Formation

Formation by Beyonce

• A single is a song which is released by itself in it's own album
• A load of songs is an album 
• Was released without any announcements, a surprise release
• Was a one hit wonder
• Beyonce was apart of destiny's child
• Got a lot of profit due to Beyonce's popularity
• Formation, lead single for the album Lemonade, was released the day before Beyonce's performance at the SuperBowl final in February 2016. The formation music video, directed by Melina Matsoukas, was released with the song
• This music video one many awards including a Clio Award for innocation and creative excellence in music video at the 2016 awards, and has been nominated in the music video category at the 59th
• Video is deliberately controversial as it's message is bold about black people with links to oppression and slavery
• Video is highly Atypical, the unique selling point is the setting

Encoding: When the producer puts meaning into something
Decoding: When the audience is trying to understand what the producer has encoded
Colonialism:

1. We see the world as a binary opposition by comparing the UK to the world, foreign vs familiar

• The master shot (beyonce on a car) involves ordinary people and the police, the ordinary people is suggest by the mise-en-scene of what she's wearing, (a stereotypically working class dress) Conflict between calm and rebellion, Beyonce on a police car is illegal but she is calm
• There is conflict between the police and the people
• Another example of the police business is the young black kid acting like a threat to the police
• There is a big amount of conflict due to the low-key lighting and a lot of political ideology of oppression being encoded
• A conflict between civilisation and the weather, there is a huge amount of apocalyptic setting.
• Rich and poor opposition: Wig shot transitioning to Beyonce in a posh antebellum victorian room
• Mise-en-scene is set in the Antebellum Era
• Many different Eras in the video such as Antebellum, 80/90s and modern, it's Atemporal
• Her movements in the antebellum house were very aggressive and powerful and foot stamping is symbolic of power
• her sticking up her middle fingers shows her disrespect and lack of hegemonic norms in society
• Examples of sexualisation include the antebellum house when Beyonce is wearing revealing clothes
• Makes Beyonce relatable to everybody in poverty, it reinforces stereotypes to make money

David Gauntlet: Pick and Mix theory

• Audience and people pick certain parts of ideologies and create their own identity
• Things that influence the way you are
• Sexuality
• Gender
• Ethnicity
• Class
• Culture
• Race
• Religion
• level of education
• Location
• Nationality
• Age
• These are all demographics: a simple way of categorising audience groups

Lisbet Van Zoonen: Feminist Theory

• Gender is encoded through media language
• men and women are encoded in different ways
• Assumes that every audience member is a man
• Ballet on ice is symbolic of women's stereotypical elegance

Paul Gilroy: Ethnicity & Post-Colonial Theory

• 
  
• Formation is:
• Unique
• Subversive
• Atypical
• Experimental
• Different from a conventional music video
• Establishing racial hierarchies is a way of establishing hegemonic control
• Adding binary opposition can help make sense of the world

1. White, middle-class teen boy, 13
1. Vouyerism towards Beyonce
2. Wouldn't understand the racist themes
3. Would enjoy the dancing
2. Mixed race woman, working class, 21
1. May particularly enjoy the representation of women being powerful, direct mode of address from Beyonce
2. Personal identification
3. Black, middle class professional man, 25
1. Far more interested and identified with the themes of racism

That B.E.A.T: Abteen Bagheri (2012)

• Got a genre thats underground as its breaking copyright law
• Bounce music has a big gay aspect within it
• Genre is aimed towards gay, black, working-class people from Louisiana
• Allows Beyonce to explore an aspect of black southern American culture, but is it just cultural appropriation?
• What we are seeing is a black commercialisation, as Paul Gilroy says

1. Establishing shot of southern american house sinking in the water
2. Men twerking
3. Tracking shot from moving car filming dilapidated Louisianans houses
4. Police and neon lips, nightime handheld shot of black boy on bike with strobing police car, binary opposition between black youth and opposition
5. Iconographic shot of ceiling fan connotes  a run down and poverty striken enviornment
6. Under the bridge shot, covered in graffiti and signifies gang violence and crime

Intertexual reference to bounce music, a typically underground, non-mainstream genre of music.

Gives the video to formation a unique selling point (USP)

Allows Beyonce to target a wider audience, specifically southern state audience

Creates awareness of a genre which may otherwise be overlooked

Gives Beyonce an 'edge' dangerousness, a threatening feeling

Gives video a sense of 'realness' and authenticity, a representation of black, working class people

However completely ignores any representation of gay people, which is fundamental to the bounce genre

Removing the representation of gay people ensures the song's financial success