Beyonce “Single Ladies

(Put A Ring On It)”

By Olivia Kelly

Goodwin’s Features in Music Videos

Beyonce’s “Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It)” has had a total of 182,348, 857 on YouTube. It

holds a grand total of 180,938 ratings and only 7900 of them being dislikes. The video is most popular around America, the overall gender of its audience being female, ages ranging from

13 years old to 44.

Relationship between lyrics and visuals

The main singer, Beyonce, dances with two dancers throughout the music video. This signifying the lyrics in which she proudly sings about being single and not needing a partner in her life. As she sings, “If you like it then you should of put a ring on it”, Beyonce and her dancers hold up their left hands, gesturing towards their marital fingers.

Relationship between music and visuals

The continuous dance routine throughout the music video, reflects the beat and rhythm of the music. As the pace of the song fastens, so too does the dance routine itself. A robotic sound can be heard through the music, Beyonce and her dancers then portray robotic-like movements on screen throughout some parts of the video. Additionally, the main artist is seen wearing what appears as a robotic hand in which also symbolises the robotic sound heard in the background. Throughout the music video, whenever there appears to be a low tempo within the music, the background goes darker, then as the tempo lifts, the background returns to white.

Style & Iconography

The style of the artist and her dancers costumes and the background of the music video itself is very simple, the theme of colours being black and white throughout. Beyonce and her dancers all have the same hair styles, make-up and shoes. All of their leotards are matching, however Beyonce’s is slightly different and she also has what appears to be a robotic hand, this is evidently because she is the main artist and it is her music video. This fits the pop genre, as often singers and their dancers or girl bands can be seen to be wearing similar costumes and colours within their videos.

Close-ups of main artist

The majority of the music video is made up of body shots of the main artist and her dancers, as the whole video is a dance routine. Nevertheless, short, occasional close-up shots of the main artist can be seen throughout the video, this is to show that Beyonce is the main focus as she is the ‘star’. Towards the end of the music video, a zoom shot is used zooming in and out on the main artist. The video finally ends with a close-up shot of the artist holding up her left robotic-like hand in which possesses a engagement ring. This both suggests the initial lyrics of the song, “If you like then you should of put a ring on it” and the robotic-like hand suggests the theme of the music and dance routine.

Voyeurism

There is no voyeurism noticeable within the music video, there is just an on-going shot in which follows the main artist and her two dancers as they dance throughout.

Intertexual References

The music video is simple to display the main artist, with the use of their costumes, make-up, hair and background and the plain use of colour being black and white. However, there can be noticeable referrals to some other of Beyonce’s music videos. For example, within her follow up video ‘Sweet Dreams’, there are similarities within some of the dance routines. One dance routine in particular seen in both music videos is one in which Beyonce dances with the same back-in dancers, and perform similar choreography within both videos.