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Primary source : ‘’Be Alive’’

Hi everyone, 

Today, I want to talk about one of my primary sources for my research project, Beyoncé’s song called ‘’Be Alive’’ from the newly released film King Richard. The film stars Will Smith as Richard Williams, the father and coach of tennis players Venus and Serena Williams.

With powerful vocals, layered harmonies and a catchy drum beat, Beyoncé celebrate resilience and the success you can achieve by hustling. We can also notice a sense of sisterhood, Black pride, and empowerment throughout the song. 

“Got all my sisters by my side,

Couldn’t wipe this black off if I tried, 

That’s why I lift my hеad with pride, 

Now we’re sitting on top of thе world again”

In this song she also shares how the journey for African Americans was difficult in history, reminding us of slavery and African American oppression in the United States, but also how they have to work twice as hard as others to be considered at the same level. 

‘’I got a million miles on me,

They want to see how far I'll go,

The path was never paved with gold,

We worked and built this on our own’’

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Primary sources

Last week I presented some academic sources that were fitting my project. Today, I’ll add more primary sources by focusing on some of her songs, music videos, and performances that I think will help me with my research project. 

Here are some of them: 

Her latest song, ‘’Be Alive’’

Music video and lyrics of ‘’Brown Skin Girl’’, ‘’Formation’’, ‘’Apes**t’'

Album, ‘’Lemonade’’

Album, ‘’The Lion King’’

Coachella performance 

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Secondary sources

Hi everyone ! 

In my previous post I talked about my primary and secondary sources for my research project about Beyoncé’s relationship with race and her representation of African American culture but I hadn’t yet found interesting primary sources. 

Since then I found some articles that I believe are interesting to use for my research project. Here are some of them:

https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5250/fronjwomestud.39.1.0149

https://www.jstor.org/stable/25790448

https://www-tandfonline-com.scd-rproxy.u-strasbg.fr/doi/full/10.1080/03007766.2019.1555897

(thank you Yanis for this suggestion!)

I know there’s not much to comment on my post, sorry guys :)

PS: Here is Beyoncé’s latest song ‘Be Alive’ from the movie ‘King Richard’ if you want to listen to it. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wYdZi3tFJ4

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Primary & secondary sources

As you may have seen in my previous posts I have been mostly talking about Beyoncé. I have been highly interested in Beyoncé’s relationship with race and her representation of African American culture and I have decided that I wanted it to be my research project. 

I will use the Negus, and more especially the chapters about Identities, Mediations and Histories. I will also work on her music videos and performances. I don’t have yet decided on which articles I’ll work on but I have found some interesting ones in Jstor and in magazines. 

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Bridgerton’s covers

For today’s post, I wanted to talk about the series Bridgerton and its relation to popular music. I guess we all know the famous series on Netflix and as you may have noticed, there's a soundtrack filled with classical covers of popular songs to accompany the stunning costumes and lavish ballroom scenes.

These cover versions transformed pop songs into string quartets. In fact, we can hear Ariana Grande’s ‘’thank u, next’’, Billie Eilish’s ‘’bad guy’’, and Maroon 5’s ‘’Girls Like You’’ all played by The Vitamin String Quartet. It was surprising to see the juxtaposition with these modern songs mixed with Regency London.

We see here that in terms of mediations, tv-series are as important as streaming platforms and ads. It targets a larger audience by creating another experience of the song, like here in a series set in the 18th century touched up with a modern spin on things.

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Beyoncé’s ‘Brown Skin Girl’ song

Yes, I’m yet again talking about Beyoncé. 

’Brown skin girl’ is part of Beyoncé’s visual album ‘Black Is King’. It is a celebration of blackness and an empowerment anthem for every black girl. In this song, we can hear Beyoncé, SAINt JHN, Wizkid and Beyoncé’s daughter Blue Ivy. 

“Brown skin girl,

Your skin just like pearls,

The best thing in the world”

Not only is the song an hommage to West African music, it is an uplifting message of individual self-acceptance and growth. This song gives black people the same level of respect as white royalty and brings the joys of African culture into the modern world. Also explicitly acknowledged by the song are the actual experiences of Black Americans with slavery and oppression in America. 

“I love everything about you, 

From your nappy curls to every single curve, 

Your body natural,

Same skin that was broken be the same skin takin' over”

The natural state of Black women's bodies has continuously been ridiculed and objectified since the beginning of time. Among the names she references in the song are Lupita Nyong'o, Naomi Campbell, and Kelly Rowland, all of whom are well known black women.

The music video concentrates on family, friendship, and motherhood, which demonstrates the motherly and sisterly undertones in the song. Best-remembered are the portrayals of relationships, which are witnessed and praised in the music video.

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Beyoncé’s ‘’Formation’’ music video

As we have seen in class, music videos can be an illustration and present the identity of a musician. Beyoncé’s music video ‘’Formation’’ from her visual album ‘’Lemonade’’ released in 2016, in my opinion, represents well her beliefs and what she stands for. The music video plays a major role in understanding the song. 

I like my baby heir with baby hair and afros

I like my negro nose with Jackson Five nostrils

Earned all this money but they never take the country out me

I got a hot sauce in my bag, swag

With these lyrics, we can see that Beyoncé is unapologetically proud of her blackness referring to the African hairstyle and facial features. We see her and her dancers with braids and afros. She also refers to a hot sauce that can be found in her bag in reference to Creole culture in which women carry hot sauce in their bags. 

Beyoncé represents Black culture in the music video, we can see her and her dancers with braids and afros but also we see her surrounded by African American men, standing in front of what seems to be a pre-Civil War house to express Black power. 

Further, in the music video, we see her refer to Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans with a police car drowning in water, a graffiti on a wall where we can see ‘’Stop Shooting Us’’ and a young black boy dancing in front of policemen. 

We can understand that all of these images refer to ‘Black Lives Matter’; she’s showing us that she is taking a stand against police brutality and how African Americans even if harmless are considered threatening and receive a lack of attention compared to others. 

We can say that popular music is not only about making songs but along with music videos they can represent an identity, give an illustration and create an experience with their content. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WDZJPJV__bQ

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Britney Spears’s Conservatorship

On September 29th, 2021, Britney’s father has been suspended from her conservatorship. Since 2008, it is the first time that Britney Spears will be without the control of her father, Jamie Spears. He has been suspended from his position as conservator of her estate as it is no longer in her best interest, and it is, for now, a significant development. 

After her public breakdown in 2008, she was hospitalized for a mental health evaluation. What started as a temporary psychiatric hold, became a temporary conservatorship and then a permanent conservatorship in October 2008, for exactly 13 years now. 

This conservatorship supposedly served as a way to help Britney ‘’get through a major life crisis, rehabilitate and advance her career, and put her finances and her affairs in order’’ but for her, this conservatorship is not only ‘’abusive’’ but has done ‘’way more harm than good’’.

Jamie had control over her personal decisions, communications, and how she spent her money. She needed permission to leave her house and spend her money, moreover, her credit card was held by a security team or assistant, she was tested for drugs multiple times weekly, and she was forced to perform events though she was sick; to resume she had no control of her life whatsoever. 

Even though she expressed her disagreement years ago, it is the first time that Britney can speak for herself and choose her lawyer.

It raises the question of how does mental health is handled in the music industry?   

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Beyoncé’s performance at Coachella

Can we talk about popular music and not refer to one of the most iconic artists of all time? 

In April 14, 2018 with her performance at Coachella, Beyoncé changed history in popular culture but most importantly in African American culture. 

Beyoncé has done many concerts and tours, but her performance at Coachella shows just how involved she is in the creation and the planning of her shows. She wanted to celebrate and shed light on Black culture with the reference of an HBCU marching band composed of a black orchestra and dancers. All her songs played live by the orchestra gave a feeling of jazz sounds. 

We could hear the voices of black intellectuals and singers like Nina Simone, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, who we heard before in her song ‘’Flawless’’ and Malcolm X whose words to this day couldn’t be more true, ‘’The most disrespected person in America is the black woman. The most unprotected person in America is the black woman’’.

The celebration of Black culture was also expressed with the clothes she wore, we could see at the beginning of the performance her long cape with Queen Nefertiti on the back and the yellow and pink hoodies with the letters BAK to pay tribute to black sororities and fraternities in HBCUs. 

Beyoncé created a moment in history by becoming the first African American woman to headline Coachella.