So What is This All About?

Beyoncé’s album, I Am… Sasha Fierce, introduces the two distinct personas that come together to create the Beyoncé we know. This eleven-song album was formatted with two separate discs intending to market Knowles's contrasting personalities. The first disc, I Am..., showcases Beyoncé’s more personal material with slow, mid-tempo and R&B ballads. The second, Sasha Fierce, focuses on her more edgy, outspoken, commercialized side with up-tempo beats. The purpose of this album is to show both the distinction between Beyoncé’s separate identities and yet the symbiotic relationship between the two as well; neither persona can exist alone, and both are needed to make Beyoncé the popularized yet relatable artist she is today. In my previous album review I compared and contrasted the lyrics and instrumentation of songs on the two discs to show the album’s duality. However, in this blog I will use and analyze Knowles’s music videos “Broken Hearted Girl” and “If I Were a Boy” from I Am…, against “Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)” and “Diva” from Sasha Fierce. I chose these four music videos because although their themes and presentation demonstrate the dueling personalities of Beyoncé, they are all shot in black and white, uniting them and symbolizing the two personas’ collaborative relationship. The black and white effect of these videos allows for a focus on the music itself and Beyoncé as an artist, rather than the flashy and technical aspects of a music video. I will show the divergent choreography, camera angles, and themes between the videos. However, I will also exhibit their commonalities, which is symbolic of the album as a whole. Regardless of which medium I use to evaluate I Am… Sasha Fierce, I believe that the two identities come together to show the multifaceted version of Beyoncé that is both vulnerable and fierce.

I Am...("If I Were a Boy")

“I Am ..., is about who I am underneath all the makeup, underneath the lights and underneath all the exciting star drama” (http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1597718/beyonces-i-sasha-fierce-album-preview.jhtml).

The music video for "If I Were a Boy" is reflective of the independent woman forefront that Knowles has taken throughout her career. “If I Were a Boy” begins  by creating a personal atmosphere. Beyoncé and her “boyfriend” state the words "intimacy," "honesty," "commitment”, and then they say the words together: "You." "Me." "Us”, with close ups on both faces allowing the audience to connect to the figures. Additionally, the conventional straight on shots of Beyoncé singing in black and white presents an emotionally exposed Knowles, a concept the I Am… disc showcases.  In an interview with Billboard Magazine, Knowles revealed that the concept of the video is role reversal to display the common misunderstandings between genders. (http://www.billboard.com/articles/news/1043816/beyonce-turns-the-tables-in-boy-video). That idea is well executed since the video depicts stereotypical male behavior, like flirting with other people; however it is Beyoncé behaving this way throughout the video. By the end of the video, viewers realize that the husband is a police officer and Knowles, as the female character, has been doing the things her husband has done to her in the past. When we first see this role reversal, Knowles's behavior seems abnormal, because she is the female. However, when it's the guy doing everything she just did in the previous scenes, it becomes familiar and predictable—which is Beyoncé's point.

I Am... ("Broken Hearted Girl")

The “Broken Hearted Girl” music video depicts Knowles’s vulnerability in a love situation.  The protagonist (Knowles) reminisces on an isolated beach about a relationship that went wrong. This video is filmed in black and white, connecting it to her other videos.  The lack of color emphasizes simplicity, and focuses on the artist and her music, not the production of a music video. The video begins as the protagonist parks her car and cries following an argument she has had with her lover. She then leaves the car, walks towards the sea, and lets down her hair. Flashbacks of Knowles and her lover on the beach are shown. With teary eyes, she heads into the sea as waves break the shore. Through this sequence, the mood is sultry and solemn with shots of Knowles and her dress flowing behind her. The close up shots of a vulnerable teary-eyed Knowles singing directly into the camera depicts her heartache, making Knowles a “real” and identifiable figure, which is a purpose of the I Am… disc. According to Peter Gracias of E News!, “the video is simple and straightforward, and hinges on whether or not you care for the song itself”, showing that the purpose of the video and album is to focus on the artist and the music, not the presentation (http://www.eonline.com/news/129484/beyonce-s-broken-hearted-girl-keeps-it-simple). This song expresses how many girls feel at one point, they hate someone for hurting them, but they can't stop loving them. The emotion shared through this video allows Knowles to connect with her audience as both a relatable artist and person.

Sasha Fierce (“Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)”)

I have someone else that takes over when it's time for me to work and when I'm on stage, this alter ego that I've created that kind of protects me and who I really am"(http://www.reuters.com/article/2008/10/23/us-beyonce-idUSTRE49M08420081023).

Beyoncé’s “Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)” is arguably her most well received, and most well known music video. There is a clear emphasis on Knowles's more aggressive and sensual side, her alter ego Sasha Fierce. "Single Ladies" is a song of female empowerment and serves as excellent PR for her "Girl Power" image. The dance moves are sharp, robotic, and provocative, contrasting the softness of her I Am… music videos. The black and white effect also causes the viewer to focus on nothing but Knowles’s bold dance moves, a clear focal point of the song and video. "She wanted it to feel good and powerful and she wanted something that everyone would do," says her choreographer JaQuel Knight (http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20333961,00.html). Clearly the purpose of this music video is popularity, because Knowles wanted it to be a video that would resonate with her fan base. The music video spawned a major dance craze of the Internet age. It launched a thousand imitators- one of the most famous being Justin Timberlake on "Saturday Night Live". Such publicity indicates the promotional intentions of the “Sasha Fierce identity”. The simplicity of the video highlights Knowles’ edginess and showcases Sasha Fierce at her fiercest.