Formation - analysis, themes and representation

Context


  • Formation, lead single for the album Lemonade, was released the day before Beyoncé performed at the Super Bowl final in February 2016. The Formation music video, directed by Melina Matsoukas, was released with the song.
  • This music video has won numerous awards including a Clio Award for Innovation and Creative Excellence in a Music Video at the 2016 awards, and has been nominated in the music video category at the 59th Grammy Awards.
  • The video is set against the backdrop of the flooding in New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina and the associated racial tension in America, and also draws historical parallels with references to racism and slavery.


 In what ways are the themes of conflict encoded in this video? What media language is used to show conflict? 

 The themes of conflict is shown especially in this shot where there is a line of white police officers facing a black child in a hoodie.





    The grafiti on the wall also links to the racial tensions that were around about the time she made this video. The grafiti links directly to the 'black lives matter' campaign


What are the functions and purposes of this music video? What is it trying to get its audience to do? How do you know?

There are many issues that i think this music video is trying to portray, for example gender; she is represented as strong, empowered women whalst also being sexully objectified through codes of clothing. Ethnicity and racism is also what the video is trying to get at its audience.


What groups are represented in this music video? Are these representations typical or subversive?

There are many subversive political statements in this video
There are some typically moments in the music video for example when she is dancing with her backing dances this is often seen in pop and R&B music video. 


Is this a typical music video? How do you know?
Overall this video is quite subversive and not typical. There intresting shots we wouldn't typically see in an R&B video like when they use a low resultion edit of when they are dancing in the car park 



Textual Analysis:




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