Starring Beyonce’s eyebrows

Via Alexia, how great is Beyonce’s new video?

I mean… it’s so weird! The song is a total garbage plate. The video looks like they had five different concepts and just decided to make all of them—at the same time.

I love it.

And Beyonce’s face! Those expressions!

17 Responses

    5hate5 says:
    October 8, 2011 at 1:58 pm

    Love the Tahou’s shoutout.

    Reply
    Frank Chimero says:
    October 8, 2011 at 2:46 pm

    Remember Yooouuutuuube that people used with that Pogo Alice in Wonderland remix? Feels like this video is MADE for it. So fun!
    http://www.yooouuutuuube.com/v/?width=240&height=160&yt=gZtkovcn2B0&flux=0&direction=bottom_left

    Reply
    Dan says:
    October 9, 2011 at 10:18 am

    I’d like to see the video re-made for the toddler set, with Beyonce replaced by Cat the Cat. Little kids’ heads would explode, it would be so awesome.

    [Also: I only watched the video because you compared it to a garbage plate (but now I’m glad I did). Basically, you can get me to consume anything by comparing it to a garbage plate. Come to think of it, the garbage plate is, in essence, an affirmation of consuming anything.]

    Reply
    Josh Korr says:
    October 9, 2011 at 10:24 am

    “Garbage plate” — never heard that one before!

    Reply
    Saheli says:
    October 9, 2011 at 3:14 pm

    Yeah, Robin, did you invent that as a musical descriptor?

    Reply
    Robin Sloan says:
    October 9, 2011 at 5:07 pm

    I think so, maybe? I like it!

    Reply
    Saheli says:
    October 10, 2011 at 12:00 pm

    I like it, it sounded not-made up, but your link made me think it was. And this does seem like a perfect example.

    Saheli says:
    October 10, 2011 at 12:02 pm

    The video reminded me of needlework samplers, a very dense portfolio reel of the kinds of things a relatively simple Beyonce music video can be, without actually being any of them. It also reminded me of the common science fiction movie device, the video which is more than a video (The Parralax View with Warren Beatty, the pilot conceit of the Intersect embeddingi n the brain of Chuck), which utilize jump cuts and a frenetic case to completely transcend anything in the video and short-circuit the viewers brain to communicate something much more complicated. A day later, it’s hard to recall anything but the pulsing. 

    I was slightly perturbed at how pale Beyonce seems. Is that morning sickness, the cumulative effects of having move to NYC from the South, or a slow caving into the complexion market?

    Reply
    echan says:
    October 11, 2011 at 2:47 am

    So, if Beyonce does not win Best Music Video for this next year, I totally give Kanye permission to do his “Imma gonna let you finish, but Beyonce…” thing.

    Reply
    Matt Thompson says:
    October 11, 2011 at 3:36 pm

    I have watched this video at least six times a day for the past four days.

    Reply
    Thomas says:
    October 11, 2011 at 6:49 pm

    Or… cough… double that…

    Reply
    Robin Sloan says:
    October 12, 2011 at 9:14 am

    I’ve been semi-obsessively reading up on this video. This Q&A w/ the director, Adria Petty, is quite good and in particular, this image is weird/great:

    Beyoncé‘s got sort of a mini-Motown unit that moves with her, that does hair and makeup and wardrobe and choreography and even brings in the extras. A good deal of what gets put onscreen you sort of have to liaise through Beyoncé‘s department. The week that we did our video there were a number of other videos being shot so there wasn’t a lot of prep time. So the things that evolve sort of come from that team. You show them some visual references and then you sort of see what they pull off the racks.

    I want a mini-Motown unit!

    Reply
    echan says:
    October 12, 2011 at 11:11 am

    You’ve probably seen this already, and it doesn’t add anything new, but here’s a slideshow showing the side-by-side comparisons between the video and its visual references:

    http://www.slate.com/slideshows/arts/beyonce-fashion-inspiration.html

    Reply
    Niki says:
    October 12, 2011 at 9:15 am

    For your reference to Nick Tahou’s, I am eternally grateful. Although, I would rank the garbage plate above that video.

    Reply
    Robin Sloan says:
    October 12, 2011 at 9:16 am

    (Although, wow, Petty goes on to say she wasn’t involved in the editing at all, and like, that’s where a lot of the authorship resides when you’re talking about a video like this. I wonder who did it? Who are you, mysterious editor of delight?)

    Reply
    echan says:
    October 12, 2011 at 3:02 pm

    I’m adding my third comment on this thread because in response to my last tweet, Josh IM’d this link to me:

    http://www.yooouuutuuube.com/v/?width=96&height=60&yt=m6hPe8LpD30&flux=0&direction=top_right

    And I’m completely speechless.

    Reply

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