Beyonce - 'Hold Up' music video.

          

The media text I have chosen is the 'Hold Up' music video by Beyonce Knowles, from the visual album, 'Lemonade'. I found this video as I have been a fan of Beyonce for years and had been eagerly awaiting for the release of the video following the release of 'Lemonade'. On September 4th 2016, the video was published onto YouTube which is where I first seen it. The song falls under the genre of Reggae fusion. The text was produced by Beyonce herself, along with Diplo and Ezra Koenig.

I believe the sole purpose of this song is to entertain, however it can also be said to draw attention to the topic of cheating within a relationship and how to deal with that pain, as the lyrics comment on this topic. Therefore, this music video could be used as a tool for female empowerment and possibly even a form of self help.

Perhaps the target audience for the text is female teenagers-mid 30's. My reasoning for this is that Beyonce is an icon for feminism and the women within this age group may find the lyrics relate-able. Elaborating on this, women who have experienced cheating or being left by their partner may be targeted by the text, as they will agree with the portrayed message of the video and perhaps find peace of mind by engaging in this piece of media. This may be their reason for consuming the media text; they agree with the message Beyonce voices and are empathetic to the discussed situation, they may enjoy the text as it allows them to personally identify with the artist. In addition, people may consume this text as they find it to be a form of escapism. Furthermore, people may consume the text purely because they were fans of Beyonce prior to the release of the video and were curious to see what the music video was like. As Beyonce is a household name and one of the current top women in the music business, the 'mainstream' and 'succeeder' groups may consume this text.

Personally, I enjoyed the media text and found it to be empowering and have a positive message. I found the concept of the video to be fresh and unique. As it is part of a visual album, the music video is part of the film, Lemonade, before the song begins, there is a clip of Beyonce voicing her troubles when going through the trauma of being cheated on, introducing the theme of the song. I found this extra clip to be quite unique, which could intrigue the 'aspirer'.

People may react differently to the text as people will create their own interpretations of the text. For instance; my interpretation was that the music video is empowering to women and was produced for entertainment and escapism, as well as assistance to women having difficulties within their relationship. However, I understand that others may view the video as a woman destroying public property due to her personal issues. They may believe this as they do nut understand the deeper meaning of the lyrics, or because throughout the video Beyonce's facial expressions suggest she is happy and not in fact going through the supposed heart breaking situation discussed in her lyrics.