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.