Beyoncé Knowles is a walking icon.
She's created some of the most viewed and most loved videos of all time, which is why
it's fascinating that there are still things that people have missed in these works of
art.
From hidden details to huge controversies, here are some of the things you may have missed
in Beyonce's videos.
Hot sauce in her bag
In Beyoncé's song "Formation," she delivers the line,
"I got hot sauce in my bag."
According to Genius, the line alludes to the singer's humble Louisiana roots and the KFC
Freestyle performed by basketball player Delonte West that once went viral online.
Though it became shorthand for keeping one's culture closeby no matter where they go, Beyoncé
gave the line new meaning when she dropped her visual album, Lemonade.
In the video for "Hold Up" from this album, Beyoncé takes a baseball bat from a boy on
the street and begins destroying nearly everything in her path with it.
As noted by FACT magazine, this section of the video seems to be inspired by Pipilotti
Rist's video for "Ever Is Over All," but it's the baseball bat itself that's most important
to Beyoncé fans.
At certain points in the video, keen-eyed viewers may notice that the bat in Beyoncé's
hands is engraved with the words "hot sauce."
Sure, this may just be a fun throwback reference, but it may also serve as a warning that the
singer is carrying something a little heavier than Tabasco sauce in her bag.
Making a statement
The message contained within Beyoncé's song "Formation" is up for interpretation.
Through its title alone, the song seems to encourage a united movement.
Combined with the lyrics and the images in the video, the song becomes a protest of sorts.
In fact, people even adopted it as a "black power anthem," according to The Daily Beast.
Business Insider reported that some people took that to another extreme, suggesting the
video was "anti-police," particularly the image of a sinking police car and the references
to police protests.
In Beyoncé's mind, all good art is controversial.
Still, she insists the only thing she's against is police brutality.
She told Elle,
"Anyone who perceives my message as anti-police is completely mistaken…
I am against police brutality and injustice.
If celebrating my roots and culture during Black History Month made anyone uncomfortable,
those feelings were there long before a video and long before me."
Part of celebrating culture in this video means celebrating the Black Lives Matter movement.
While the child dancing in front of a police line and recreating the "Hands up, don't shoot"
symbol of the movement makes for a more explicit reference, two smaller details might be missed.
The first is the child's dark hoodie, a protest symbol that emerged after the shooting of
Trayvon Martin.
The other is the graffitied words "Stop shooting us," which can be seen briefly.
Neither of these symbols are attacks on police.
Rather, they're statements against the abuse conducted by authorities.
Beauty in the breaks
There's a lot going on in the video for "Sandcastles," but, for a song about scars and forgiveness,
maybe the most significant image is the cracked bowl near the one-minute mark.
According to Genius, this isn't any ordinary cracked bowl.
Though Beyoncé sings about:
"... dishes smashed on my counter from our last encounter..."
… this bowl has been beautifully and painstakingly repaired.
The bowl in the video is made through an artform called Kintsugi.
This Japanese ceramic practice brings broken dishes back to life while also highlighting
their cracks.
By dusting lacquer with gold or using liquid precious metals to make the repairs, the cracks
become a central component of the piece, giving it history and character.
The presence of this bowl in the video for "Sandcastles" allows Beyoncé to make a symbolic
gesture.
As Cosmopolitan suggests, the bowl could represent the fact that she and Jay Z are in, quote,
"... an even better place now for working through the tough times."
It could also be a symbol for Beyoncé herself.
After dedicating much of the album to references of marital problems and infidelity, could
Beyoncé be the bowl and Lemonade the gold lacquer that highlights her scars?
Sparkly star
Over the years, Beyoncé has influenced fashion in too many ways to list, but she's been known
to don simplicity at its best as well.
In "Crazy in Love," fans fell in love with the singer's simple denim shorts and white
tank top.
BET even named the "plain white tank top" one of the singer's top video looks.
It became iconic, but everyone had it wrong.
It wasn't until some behind-the-scenes stills from the video shoot popped up on Twitter
that fans were finally clued in on something: The white shirt was never plain white.
It was actually sparkly.
Confronted with this new knowledge, Twitter reacted with exactly the amount of outrage
that you would expect of Twitter, according to The Mirror.
Now it's not like Beyoncé outwardly lied about wearing a plain white tank top.
Truthfully, everyone who actually believed she might be so plain should feel pretty silly.
If you're looking for someone or something to blame, point your finger at high-definition
televisions, which came around too late to save us from this embarrassment.
Pretty actually hurts
In "Pretty Hurts," Beyoncé's critique of beauty standards is obvious, but a couple
of small details may slip under the radar.
According to People magazine, as a child, Beyoncé participated in beauty contests and
talent shows, so her personal experience was essential in fueling her message.
In fact, a major inspiration for the video was a picture of her as a child in front of
a wall of competition trophies.
"I wanted to recreate that and have her break them and, you know, show that it doesn't really
advance you to get these awards that are just based on outer beauty."
In the video, Beyoncé's character and the other beauty contestants take part in different
uncomfortable acts and rituals in order to feel beautiful.
"It represents all of the things that women go through to keep up with the pressure that
society puts on us."
Many moments are quite clear, such as the scenes involving getting botox and purging.
But there's one shot of a woman eating cotton balls, which might not register for everyone.
This is the cotton ball diet, a dangerous trend in which people ate cotton balls dipped
in orange juice to feel full without gaining weight.
According to ABC News, eating these could cause choking, blockages, and malnutrition
from the bleached fabrics.
Unlikely inspiration
The dance routine in "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)" is one of the more recognizable
numbers in all of music.
Beyoncé and her two backup dancers did all the on-screen work that made the dance craze.
But the iconic dance didn't start with them.
It actually originated on the stage of The Ed Sullivan Show in 1969.
"I saw this on YouTube, it's these three ladies and one of them is Bob Fosse's wife, who was
this choreographer."
In a Cosmopolitan interview, one of her choreographers revealed that he and Beyoncé thought it would
be great to modernize the older routine, so they got to work.
"It's one take, and it's black and white.
I thought, 'Wow, how amazing would that be now?'"
But don't think that the original dance was merely inspiration.
The dances are nearly identical.
Watching them side by side, it becomes clear just how close they really are.
Dancing around plagiarism
Beyoncé often draws from different influences in her music and her videos, but rarely has
there been such a controversy as when she released the music video for "Countdown."
Shortly after the video dropped, a comparison video was released that highlighted the similarities
between some of Beyoncé's dance routine with that of Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker's ballet
"Rosas danst Rosas."
De Keersmaeker, in speaking to a Danish blog, didn't hide her feelings about the connection,
saying,
"I didn't know anything about this.
I'm not mad, but this is plagiarism.
What's rude is that they don't even bother about hiding it.
They seem to think they could do it because it's a famous work…
Am I honored?
Look I've seen local school kids doing this.
That's a lot more beautiful."
Later, Beyoncé downplayed the controversy.
According to Dawn, she said in a statement,
"Clearly, the ballet 'Rosas danst Rosas' was one of many references for my video, 'Countdown.'
It was one of the inspirations used to bring the feel and look of the song to life."
Calling Quentin Tarantino
Although "Telephone" is not technically a Beyoncé song, she plays a large role in the
Lady Gaga video.
The strange, stylish video features many interesting details, including one that will surely peak
the interests of film fans.
When Beyoncé first arrives at the prison to pick up Lady Gaga in the video, some viewers
might recognize the vehicle she's driving, especially if they're Quentin Tarantino fans.
The truck is the "P---- Wagon" from Kill Bill, and this isn't some replica either.
It's the actual truck that was used in Tarantino's films.
According to Gaga's interview with E! News, the video was even partially inspired by the
famous movie director's work.
She explained,
"There certainly is a Tarantino-inspired quality in the video…
We were having lunch one day in Los Angeles, and I was telling him about my concept for
the video and he loved it so much he said, 'You gotta use the P---- Wagon.'"
The price of fame
There's a moment in the video for "Jealous" where Beyoncé leaves the comfort of her mansion
to walk the streets.
She soon finds herself swarmed and gawked at by her adoring fans, obviously something
that she deals with regularly if ever she tries to walk anywhere.
While this is an interesting observation about the life of a megastar, it's actually more
than that.
It turns out that the scene wasn't even staged at all.
The people in the background going crazy about seeing Beyoncé are sincerely going crazy
about seeing Beyoncé.
According to the director of the video, Beyonce got out at St. Mark's in New York and the
cameras simply caught the genuine reactions of the public.
He told MTV News,
"We really shot it.
Some people in the video did not know we were filming."
Not only does this make the scene more authentic, it also makes the emotion of the scene more
impactful.
Beyoncé doesn't need actors to show how isolating her life in the spotlight can be.
Just set her on the street and turn the cameras on to capture the craziness.
Apes--- for art
When Beyoncé and Jay-Z took over the Louvre to shoot the video for "Apes---," the artistic
expression of the world-famous couple took center stage.
Each shot in the video delivers a multi-faceted message to the viewer, some heavy-handed and
some subtle and complex.
While we could highlight several moments from the six-minute video, let's focus on one shot
that probably best carries a message that is echoed throughout, the scene with the Portrait
of Madame Récamier, a Parisian socialite.
The famous painting is notable for its unfinished background, but this video concerns itself
with the foreground.
By positioning two black dancers wearing similar head-wraps to French servants below the painting
of the reclining Madame Récamier, the picture is reframed to include the black women who
were erased from the original setting.
According to The Guardian, these women represent, quote, "the silent, unremembered, and invisible
labor behind the woman's wealth and finery."
So, effectively, Beyoncé, Jay-Z, and their team of dancers occupy a traditionally white
space in the video and stake their ground.
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