Comp 1 Formation

Question 1

Name 5 of the 7 Music Video theory parts.

Answer 1

1. Relationship between visual and lyrics
2. Relationship between editing and beat
3. Genre Iconography
4. Star Image
5. Voyeurism
6. Intertextual references
7. Narrative and Performance

Question 2

Who is the theorist behind the Music Video theory?

Answer 2

Andrew Goodwin

Question 3

What has to be had to understand intertextual references?

Answer 3

Good cultural capital

Question 4

Who says that ‘Star Image is manufactured and artificial’? What else does he go on to say?

Answer 4

Richard Dyer
Artists have a USP, a brand they sell.

Question 5

What does Dyer say a star can be?

Answer 5

Ordinary and Extraordinary.
Present and Absent (out of reach).
A paradox.

Question 6

Formation is on what album?
Released in?

Answer 6

Lemonade
released in 2016

Question 7

When was Formation first played?

Answer 7

Live at the 2016 Superbowl half-time show, paired next to Bruno Mars and Coldplay. With 100 million views.

Question 8

Critical success?

Answer 8

Nominated for a Grammy.
The video won a Clio award for innovative excellence.

Question 9

What contexts does this video address?

Answer 9

Police Brutality
Hurricane Katrina
Black Lives Matter

Question 10

What happened that encouraged the protest of Black Lives Matter?

Answer 10

Trayvon Martin’s death at the hands of police. and Trump had been elected into the White House the November. Trump had been voting to revoke many laws, put in place by Obama that had kept POC and women safe.

Question 11

Name 2 colloquialisms used in the song.

Answer 11

Hot Sauce - Baseball bat
Albino Alligators - Aggressive white people
Yellow Bone - light skinned black girl

Question 12

Who directed the video?

Answer 12

Melina Matsoukas

Question 13

What do you know about Hurricane Katrina?

Answer 13

Happened in 2005.
Bush was president at the time.
Happened in New Orleans where 60% of the city is Black.

Question 14

What are the Black Live Matter guiding principles?

Answer 14

Queer Affirming
Full support of black women
Unapologetically black

Question 15

What did Melina Matsoukas do?

Answer 15

Used b roll footage from documentary That BEAT, created by Abteen Baghan.

Question 16

How can you apply Paul Gilroy’s theory of Post-colonialism?

Answer 16

View of “otherness”.
Black people are the majority within the video. Giving black audiences a sense of personal identification.
Beyonce wears Antebellum clothing, taking back the power of ownership and shows herself acting as a slave owner, with the men around her dressed smartly and placed above her on the steps, highlighting their superiority.

Question 17

Name 2 ways gender is represented in the music video.

Answer 17

1. Empowerment to women, especially those most discriminated against according to bell hooks, through the use of low angles.
2. unapologetically themselves, dancing girls could be argued it is voyeurism (goodwin) however them putting on the performance and flaunting their bodies could be an act of them taking back ownership of themselves.

Question 18

Name 3 ways media language is used to make Beyonce look powerful.

Answer 18

1. stood on top of the police car, showing the anti-police brutality message, this is taken from a low angle of view.
2. she reclaims power by dressing in Antebellum clothing, acting as a slave owner, also shot from a low angle of view
3. females dancing, the lyrics linking to visuals highlight her power within the music industry and over her fans, almost directing speaking to her fans calling for empowerment.

Question 19

Name 2 intertextual references in Formation.

Answer 19

1. visual b roll from That BEAT created by Ateen Baghan
2. Hurricane Katrina/ the poor handling of the situation from Bush. With the News style shots of flooded caravans.

Question 20

Name 2 binary opposites in the music video.

Answer 20

1. young black boy dancing in front of all white heavily armed police officers stood static. the innocence vs danger
2. flooded land vs the empty swimming pool. highlights the power ideologies have over money, she can have a pool emptied, but bush didn’t help a struggling city with 89% of land flooded for 5 days.

Question 21

How is ethnicity represented in Formation? And what does this allow for?

Answer 21

Black people are the majority and white the minority, the roles have been reversed. White people are seen through a lens of “otherness” contradicting Gilroy’s statement.
Allowing her black audience to personally identify easier and gain a sense of community and unity.

Question 22

How is genre important to the music video?

Answer 22

It meets the audiences expectations (neale) and allows for them to understand the deeper contextual meanings of BLM etc.

Question 23

What did Melina Matsoukas say about the video?

Answer 23

“this is black people. We triumph, we suffer, we’re drowning, we’re being beaten, we’re dancing, we’re eating, and we’re still here”