A Study on Beyoncé's Hip-Hop Song Lyrics in Beyoncé
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RUBIKON Volume 3 / Number 2 September 2016 Formulating Black Womanhood: A Study on Beyoncé’s Hip-Hop Song Lyrics in Beyoncé Platinum Edition Album Ika Ayu Larasati [email protected] Abstract This article aims at understanding the Black womanhood concept through Hip-Hop song lyrics, since song lyrics are not only a part of art but also a media to express people’s feelings, education, therapy and entertainment. This article also helps the readers to understand that sexuality portrayed in Hip-Hop song lyrics stands for something and has a function because music is related to the social background, message, function, and effect generated from the artwork. The qualitative method and interdisciplinary approach are used in conducting this article, which involves the literature, history, culture, sociology, and to enhance the understanding of multi-ethnic America, especially about Black womanhood. The article starts with introduction, a discussion about African American culture in general. To produce an up to date writing, the article choses the recent popular singer, Beyonce. In finding Black womanhood concepts in Beyonce’s lyrics. One thing that also needs to be highlighted is Black women’s sexuality. The findings are about Black womanhood from Beyonce’s standpoint, such as the Black woman’s self-definition, the sisterhood, the relationship between mother and daughter, and the relationship with Black men. In addition, since it highlights the Black woman’s sexuality in Hip-Hop that is based on Beyonce’s songs, it indicates that recently Black women began to realize that they have power over their own body. Keywords: Black womanhood, sexuality, Hip-Hop music, Lyrics Introduction religion-represented submission to European ideology. Hip-Hop emerged in the 1970s when the term Black was booming and it is one of the The Black musical style is a combination of ways to demonstrate the existence of African elements from African and European Americans. The term Black is also connected tradition; since Americans were Europeans with the study of Womanhood, which is an who brought about their cultural heritage, effort of African American women to define including music. After Gospel, Blues was their identity, quality, and their sung by individuals, who accompanied their distinctiveness in America. The first music own voices with guitar-Love, sex, betrayal, that emerged among the slaves that was poverty, drinking, bad luck, and an itinerant acceptable and encouraged by slave owners lifestyle were its themes. Afterwards, it was the spiritual song (Gospel song), for expanded to another popular genre, jazz, Whites, they who were converting to with its swing danceable beat. Through the Christianity and singing the praises of their late 1960s and 1970s, there was a Soul and 12 RUBIKON Volume 3 / Number 2 September 2016 soon it moved to songs of political awareness show their power over Black women, the and protest. Along with the Aesthetics only group left in society that experiences Movement, the Black Arts Movement by many inequalities. While, being both Black Amiri Baraka was the period of artistic and and a woman presents particular difficulties literary development among Black to must be faced social, economical, political Americans culture and life in the 1960s and and cultural situation. Black women belong early 1970s. The Black Arts Movement was a to the minority group that is oppressed by medium to facilitate Blacks’ ideals, White men, White women and also Black solidarity, and creativity. This movement men. As stated by Ward and Herndl (1997) contributed to the multiculturalism stated, “these women are ‘doubly movement that persuaded people, especially marginalized’-they are victims of sexism, minorities to show their voice, background, racism and classism (p. 34). Alongside of this and history. problem, Black women voiced their situation through many ways; one of them is through In the 70s and ‘80s, Hip-Hop came out of a Rap. dance party and club milieu overseen by a DJ, or Disc Jockey, who spun records. The Lately, Hip-Hop has become more and more MC, or Master of Ceremonies, was the key explicit and vulgar, hence the double figure in early Rap, a rapid music of rhymed standard of lyrics cannot be avoided. Double phrases. Rap came out of “African derived standard here means different sets of oral traditions of storytelling, ‘boasting’ principles for similar situations, it could be a (self-aggrandizement), ‘toasting’ (long word, phrase, social norm, or rule. Double narrative poems) and ‘playing the dozens’ standard can be explained as a biased of (competition of verbal insults)” (Norfleet, treatment; for example, in Hip-Hop music, 2006, p. 353). Over the past three decades, there are male rappers degrade women for Rap has been a part of popular culture, an their sexuality while society seems to ignore important source of ideas has shaped it-in reverse, when female singers expose people‘s perceptions of themselves and other their body, wear seductive clothes and use people; and it has had and continues to have harsh words, it creates a polemic. The impact great influence on adolescents as they of the emergence of this issue is the negative employ it for self-identity formation label received by the female singer, but since (Collins, 2006, p. 39). Rap has functioned as there are a lot of Black women in Hip-Hop. an immensely profitable component of the This image continues to accumulate and popular culture apparatus and as an attempt affects the public’s opinion toward Black to block progress toward gender equality. women in general. In African American society, Black men and It is important to note that within the Hip- women both have different levels of Hop music universe, women have never oppression. Technically, Black men taken their abuse lightly. This case is one of experience racial and economic oppressions. the reasons why Black women need to define From this, Black men have the possibility to their own womanhood, once in the slavery 13 Ika Ayu Larasati — Formulating Black Womanhood: A Study on Beyoncé’s Hip-Hop Song Lyrics in Beyoncé Platinum Edition Album era. Black women had been exploited by the lyrics. In addition, Denzin and Lincoln Whites and this situation caused the (2005) confirmed that, controlling images toward them. From this, it A qualitative research is an activity can be seen that shaping Black Womanhood that consists of a set of interpretive cannot be separated from the sociocultural materials that makes the world visible by series of representations, and historical factors, and it is depicted in including field notes, interviews, Hip-Hop lyrics. conversations, photographs, recordings, and memos to the self; to Lyrics are frequently connoted with poetry, interpret phenomena in terms of the and always relate to the category of poetic meanings people bring to them. (p. literature that is distinguished from narrative 3). and dramatic tale; they are most Whereas, library research here is a research representative in their sound patterns and are that is based on any literature from the generally characterized by subjectivity and library or internet as well; collecting and sensuality of expression (Grolier, 778). documenting information from textbooks Therefore, lyric as literature has an important (journals, articles, magazines, newspapers, role in society. Through lyrics, Black lyrics). womanhood and Black women’s sexuality is delivered. On November 24th, 2014, Beyoncé Furthermore, Creswell (2009) cited some launched her new album entitled Beyoncé characteristics of qualitative method, Platinum Edition, and it was huge. Beyoncé “specifically qualitative research is is a prominent figure in R and B. In addition, descriptive that the gathered data she has sold 800,000 copies of her new encompasses transcript, interview, album in the first three days even without photograph, field notes, video and other teaser and promotion, and, in this album, she notes” (p. 37). This research tends to analyze presents many shades of Black Women’s data inductively – it enables researcher to experiences from her personal standpoint. identify key themes in the area of interest by That is why her latest album has been reducing the material to a set of themes and selected to be the material object of the categories. To conduct the research, there are study. three steps taken, namely: Methodology a. Collecting data, in this research, the data used are documents such as lyrics, This study is a library research and it uses journals, articles, script of interviews, qualitative method to find the concept of books, and visual materials such as Black womanhood and Black women’s photographs and captures from video to sexuality in Hip-Hop lyrics. It is an support the analysis. Thus, data were appropriate method since the qualitative taken from Beyoncé’s newest album method is a form of thick description and entitled Beyoncé Platinum Edition explanation in investigating the meaning of album that released at 24th November 2014. 14 RUBIKON Volume 3 / Number 2 September 2016 b. The second step is categorizing data. womanhood since the racist and sexist Here, open coding is needed to uncover society had conditioned them to devalue their and develop concept through the text femaleness, “… we were asked to deny a part and expose the thoughts, ideas, and of ourselves - and we did” (p. 1). Thus, it meanings contained therein (Strauss and arouses some controlling images toward Corbin, 1998, p. 102) corresponds to the Black women that were the reversed idea of concept of Black womanhood. White Womanhood such as mammy, jezebel, c. The third step is analyzing data. First, matriarch, sapphire, etc. those data will be analyzed using semiotic theory by Barthes; by using a Black Woman and the Importance of sign system to find the connotative and Being Herself denotative meaning conveyed in Beyoncé’s song-afterwards, it is Women certainly associated with beauty.