Question about Formation.

[Brian Ryan 1,468]

8 hours ago, StrawberryBlond said:

I don't think you'll like what I have to say about Beyonce, Thomas P, but I'm afraid it has to be done.

Well, it wouldn't make sense if I a white person did it because it's a song about blacks for blacks but I understand the sentiment of what you're saying. And it would definitely be taken bad if a white person did it. White knighting and all that. But above all, it would be criticised for taking a social issue and making it all about the artist. Because that's what Beyonce does in it. She doesn't once address race issues. From beginning to end, it's nothing but her bragging about herself. She even incorporates samples of that YouTuber talking to make it sound as if it's in reference to herself (and this person is dead! How disrespectful!). It's a totally self-absorbed piece that is nothing to do with race but convinces people that it is.

I am shocked that people have fallen for it and have actually given Beyonce their money for her tour. But I'm even more shocked that I'm the only one to call her out on this. That is how expertly this woman is at deceiving the world, in so many ways. But I see right through her antics and I'm so glad I never bought into her hype like everyone else did. She's always been calculated, manipulative and self-obsessed but I sometimes feel like I'm the only one who sees it. So I inform people of this whenever I get the chance, in the hopes they'll see her for who she truly is, not what she wants you to believe she is.

"My daddy Alabama, Momma Louisiana
You mix that negro with that Creole make a Texas bama
I like my baby heir with baby hair and afros
I like my negro nose with Jackson Five nostrils
Earned all this money but they never take the country out me
I got a hot sauce in my bag, swag"

Translates to she's black and proud. She's also creo and proud. Creo people were made from slaves and French people. A lot of people especially even in the black community do not have a lot of respect for black hair. She's basically saying she made all this money even though she had to push through racial barriers and still has to take heed. She is showing respect and black pride.
"Hot sauce in your bag" a country thing that a lot of black people parents did to spice up the food in restaurants cause typically speaking... a lot of white people do not spice up the food good enough. You may need to take some sort of class on racial issues. Plus, she does not outright say everything.

It's called imagery. That's why we have videos to further interpret the song. Maybe someone needs to break down black issues cause it's all in the song and the video. Plus, the superbowl performance with the black panther girls with fists. I think someone needs to break it down to you cause you are wrong. It's as clear as daylight. I don't think it takes for a person to be black to see it or understand. The opening video she is on top of a New Orleans police car where as Kanye West would put it "George Bush did not care about black people" where thousands of blacks lost their homes and where left stranded in Katrina. It took FEMA far longer than they should have taken and those homes to this day have not been replaced. There's examples of black injustice all over the video. If I had to breakdown everything down to you. I would have to write damn near a 10+ page paper.

The song and video are black issues, empowerment, and not letting what people say to get you down... just take pride in yourself even if you are not black.

 

 

[StrawberryBlond 14,115]

13 hours ago, BrianxRyan said:

"My daddy Alabama, Momma Louisiana
You mix that negro with that Creole make a Texas bama
I like my baby heir with baby hair and afros
I like my negro nose with Jackson Five nostrils
Earned all this money but they never take the country out me
I got a hot sauce in my bag, swag"

Translates to she's black and proud. She's also creo and proud. Creo people were made from slaves and French people. A lot of people especially even in the black community do not have a lot of respect for black hair. She's basically saying she made all this money even though she had to push through racial barriers and still has to take heed. She is showing respect and black pride.
"Hot sauce in your bag" a country thing that a lot of black people parents did to spice up the food in restaurants cause typically speaking... a lot of white people do not spice up the food good enough. You may need to take some sort of class on racial issues. Plus, she does not outright say everything.

It's called imagery. That's why we have videos to further interpret the song. Maybe someone needs to break down black issues cause it's all in the song and the video. Plus, the superbowl performance with the black panther girls with fists. I think someone needs to break it down to you cause you are wrong. It's as clear as daylight. I don't think it takes for a person to be black to see it or understand. The opening video she is on top of a New Orleans police car where as Kanye West would put it "George Bush did not care about black people" where thousands of blacks lost their homes and where left stranded in Katrina. It took FEMA far longer than they should have taken and those homes to this day have not been replaced. There's examples of black injustice all over the video. If I had to breakdown everything down to you. I would have to write damn near a 10+ page paper.

The song and video are black issues, empowerment, and not letting what people say to get you down... just take pride in yourself even if you are not black.

Yes, I know what it all means. But that doesn't mean it translates into being black and proud. It translates into "I'm proud to be Beyonce." Notice that the lines you posted are all things that are completely relevant to Beyonce - she's singing about herself, not about blacks at large. There is no black person on the planet who can relate to all the lines in this song except her. I mean, right off the bat, you need to have a father from Alabama and a mother from Louisiana, be creole and come from Texas - yeah, every black person can relate to that! Especially the ones born in say, Nigeria or Ghana! And you have to have afro hair and a wide nose - something not all blacks have either, especially if they're mixed race. And not every black person eats hot sauce. I mean, I'm white. If someone made a song all about being a white girl growing up with parents from Hampshire and Surrey and growing up in London who had silky blonde hair and a perfectly straight nose who carries sweeteners in her bag, I wouldn't be able to relate to any of that, despite being white. It would be a self-centered piece created by this one white person. So, why can't blacks see that this is a self-centered piece all about Beyonce and nothing to do with blacks in general? And certainly not blacks from outside North America.

Yes, the video will fool you into thinking it's about race. Beyonce's a sly one. She's done well to make it seem like it's about more than it actually is. You seem to think I'm wrong for noticing this when what I see as clear as daylight is something else (stuns me how 2 people can see a situation very differently). She's using social struggle to further herself and using it for a platform for bragging. It's despicable. If you want to create an empowerment song, you've got to make it non-specific and vague, so that everyone can relate to it. Specifics make it clear who this song was really for and her name starts with a B.

[Brian Ryan 1,468]

30 minutes ago, StrawberryBlond said:

Yes, I know what it all means. But that doesn't mean it translates into being black and proud. It translates into "I'm proud to be Beyonce." Notice that the lines you posted are all things that are completely relevant to Beyonce - she's singing about herself, not about blacks at large. There is no black person on the planet who can relate to all the lines in this song except her. I mean, right off the bat, you need to have a father from Alabama and a mother from Louisiana, be creole and come from Texas - yeah, every black person can relate to that! Especially the ones born in say, Nigeria or Ghana! And you have to have afro hair and a wide nose - something not all blacks have either, especially if they're mixed race. And not every black person eats hot sauce. I mean, I'm white. If someone made a song all about being a white girl growing up with parents from Hampshire and Surrey and growing up in London who had silky blonde hair and a perfectly straight nose who carries sweeteners in her bag, I wouldn't be able to relate to any of that, despite being white. It would be a self-centered piece created by this one white person. So, why can't blacks see that this is a self-centered piece all about Beyonce and nothing to do with blacks in general? And certainly not blacks from outside North America.

Yes, the video will fool you into thinking it's about race. Beyonce's a sly one. She's done well to make it seem like it's about more than it actually is. You seem to think I'm wrong for noticing this when what I see as clear as daylight is something else (stuns me how 2 people can see a situation very differently). She's using social struggle to further herself and using it for a platform for bragging. It's despicable. If you want to create an empowerment song, you've got to make it non-specific and vague, so that everyone can relate to it. Specifics make it clear who this song was really for and her name starts with a B.

I think you're completely wrong. Of course, she addressed many issues she went through with the song, black issues, empowerment, and not letting what people say to get you down. It's a spit in a haters of all kinds. I guess we can agree to disagree. As a black man, I was able to understand everything she was talking about in the video and the song. I do not even think that automatically makes me right, but being black alone I can relate to the song and the video. I have been profiled for wearing a hoodie. I guess as Beyonce' the best revenge is your paper.

[Ferrer Zorola 3,966]

I thought the question was going to be is formation's production and instrumental annoying?

the answer would have been yes 

[littlepotter 74,474]

On 3/29/2016 at 11:13 PM, BrianxRyan said:

If I white person did the song, the song and video would barely even make sense. She's talking black people get in formation and even more the whole society to get in formation and stop the black injustice. It comes off way better as black person because no matter how involved a white person is in black issues... they are still not black.

This is basically the argument people use when calling Gaga a faker for standing up for LGBTs

Spoiler

& none of that Poker Face bullshit.

 

[littlepotter 74,474]

25 minutes ago, Ferrer Zorola said:

I thought the question was going to be is formation's production and instrumental annoying?

the answer would have been yes 

 

[StrawberryBlond 14,115]

20 minutes ago, BrianxRyan said:

I think you're completely wrong. Of course, she addressed many issues she went through with the song, black issues, empowerment, and not letting what people say to get you down. It's a spit in a haters of all kinds. I guess we can agree to disagree. As a black man, I was able to understand everything she was talking about in the video and the song. I do not even think that automatically makes me right, but being black alone I can relate to the song and the video. I have been profiled for wearing a hoodie. I guess as Beyonce' the best revenge is your paper.

She doesn't mention anything about black issues - you're just letting the video change your view. Look at the lyrics alone, not the video. Without the video, you'd see it's nothing but a Beyonce self-empowerment song. Especially when she starts on about "You haters corny with that Illuminati mess," and "I'm so possessive that I rock his Roc necklaces." No civilian can relate to those lines. It's a song by Beyonce, for Beyonce, no one else. I notice that Beyonce fans have a habit of seeing her achievements as their own. They seem to relate to her empowerment anthems despite not actually being able to relate to the super-specific lyrics at all. Just like you're saying, the best revenge is your paper - yeah, a celebrity can relate to that, not us normal people struggling on minimum wage. She's talking about earning lots of money and being on a helicopter in the song - what part of this can us peasants relate to? You say you've been profiled for wearing a hoodie - that doesn't come up at all in this song. You keep telling yourself this song is for everybody to feel empowered by and is full of racial commentary, but it doesn't make it the truth. It blows my mind how people fall for this woman's deception. If anyone else released a song this bad and self centered, they'd be dragged to the pits and rightly so. Not Beyonce - she puts out this monstrosity and her tour sells out in an hour, even though she just finished a tour that everyone who was interested in her already saw (and maybe that On The Run concert too). She's only doing it so that she'll get all the touring money that people wouldn't have given her had she released her album normally and they'd be turned off by it and wouldn't go to the show. She's actually brazen enough to do it for 2 consecutive albums. She must be more insecure about how her work will be received than we'd like to believe she is.

[Ziggy 10,744]

On 3/29/2016 at 3:01 PM, Metamorphosis said:

It's much deeper than that. The reason it's important to have a POC (specifically black), doing this song is because had a White person done it, the message wouldn't have been as impactful. Not only that, but it would've been insulting because they wouldn't have a clue about how it is to be Black or live true Black Culture.

 

Anyone can speak for racial justice, but this specific song was meant for a Black voice and Black voice only.

I 100% agree with this, though let's be real, Beyonce isn't exactly experiencing the plight of the African American working class when Jay-Z brags about his watches and Warhols he owns lol

[Ziggy 10,744]

13 minutes ago, littlepotter said:

This is basically the argument people use when calling Gaga a faker for standing up for LGBTs

  Hide contents

& none of that Poker Face bullshit.

 

But I think it's a different situation with LGBTs vs. racial minorities. You can't exactly hide being black whereas you can hide being somewhere on the LGBT spectrum. I'm not saying they should hide it or that that is okay, but I do think it informs the experience differently. If I walk down the street, you may not be able to pick me out of a crowd as gay, but you can always pick out a black person, asian, hispanic, etc. The experience is different and so I think having someone like Gaga who is pretty out there in her own right wanting to be able to live however she wishes without ridicule and who also has many gay friends (you can advocate if you have close friends, it's ok), she can identify to a degree because it's about not having to hide who you are as a person. Obviously it isn't a 1 to 1 experience, but I think there are more similarities than if Gaga were to start making statements about Black Lives Matter and things like that.

[littlepotter 74,474]

1 minute ago, Ziggy said:

But I think it's a different situation with LGBTs vs. racial minorities. You can't exactly hide being black whereas you can hide being somewhere on the LGBT spectrum. I'm not saying they should hide it or that that is okay, but I do think it informs the experience differently. If I walk down the street, you may not be able to pick me out of a crowd as gay, but you can always pick out a black person, asian, hispanic, etc. The experience is different and so I think having someone like Gaga who is pretty out there in her own right wanting to be able to live however she wishes without ridicule and who also has many gay friends (you can advocate if you have close friends, it's ok), she can identify to a degree because it's about not having to hide who you are as a person. Obviously it isn't a 1 to 1 experience, but I think there are more similarities than if Gaga were to start making statements about Black Lives Matter and things like that.

I guess I agree to some extent... I was also just pointing the similarities of accusations. If Gaga were to stand up for black people I wouldn't see a problem. Just what the GP thinks.

[Ferrer Zorola 3,966]

35 minutes ago, littlepotter said:

 

come on admit the little dun dun, dun dun sounds are freaking annoying and the autotune she uses omg it's near Kanye West annoying 

[littlepotter 74,474]

19 minutes ago, Ferrer Zorola said:

come on admit the little dun dun, dun dun sounds are freaking annoying and the autotune she uses omg it's near Kanye West annoying 

They honestly gave me life 

[Cheap thrills 1,282]

Formation is perfect the way it is. She expresses her blackness but everyone from every culture is aloud to bop to it, it's not just a black song it's a song for everyone of Beyoncé's fans 

[MarryTheSequins 976]

25 minutes ago, StrawberryBlond said:

She doesn't mention anything about black issues - you're just letting the video change your view. Look at the lyrics alone, not the video. Without the video, you'd see it's nothing but a Beyonce self-empowerment song. Especially when she starts on about "You haters corny with that Illuminati mess," and "I'm so possessive that I rock his Roc necklaces." No civilian can relate to those lines. It's a song by Beyonce, for Beyonce, no one else. I notice that Beyonce fans have a habit of seeing her achievements as their own. They seem to relate to her empowerment anthems despite not actually being able to relate to the super-specific lyrics at all. Just like you're saying, the best revenge is your paper - yeah, a celebrity can relate to that, not us normal people struggling on minimum wage. She's talking about earning lots of money and being on a helicopter in the song - what part of this can us peasants relate to? You say you've been profiled for wearing a hoodie - that doesn't come up at all in this song. You keep telling yourself this song is for everybody to feel empowered by and is full of racial commentary, but it doesn't make it the truth. It blows my mind how people fall for this woman's deception. If anyone else released a song this bad and self centered, they'd be dragged to the pits and rightly so. Not Beyonce - she puts out this monstrosity and her tour sells out in an hour, even though she just finished a tour that everyone who was interested in her already saw (and maybe that On The Run concert too). She's only doing it so that she'll get all the touring money that people wouldn't have given her had she released her album normally and they'd be turned off by it and wouldn't go to the show. She's actually brazen enough to do it for 2 consecutive albums. She must be more insecure about how her work will be received than we'd like to believe she is.

 

I'm sorry but you're so far off the mark and from your previous posts in this thread it's clearly because you simply don't like Beyoncé. Nobody's forcing you to like the song but to say it doesn't address black issues is straight up delusional. It's already been pointed out for you (I'm going to copy and paste things from BrianXRyan that you should read again):

'I like my baby heir with baby hair and afros
I like my negro nose with Jackson Five nostrils'

A lot of people especially even in the black community do not have a lot of respect for black hair.

-You're white, right? And I'm guessing you don't have many black friends. Anyway, my best friend naturally has gorgeous afro hair, but even her own family tell her that her hair is dirty, messy and needs to be kept in braids (a more european hair style). Thats black people telling other black people that their black features need to be hidden and made more white, so how do you think the general perception of black hair is from a white point of view? It's a genuine issue; an example you may be more familiar with is how big lips are seen as desirable on white girls yet not on black girls - the people who generally tend to have natural bigger lips. Black girls are constantly being told that their features aren't good enough and they need to make themselves more white, i even know a girl who was using skin lightening treatments. Beyoncé is not only empowering herself (you will agree, you've mentioned several times that this is a Beyoncé song about Beyoncé) but it's a message that if Beyoncé can love those features about herself then other girls should too. This is FURTHER shown in the video when it cuts to a clip of her daughter smiling (please don't tell me the video is separate from the song because it's not - the race issues are being discussed in both).

'She's basically saying she made all this money even though she had to push through racial barriers and still has to take heed. She is showing respect and black pride.'

-I mean how you can disagree with this confuses me. Your entire argument is that Beyoncé doesn't care about race issues and it's actually a song about herself...yeah it's a song about how she (a person of colour) became overwhelmingly successful DESPITE everything else going on. That's why she keeps talking about her money and success. By the same argument, Born This Way is a selfish song Gaga wrote only about herself (MY mama told me when I was young...SHE rolled MY hair...) but it's disguised as a song for everyone. We both know that's not true.  If anything, Beyoncé's frequent mentions of her success are motivational. You can come from this background or another background which isn't white and still make it big. 

 

Overall it really just comes off as though you don't like Beyoncé and would rather believe this whole thing is a money making scam than actually accept she might be genuine. Even if it is for the money, to completely deny she tackles race issues is delusional. I didn't mention the police imagery, it should be obvious to you what that refers to 

[Ferrer Zorola 3,966]

1 hour ago, littlepotter said:

They honestly gave me life 

I thought you said "your honesty gave me life" lmao