My least favorite song from Beyonce's self-titled fifth album has had it's video released in full onto YouTube.
My issue with the song? Well, lyrically, I find Pretty Hurts to jar with the aggressive, upfront and empowering attitude of the rest of the album. It also comes off slightly disingenuous for Beyonce to be singing a song about the pressures of perfection when she perpetuates that ideal with her own career. Some may argue that being part of the industry makes the Diva well placed to speak on the subject, since she's experienced it first hand, but I don't agree with that logic- particularly when she's looking stunning and telling fans she "woke up like this...flawless".
Ignoring this, the Sia co-written track is beautifully sung and comes with a positive message that will hopefully help many a person. I just think it would have been better suited to the Four era.
Oh well, it's here and I shall deal. Enjoy!
Thoughts?
When will R&B stop being about the warring sexes and go back to being about sensuality and love...
ReplyDeleteHmmm, I think that this irony that you pointed out is literally what this video is all about. She's basically saying that beauty is a disease, and that she herself is ironically part of the epidemic. Like the rest of us, she is vulnerable to the standards of beauty. It's quite sad, really.
ReplyDeleteI've got to say, this is my most fave song of her, even beyond that song listen. I just wish the chorus sounded just like how she sung it in the intro. That sounded loads better.
ReplyDeletejust gotta add that i would love for this song to be stripped down of the commercial sound and just be up front, bare and downright aggressive on just delivering the message of the song. I believe Beyonce's voice should be left as is and I would love for her voice to just be backed up with voices and an orchestra or something similar.
ReplyDeleteAaaaaaaaaaaaaawwwww poor poor Beyonce. My heart bleeds for that modern icon for feminism being so very very burdened and trapped in America's obsession with "perfection"!
ReplyDeleteNo REALLY, it DOES!!! It bleeds profusely I tell ya!
Listen to Rocket by Beyonce then!
ReplyDeleteI'd say this is my third least favorite on the album along with No Angel and Jealous.
ReplyDeletethat was the point. it's the same message Gaga and Perry are giving to their fans.
ReplyDeletebesides that, i found beyoncè's stans pretty sad. they really think she is the most perfect thing on hearth, as a vocalist or human being. it's just my opinion but i think she is really fake..
Yes! Beyonce's Rocket and 1+1 and two very sensual R&B songs.
ReplyDeleteThere are a- plenty of R&B songs circulating around that are about "love" and "sensuality" as you say. What you need to do is 'search' for them, as they are out there, and stop looking to the mainstream aria for artistic/musical integrity and substance.
ReplyDeleteI could direct to you numerous 'R&B/Soul' singers/artists of such...
'Like OH MY GOSH it's just so hard to be pretty. Like I have to pay paps to PS their photos of me. Do you know how much that cost? Like a lot. Even though pretty people get paid more on average than fugs and have a much higher chance of receiving a call back on an interview. But like oh my gosh do you know hard it is for peeps to use all the filters & photoshop in my videos? Even though it supposedly gives lil girls body images issues. But like I'm so glad that this all 'perfection' stuff and whatever are like all over blogospheres and stuff so I can make a video about it and get a lots of likes and of course look hot in it too.'
ReplyDeleteNot really, perhaps the ones' you've interacted with, but I can assure you that not all Beyonce fans think that way, not even the majority.
ReplyDeleteThe song ***flawless isn't particularly about looking flawless; albeit, waking up as you are as a human being; with subtexts aiming at lifting up females affected by social structures that say's otherwise.
ReplyDeleteNo Angel is probably the best to me, along with Haunted and Superpower.
ReplyDeleteMy favorites are Rocket, Haunted, and Partition.
ReplyDeleteI'd say it's about FEELING flawless
ReplyDeleteSuperpower and Mine probably get my top two spots.
ReplyDeleteStep aside Beyonce the real queen is here.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.billboard.com/articles/news/6069828/mariah-carey-secret-album-beyonce-billboard-cover-story
hey, revelation, no artist is 'authentic'. they're all prepackaged--fake, their actions trialled before their public execution. eheh.
ReplyDeleteI don't get how artists think that their lives are interesting enough to be album material. *smfh*
ReplyDeleteHey revelation..that is not true! Least no more so for some artist than it is for the "public" face of every human being.
ReplyDeleteI'd say that would amount to the same difference...it is still a poor message to sent out.
ReplyDeleteWell now, that does depend on their lives. ;-)
ReplyDeleteThere's artists whose lives are interesting and then there are pop divas...whose lives rarely are.
haha i really don't mean this as a catty insult, but I feel that it's such a disservice to their voice and artistry whenver the try to 'focus' on their lives. but ehh maybe autobiographical lyricism is their niche (even when most country singers could write lyrics about these artists' lives better than the artists themselves.).
ReplyDelete"The Japanese say you have three faces. The first face, you show to the world. The second face, you show to your close friends, and your family. The third face, you never show anyone. It is the truest reflection of who you are.""I hold the world but as the world, Gratiano;A stage where every man must play a part,And mine a sad one."
ReplyDeleteJust saying that criticising artists based on their authenticity is dangerous and unhealthy. If you ask for the truth, liars will lie and honest people will get offended.
You don't think it's a good thing to feel super beautiful and confident? I think it's not bad, as many people have very low self esteem and are so vulnerable to outside pressure
ReplyDeleteLOL Country singers are artists too. ;-)
ReplyDeleteThat's why you have to make up your own mind. For instance by looking for consistency between words and actions through time.
ReplyDelete"authenticity" as an artist though is imo present in many artists. certainly if you off set it with pop artists PR as the standard for inauthenticity.
It's a cute saying that Japanese one and very true but not relevant to authenticity. As in most cases all three faces are originating in the individual. Unlike the public face of pop stars which originates in some other individual than the one "wearing" that face.
...and most don't write an album about their lives ;). That's my point.
ReplyDeleteI don't find it a good thing to feel anything which isn't actually true.
ReplyDeleteIf you have low self esteem...obviously you are not actually feeling confident. Going around claiming you are feeling confident is then what used to be called..lying. ;-)
Now "flawless", which was the term used, that would be a psychologically unhealthy thing to believe of yourself.
Well, most don't write their own songs. ;-)
ReplyDeleteBut besides that, some don't but some do.
If not about actual stuff happening, then anyway their feelings about things which happened.
But my point was that your point, to me, seemed to get a bit lost in the inaccuracies of that extremely generalized statement which really is only a generalization applicable to pop divas.
And in that sense, I agreed with your point. :-)
As an aside, I just discovered this video which I think you with your love of both callas and "glamming it up" might enjoy.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YxRmGDV8QDI#t=36