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

Introduction to Music Videos

A music video is an advert for a song

The 2 songs we will be analysing for Music videos are:

1. Riptide: Vance Joy
2. Formation: Beyonce

MTV: Music television

• They used to only show music videos
• But in our days they now play just tv shows

Convergence: When different media industries combine, such as music and video

Synergy: when 2 things work together really well

Celebrity: The attribution of glamorous or notorious status to an individual in the public sphere

What is a music video?

• Have only one song contained in the video
• a lot of short shot-takes
• a lot less dialogue
• Is an advert
• Mise-en-scene is more bold and over the top
• A lot more emphasis on movement
• The person singing is famous, and is him/herself 
• Edited in time with the music

What is cinema?

• Fully developed plot-line
• long-shot takes
• have multiple songs, can be used for background music too
• Can have sequels/prequels 
• Is the product
• A lot more dialogue
• Budget is way greater
• The actors aren't themselves, they are characters in the movie

Paul Gilroy: we are living in a post-colonialism society so we still view certain people groups in certain ways such as black people

Stuart Hall:  heavy amounts of tv can help reinforce hegemonic norms in society

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Baby pop: France Gall

• Shot duration is surprisingly long (long take)
• very few locations, exterior and interior shots
• Very repetitive
• Gall looks awkward and unconfident  

Vanity Angel: Rebecca

• Very 80s
• shot takes left, right and centre
• very colourful and all over the place
• many, many locations
• Intertextuality: American Car
• Excessive uses of primary colours
• Binary opposition with bright primary colours and black leather jacket, is symbolic of how wild the 80s were
• Mise-en-scene of the costumes, no one looks normal and standard

Babies: Pulp

• Cheap production that makes it feel authentic
• unconventional use of transitions
• mid shots
• strange costumes
• Font: title cards/inter-titles
• Done in a cheap chabby way
• Working class identity
• mocking other music videos
• Simple bland and boring

Da funk: Daft Punk

Applause: Lady Gaga

• Constantly looking at the centre of the video, eye-line match
• very sexualised throughout
• Close-ups of here emphasise her status
• Gets people talking a lot, controversial or what she wears
• Strobe lights connotes to celebrity
• Black and white connotes to that the video and lady gaga is classic

Who Dat Boy: Tyler the Creator

Twerk: City Girls

• A majority people in the video are black, mixed raced and other ethnic minorities (BME) in America
• Video is focussed on more larger women and extreme close-ups (ECU) of the women's posteriors
• There is a homogenised representation of women. specifically women with larger body types
• Explicit example of sexualisation
• Fast paced editing
• Presenting an ideological perspective that all women are the same
• Reinforces a stereotypical representation that black and ethnic minorities posterior are large
• Mise-en-scene of the yacht, money and power reinforces the anchorage that these women are dancing for money
• Target audience for Cardi-B is teenage girls but also appeals to heterosexual men
• This is hyper-sexualised
• This cultivates hegemonic-ally acceptable ideology about the representation of women
• Colonisation

Gucci Gang: Lil Pump

• Bright psychedelic colours and editing present what it feels like to be on drugs
• Explicit use of drugs, particularly lean and cannabis 
• Emphasises his status as rich because of his intent to sell drugs
• Tiger is connotative of aggression and Lil Pump's determination to cause harm. And reinforces the stereotype that BME can cause harm
• Behaves disruptively and disrespectfully, this reinforces the stereotype that BME disrespect authority
• Breaks hegemonic norms such as:
• Face tattoos at a young age
• Smoking in school
• Stereotypes come about when theres an imbalance between different people groups
• The reason lil pump acts like this is because he is a minority and is in a position of little power

Billy: 6ix 9ine

• hand held shaky camera connotes to being threatening and chaos
• uses n-word a lot and isnt black
• shouting and threatening connotes anger and violence by black people
• use of police creates binary opposition with the performer
• explicit references to murder and sex reinforces stereotypical ideology that BME people are criminals
• locations used include: chicken shop, can be associated with black people