The video I have decided to analyse is ‘Best Thing I Never Had’ by the artist Beyonce Knowles and directed by Diane Martel. The song was released by Columbia Records on 1st June 2011, as the second single from the album. Beyonce’s music falls under the genre of R&B, pop, soul and hip hop, however this particular song is within the genera of R&B/Pop. In the music video Beyonce is seen getting ready for her own wedding. Throughout the video there is old footage shown of when she didn’t get the attention from her love interest that she wanted/deserved.
I looked at Andrew Goodwin’s writing in ‘Dancing in the Distraction Factory’ (Routledge 1992). Goodwin’s music video analysis looks at different elements of a music video to analyse the music video in depth. For example Goodwin’s second point of analysis acknowledges weather there is a relationship between the lyrics and visuals, this would either be illustrative, amplifying or contradicting. I have used Goodwin’s 6 point analysis to analyse Beyonce’s ‘Best Thing I Never Had’ video.
Throughout the music video there is a strong relationship between the lyrics of the song and the visuals of the music video. The mise-en-scene (especially the settings, costumes, lighting and props) help relate the lyrics to the visuals. Beyonce is shown getting ready for her wedding, the audience know that she is getting ready for her own wedding as she is dressed in an expensive looking, white, classy undergarment. The room she is getting ready in is all white with cream/white furniture to match; behind Beyonce at one point is a large bouquet of flowers on a table. The flowers are typical wedding flowers as they are white roses. Beyonce is holding one flower and smelling it whilst she performs her song and gets ready. The high key lighting also adds to the feel of a wedding as the room is brightly lit making the room look clean and fresh. A few minutes into the music video Beyonce puts on a tiara with a vale attached; this is to illustrate that she is getting married during the music video. The lyrics match the visuals (the wedding) as Beyonce is saying that she is lucky to have seen her ex love interest’s true colours and that she is now in the better position in life by getting married to someone who she can truly trust.
Another example of when the lyrics and visuals have a relationship is at 1:47, Beyonce is singing these lyrics ‘When I think that there was a time when I almost loved you, and baby yeah you showed your ass and I saw the real you, thank god you blew it, thank god I dodged a bullet.’ flashbacks of when Beyonce would go out for an evening with her love interest is shown, the two of them are dancing then the man decides to wander off and dance with another woman. This clip matches the lyrics being sung at that time especially the lyrics ‘you showed your ass and I saw the real you’, the lyrics and the visuals both show that the love interest showed his true colours at various points of their relationship.
Another example of when there is a relationship between the music and the visuals is at 3:04. Beyonce has walked down the aisle at this point and her husband to be is putting the ring on her finger, whilst there is a mid shot of the ring being put onto her finger the audience hear the lyrics ‘You turned out to be the best thing I never had’. The married couple then walk away from the aisle and walk towards the camera, the couple look happy and are laughing together, whilst this is being shown in the music video the lyrics ‘I will always be the best thing you never had’ are being sung. At this point Beyonce is giving the message across to her ex love interest that that could have been him and that she is now in the better position due to Karma.
Goodwin’s point 2 of his music video analysis acknowledges if there is a relationship between the lyrics and visuals. Looking through Beyonce’s music video I found there is a similar relationship between the music and the visuals. The video cuts to the beat regularly, this makes the video run smoother and seem more in sync. No solo instrumental parts to the song are illustrated by the video; the attention is always on the singer. Whenever the beat changes pace the cuts to the video move faster and more often, I believe this makes the beats seem more powerful. An example of when the video cuts to the beat is when Beyonce is in her room getting dressed for her wedding, there is a soft drum beat and a piano playing, whenever the drum plays the video cuts to another shot of her. The drum beat gets faster as the chorus comes closer; the video cuts more often as the drum beat gets more frequent.
Point 4 of Goodwin’s states ‘the demand of the record label will include the need for lots of close ups of the artist and the artist may develop motifs which recur across their work.’ There are many close ups throughout this music video, the main focus is Beyonce, she is performing and acting in the narrative throughout the video. The record company are looking to sell this track as a meaningful song in which most of the audience can relate to, by having Beyonce as the main focus through the music video makes the audience feel like they have a connection with her and her story, making them more incline to buy the song. Usually Beyonce writes dance songs in which she performs dance routines to in her music videos; however this particular music video is the complete opposite. In ‘Best Thing I Never Had’ Beyonce does not dance throughout the music video, the only performance she does is sing. I think by creating a slower song and a meaningful video to match shows a softer more emotional side to Beyonce, which I believe the audience, would like to see. I feel that as Beyonce is getting older she feels she would like to settle down by getting married (shown in her music video), some of Beyonce fans may be a similar age and may also feel the same, and this is something they can relate to.
Women are often stereotyped as weaker (physically and often mentally) than men. However during Beyonce’s music video this stereotype could not be more wrong. Throughout the music video Beyonce is represented as a strong, proud woman through both visuals and the lyrics. Beyonce is an example of a strong, positive female who often writes songs and produces music videos that represent her as a strong individual, for example the song ‘Run the World (girls)’. Often women look up to strong female individuals, Beyonce gives women hope in the fact that they too can be strong in relationships ect.
Through the music video there is no reference to notion of looking; Beyonce is simply getting ready for her wedding in a classy manor. There are also no intertextual references throughout the music video. Throughout Beyonce’s music video I think there is a strong relationship between both music and lyrics to the visuals. Beyonce has created a music video which is different to the usual dance video’s she would normally do, however I think that by doing something more unusual is a good way to show that the singer can be versatile. Overall I am lead to believe that this particular music video is well directed as it runs smoothly and compliments the song as there is a strong story line to match the lyrics.
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