2. Background Information
Beyoncé Giselle Knowles started her music
career as an artist in the R&B girl group
Destiny Child. Late 1990 s she became
famous as the lead singer.
When Destiny Child first formed there was
4, and they in got narrowed to three. The
well-known destiny child is Beyoncé, Kelly
And Michelle (picture on the right)
They produced hit singles such as jumping, jumping bills bills bll s and say my name (links
below). They won a number of American music awards 2001-2005. 2001 they received 2
Grammy awards one for Best R&B song say my name and best R&B vocal performance by
duo or group. In 2002 they received a Brit award for the best international group. In 2005
they got nominated for BET Award and in the same year won a BET Award for Best Group.
They continued to win a Billboard music award 2005-2006.
They also won 2 NAACP image award, 2 Nickelodeon kids choice awards, 10, Soul Train Lady
of Soul Awards, MTVAward.
Destiny Child- Bills Bills Bills- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NiF6-0UTqtc&ob=av2e
3. Beyoncé after Destiny Child
Destiny Child split due to all three of them wanting to peruse solo
careers. In 2003 Beyoncé released her first solo artist song, Crazy In
Love Featuring JayZ, it went to the top of the pop singles charts, and was
also voted n.o1 in the VH1 s charts. Baby Boy featuring Sean Paul also
came number 1 in 2003, following irreplaceable became n.o1 in 2006.
Her album dangerously in love hit #1 in the U.S. and U.K. eventually
selling over 4 million copies in the U.S. and 8 million worldwide. 3 more
top 10 pop singles from the album followed in quick succession.
In 2004 Beyoncé received a number of Grammys. Best Female R&B Vocal
Performance, "Dangerously In Love"
Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal for her duet with
Luther Vandross for "The Closer I Get To You";, Best R&B Song,"Crazy In
Love" with Jay-Z;
Best Contemporary R&B Album, "Dangerously In Love";
Best Rap/Sung Collaboration ,"Crazy In Love" with Jay-Z.
She continued to receive awards in 2004 for Brit Awards, 2003 VH1
awards for big entertainer, MTV music awards 2003 and 2004, BET
awards 2004 and many more along the years.
It is evident that even as a solo artist she is an amazing inspiration, and
entertainer for both males and females and puts a lot of effort into her
career to please her fans.
Crazy In Love-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ViwtNLUqkMY
4. Further Successes
As well as successful music, Beyoncé has also had success with her perfumes. She has a website
of her perfumes which tell her fans about the perfumes. I want women to feel sexy, strong,
empowered and I want them to feel like they can conquer anything. When they walk into a room, I
want them to feel like they can leave a lasting impression on everyone they walk past
http://www.beyonceparfums.com/ (when on the website click the perfumes to view information
and explore the site) Both of her perfumes Heat and Heat Rush arrived on the market in 2010
and has am amazingly huge success.
Late 2011 (recently) Beyoncé Knowles released her
third perfume to the market called Pulse (which is also
on the website) which has already bin proven to
already be an massive achievement. As she has
received positive feedback from her fans on twitter
(view on the website)
Due to Beyoncé effort thought her career she had
created bold attractive advertisements from her
perfumes which also widened her target audience for
her perfume and increase her fan base, as the adverts
is attractive and appealing to men and women, women
who want to be/smell like Beyoncé and men who want
the females to be/smell like Beyoncé. (links below)
Heat- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76lPciEip3A
Pulse- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thd1QrxX318
5. Film Career
In-between Beyoncé's music career she made space for a film career. In 2002
Beyoncé Knowles starred in a film next to Austin powers as one of the main
characters; Austin Powers in Goldmember. A comedy. It was a very successful
film and defiantly gave a boost to her career.
The year after she starred in a film called The Fighting Temptations. She
starred as one of the main characters again along side Cuba Gooding Jr, a very
famous male American actor, who stars in mostly comedy films. The Fighting
Temptations was also an Comedy genre film.
Beyoncé has also featured in other comedy films such as
The Pink Panther 2005, again as one of the man characters
side-by-side with Steve Martin, a well-know comedian actor.
She was also the main character in the drama, musical,
Dream girls in 2006 along side Jenifer Hudson and Jamie
Foxx, and Eddie Murphy.
Beyoncé Knowles also starred in a document called Fade To
Black in 2004 with JayZ, Mary J Blige, Missy Elliot and
R.Kelly. The document was about the greatest night in hip-
hop, and the greatest hip hop artist.
Fade To Black Part 1 -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WkYVcxyOFiY
6.
7. Music Videos
Beyoncé Knowles is well known for her
excellent effort in performance in music
videos and on stage. When watching her
music videos we realise that she has a
variety of performance and narrative songs,
some include both. Most of her slower R&B
songs have a narrative which is common for
slow R&B love longs, however most of her
songs have an up beat; an upbeat that
chorography could be made for. In these
music videos, 90% of the time she is shown
dancing with backing dancers.
Because of the divide of narrative and
performance videos I will analyse two of her
latest songs from her latest album 4 . this
album has a variety of songs slow and up
beat, which shows Beyoncé has a variety of 1. Beyoncé - 1+1 -
R&B songs which her fans can relate to. YouTube
2.Beyoncé - Love On Top -
YouTube
8. 1. Narrative
1+1 is a song that expresses her/ or a women's feeling towards
there partner/husband. Although the video doesn t look much like a
story, though the movements and lyrics it creates an narrative.
Because there isn't really a visual narrative the video is kept quiet
basic and abstract, so it draws more attention to the lyrics as the
lyrics tell the story of the song.
The plain simple
background with attracts
the viewers to what she's
saying more then what's
happening in the video
Movement used throughout the
video which adds to the
narrative/story telling. It revels
and emphasis the lyrics of the
songs and how these lyrics
effect her feelings and
emotions.
9. When the music video is The black background
opened it immediate fades emphasis the shine and
into mid/close up showing sparkles on Beyoncé s face and
her shoulders and her face. shoulders, this automatically
brings attention to her as the
song starts.
As the song starts
a close up is
shown, showing
more detail and
facial expression
which emphasis
emotion and
feelings to create
the narrative
The gold glow on her skin
emphasis that she is the point
view, and is in contrast with the
dark background. The low key
lighting tells the viewer straight
away that she is centre spotlight
11. Close Ups
Close ups are used to show emotion and facial
expressions, and in music videos this is key,
especially if the video has a narrative. Close ups help
the narrative run smooth and realistic. By the audience
being able to see the emotion on the artists face it
links to the video and the song which helps the
audience of the genre engage and relate to the song
lyrics and the video itself.
In Beyoncé s music video, even though there's no
narrative, she is apparent throughout the video, still
expressing the lyrics of the song through her body
movements and facial expressions, this creates and
equal effect as a video with a narrative, if not better.
By having a number of close ups though out the video
and no narrative its easier for the audience to watch
her and only her as there is nothing else to see, this
almost persuades the audience to look at her
expressions and to feel what she's feeling through the
lyrics and visually.
As well as feelings and expression close ups also
show the beauty of Beyoncé, this attracts both
genders male and females.
12. Extreme Close Ups
Throughout the beginning of the video it is evident that extreme
close ups are continuously used to create a sexual, emotion feeling
from the audience. As you can see by the screenshots, the extreme
close ups are of Beyoncé s lips and eyes (the two most dominate,
attractive facial features on a female). The shots show the beauty
and detail of the lips and eyes, this may emphasis that Beyoncé is
eye candy to the media audience, females want to be like her and
males want her, so the close ups are attracting both genders of the
audience.
13. A few mid shots are shown within the music video to contribute
Mid-Shots to the wide range of camera angles that are already used. Mid
shots are important shots if the aim is to show enough in the
shot to see the facial expression, body posture and language.
Mid shots are also used to show costume and props depending
on if the music video is abstract or a narrative.
As you can see on the left, snapshots from the music video that
have a mid shot that I think that an effect on the music video
when attracting the target audience, as well as the full
audience.
In this video in particular, the mid shots are used to show
Beyoncé the neck and to the chest area. This is to show half of
what Beyoncé s wearing almost leaving the audience half of her
beauty and body leaving them to continue watching to see the
rest. As this would attract males, due to her being eye candy, it
also attracts females as they are engaged in fashion and
clothing and would like to see what she wears tin her videos.
Beyoncé is known foe her body figure and is know to show her
legs and stomach, some may say it comes across as
provocative and some may agree it is just part of being a
beautiful female artist who also has a nice body. The mid shots
also show her expressions, which keeps the audience
concentrated on the lyrics and the moral of the song and so
they can relate.
14. Long Shots
As a result of the song being a slow love song not a lot of long shots are used, mostly
mid shots and close ups are used because the emotion in the lyrics and the emotion
shown through the artist gives a bigger effect towards the final video. However there
are long shots in the video (as you can see below) and these show Beyoncé full body
as the song is quiet seductive and the shots show her and the costume used as and
addition of the genre of music. The long shots are also used to show the full effect of
the effects and edits used towards the end of the video.
15. Editing & Effects
Editing and effects in a music video has
become an developing technique that is
used widely over a range of different
genres of media. Music Videos is an
aspect of media that uses editing and
effect the majority of the time. They
create illusions as well as making the
video different to the usual video
expectations of that genre. For example
Beyoncé s video 1+1 uses an assorted
choice of effects such as cross fades,
reflection, merging and some are
combined. This is shown in the
snapshots. These effects are used to
emphasis to the audience an illusion
that it s a dream, were different things
are happening all at once. Cross fading
and merging are two effects that allow
the audience to see what's happening
to places at once in a clear effective
form.
Reflection in this video is used to
double the effect that she is in love and
emphasis how happy she is, this is
also combined with body movement
and posture to give of this sign to the
audience.
16. Mi se- en-
And
Crops
ene
me,
sc
Costu
s
Colour
17. Costume&Crops
Although there are not any crops used in this
music video, due to it being an abstract video,
crops are used a lot in R&B videos especially if the
videos a narrative. In this video there are no crops
because the video is simple and to the point but
much effective by using the effects and editing
techniques.
Costume change is done in every music video
mostly in narratives and abstracts as it emphasis
the passing of time (past present and even future).
Within this music video Beyoncé has a variety of
costume changes from t-shirt, to shorts to
dresses/gowns, these all are used to emphasis the
sexiness of the video and the artist. It is very
effective as Beyoncé is known as eye candy and is
well known for her body and appearance. Although
the video itself is simple and has simple
backgrounds the artist and actors stand out on the
backgrounds. Her clothes are quite revealing
however this links to the theme of the song, and it
expresses her lyrics and feeling what she is trying
to pass on to her fans and audience.
18. Colour Theme
The colours used in R&B narratives are
usual plain colours and textures such as
blue, black, white, and the odd bright
colours (depending on the mood of the
music video) within abstract R&B music
videos the colours are much brighter as
it immediately indicates a happy joyful
song.
In Beyoncé music video, due to the dark
backgrounds her clothing stands out
against the background colours which
draws the viewer into just watching her.
However towards the end of the music
video the clips are tinted as one colour
but again using the colours of the R&B
genre (as seen of the right)
The tint of red used links to the lyrics
and song as its emphasising the fierce,
strong woman she is portraying in the
video.
19. Make love to me...when my days look low, pull
me in close and don't let me go. Make love to
me...so that when the worlds at war, that our
love heal us all
It is common for lyrics to link to a performance or a
dance choreography however because 1+1
expresses its narrative thought movement and
lyrics the two are brought together and are
combine naturally thought the music video.
The lyrics make love to me when my days look low, pull me in close and don t let
me go emphasis the feelings within the song, they link to the warm slow close up
movements as Beyoncé is created as a sex symbol. Her movements show that she
wants a male figure to be there for her, as well as creating sexual symbolization or
love and care.
20. LYRICS:
If I aint got nothing, I got you, If I aint got something I don't give
a damn, cause I got it with you, I don't know much about
algebra, but I know one plus one equals two, and it's me and
you, that's all we'll have when the world is thru..
Make love to me when my days look low pull me in close and
don't let me go make love to me so when the world's at war that
our love will heal us all right now, baby
And I don't know when I'm gonna die but I hope That
I'm gonna die by you, hey and I don't know much about
fighting but I, I know I will fight for you, hey
And just when I ball up my fists I realize that I'm laying right
next to you baby we ain't got nothing but love and darling
you got enough for the both of us
Beyonce-1+1
22. Long Shots Long shots in performance
music videos are usual used for
2 main reasons, one reason is
clothing. By having a lot of long
shots within a dance
performance it shows the
costume changes and outfits the
artist and dancers are in ,and the
majority of the time the costume
changes are noticeably
changing, and a long shot shows
the audience without them
having to actually notice.
Furthermore long shots are also
use to show the routine used
within the music video, it shows
the atmosphere and the dance
moves clearly to its audience,
which is effective for the
audience if they was to learn the
dance routine themselves.
23. Close ups emphasis the same
Close ups
thing to its audience weather there
used in videos, films, posters,
magazines ect.. They emphasis to
the audience emotion and feelings,
as they show facial expressions
and facial movements (in moving
images) In performance videos it s
the same however mixed with the
dancing/performing sometimes the
facial expressions show a lot more
then a narrative close up.
Close ups of body parts are
also shown in performance
music videos to emphasis
sudden movements. For
example the arm clicking to
the beat. Another example is
the close of Beyoncé s feet
as she moves them to the
sound of the sound.
24. The mid shot on the left is more of a
Mid-shot long distance mid shot usual used
when there's beams of lights towards
or behind the object/person, it shows
the shine as well and clothing,
performance and expressions.
Mid shots again used in all genres but
used more in some. In performance
videos mid shots are mostly used to
show the upper part of the body
showing the routine or dance moves
emphasis the moves even more than if
it was a long shot. Mid shots are also
used to show expressions and feelings
when the artist is signing, as well as
showing the audience the artists
feelings and emotions it shows some of
the costumes or/and crops too, which
gives the audience an outlook on the
background and the artist or character
the mid shot is of.
25. Angles
High angle shots and low angle shots are used within Beyoncé s
music video. Low angle shots are used a key stages throughout
the song with represent power and strength. As shown below, the
low angle shots correspond with the dance moves, and make
them look more powerful.
The high angle shots in the video put the audience in a godlike
position were they are looking down on the performance and
dance. The dancers and artist can be made to look insignificant
and part of a wider scheme of things.
26. Costume change
Within and throughout Beyoncé's music video she has several costume
changes, her and her dancers. They are dressed casual at the beginning of the
music video, were we see her in a leotard and the men dressed casual and
baggy, we then see the costumes change as they become more formal and
sophisticated. This can emphasis many things, however the beam lights show
that the elegant costumes are almost like a dream, and being on stage, this is
evident as at the end of the music video it goes back to the first casual look,
that becomes clear that its an rehearsal when she says cut .
27. Lighting
High key lighting and low key lighting is used in
Beyoncé's music video however at the beginning of the
video its an rehearsal and the light is natural light and the
video resumes to the rehearsal scene at the end of the
music video, in-between this several costume changes
are made and the setting stays the same but with low
key lighting and beam lights its looks like a different
setting were its now dark with no natural light, which
gives the setting a stage feeling which links with the
smart dress changes.
28. Performance
As the music video is an Performance video, it is just
as effect as a narrative or abstract music video. The
camera angles used throughout the video show
different angles of the chorography. For example long
shots are used, not just to show the costume and
surroundings but to show the dance routine in full,
clearly long shots are more suitable for this as close
ups and mid shots would not show and body
movements. (As shown below)
However close ups of body parts are also effective.
Within the video close ups are shown of body parts
when there moving to the beat, this emphasis the
beat and the sound of the music within the video.
This engages the audience and they will
immediately remember the moves. Such as the
clicking of the fingers, which if you watch the video
will se that the clicks are in time with the beat.( As
shown above) Again with the footwork; is inline with
the beat of the music. (Also shown above)