“I see music. It’s more than just what I hear. When I’m connected to something I immediately see a visual or a series of images that are tied to a feeling or an emotion, a memory from my childhood, thoughts about life, my dreams or my fantasies, and they’re all connected to the music.”
Beyonce had a vision for her self-entitled and surprise album, “Beyonce”, and it turned out to be exactly that- 14 songs and 17 music videos all released at once on midnight last Friday. Those involved in its production were sworn to secrecy and instructed to use a code name for every song and video.
A few months ago I watched the “Beyonce: Life is But A Dream” documentary and was completely blown away by her intelligence, poise, and passion for both her music and family. After watching the film I saw her as a human being rather than just another ridiculously famous female musician.
This album is different. “Beyonce” speaks directly to her audience, giving us every piece of her life in music. The best way to describe her message is this: she is the ultimate feminist, and not because she demands that men recognize women as equals. She embraces and enjoys her sexuality as a woman while making her enduring love for Jay-Z a reoccurring theme, ultimately revealing that Jay-Z owns her heart. Admitting that a man claims your heart can make a woman appear weak or dependent, but Beyonce embraces these qualities. She portrays them as something special about women that sets us apart.
One of the album’s most empowering songs is “Pretty Hurts”. It’s about the pain of possessing beauty and constantly trying to transform your appearance into something different. When Beyonce sings, “but you can’t fix what you can’t see/It’s the soul that needs the surgery” she isn’t blaming society for magazines of airbrushed, slim women, but rather herself for her own disease of striving for unreachable perfection. Beyonce conveys herself as vulnerable and human, and its beautiful.
So, back to the main bubble of hype surrounding “Beyonce”… why did she keep it a secret?
Fame, money, publicity… it’s easy to assume all three. We could just stamp them on her forehead and be done with it, but Beyonce was aiming for something entirely different. It’s customary for a major label artist like Beyonce to pre-release a few songs before the album is dropped. Serving as a safety net, teasers typically ensure the fans’ attention while casting the artist’s mark on the radio (this tactic is old news, creating hype is equally important as the music itself). Seeing ow “Beyonce” doesn’t have one particular album-defining track, we can safely assume the “Beyonce” experience won’t be ruined by the radio’s tendency to make every popular song an unbearable ear-worm.
It’s time to call it like it is… Beyonce is a marketing genius, and she lives as her definition of a woman: powerful, successful, vulnerable, and free.
