The Day Beyoncé Turned Black: Protest, and Clap Back in the Lyrical and Sonic Sounds of Beyoncé Giselle Knowles-Carter

• In Event: Feminist Decoloniality as Care joint panel of presentations and arts-based research by USA and South African academics

Proposal

Beyoncé Giselle Knowles-Carter is an American singer, songwriter, producer, actress, fashion designer, philanthropist, and entertainer from Houston, Texas. A member of several girl singing and dancing groups, she became known as a member of the girl group, Destiny’s Child, in the early 1990’s managed by her father, Matthew Knowles. On February 14th, 2016, Saturday Night Live (SNL) debuted the first of two skits on Beyoncé’s 2016 album Lemonade titled “The Day Beyoncé Turned Black.” The sketch shows white people listening to the leading single, “Formation,” with the backdrop of news stories including “Beyoncé releases unapologetically Black video” and “Beyoncé embraces her Black heritage” with intersecting visuals from the “Formation” video. In the skit, white cast members appear to be confused about Beyoncé’s Blackness, but true BeyHive fans know that she is one of the most unapologetic and Blackest creatives we have. From Destiny’s Child’s “Bug a Boo” (1999), and “Bootylicious” (2001), to “Formation” (2016), “Freedom” (2016), and “Black Parade” (2020) to “Black As King” (2020) and “Homecoming” (2019), Beyoncé has been reveling in her Blackness since we met her.
When receiving the BET 2021 Award for Album of the Year, singer and songwriter Jazmine Sullivan shared, “As always, I do this for the women, for my sisters especially.” If Jazmine Sullivan is making music for Black women, then Beyoncé makes music for all (global) Black people. Her activism and philanthropy is quiet and consistent. Her art, musicality, lyrics, and even the music she samples are mostly focused on Black people, and her clap back game is unmatched with lyrics like “I like my baby heir with baby hair and afros” and “I like my Negro nose with Jackson 5 nostrils,” presumably in response to those who criticized her husbands’ nose and her daughter’s hair.
In this research I propose an analysis of Beyonce’s protest lyrics and a comparison of these lyrics to other artists protest lyrics (e.g., Bob Dylan, Woodie Guthrie, Joan Baez, Billie Holiday, Marvin Gaye, Public Enemy, Bob Marley). The scope of this study includes creating a dataset of all of Beyonce’s song lyrics from Destiny’s Child; her solo career; and her music with her husband, fellow creative Jay-Z (The Carters). The only criteria for inclusion for song titles is that Beyoncé is singing the lyrics to a song that was publicly released by a label. The lyrics will be analyzed and coded creating a code book for the user-generated dataset. A literature review will be conducted to provide supplemental information on “the intellectual reactions and artistic discussions” surrounding the nature of the protest lyrics and additional information about the lyrics from her will be obtained and included as appropriate via interviews and her visual discography.

Author

• TERESA Y NEELY, University of New Mexico University Libraries