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.