Analysing music videos

Beyonce Knowles Carter released flawless on august 2014, this was produced by Hit-Boy and co-produced by jungle city studios. The video is 4 minutes and 14 seconds and consists of performance and narrative this is because she is in front of the camera singing and dancing along with the other back up dancers, it also has concept because there is shots where they are all moshing, I see why it’s used because it shows that females can be strong just like males and also shots where there is a couple just kissing. The genre is trap/hip-hop due to the beat and the lyrics.

In the video she goes against all female stereotypes there is, she is surrounded by skinheads which are a subculture peer group who believe that woman are equal and that is why females that are skinheads shave their hair and wear exactly what the male wears in that group which is very masculine, steel toe work boots (dr. martins). It’s very masculine with fire and moshing and the theme of violence with Beyonce slow motion punching herself, she also has gold grills in her mouth in some shots which are stereotyped for black males to always wear them. The whole video is in black and white I believe this is in aid to show equality that ethnicity does not matter. In the middle of the video it turns to slow motion because a feminist ‘Chimamanda’ is used to speak one of her podcasts about her feminist views, whilst this is happening a massive mosh pit is happening with Beyonce in the midst jumping around with the skinheads this is also to show that her and all the girls can handle themselves just like a man, I think this whole video is to show that females are the best species and to show people that she clearly has a strong feminist view towards the world.

When she is sitting on the sofa with the skinheads she is centred in the middle this has purpose, just to show again that she has made it big time this is why she shows the 80’s TV show of her and the members of destiny child’s among other girls competing against a male group, she is continuously saying that she has made it and that she is better than everything else ‘bow down bitches’ it also makes references to how girls will forever be flawless that her and all females are flawless from the beginning ‘we woke up like this’. Her iconography consists of her husband being Jay-Z who is as famous as her who actually features in this song but just saying ‘crown’ to refer to her being the queen of what she does (musician) it also consists of her old girl group it started off called girl tyme this was shown in the first and last shot you see them trying to win a competition, this is shown I believe because they were men that they competed against who then went on to win but no one knows who they are now and also because out of that girl group she is the biggest artist that came out of it. They are the messages I believe she is trying to get across, then she went on to become a member of destiny Childs who her dad managed or most of the career with such hits as; bills bills bills, I am a survivor and soldier ect. This band is the one that made her famous, when they broke up her and Kelly Rowland had solo careers but that was it, Beyonce is by far the biggest artist out there now, she has been called a diva and is renown to be known as ‘Queen B’. Her confidence on stage and her ability to write hit avfter hit pretty much makes her a star and it helps that she is very beautiful and would be a great example of the male gaze because all girls want to be her and all men want to be with her, she stays in shape and keeps herself up to date in fashion being an icon a lot of them time.

Laura Mulvey’s theory of the male gaze has been gone against here in flawless just because she is acting like a man and trying to be masculine and hard, that’s why she has moshed and had fierce looks on her face with scrunched up fists, this all goes against the theory of being sexualised, I think that this has something to do with how famous she is that she doesn’t have to be sexy to sell. She doesn’t act like a stereotypical girl and doesn’t look like one too, however she does dance like a girl nowadays does so she is going along with those conventions or theory.

Beyonce has a variety of different genres she can do and the convention she will follow for that although I do think that she can do whatever she wants to do and her fans will stay her fans because she is so famous and liked around the world.