crazy in love - beyonce ft. jay-z
'Crazy in Love' is a performance music video by Beyonce and Jay-Z. It was directed by Jake Nava in 2003, and featured in Beyonce's album 'Dangerously in Love.' The song is about how women become attached to a male, and find themselves doing crazy and unexpected things in order to form a relationship with them. In the music video it is evident that star image is being created, firstly through the cinematography.
The song opens with an extreme close up of Jay-Z, showing only half of his face, as the other half is covered by a cap. This gives the audience the impression that he is mysterious and they try to unveil his identity.
His star image is also shown during his rap verse, where he stands tall, covered head to toe in 'bling.' Beyonce strides up to him, and begins dancing around him, telling the audience that he is powerful, rich, and desirable.
By doing this, Beyonce becomes objectified. She is merely something in the background who features only to make the man seem powerful; this demonstrates Todorov's equilibrium theory. Beyonce has initial power, as she is the focus of the video, which revolves around her. However, as Jay-Z appears, she becomes a subject of Mulvey's male gaze, and is shown voyueristically. Jay-Z throws his lighter to the floor, starting a fire and making him appear as fearless. This is the equilibrium change; he has full power. Despite this, Beyonce regains her power by kicking open a fire hydrant, essentially putting out Jay-Z's fire and regaining her status, having the final equilibrium.
Beyonce's star image is also evident in the 'Crazy in Love' video. Her outfits are revealing, yet extremely flattering, making her a desirable female icon. She wears lots of jewellery, particularly a ring in her belly button. This further portrays her as a sex icon, as the bellybutton is seen as a vaginal porthole in the video industry, and the video concentrates on her stomach throughout in order to make Beyonce seem enticing and sexy. Her costume also features a fur coat, along with the jewellery, telling the audience she is rich and classy.
We can also see Beyonce's star image being created through the mise-en-scene and editing. The video features the imagery of a photo shoot, as Beyonce poses for the cameras. It is done through flashing lights and also shows the concept of a camera through a frame-within-frame shot. This tells the audience that she is widely recognized as famous and has celebrity quality, as people always want to take her picture.
Beyonce is portrayed as seductive through her dance moves and gestures. At the beginning, there is a low angle that looks up at Beyonce's body as she walks past, which fetishises her body and shows her as desirable.
Her dance routines are fast, and the positioning of her body makes her appear as promiscuous. Her movement clearly demonstrates her talent and shows off the features of her body. Beyonce is known for her curves, so by showing them voyueristically and making them the focus of the video gives her a motif, and further adds to her star image.
The video is cut to the pace of the song in order to make a connection between the two. The majority of the song is fast, and throughout the video the director has used thought beats to show the link between the music and video. We can see Goodwin's theory of lyrics & visuals matching through the cutting of the clips, and the pace that has been made. When focusing on Beyonce, the music is extremely fast, therefore the shots are constantly cutting, and are rarely static. This is representative of her hectic and 'crazy' life now that she is in love, for example she says "i know i don't understand just how your love can do what no on else can," and "I'm not myself lately
I'm foolish, i don't do this."
I'm foolish, i don't do this."
When approaching the male solo, the pace of the video begins to slow, and the clips are cut longer. This is representative of the control that Jay-Z has over his emotions, and how women are more delirious uncontrollable hormones. It could also show the rapid success of Beyonce, and connotate the theory that Jay-Z helped fuel Beyonce's career, which took off when she began working with Jay-Z.
We can also see a link when Beyonce says "I look and stare so deep in your eyes," as the camera is far away, and pans to look at her face as she looks lustfully into the camera.
The lyrics & visuals are also shown in the costume, as Jay-Z raps "I do not sing tho, I bling yo," and "I'm cut from a different cloth, my texture is the best fur, i'm chinchilla." Both the bling and fur coat he mentions are shown in the mise en scene during that verse.