Friday, 6 June 2025

That B.E.A.T (2012)



What elements did ‘Beyonce’ pick and mix from That B.E.A.T to construct a diverse and complex set of ideological perspectives?


  • Bounce music is fast, upbeat, and sampling other songs in to one mix. 
  • It is an enclosed genre that is heavily associated with New Orleans, and completely infringes copyright restriction. 
  • As a genre, bounce lacks mainstream appeal through it’s production, and it’s association with black gay men. The sexually explicit lyrics are highly queer coded
  • However, in the video to formation, we do not see gay men
  • Many shots were taken directly from this documentary and placed into Formation, without the director’s knowledge or permission.
  • The effect of taking the footage from this documentary is to construct a complex and confrontational representation of black identity
  • Formation takes several shots from  this documentary. These shots were taken without permission or the knowledge of the director. However, Sony owns both this documentary and also Columbia records. 
  • The shots of derelict buildings, an underpass, a run down club and a muscular man dancing from behind construct a complex and diverse representation of New Orleans 
  • However, the representations of queer people from this documentary are almost completely excluded by Formation
  • Bounce music is a region specific genre that combines hip hop, dance and is performed predominantly by gay rappers 
  • Formation excludes the representation of gay people, because it does not appeal to B’s mainstream and predominantly heterosexual audience