In a move that has the whole internet dancing a jig, Beyoncé just dropped a totally unexpected release in a totally unexpected format: a visual album with a video for each song. The album is meant to be experienced in one multimedia piece, which is a radical change from the way people process music at this point. (The videos will eventually be released independently)
It's a pretty genius move for Bey, who is well aware that her visual impact is at least as important as her music. And though she provides plenty of buttock preen-fests, she starts the album with "Pretty Hurts", a straight shot at the beauty machine directed by Melina Matsoukas. We can't show you the whole video, but it includes vomiting.
This may be a one-off project for one artist, but I like to think of it as a new era. Not every major music artist has Beyoncé's resources (and I mean that in every possible way). But the idea that meaningful visual storytelling (beyond the obligatory video or two) could become a regular part of the pop star's purview is pretty interesting. I guess we've been talking about this since the dawn of music videos, but the 1 to 1 audio-visual relationship is a new level of saturation. And the way we watch has moved music videos out of the margins and into the queue with everything else on our transitory screens. Pop stars have the access and interest it takes to get ideas out there in a format outside of the constructs of the TV/film world. Wouldn't it be great if this was the start of a whole new platform for female storytelling?
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It’s not a revolution. And it would be nice if her narrative were not so fixated on her physique. But more women telling their stories is progress of some kind. I think it could go in a lot of (more) interesting directions. Gaga, you’re up.
Kudod for Beyoncébut it fair to note that concept albums have been around since David Bowie and Ziggy Stardust and the spiders from Mars. Some would argue further back as the 50s, if you want to get technical. Also Annie Lennox brought womyn power back with Savage. A video album with a feminist protagonist and videos for every song directed by Sophie Muller
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