Formation

Product context
• Formation, lead single for the album Lemonade, was released the day
before Beyoncé performed at the super bowl final in Feb 2016. The
formation music video, directed by Melina Matsoukas, was released with
the song.
• This music video has won numerous awards including a Clio Award for
innovation and Creative excellence in a Music video at the 2016 awards
and has been nominated in the music video category at the 59th Grammy
awards.
• The video is set against the backdrop of the flooding in New
Orleans following Hurricane Katrina and the associated racial tension in
America, and also draws historical parallels with references to racism and
slavery.
Beyonce Knowles
• Beyonce is a world-famous pop/ rnb singer born in Houston Texas.
• She originally started in the group Destiny's child with Kelly
Rowland and Michelle Williams.
• She married hip hop rapper Jay Z
• She established a solo career with her debut album 'Dangerously in
love' which became a top selling album and led to many awards
• She has also released many more albums such as '4', 'Crazy in
love','Beyonce' and 'Lemonade'.
• Beyonce was also nominated for best international artist in 2016 after
lemonade but lost to Drake
'Lemonade'
• Beyonce released the album 'Lemonade' on the 23th April 2016. It was her second visual album and came
with an accompanied 6 minute video on HBO.
• Lemonade contains a variety of genres not always associated with beyonce such as country, gospel,
electronic, reggae, funk and Americana.
• Lemonade was released for streaming on Beyonces co-owned streaming service, Tidal and available to buy
by the 6th May but it was not released on popular streaming sites like Spotify and apple music on 23rd April
2019, the third anniversary of the albums release.
• The album reached no.1 in the Billboard 100 charts and sold 485,000 copies in the first week of sale- 653000
with additional album equivalent units.
• It also features the voices of James Blake, Kendrick Lamar, the Weeknd and Jack White, with samples and
interpolations of a number of hip hop and rock songs
• One of the albums main songs 'Daddy lessons' was also released featuring the country band the Dixie Chick
on a promotional release.
• The Album has a very autographical feel with many of her music videos, like 'Hold up' or 'Sorry' starting witjh
monologues about her and her relationship
.
Melina Matsoukas
• Melina Matsoukas (born January 14, 1981) is an American music
video, film, commercial and television director. She is a two-
time Grammy Awardwinner and four-time MTV Video Music
Awards winner for her "We Found Love" and "Formation" music
videos
• Melina Matsoukas is an American director, who directed the music
video for Formation. She is a two time Grammy Award winner and
four-time MTV Video music awards winner for her @we found love'
and 'formation' music videos.
Super bowl Feb 2016
• https://youtu.be/c9cUytejf1k
• Beyonce performed the song formation in the super-bowl half time show
in 2016. She did this alongside Bruno mars and Coldplay. Whilst both
other performers performed on the stage, she came in thorough the field
and performed whilst also giving dancing intensely. All her back up
dancers had outfits reminiscent of the black panther movement of the
60's which protested racism through violent ways,. Beyonce herself is
wearing two straps with fake bullets on them alluding to this further.
Awards
• Clio Music awards celebrates the visceral power of music to connect
consumers and brands around the world. The program is dedicated to
awarding the creative contributions of the marketers and
communicators that push boundaries, permeate pop culture and
establish a new precedent for artist self-promotion, music marketing,
brand collaborations and the use of music in advertising.
• The formation music video won the gold winning entry at the 2016
clio awards
• Beyonce won a grammy for best urban contemporary album
for Lemonade in 2016
Historical context
There is a lot of historical context hinted through the video. There seem
to be four different historical eras hinted to today.
• Antebellum
• The 80's/90's
• Hurricane Katrina (2005)
• Present
 Hurricane Katrina
On August 2005, a category 5 hurricane hit Louisiana and Florida. It
hit the city of new Orleans particularly hard due to the engineering
flaws in the flood protection system (levees). Over 1836 people
died in this and a total of $125 billion in property damage. Many
government official have been criticised about the handling of
Katrina and there care for the predominately black people misplaced
during it. The Louisiana superdome was used as a place for these
evacuees to go during this, but all f these people put together led to
a surge in stolen items and a lack of food. President Bush was also
heavily criticised for his handling of the events, more information
here. During an appeal for Katrina featuring Kanye west and Mike
Myers Kanye infamously said "Bush doesn’t care about black
people" while talking about the disaster.
All of this is referenced to throughout the video, with the most
obvious one being Beyonce sitting on a police vehicle at the start of
the video. During this she is isolated and at the end of the video the
car sinks with her on it, this suggests the idea that she has been
forgotten by everyone. There is also scenes of what appear to be the
Mardi-Gras celebration which is very important to New Orleans
culture.
 Antebellum
Another time period that is referenced to during the
music video is Antebellum. This was a time in south
america from 1800 to the start of the civil war, this
is a period in which slavery was extremely common
as well. In the music video there are few
connotations to slavery as you would expect but
Beyoncé has instead subverted this view but putting
black men and women in clothes white women and
men would wear. This is almost reclaiming this time
period and showing black people in a more
powerful light as well.
The 80's/90's
The 1980's and 1990's is heavily referenced
throughout this video as well. In the 1980's/90's there
was a rise in racial tension in America culminating in
the 1992 LA riots. Whilst this is not referenced in the
video it does link to one of the main themes in this of
issues of being black in America.
Present day
The present day is also featured a lot in this.
Scenes such as the women dancing in the
swimming pool, the wide-shots of neighborhoods
and the women in the weave shop are most likely
to be set in the present day. This also links to
Formations overriding theme of issues of being
black in America as there has been an increase of
police brutality in America and general racism.
Costume
Costume is also a key element of this video. Beyonce uses her costumes to
empower herself and set herself as the leader. In the antebellum scene she
is the only one wearing white while all the other women are wearing cream,
this sets her apart from the other women in this. In the antebellum scene
she can also be scene crossing clothing trends from the past with the
antebellum. For example she is wearing a white corset with one of her
outfits, the corsets is sheer, which is a modern trend, while the rest of the
outfit is mainly antebellum. This also references outfits warn by sex workers
of the time. This also is an example of Beyonce sexually empowering herself
through her use of costume. In the scene in which she is stood in front of 4
men, 3 of which are wearing historic hats. The hats are hats worn by the
major colonisers of the world during the 19th century. Having minorities
wearing this empowers them by subverting the association that the
colonisers with those hats have all the power
 Hairstyles
The hairstyles in this this video are also very significant. All of the hairstyles
in this video are either completely natural or traditional African-American
hairstyles. Beyonce can be seen a few times during the video sporting
corn-rows whilst 3 girls (including her daughter) have natural hair. All of
her dancers have natural hair as well and a woman in the antebellum time
period had a traditional African-American braids done. This is important as
it is an example of Beyonce rejecting eurocentric Beauty standards
Racial tension in America
Racial tension has been around since America was first colonised. It is referenced
heavily in this video as it explore being black in America. An example of this is the
shots of black portraits in the antebellum house, this references the lack of historical
black portraits and subverts by showing some. There are also scenes from black
churches, this goes back to the late 1800s where black people rejected the
segregated seats in white churches for favour of their own, black churches and
religion are a big part of African-American culture in America. A newspaper with
Martin Luther King Jr is also shown in this video, this is a clear reference to the non-
violent civil rights leader of the 1960's. There is also a scene of white police officers
stood in a line in front of a black kid, they are the few white people shown in this
video and are a clear link to the rise of issues around police brutality in America and
the formation of Black lives Matter.
Eurocentric beauty standards
Eurocentric beauty standards are standards of attraction created,
centering the cis-het, white, abled, upper-class conforming body, and
hatred and anxiety are bred against those which cannot conform.
Beyonce rejects this intensely through her use of hairstyles in this
video. There is also a scene in which three women stand in a weave
shop with many weaves and wigs around them. This represents the
pressure to have eurocentric, white hair and how many black women
have tried to achieve that over the years. In the lyrics she also sings "I
like my baby heir with baby hair and afros" this is a clear reference to
an online petition to comb her daughters hair and the distain in
women having natural afros, calling it un-professional and other
names. She also sings "I like my negro nose with Jackson 5 nostrils"
this is a reference to her heritage and opposes the ideal of having a
caucasian nose. Her husband, Jay Z, has also been made fun of in the
past for his physical features.
Police brutality
There is also many references to police brutality. Police brutality has
always been a problem in America especially for non-white minorities.
There has been a rise in fatalities due to this recently with 1092 victims
in 2016. There is a scene in the video which shows a line of white police
men stood in front of a young black kid. The kid is aggressively dancing
and then puts his arms to the side in a pose similar to the cruxific pose.
After this the police officers put their hands up in a defensive position. I
think this shows that the kid is showing dominance over the officers. It
then shows a wall with "stop shooting us" written on it, this links to the
last scene and we as an audience know it's about police brutality as it
falls under Formations overriding theme looking at black issues in
America. This is a very strong scene as it talks directly to the viewer.
Genre
• This song is part of the r'n'b genre. It shows many of the conventions
of this genre like establishing shots of the artist, group dancing and a
variety of black people. Much of Beyonce's music can be classed as
R'n'b or hip hop so she would have experience in how to market this
and what she would want in the video.
 Roland Barthes- semiotics

Roland Barthes looks at how icons and symbols can be used to

link to meaning throughout a piece. This can be seen a lot in
formation, for example
• In the scene in which the boy is in front of the line of police
officers, the police officers put their hands up, so that their
arms are at right angles. This references a surrendering
position suggesting that the police are giving the boy more
power/ freedom in the situation.
Jean Baudrillard
This supports Jean Baudrillard's postmodern theory very strong.
Throughout it references different aspects of American culture in a new
way. For example the scene in which a black man in modern clothes is
riding a horse is a link to the old american west, however it changes
this by having a black man on the horse as this wouldn’t have
happened back then.
Bell hooks
• This supports Bell Hooks feminist theory as it shows many powerful
images where Beyonce has all of the power in the room, in this she
doesn’t show women as first-class citizens but she doesn’t show them
as more powerful as men but she shows them as equals. This can be
seen in the scene in which Beyonce is stood in line with four other
men.
Representation
• Black ethnicity is heavily represented in this with all the characters being
predominately black.
• There is also representations of Beyonce, not just her but the construct of
Beyonce the performer. This is shown mainly through her representation as
a person of strength and power, for example, Beyonce frequently makes
direct address' to the audience by gazing directly at us, she stands in
strong, powerful stances at the front of groups (in front of both men and
women), and perhaps most iconic image of her on top of the police car.
• This construction is likely to act as a identity that the audience can
construct their identity around, like in Gauntletts theory. This would lead
Beyonce to gain more fans and sales as she is showing herself as a powerful
role model.
Economic and political context
• This video was released the day before her Super Bowl performance.
The combination of this release date and a performance to over 100
million people impacted the global circulation of the video and
increased the financial gain for Beyonce and her collaborators with
a 171,424,012 views on youtube. However I think this was more
designed to promote the left political and black cultural view than
simply to generate publicity and generate money. This is because
Beyonce is already a well known house-hold name so would have
little need to generate money or publicity.