conclusion it is very clear that Beyonce has gone through drastic image change from being a good innocent kinky girl, to being Sasha Fierce woman. The reason why she has done this is to keep up with her audience's and her fans because of the fact the modern era focuses more on visual image rather than the soundtrack. When she went through her image stage in 2008 people started to see her has more sexy, more fierce and more like a diva. This is an example of women being sexualised and portrayed in a provocative way for the men's appeal therefore this relates to the modern trait. Furthermore Beyonce's image changes reflected on what was actually going on in her personal life as well as to please the audience.

Reference 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OHnOKUTwinE

http://www.musicbusinessworldwide.com/beyonce-making-fewer-album-sales-count-single-handedly-saving-jay-z/

http://www.biography.com/people/beyonce-knowles-39230#early-life