Beyoncé has made some of the most iconic music videos in pop history, starting with the moment she blew bubblegum in Crazy in Love and ending with her smashing a fleet of automobiles with a baseball bat in Hold Up.
She had the same level of skill with the media that Madonna and Michael Jackson did in the 1980s; the music videos for her Lemonade album served as a potent celebration of female strength and black womanhood.
Then, without warning, she came to a stop. Fans are confused because her latest two albums, Renaissance and Cowboy Carter, lack any kind of visual aid.
In a rare interview with GQ magazine, Beyoncé now gives an explanation for her choice, stating that she didn’t want her videos to take away from the “quality of the voice and the music.””I thought it was important that during a time where all we see is visuals, the world can focus on the voice,” the star remarked.
She clarified that her latest songs required them to stand alone because they attempt to contextualize the sometimes disregarded contributions made by black musicians to genres like dance, disco, and country music.
“The history and instruments of the music are so rich. It takes months to comprehend, investigate, and grasp,” the woman remarked.
“The music needed space to breathe on its own.”
She went on to say that for Renaissance in particular, attending real concerts was more significant than making music videos.
The album was written during the pandemic and was intended to be “a place to dream and to find escape during a scary time,” with a release date of 2022.
The subsequent tour and the tour film released in cinemas last year were intended as a moment of community and catharsis for her followers.
“The fans from all over the world became the visual,” Beyoncé told GQ.
“We all got the visual on tour.”
This interview marks the first time Beyoncé has discussed her profession in-depth since a joint interview with her sister Solange in 2017. The purpose of the conversation was to promote the star’s new whiskey business.
Between 2013 and 2014, she mostly stopped doing interviews, preferring to write introspective articles for magazines like Vogue or speak with followers directly on social media.
There was not much information about the infamously private star in the GQ story.
She talked briefly about the threat posed by artificial intelligence, revealing that she had given up meat—aside from turkey—over the summer. She said she had recently heard an AI-generated song that “sounded so much like me it scared me.”
Beyoncé has been criticized for her controversial music videos, including Cowboy Carter, which failed to land a single nomination at the Country Music Awards. The singer, who was the first black woman to reach number one on the US country albums chart, was praised for her efforts to protect herself and her family. However, her music was overlooked, despite its success.
Beyoncé’s father and former manager, Matthew Knowles, criticized the award show organisers, stating that the decision to overlook Cowboy Carter “speaks for itself.” Knowles argued that the decision to overlook Cowboy Carter “speaks for itself” as there are more white people in America, and voting is often based on ability and achievements.
Beyoncé’s best videos include Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It), Formation, Countdown, Crazy In Love, and Get Me Bodied (Extended Version). Single Ladies features Beyoncé, a plain background, and Bob Fosse-inspired choreography. Formation references slave plantations, segregation, Hurricane Katrina, and police brutality while celebrating southern culture. Countdown, co-directed by Beyoncé while pregnant with her first daughter, Blue Ivy, references Audrey Hepburn and British supermodel Twiggy. Crazy in Love, the video that launched her solo career, ticks off early 2000s music video clichés but informs the viewer that Beyoncé is a star. Get Me Bodied, a Hollywood production with choreography inspired by Bob Fosse’s Sweet Charity, features Kelly Rowland, Michelle Williams, and Solange Knowles.
(BBC)
