In Beyoncé’s “Formation” video, it’s evident that one of her main themes is her pride in being black and emphasizing her personal and professional success. Although all the messages she’s trying to convey aren’t fully portrayed through the lyrics, as I watched the video, it became obvious that she intended to highlight altercations with the police and express her personal views. Matsoukas, who has already directed a few of Beyoncé’s videos, emphasized Beyoncé’s persistence in the importance of the imagery in the project and her message, aiming to make it an anthem of female and black empowerment. Her contribution includes conceiving scenes of black history, slavery ,Mardi Gras parades to the Rodney King protests.
A rhetorical device used is sarcasm in the line “You just might be a black Bill Gates in the making.” This line implies achieving a level of success for any individual, regardless of background, encouraging ambition and a sense of limitless possibilities. Emotive language is also used as she continuously reminds us “I slay,” emphasizing an exaggerated sense of confidence and empowerment that she wants to share.
I think the main reasons controversy might have surrounded this video were because of all the imagery and symbolic portrayal of political and police issues, as well as misinterpretation and bias it left.
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Hi Contreras,
Excellent analysis. I overlooked your examples of rhetorical devices while I was reading the lyrics to Beyonce’s Formation song. However your definition of ”you just might be a black Bill Gates in the making.” makes perfect sense to me. Bill gates is a successful intellectual, so by referring to someone as ”black Bill Gates”, she expressed that Black Americans can become just as successful. I perceived ”I slay” in a different manner than you because slay has a negative connotation. However, your analysis of ”I slay” as ”emphasizing an exaggerated sense of confidence and empowerment that she wants to share” really clears things up for me. Thank you for informing me.
Hello Joan, it’s interesting how many meanings can be displayed in this one track, especially when watching the video where it adds in a lot of the images that can give either a different perspective or add in more context to the message being conveyed. I actually hadn’t noticed her use of the term “I slay” as that but you do bring up a good point as to it being used as a bit of hyperbole to display her heavy confidence but also show it in a way that of course is blown up in a flashy way, very cool. It’s weird how the video became controversial, i’m not really easily offended at all, so maybe i’m not the best litmus test (Although id like to think otherwise for that same reason funny enough), but when seeing the video initially and hearing the track one could get the context of what was being said/shown with a bit of thought (or at least i would assume so) , but as you said between the portrayal and the misinterpretation it seems that that is what caused it. Great post Joan!
You’re most definitely right to point out “I slay” as being a use of emotive language to portray confidence and empowerment. There’s also a rhetorical device at work there, which is typical of most songs, which is the device of repetition. She repeats “I slay” many times to really emphasize that message. It puzzles me how I didn’t notice this my first time listening to the song. But I very much appreciate how you also share the opinion that the messages she claimed she wanted to portray in her song aren’t fully portrayed or explicitly said in the song. In my opinion, that article does the song a disservice by claiming that the song possesses so many powerful messages when neither the lyrics or the video make those messages obvious.