Beyonce, video analysis

 

I have chosen Beyoncé Knowles song ‘Run the world’ (Girls) to analyse. The song was released April 2011 and the video was released just over 4 weeks later.  The genre of the song is pop and R&B, Beyoncé’s most commonly used styles.

The video was directed by Francis Lawrence, was filmed in the Mojave Desert and Inglewood, California. She also worked with around 8 choreographers for the video which involves a lot of female dance as the song promotes female empowerment. It currently has just fewer than 150 million views on YouTube and won the Best choreography category for the MTV Music Video Awards 2011 and was nominated for best female video and best cinematography. The video has also been nominated and has won many other awards since its release.

Andrew Goodwin came up with points/ characteristics that music videos often follow or can be applied to. These are:

1.      A relationship between the visuals and lyrics

2.      A relationship between the visuals and music (e.g. editing and cuts, in rhythm with music)

3.      Common characteristics of the music genre

4.      Close ups of the artist/ demands of record label

5.      An emphasis on ‘looking’/ voyeurism

6.      Intellectual references

7.      Performance based, Narrative based or Concept based music videos

In many ways his points are very truthful though not all the points apply to all videos, as some videos can have unrelated themes or don’t feature the artist visually at all. Though in the case of ‘Rule the world’ his theory is very correct, for starters the video fits extremely well with the lyrics and theme of the video, this being feminine empowerment.

 

 

 

At 2:27 this image is shown just after she sings ‘Who run the world, girls.’ This is perfect for the theme of the song. She is wearing heels, a dress and is heavily made up which are all thing

Considered to be very feminine contrasts with the background image, or fire, a car and dirt- things usually associated with masculinity means that the clip fits perfectly with her lyrics and message. Also at the point she raises her fist and the car explodes the music changes from a soft verse to her louder, more forceful chorus, fitting with Goodwin’s second point.

Throughout the video Beyoncé regularly holds eye contact with the camera involving the audience and creating identity, which is another of Goodwin’s points.

 

 

 

 

 

 I think that Beyoncé’s record labels, Columbia records and Sony, are trying to continue her famous image of her being a strong successful woman. And by releasing this song with a video like this her image is even more apparent. Beyoncé is a role model to both men and women but she like to spread the message of women being equally strong and important as men, which is why her production company and record label released this song and created this video showing this message and inspiring women to have a similar state of mind to Beyoncé.