![]() ![]() There were the two main artists, man and woman, draped in clothes that mirrored the art. ![]() There were the cut-aways of famous medieval artwork. There was the silent chorus of differently colored dancers, moving in unison on the gallery steps. ![]() Still, I watched transfixed as the story unfolded in the art-stuffed galleries of a just barely recognizable museum. The accompanying video is visually lavish, but initially musically underwhelming. Some additional YouTube noodling around led to our next discovery when we clicked on "Apeshit," the hit single by "The Carters," a boastful entertainment power couple. That's why we outliers are finally on board with Bey. But hers is not the droll, understated, repressed anger of a scrawled New Yorker cartoon about the trials of marriage. Beyoncés anger, grief and confusion becomes the grandiose epic that is the video "Hold up!"Īnd hurrah for all that. Human processes as they are turned, by a coterie of arts professionals- songwriters, filmmakers, editors, producers, musicians, back up dancers, tour managers, publicists etc. She is what the kids would justly call a diva, and as such, also "an influencer."īecause of this as well as her willingness to be fully seen, her fans follow her through her very Which means now she has tremendous resources at her behest, so that not only is her voice heard, it is amplified by all the talent that surrounds her. Thus the culture has elevated and remunerated her accordingly. ![]() Because of her abundant artistic giftsas well as her resplendent beauty, Bey has become not only famous but truly iconic. In the end, the video, and all its attendant questions, points to the significance of Beyoncé, beyond her resonance with young girls and women of all ages and races. Who selected and then edited the triumphant, bent-back ebullience of the young boy dancing in the sprinkler? Jonas Akerlund is credited as the director of the video but the way that Bey takes control of the rest of her career, you have to think that she very much had a hand in the video too. And then I started to wonder: did Beyoncé write the poem or did someone else? Did Beyoncé pick the dress or did someone else? Who told Beyoncé to smile as she hit the windshields. This is one artist standing in for the universal themes for all of us and creating something new. This was art, not just some pop confection, escapism or youthful trend that I somehow missed. Though not the most complex narrative, "Hold Up" was still interesting, even moving because of Then Beyoncé takes us to the neighborhood where the rest of the video goes down. And this is the point: the Neo-Classic monument, the use of mysticism, the poetry, the underwater visuals- all these dramatic archetypes take us to another place transcending race, class and culture- to the dreamland of wish-fulfillment narrative as art. The video begins with Beyoncé plunging underwater and reciting her agonizing, mystic poem of unknowing: "I tried to change, closed my mouth more, tried to be soft, prettier, less awake. Fasted for sixty days, wore white, abstained from mirrors. But still inside me coiled deep was the need to know." She emerges then, in a Biblical torrent of water, through the double doors of a Neo classic building, before proceeding to the neighborhood to wreck the cars. But, the extraordinary visuals of the opening sequence are not. These sentiments of love, betrayal and revenge are universal. As she flounces through the neighborhood, exacting her revenge on parked cars, we understand that she's gonna fuck-her-up some windshield, and that, if she could, she'd bust up the other woman, and maybe even Jay-Z- even as she keens for, and in some respects fights for his return. Still, Bey is spectacularly iconic in her citron-dyed, artfully tattered, breast-displaying dress. I had already been made aware of "Lemonade" and the video "Hold Up" (Beyoncés artistic response to infidelity) and the only quarrel I had with the video was Beyoncés smile as she wielded her avenging bat. We started with Beyoncé, who my niece tells me is called BAE, an affectionate acronym meaning "Before Anyone Else." But you already knew that, and so, dimly and involuntarily did we. So one Sunday morning we decided to take a peek behind the velvet, electronic curtain to see what the fuss is all about and catch up. Still, the last ten years of auto-tuned, hip-hop inspired, aggressively operatic and diva-driven pop music has somehow eluded us. Middle-aged and yes, white. We don't consider ourselves stodgy or set in our ways a'tall. My boyfriend and I are folk and Americana-inspired musicians, but we can also be described as Late to the Party: Inspired by Bourgeois Ecstasy Perfect Sound Forever: Beyonce and Jay Z Beyoncé and Jay-Z ![]()
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