Through the song and video, Formation expresses a message of empowerment, self-love, and racial pride. This is done by addressing topics such as civil inequality, police brutality, and Hurricane Katrina. the themes expressed were similar to my initial reaction to the song and video. I picked up on the messages of empowerment and pride through her lyrics and how she highlighted important social issues within her music video. Matsoukas helped Beyonce express these themes by using imagery that referenced black southern culture while also making powerful statements about social injustice. Matsoukas used a variety of visual techniques to convey her message including quick jumpcuts, flashbacks, and photographs taken from real-life news stories. Two examples of emotive language used in the song are “Always stay gracious, best revenge is your paper” and “Okay, ladies, now let’s get in formation” These two statements reinforce the idea that it is important to stay positive even when faced with adversity and to embrace your uniqueness rather than trying to conform to social norms. The song and video became controversial because some people wrongly perceived it as anti-police or pro-black when in reality its messages were simply ones of empowerment for all people regardless of race or background.
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I agree with you on how people have wrongly perceived the song, police brutality and racism is very prevalent in history until now so the video and the song is to show the inequality that they faced but still being proud of their background and their color. The song from nowhere promotes anti-police or pro-black.