Confusion Persists.
My project has taken you through the growth of Beyoncé as a musician and icon. The glaring divides between Beyoncé and Lemonade show her distinct shift in audience that influenced her rise stardom. Beyoncé focuses specifically on feminism, sexuality, self love, and women empowerment. Beyoncé is a straight forward album that’s dripping with feminist undertones and themes. While these are admirable themes, these are fairly universally relatable to a lot of women and people in general.
When we listen to Lemonade, this universal feeling stops. Elucidated in the Lemonade section, there are countless references that the average listener does not understand. Beyoncé is speaking to the people of New Orleans, the LGBT rappers, Houston natives, people of color, women of color—and the list goes on and on. Beyoncé’s distinct visual and lyrical choices in this album narrowed the audience to speak more closely to separate demographics.
In short, Beyoncé does not just have an hour glass figure. She uses the hour glass to begin her career with a very general audience and works her way to eventually address extremely specific audiences. As the star gains audience specificity, her status as an idol rises to astronomical levels. But, this brings up a perplexing question: how and why are fans obsessing over her music when they no longer know what it is about?
Beyoncé is not like other stars. Kim Kardashian West will take interviews on Jimmy Kimmel. Jennifer Lawrence will take interviews on Ellen DeGeneres’ show. Even Jay-Z will takes interviews on David Letterman. But, when was the last time you heard Beyoncé get interviewed? Or speak at a press release? Yeah, I couldn’t think of one time either.
Beyoncé seldom talks publicly. Beyoncé is known to communicate her stance on issues through her music curation (e.g. Lemonade and Beyoncé). She sings, writes, and dances, but that woman does not say a word about her personal or public life. She has posted twice on Twitter since 2013, and one was to promote Lemonade and the other was philanthropic. Also, if you look through her Facebook page it is flooded with Birthday posts oddly enough. Her social media is mostly used as a tool to promote her musical craft, not her language and personal life. This is an anomaly in the music sphere where musicians are used to publicizing most of their life on social media.
There was even a recent scandal that she was bit on the face at a club, and she did not make ONE comment. She left the word to silently freak out over who was biting this woman’s perfect, caramel face. The star is silent, and this adds to the confusion over how she has achieved such fame when fans know little to nothing about her personally.
2001
2017
These two pictures represent her transformation from 2001 to now. In 2001, she was just another R&B/pop singer, and now she can post a pregnancy picture and receive eleven million likes (casually the most liked picture in 2017). The difference is both radical and profound in the music industry. Beyoncé might be silent, but she has been able to transform her appearance and status in the music realm.
We obsess over her music that we don’t understand, and we are consumed by her life that we know fairly little about. How could a silent icon achieve such fame?
Do we really know anything about Beyoncé at all?