Music Videos (Riptide & Formation)

Question 1

What are the three types of music videos??🎵🎶

Answer 1

• Narrative
• Concept
• Performance

Question 2

How does Riptide use referential codes for the film industry??🎥

Answer 2

• Billing block (at beginning)
• Characters shooting film on beach
• Michelle Pfeiffer character

Question 3

How does Butler’s gender performativity apply to Riptide??👨‍👩‍👧‍👦

Answer 3

• Faceless person wearing heels
• Hands with painted nails
  We know these are both women because of Butler’s theory

Question 4

How does Van Zoonen’s theory apply to riptide??

Answer 4

Sexualised women
Woman singing is very glamorous
Women portrayed as objects (e.g magician’s assistant)

Question 5

How does Laura Mulvey’s Male gaze theory apply to Riptide?? 🌊

Answer 5

Women presented as objects for male audiences by cinematography.

Question 6

What could be the issue with intertextuality especially in surrealist cinema??

Answer 6

May not communicate effectively if people don’t know the references or what is trying to be said.

Question 7

How is femininity presented in Riptide through cinematography??

Answer 7

Femininity associated with weakness -> low-angle shots

Question 8

What are the 3 points that can be made about the woman singing the end of the chorus throughout Riptide??🎤

Answer 8

• Glamourous (appearance is value)
• Sings words more wrong progressively (pressure of society and men impacting her abilities)
• As looks fade, talents fade

Question 9

What’s the significance of the ‘filming scene’ on the beach?? 🏖️

Answer 9

All men have action codes (camera, gun)
Woman doesn’t (not there to forward narrative, object) -> Van Zoonen

Question 10

Analyse the scene of the woman running towards the beach towards the end and suddenly stopping!

Answer 10

• Dutch camera angle
• Unsettling
• Riptide is unsettling and disturbing (supports horror imagery throughout the video too)

Question 11

What’s the significance of the woman standing on the balcony??

Answer 11

Low-angle shot
Being watched (frame of leaves)
P.O.V
Despite being a low-angle shot, she is still lacking power because she’s being watched (women’s struggle to gain any power in society)

Question 12

What are the 3 main representation points of Formation??

Answer 12

• Black politics
• Black excellence
• Black culture

Question 13

Why was Hurricane Katrina so significant for black people?? 🌀

Answer 13

• Black houses were valued 3x less than white houses
• Black neighbourhoods were prone to flooding
• Only 36% of black people returned to New Orleans

Question 14

When was Formation made and when was Hurricane Katrina??

Answer 14

Formation: 2016
Katrina: 2005

Question 15

Who are Messy Mya and Big Freeda?

Answer 15

Messy Mya = New Orleans influencer (sampled in Formation)

Big Freeda = Bounce DJ (sang a section for Formation)

Question 16

Should you not include politics in a music video?? 🤔

Answer 16

This is an argument that can’t be answered.
For: It takes away the seriousness of politics and could show Beyonce didn’t fully commit to politics

Against: She’s trying to get the message through to a medium she uses, representing politics in a way they wouldn’t usually be (stand out)

Question 17

Do Beyonce’s outfits reflect Mulvey’s idea of sexuality??

Answer 17

For: Revealing outfits that are irrelevant for meaning, trying to attract secondary audience, not fully committed to the politics (lyrics aren’t political)

Against: It’s something she does in every music video, not done purposefully to dilute the politics, male gaze isn’t her goal, women might see her and think confidence not sexuality

Question 18

How does Van Zoonen’s theory relate to Formation??

Answer 18

Argument that Beyonce is a sexualised object.
Portraying women as objects is a core element of western patriarchal culture

Question 19

What does the Antebellum dress represent in Formation??

Answer 19

• Dresses that white women wore during the slavery period
• Changing the narrative
• Reversing the roles
• Links to the paintings in the Antebellum house being replaced by photos of black families (later in Formation)

Question 20

How does Butler’s gender performativity apply to Formation??

Answer 20

Manspreading (in the Antebellum dress) which is associated with power and strength

Question 21

What does the scene of Beyonce sinking with the police car represent in Formation??

Answer 21

• Police brutality affects normal, everyday black people (they don’t deserve it)
• Society is on a path of destruction until everyone sinks

Question 22

What is the intertextuality that is linked with police brutality in Formation??

Answer 22

• Alicia Garze getting arrested for approaching police officers unarmed to talk about black politics
• Child dancing in front of police links to this (portrays her innocence and how her acts were non-violent)

Question 23

What does the ‘swimming pool’ setting represent in Formation??

Answer 23

Pools are signs of racial segregation

Question 24

Why was the sampling from the That B.E.A.T Documentary controversial in Formation??

Answer 24

Using binary oppositions, Beyonce included clips from the documentary within the context of her own clips which gave the sampled shots a new, political meaning.
However, the shots were originally made to represent Bounce Culture, not politics.

Question 25

What is Paul Gilroy’s theory??

Answer 25

Ethnicity and postcolonial theory
Colonial discourse continues to inform modern attitudes towards race.

Question 26

What is civilisationism??
(Formation)

Answer 26

Concept of which we best know how to be civilised. (We create structures of power which we use to create racial hierarchies which we create in fear of the other)

Question 27

Which quote in the Formation lyrics represents the traditional elements of black peoples’ hair and representation of black heritage??

Answer 27

“I like my baby heir with baby hair and afros”

Question 28

Analyse this quote from Formation:

“Earned all this money, but they never take the country out me,”

Answer 28

Fame or riches won’t strip her of her black culture
No one can take away her pride for her culture

Question 29

Give 2 quotes that represent black excellence in Formation??

Answer 29

“Slay trick, or you get eliminated”
“‘I might just be a black Bill Gates in the making”