For those who are unaware, Beyoncé recently
dropped her latest self-titled “visual album” at midnight this past Friday,
completely unannounced. Even more shocking than the 14 new songs accompanied by
17 videos, was the reaction received from it all. The majority of this gigantic
reaction was from twitter. In just the 12 hours after the album was released,
more 1.2 million tweets were shared on the site, topping other major twitter
topics that have been tweeted about before. Tweets from other huge pop-stars including
Katy Perry even showed their praise and excitement for the news. Not only did
the album cause such a reaction on the twitter scene, but on iTunes as well.
Because of its “iTunes-Only” availability, the album immediately shot to the
top of the charts, still at #1 for new albums, where it will most likely stay
for days and weeks to come.
What
may be the most shocking part of the whole situation, is the whole idea that
all of this gigantic positive feedback happened, including all the additional
success that is coming out of it, without any anticipation for the album. While most
artists give the public (and mainly their fans) at least a month’s notice,
Beyonce’s decision was completely unexpected. However even with no notice, she
does not fail to dominate the charts of iTunes. This is practically any artist’s
dream. That says a lot about Beyoncé’s reputation in the world. She is often
referred to by many as “Queen B” and used as a comparison, her being the
superior in any situation. Receiving a lot of praise and attention can be
called a “Beyoncé Moment” or sometimes her name may be used as an adjective;
something being “Beyoncé” would usually be associated with being “flawless”
(which happens to be the name of one of her new songs on the album). She is
clearly a major icon of this generation, and that is a huge advantage for
her. Many of her songs include themes
like female empowerment and individuality, while her performances are
high-energy, flashy and entertaining. Many can argue that she may be one of the
best entertainers of this generation.
This post is interesting to me, more because of the writing than the topic. I am going to be honest. I typically look forward to reading your posts each week, because when you write you have an engaging, technically sound but informal style that I enjoy. Your writing always feels real to me, not forced. This post feels forced - boring actually. Reading it, I got the sense that you labored to write it. I wonder if this is because I asked students to write from a different perspective this week. Maybe you are not as comfortable writing from the third person. This happens, and it is a great lesson to learn. No big deal.
ReplyDeleteLet me point out what I think makes this post feel labored. Look at your first paragraph. Almost every single one of the verbs you use are passive tense verbs: "accompanied by," "was the reaction received from," "was released," "were shared," "have been tweeted," etc...
I looked back at your post about your adventure at the Burlington Mall, and in that post, you didn't use a passive tense verb until well into the post. This leads me to the conclusion that when you write in the first person, you write very actively. Your writing is alive. Conversely, this post, in the third person, feels very slow. A cool lesson to learn. Always try to write sentences in the active voice. Readers much prefer this.