Why Beyoncé Doesn’t Make Music Videos Anymore

From the moment she blew a bubble gum in “Crazy In Love”, until the day he destroyed a fleet of cars with a baseball bat in “Hold Up“Beyoncé has created some of the most memorable music videos in contemporary pop.

Her mastery rivaled that of Madonna and Michael Jackson in the 1980s—with the videos for her album “Lemonade“ acting as a powerful celebration of black womanhood and girl power.

Then, suddenly, she stopped. Her last two albums, “Renaissance” and “Cowboy Carter,” were devoid of visuals, leaving fans perplexed.

Now, Beyoncé has explained her decision in a rare interview with GQ magazine, saying she didn’t want her videos to become a “distraction from the quality of her voice and the music.”

“I thought it was important that at a time when all we see are images, the world could focus on the voice,” said the singer.

She explained that her recent records—which seek to contextualize the often-overlooked contributions of black musicians to genres like house, disco and country—needed to stand on their own.

“The music is so rich in history and instrumentation. It takes months to digest, research and understand,” she said. “The music needed space to breathe on its own.”

She added that for “Renaissance” in particular, the live show experience was more important than filming music videos.

The album, released in 2022, was written during the pandemic and was conceived as “a place to dream and escape during a scary time for the world.”

The subsequent tour and the tour film released in theaters last year were conceived as a moment of community and catharsis for her followers.

“Fans all over the world became the image,” Beyoncé told GQ. “We all got the image on tour.”

The interview, which took place to promote the singer’s new whiskey brand, is the first time Beyoncé has spoken at length about her career since a joint interview with her sister Solange in 2017.

She stepped away from interviews around 2013 and 2014, opting to write personal essays for publications like Vogue or address fans directly on social media. The GQ article didn’t reveal much about the notoriously private star.

She said she gave up eating meat (except turkey) over the summer and briefly touched on the threat of artificial intelligence, saying she recently heard an AI-generated track “that sounded so much like me it freaked me out.”

The singer also spoke about her efforts to shield her family from the press. “One thing I worked really hard on was making sure my kids could have as much normalcy and privacy as possible, and making sure my personal life didn’t become a brand,” she said.

“It’s so easy for celebrities to turn our lives into performance art. I’ve gone to extreme lengths to stay true to my boundaries and protect myself and my family. No amount of money is worth my peace of mind.”

DISREGARD FOR THE AWARD

The article was published a day after it was revealed that Beyoncé had been snubbed by the Country Music Awards (CMA). from the United States), with “Cowboy Carter” not receiving a single nomination at the genre’s most prestigious ceremony.

Her music was largely overlooked, despite becoming the first album by a black woman to reach number one on the US country albums chart, and the song “Texas Hold ‘Em” spending two weeks at the top of the country singles chart.

With the interview taking place before the CMA nominations were announced, Beyoncé simply said she was “excited” to see her country experiment “gain worldwide acceptance.”

However, the singer’s father and former manager Matthew Knowles criticized the awards show organizers, saying the decision to ignore “Cowboy Carter” “speaks for itself.”

Speaking to TMZ, Knowles said: “There are more white people in America and unfortunately they don’t vote based on ability and achievement, sometimes it’s still a black and white thing.”

FIVE OF BEYONCÉ’S BEST MUSIC VIDEOS

1) “Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It)”

Sometimes the simplest ideas are the best. This black-and-white music video, directed by Jake Nava, features just Beyoncé, a simple backdrop, and some Bob Fosse-inspired choreography.

2) “Formation”

His most powerful and direct video yet, encapsulating decades of black American history and culture. Set in New Orleans, it references plantations where enslaved black people worked, segregation, Hurricane Katrina and police brutality, while also celebrating Southern culture — from Mardi Gras and tap dancing to black cowboys and marching bands.

A document of resilience, it was the first chapter in the star’s ongoing attempts to preserve and recontextualize black American history.

3) “Countdown”

A kaleidoscope of colors and pop culture references, Beyoncé co-directed this video while pregnant with her first daughter, Blue Ivy.

It references Audrey Hepburn and British supermodel Twiggy, and the frenetic editing and jitterbug choreography make it a unique spot in her videography.

4) Crazy In Love

The video that launched her solo career, “Crazy In Love,” has all the clichés of early 2000s music videos — fur coats, exploding cars, big hair and “bullet time” sequences (a camera effect made famous by the film “The Matrix,” which shows the same scene from different angles, creating a kind of frozen moment in time).

But what it really does is tell the viewer that Beyoncé is a star. The camera loves her from the moment she struts into the center of the frame. As soon as this clip came out, Destiny’s Child (the American R&B group that included Beyoncé) must have known their days were numbered.

5) “Get Me Bodied (Extended Version)”

We almost put “Hold Up“ fifth. The image of Beyoncé brandishing that baseball bat has been copied and parodied a million times, but never bettered.

In the end, though, we couldn’t resist the fun factor of “Get Me Bodied” — a big Hollywood production, with choreography inspired by Bob Fosse’s “Sweet Charity,” and guest appearances by Kelly Rowland, Michelle Williams and Solange Knowles.

Like “Crazy In Love,” it harks back to a time when Beyoncé’s sole goal was pop domination—but it’s still a feast for the eyes.

This text was originally published here.