2. INTRODUCTION
Beyoncé was born on September 4th 1981 in Texas, Houston
As of May 2013, she is netted to be worth $350 million
She married Jay-Z in 2008 and had his child on January 7th 2012, a
baby girl named Blue Ivy Carter
She became famous in the late 1990s at the leader of Destiny’s Child,
which was managed by her father, Matthew Knowles
In 1995, Beyoncé's father resigned from the job as manager and they
released one more album in 2001 before splitting
Beyoncé launched her solo career in 2003 with the release of
Dangerously In Love but still agreed to release the final Destiny’s
Child album in 2004
3. DESTINY’S CHILD
Beyoncé started out in a group called Girls Tyme with LaToya Luckett,
Kelly Rowland and LaTavia Roberson in her teens
Destiny’s Child was formed in 1995 and was made up of Beyoncé,
Kelly Rowland and Michelle Williams. They appeared on a television
show called Star Search, although they did not win they were soon
signed to Columbia Records
They first released an album called ‘Destiny’s Child’ in 1997 which
kick started their tour in America. Their second album ‘The Writing’s
On The Wall’ in 1999 bought them more fame from the UK
In 2000, they supported Christina Aguilera on her summer tour
In 2001 they released their third album ‘Survivor’ which was followed
by their fourth and final album ‘Destiny Fulfilled’ in 2004
4. DESTINY’S CHILD ALBUM COVERS
These are the four album covers released by Destiny’s Child from 1997 to 2004
• In the first album, Beyoncé is at the side and looks young and unnoticeable
• In the second album, Beyoncé is at the front however she is barely recognisable
with braids and attitude
• In the third album, Beyoncé is in the centre of the picture and is recognised as
the lead vocalist
• In the fourth album, Beyoncé is at the side but seeing as she is the most
famous at this point her positioning is insignificant. She looks flawless and
much more grown up from the first album in 1997
5. BEYONCE ALBUM COVERS
DANGEROUSLY IN LOVE
Released: 2003
Awards: Grammy Award for Best Contemporary R&B Album, Soul
Train Music Award for Best R&B/Soul Album, Female
Songs: Crazy in Love, Naughty Girl, Baby Boy, Hip Hop Star, Be With
You, Me, Myself and I, Yes, Signs, Speechless, That's How You Like It,
The Closer I Get To You, Dangerously in Love 2, Gift From Virgo,
Bienvenue, Beyoncé interlude, Work It Out, '03 Bonnie & Clyde, Bonnie
& Clyde '03, Daddy
6. B’DAY
Released: 2006
Awards: Grammy Award for Best Contemporary R&B Album
Songs: Déjà vu, Get Me Bodied, Suga Mama, Upgrade U, Ring The
Alarm, Kitty Kat, Freakum Dress, Green Light, Irreplaceable,
Resentment, Encore for the Fans, Listen
7. I AM... SASHA FIERCE
Released: 2008
Awards: Soul Train Music Award for Album of the Year
Songs: If I Were A Boy, Halo, Disappear, Broken-Hearted Girl, Ave
Maria, Smash Into You, Satellites, That's Why You're Beautiful, Single
Ladies (Put A Ring On It), Radio, Diva, Sweet Dreams, Video Phone,
Hello, Ego, Scared of Lonely
8. 4
Released: 2011
Awards: Billboard Music Award for Top R&B Album
Songs: 1+1, I care, I Miss You, Best Thing I Never Had, Party, Rather
Die Young, Start Over, Love On Top, Countdown, End of Time, I Was
Here, Run the World (Girls)
9. BEYONCÉ
Released: 2013
Songs: Pretty Hurts, Haunted, Drunk in Love (ft. Jay Z), Blow, No
Angel, Yoncé/Partition, Jealous, Rocket, Mine (ft. Drake), XO,
***Flawless (ft. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie), Superpower (ft. Frank
Ocean), Heaven, Blue (ft. Blue Ivy)
11. BEYONCÉ (AS A SOLO ARTIST)
ALBUM COVERS
These are the five album covers released by Beyoncé from 2003 to 2013
• In the first album, Beyoncé has chosen to wear clothing that is excessive and
highlights her assests, she is staring directly as the camera as if to say “I am a solo
artist now”
• In the second album, Beyonce is wearing a low cut top to also highlight her
assests much alike the Dangerously In Love album. However, she isn’t looking in
the camera so it is more posed and ‘model’ like, expressing her confidence
• In the third album, her hair is scraped back and she is again looking directly down
the camera. With all her success from the previous two albums, she is confident
and emphasises this by the fact she has no clothes on
• In the fourth album, she is wearing no underwear under her fur coat. She is
becoming more sexualised and egotistical with all her fame
• The fifth album says it all, she needs no picture as her fame is off the charts. The
baby pink has connotations of innocence which is contrapuntal to the songs in
12. MUSIC
R&B POP SOUL
Beyoncé's influences include Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey and
Tina Turner
Above are some images that represent the genres she performs
“I felt like it was time to set up my future, so I set a goal. My goal was
independence.” Beyoncé
13. FILM
These are the nine film covers which feature Beyoncé from 2001 to 2013
The fact Beyoncé was able to promote her career further through the film industry helps to
add to her image of a powerful, strong, independent woman
As she was able to sing in the majority of them or have one of her songs featured within the
film she boosted her career this way which is very clever and obviously effective as it helped
made her even more famous
14. DEVELOPMENT OF IMAGE
As Beyoncé's popularity has increased, her image has changed. This
can be seen from the examples below, starting from her Girls Tyme
days in her teens and going all the way to her latest album release in
2013, where she is 32 years of age
Beyoncè in
Girls Tyme,
wearing
orange and
green
Beyoncè in Destiny’s Child. The first image see’s her in a bikini-like outfit with
bright colours and young care free attitude. The second image see’s her in more
‘performer’ clothes, wearing knee high boots and looking confident with purple
colour coordinated lipstick. The third image see’s her much alike the first image, in
a bikini-like outfit feeling strong and united with her band members until the end
15. DEVELOPMENT OF IMAGE
Beyonce from 2003 to 2013 - these five images show the change in her looks from across her five albums.
At the start, she was very care free and all about big afro hair and minimum make up. Then it went to being
more sexy and showing off her body. After that, it was about becoming ‘independent’ and having her own
individual image. Then, it was about being artistic with her body and her music. Finally, it was about showing
16. BEYONCÉ AND FEMINISM
Beyoncé has always been known as a feminist but has promoted this even further
recently with the release of her 2013 album ‘Beyoncé.’ One of the songs on her 2013
album was called ‘***Flawless’ and included a long passage within the song by
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie which was as follows:
We teach girls to shrink themselves, to make themselves smaller. We say to girls,
“You can have ambition, but not too much. You should aim to be successful, but not
too successful, otherwise you will threaten the man."
Because I am female I am expected to aspire to marriage, I am expected to make my
life choices always keeping in mind that marriage is the most important. Now
marriage can be a source of Joy and love and mutual support. But why do we teach
girls to aspire to marriage and we don't teach boys the same? We raise girls to see
each other as competitors, not for jobs or for accomplishment which I think can be a
good thing, but for the attention of men. We teach girls that they cannot be sexual
beings in the way that boys are. Feminist: the person who believes in the social,
political and economic equality of the sexes.”
This passage itself expresses how Beyoncé feels about feminism and the fact this
song is featured on her most recent album gives her fans an up to date summary on
how she feels about it
17. RECENTLY
Beyoncé's most recent music has been from her brand new album ‘Beyoncè’ released in 2013. This
album was all about showing off her incredible post-baby body and the fact she still has ‘it.’ Some
criticism came from this album, as her husband’s lyrics in the song ‘Drunk In Love’ were slated for
being horrible about pop icon Tina Turner, as well as criticism for her inappropriate outfits and
sexual dance moves in songs such as Partition and Yoncè. However, this album made Beyoncè the
fastest selling artist of all time and the criticism was majorly overshadowed by the admiration,
praise and money she gained from this latest album release
18. TWO MUSIC VIDEOS
Comparison of Halo and Yoncè:
Halo music video was released in 2010 and Yoncè music video was released in 2013.
The Halo music video featured shots of Beyoncè looking very innocent and grown up.
The music video very much matched the pace of the song and the emotions expressed
throughout the song. She was clothed appropriately and it was all about the music.
However in the 2013 music video Yoncè, she used three model performers to help
show shots of cleavage, butts and pretty faces. It involved a lot of attitude to match the
song and a lot of expression that even though she is a mum now, she is still sexy.
