The
lights in the arena dimmed. Thousands of roaring and adoring fans cheered. The
excitement and anticipation was almost unbearable. Humming of drums, horns,
saxophones, and every other instrument blared in the arena. A spot on the stage
shined brightly and all eyes were focused on stage. The emphasis put on that
one spotlight made anything else a mere speck within the surrounding darkness.
At that moment, this female silhouette that stood tall and fierce with a microphone
in her hand produced even more screams before a single note could muster up.
This was my first time witnessing the magic of Beyoncé live in concert at
Philips arena in 2009 and seeing her perform live made even the Energizer Bunny
look like a slacker.
Beyoncé’s
last studio album was in 2011 titled ‘4’ and like any typical release of a new
project there were promotional stops, commercials, and interviews leading up to
its release. Fast forward to 2013, people longed for a new album from Beyoncé
and reports and pictures of her coming in and out of studios circulated throughout
the web sporadically all year round.
It was a Thursday
night on December 12th when music history went down. As I scrolled through
Instagram aimlessly at a quarter till midnight, I see the top post of a friend’s
page with a picture of Beyoncé’s name printed in pink with an all-black
background. The comment attached to the picture mentioned a new album. In shock
and slight disbelief, I went to Twitter to see if any buzz surrounded this
so-called album. The top most retweeted tweet in the news feed was to a direct
iTunes link and being the nosy person, I clicked on it and BOOM- Beyoncé's cd
on my phone. Honestly, being the fan that I am, I didn’t even see the price on
the album, nor did I even care about the cost. This cd was the best announcement to bring in December
Friday the 13th.
So
what can Beyoncé’s unexpected, self-titled visual album teach us about media
and art? The visual album, consisting of 14 songs and 17 music videos, came at
a random time that every social media in all aspects thrived with feedback and
input. A Twitter spokesperson told Mashable.com that Beyoncé’s surprise album
generated 1.2 million tweets within 12 hours. I feel that the media part to
this surprise album was going to happen because being that she is one of the
biggest stars, anything Beyoncé related would get conversations started. Jon
Pareles, chief popular-music critic in the arts section for The New York Times,
says, “In a year full of overblown marketing campaigns for albums that were
letdowns-[…] “Beyoncé” should long outlast the initial stir.” The essence of
Pareles’ critique is that speculation revolving the cd didn’t happen prior to
its release and therefore helped to diminish any unnecessary hype.
When
it comes to the topic of art, most of us will agree that it’s not just a
specific type of thing a person can say makes art. In the sense of art, the
teachable moment is that in the mist of social media mayhem and vast technology
where illegally downloading songs are prevalent, it ultimately hurts a person’s
whole artistry in a cd. In Beyoncé’s views, “I wanted to make this body of work
and I feel like it’s something that’s lost in pop music… I would make my best
art and just put it out.” She didn’t feel obligated to edit out the realness
and authenticity of her music to please others; that’s a true sign of confidence
and the ability to be in a freeing environment.
Media often have
a negative depiction, but there is good that can come from it. Music is still appreciated and from the
numbers of “Beyoncé” sales, one can infer that people definitely supported and
embraced it. It’s so genius that iTunes exclusively had the visual album for
one whole week because people could only purchase the album in its entirety and
could not select certain songs to buy. Pareles speaks about the conscious
decision of the distributing of the album:
And it arrives at nearly the last possible moment for the
lucrative Christmas season. But Beyoncé transformed a delay into a selling
point. And by not manufacturing discs until the album appeared online — they
are promised to retail stores before Christmas — her label avoided the leaks
that often occur during manufacturing and distribution. Neatly done.
In a typical marketing
standpoint that’s a dream to try to have that much control over a project
without the fears of illegal downloads and bootlegging. People only shape their
opinions and form judgment after they bought the digital copy legally and I
think that’s something Beyoncé made a conscious effort to do. Beyoncé herself
speaks on her YouTube series “Self-Titled Part 1”:
I
feel like right now people experience music differently. I remember seeing
Thriller [Michael Jackson] on TV with my family; it was an event. Now, people
only listen to a few seconds of a song on their iPod; they don’t really invest
in a whole album. It’s all about the single and the hype. It’s so much that get
between the music and the artist and the fans.
In making this comment, Beyoncé urges us to
fully bask in music the way it’s intended like past generations of greats like Diana
Ross, Stevie Wonder, and Michael Jackson.
For Beyoncé to
reach her music to the masses, in this type of approach, is unheard of. If the
fear of career failure wasn’t an option, other artists would have done this. Beyoncé
forever reigns supreme.
