Beyoncé Formation semiotic analysis

The music video starts with Beyoncé standing on top of a police car which is half underwater and throughout the video the car gets lower into the water the first connotation we can draw is that as further into the song Beyoncé and her lyrics get stronger and more confident and we connote firstly that Beyoncé is becoming stronger then the police, however, after further reading into this we develop another meaning.

We develop the idea that Beyoncé is showing disrespect to the American police force, linking this to recent events we can connote that this is a reference to the Black Pride political event. We assume she’s subtly presenting the idea that if they disrespect black people then they won’t give the police the respect that they want.

The video has clips of Beyoncé in a setting from late 1800 to early 1900, this is based off of the mise en scene of the image, such as their dresses and the light bulb in the background. This alongside the vintage effect that covers the image, this may have been done through editing or while production is happening. When denoting this image, we can develop the idea that the that Beyoncé is trying to show that there is not much has changed from this century compared to the 21^st century, this is demonstrated throughout the music video, with the clips with the vintage effect and the slightly over exposed shot that follows when it is back to the 21^st century.  These images which are scattered in the video makes the message that the video is trying to portray is has a sturdier meaning and it makes people think about the matter at hand in the 21^st regarding black people and the inequality that they experience. The medium shot of Beyoncé indicates a lot about the video and about what is happening,

A convention however in this shot it seems like Beyoncé is the owner and not a slave or housekeeper like people with her ethnicity would have experienced in this century. This hints at the same meaning of as the police car, just in a different light, it suggests that black people shouldn’t be disregarded like they were, it suggests that that is how it should have been, that black people should have had power and not been disregarded like they were. Another idea that this image presents is that what if black people had the power that white people had, would this mean more developments would have been made, either this be through society or technology or science. As a young viewer in the 21^st century we look at this image and don’t initially pick up on the aspects of her being black and looking like she’s a lady of a house, because this generation is brought up to not disregard a person for their skin colour, whereas an older viewer may be more likely to pick up on this aspects. Although Beyoncé is saying not much change has happened there is still things that have, but not enough for inequality to be a not be an issue still.

The scene where Beyoncé is hanging out of the car and is getting hollered at with things such as “oh yes baby” it shows the kind of respect that women get. This video shows the treatment of women in the black community. This is a strong message as it shows that Beyoncé’s song is directed at black women. It shows an aspect of the black community that we don’t see, being the mistreatment of women in the community. This shows that women are used as decorations and are only used for the male gaze which isn’t right and in itself is an issue of inequality, which may have made more of a changed more than how black people are treated. The long shot of Beyoncé is enough for the audience to see the stereotypical conventions of how we think black women dress, with the fur coat and the braided hair.