MCO 120: Media and Society
Beyoncé Case Study
Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication | Arizona State University
Instructor: Kelly Roach, Faculty Associate
Student Name: Christopher Carter Student #: 1205574522 Semester (Season & Year): Fall 17
Overview of this Assignment
This exercise gives you the opportunity to examine the audio industry in-depth with a look at the making and release of Beyoncé’s fifth and sixth albums, Beyoncé, in 2013, and Lemonade in 2016.
Here’s How To Do It:
1. Read the following articles:
Beyoncé Rejects Tradition for Social Media’s Power by Ben Sisario
3 Powerful Branding Lessons From Beyoncé’s ‘Lemonade’ by Melanie Curtin
Beyoncé: Lessons From a Marketing Master by Marissa Piazzola
2. Answer the questions below. Be sure to include a word count for each of your 5 responses, each of which must be at least 75 words.
3. Save and submit this document to the assignment submission link by the posted deadline.
Case Questions
1. How does the release of Beyoncé’s two albums compare to a “traditional” release? What are the benefits of her strategy?
Beyonce used the power of social media and the followers she has to promote her two albums as opposed to standard marketing (Sisario, 2013). She posted and marketed her albums on social media to target her audience directly. Standard marketing would have been radio, retail, and traditional advertising. The benefits of this strategy is she is reaching out personally to her fans
Did you know Beyoncé Knowles was a famous failure? Beyoncé wasn’t as perfect as you think. You will learn about Beyoncés life and about what she did and what happened after Beyoncé failed.
Becoming more of the star in Destiny’s Child performances and songs like “Survivor”, she finally broke out to do her own projects. Starting in movies and releasing her first solo album in 2003 titled “ Dangerously In Love” which ended up selling over ten million copies, and featuring the second out of many features that would include her future rap icon husband Jay-Z. Beyonce's success only continued as she went on into today. With her stunning outfits on the red carpets and at her shows, her concerts being world renowned for the consistent breathtaking choreography and breathtaking visuals making her hailed as being one the living greats. Beyonce has even been praised for inviting the music game, for example dropping her self titled album “Beyonce” a full length visual album without a single shred of promotion that became the fastest selling album in itunes history for two
2. Your answers to the following questions must show a knowledge of the text and reflect your thoughts about the issues involved. Each question should take at least a paragraph to answer.
Answer the following questions (in at least 5 well thought out and developed sentences each):
"When life gives you lemons, make lemonade" this is an old phrase used to inspire hopefulness and an encouraging, positive can-do attitude in the wake of hardship or disaster. Lemons symbolize the inevitable sourness or difficulties in life, while lemonade is the sweet drink that is the product of the lemons. Often life offers trivial disappointments with almost no explanation and sometimes it seems almost impossible to break the misfortunate spell. However, for some people, each mishap in their lives leave them not only perplexed but eager to see the glass half full rather than empty. Beyoncé is a prime example of making the best out of a bitter situation. On April 23, 2016, Beyonce released her groundbreaking fully visual album “Lemonade”. Lemonade debuted as number one album on the billboard charts and allowed Beyoncé to have the biggest first-week sales count. Nevertheless, with greatness comes a few flaws and “Lemonade” was no stranger to faults. To some, “Lemonade” was the cultural awakening that they needed but for many it was the conversation starter that would strike both emotionally and politically which is why it is such a powerful album but an even more important conversational piece.
In 2006 Beyonce’s album “B-Day” had popular hits including “Irreplaceable” and “Beautiful Liar”. By 2008 Beyonce had a new album called “I am… Sasha Fierce” with new hits including the “Single Ladies (Put a Ring on it)” and “If I Were a Boy”. By 2010 Beyonce was tied with Adele for the most No. 1 hits on Billboard's Pop Song Charts (a radio airplay). Beyonce made a perfume called “Heart” in 2010.
Using the assigned readings for Week Six, prepare a 50- to 75-word response to each of the following questions.
Released in 2016 Lemonade is the sixth album recorded by American singer and songwriter Beyoncé Knowles. The famous artist was born in Houston, Texas to parents of African-American and Louisiana Creole descent. This has shaped a lot of her music in today’s industry, especially in this most recent album. Beyoncé is known as one of the most influential voices of popular culture since her rise to fame as a part of former R&B girl-group Destiny’s Child in the 1990s. The album covers countless of today’s world issues, but most importantly racial discrimination against African American women. The artist speaks up about this prejudice and attempts to empower listeners of the same background through her lyrics as well as her music videos.
lease answer at least 5 of the following questions in paragraph form after you have closely read The Veldt at least 2 or 3 times.
In 1982, Michael Jackson released one of the most iconic songs/music videos the world has ever seen. “Thriller” is a Halloween classic, and has been a hit since the day it was released. The Thriller Music video is roughly 13 minutes long, and is classified as a “short film”. 34 years later, the iconic Beyoncé released her album “Lemonade.” Lemonade is made up of 12 songs, and each song has its own separate video, but all the videos somehow connect and the videos were turned into an hour-long film. For this blog, I will compare/contrast the two videos.
Answer all questions in a complete paragraph with an opening sentence, 3 descriptive sentences and 1 closing sentence.
Bolanos, Jessica. "11 References You Missed in Beyonce's 'Formation'" The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 09 Feb. 2016. Web. 03 May
Beyoncé Knowles, a well-known singer, songwriter uses two of her songs: “Freedom” and “Formation” to tell the story of herself. “Freedom” is the beginning of her story where she is searching for freedom and equality showing that there is still much inequality and injustice for African Americans in America today. The song slowly transitions to a more positive tone when she seems to have made something beneficial out of her difficult situation. “Formation,” however, has a completely different tone. While she does address negative situations from the past at the beginning of the song, she quickly transitions to a more positive tone full of pride in where she came from, who she has become, and what she has overcome. Together, the two songs
This is a major grade due on Friday at 11:59 pm. There will be a 10 point per day late penalty.
I. Provide answers for five (5) of the following (6 points each, total of 30 points):