BeyoncéKnowles

Background InformationBeyoncé 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

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

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=76lPciEip3APulse- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thd1QrxX318

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

Film CareerIn-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.

Music VideosBeyoncé 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 R&B songs which her fans can relate to.

1. Beyoncé - 1+1 -YouTube

2.Beyoncé - Love On Top -YouTube

1. Narrative1+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.

When the music video is opened it immediate fades into mid/close up showing her shoulders and her face.

The black background emphasis the shine and sparkles on Beyoncé’s face and 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 narrativeThe 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

Mise-en-

scene Camera Angles And

Editing

Close UpsClose 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.

Extreme Close Ups

Throughout the beginning of the video it is evident that extremeclose 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 andmales want her, so the close ups are attracting both genders of the audience.

Mid-ShotsA few mid shots are shown within the music video to contribute 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.

Long ShotsAs 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.

Editing & EffectsEditing 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.

Costume, Crops And

Colours

Mise-en-

scene

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.

Costume&Crops

Colour ThemeThe 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.

“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.

“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 rightnext to you baby we ain't got nothing but love and darling you got enough for the both of us…”

LYRICS:

Beyonce-1+1

Love On Top

Music

Analysis

Long ShotsLong 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.

Close upsClose ups emphasis the same 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.

Mid-shot

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.

The mid shot on the left is more of a 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.

AnglesHigh 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.

Costume changeWithin 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’.

LightingHigh 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.

PerformanceAs 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)