The only topic I am interested in doing my paper on is the diva herself, Beyoncé Knowles. Beyoncé has matured so much as an artist since her first solo album “Dangerously in Love”.  She has transitioned into the pop diva that is recognizable by the whole world.  Since she is idolized by so many people I thought that it would be a great idea for a paper analyzing why she is such an idolized individual.  However, I realized I am more interested in how Beyoncé has matured as an artist, so I’m going to go with the latter of the two.  A lot of aspects of her as an artist have transformed. I am most interested in Beyoncé Knowles as my topic for a variety of reasons. It begins in my childhood when Beyoncé was my favorite member of her childhood group “Destiny’s Child”. I would learn all of their songs and even some of their dances. I absolutely loved her. As I grew up and she became a solo artist, my love for her continued to blossom. She has gone from just a popular face in a world known group, to a force of her own. I enjoyed nothing more than listening to her music and watching her videos. After a while it became clear to me that she was my favorite artist in the industry. I know this may seem silly to you, but for me Beyoncé is a true idol, she is the vision of a truly successful woman who has stayed true to herself in her climb to the top. As far as resources are concerned I have found information on www.biography.com, www.beyonceonline.com, and www.tmz.com/person/beyonce-knowles. I have yet to find different sources to make my research clean and official, but I will continue the search until I find something that fits my paper and the substance of it. 

Review

Beyoncé is a very talented and passionate artist.   She is unmistakably one of the best performers of her time and has a fan base that is worldwide.  Beyoncé’s most recent album “4” is one of her best albums as a solo artist.  It is an incredible album with music that everyone can enjoy.  She was able to incorporate different styles of music that has reached various demographics that she did not reach before. On her album, she has music that reflects the independence of being a women and even music that expresses love.  There is definitely a visible difference in her maturity as an artist and the message she wants her fans to here on this album.  The album gives us a glance of where Beyoncé is right now in her professional and personal life.  It is an album made for Beyoncé’s love of music and her want to connect with her audience.   

“4” was a very diverse album especially in the style of music Beyoncé used.  This album was able to incorporate so many diverse styles of music because Beyoncé was able to get her inspiration from different cultures from around the world.  The beats to the majority of her songs are unlike any other I have heard, and the instruments used (if they are instruments) are not recognizable by the average person.  Even the background singing on this album is different from what she usually does.  This album is a total 360 degree turn from what is regularly expected of Beyoncé as an artist.  She is a pop-artist and a lot her music is to an upbeat tempo.  Usually on her albums she has 2 or 3 slow songs with the rest being upbeat, but this album, the majority of the songs were slower and you could hear the emotion in her voice as she sings.  I think this album helped Beyoncé’s fans get to know her better as an artist.  She was able to show a more vulnerable side of her in this album.  For this album, she also didn’t do a regular tour.  She did four nights at the Roseland theatre which is a relatively small area for Beyoncé’s fan base.  She wanted a more intimate area so she could connect better with her audience and give them more of her.  

One of the most influential songs on the album would have to be “I Was Here”.  This song was able to capture everything Beyoncé has accomplished in her lifetime.  It details the impact she’s had on the world and everything about her.  While performing this song at her concert at The Roseland theatre, Beyoncé gets emotional.  Her fans respond by also getting emotional.  You can hear the love and desire in her voice as she sings.  Beyoncé album “4” overall is a feel good album that has music for everyone to enjoy.  This album is a reflection of all the accomplishments Beyoncé has made over the years and a preview of what Beyoncé will put out in the future.  Beyoncé still has more things to accomplish as an artist and this album is only the beginning for a new form of music Beyoncé will make way for.  

Spring Break

Spring break for me is not really exciting.  Not to say that any other year for me has been more exciting but this one is going to be extremely boring.   I have no real plans, but to work and to study.  My grades aren’t at an acceptable standard for me, so besides working, I’ll probably be studying.   When I first arrive to the city, my family is having a small get together so I’ll attend that.  I probably won’t want to stay at this gathering for too long because I’ll just have got off a two and half hour train ride.  I’m excited to see my family but due to the exhaustion I’m sure I’ll feel, I will want to sleep!  This weekend will be the only time I will actually do anything because my plan is to work all next week.  For Saturday I’m planning on surprising a close friend of mine with a LATE birthday cake.  I hope she enjoys it, because it’s going to be a twist.  Her mother told me she likes strawberries in her cake, but since I can’t get to the bakery in time enough to order a cake with strawberries, I’m going to buy a cake and strawberries.  Then I’m going to give them to her at the same time.  I hope she enjoys the freshness of the strawberries!  To end my weekend, I’m planning on going to church since I haven’t been in a very long time.   I’m also sure I will see my significant other various times through the weekend.  We have nothing planned but something is bound to come up.  Besides the fun of this weekend I’m excited to work.  I love shopping and in order to shop, I need money.  This is the plans for my spring break so hopefully everything works out.  

ethnography

My taste in music is completely different from most of my friends simply because I’m more interested in R&B styled music.  One of my favorite albums right now is “4” by Beyoncé.  I decided to invite a friend from high school over to listen to the Cd with me.  Her name is Candice Mallet-Torry.   She is really into rap which is totally different from R&B.  I explained to her that I would record her reaction to the music and what are her emotions towards the album.  She understood what I said and we began. 

·         She was initially was lying down in my bed on twitter through her cell phone.

·         1+1 was the first song to play and she began to sing along.  Towards the second verse she gets really into the song and throws her hands up and waves them. 

·         During the special of the song, she gets up and gets on the computer to get on twitter.

·         She then checks weather for spring break.

·         The next song title “I Care” comes on. 

·         She question what song it is and I tell her the song title.

·         She switches topics and begins talking about the weather during spring break.

·         She discusses how the weather is going to be great.

·         She begins talking to my roommate and ask why she isn’t following her on twitter. 

·         They both follow each other on twitter and she begins singing along to the chorus of the song.

·         She then goes to the bed to check her phone.

·         The next song titled “I Miss You” comes on.

·         She again questions the title of the song and shows a look of disgust on her face.

·         She yells at me how she doesn’t like the song, it makes her feel sad.

·         She sits down at the desk again to get back on the computer.

·         She then signs into Skype and looks through her friends that are online.

·         She explains how there’s no one important on Skype so she gets on twitter and begins looking at various followers pictures.  (twitpics)

·         The next song titled “The Best Thing I Never Had” comes on.

·         She continues silently listening to the music and looking at pictures. 

·         The next song titled “I Rather Die Young” comes on.

·         She complains about the lyrics to the song saying “this song is a joke! The only person I’m dying for is my mama.”

·         She goes on explaining how the song is silly and no one is worth taking her life for.

·         She turns to the next song skipping over “I Rather Die Young.”

·         The next song titled “Start Over” comes on.

·         I can tell she is beginning to get agitated by the music and the messages behind the music.  

·         After realizing she actually like the song she begins to hum to the beat of the song.  I was able to see a whole attitude shift from her.  She began to enjoy listening to the song.

·         She then navigates her attention to Facebook and looks down her newsfeed. 

·         The Last song we listened to was “Love on Top.”

·         She immediately begins singing and rocking to the song.

·         She gets up and dances a little more to the song before retiring to sit on the bed. 

·         She then demands that she doesn’t listen to anymore songs.  She says “I can’t take no more.”

·         After “Love On Top” goes off she immediately switches the music to a rap song called “Riot”

My room is a sanctuary of pink, black and white.  Both me and my roommate’s bed sets are those colors and we have various pink accessories like laundry baskets, garbage cans and pillows.  We both are fans of the color pinks so our room reflects that.  The television was on and an episode of “Family Guy”; However, you really couldn’t hear the TV because we keep the volume low.  The room smelt like French fries simply because before we began listening to music we were all eating French fries.  Candice had on pajama shorts and a big white T-shirt.  She had on a red and white hair bonnet to hold her hair down.   Candice is really into social networks and is almost always one.   While listening to music you were able to see this.  My roommate was indirectly including within my experiment because Candice interacted with her.  For the majority of the time my roommate was on her phone on a social network but I observed her randomly nodding her head in enjoyment to the music.  I also was including in the experiment for I changed into more comfortable clothing before the experiment started.  I had on orange capris and a blue T-shirt.  I positioned myself in the far corner of the room so that I can see everything going on in the room.  I ended up getting enjoyment from the music and I sang along to a lot of the songs even the ones that Candice didn’t react well to.  I think my room was the best place to do the experiment since my room is a very welcoming and comfortable place.  I predicted that I would have random company like I do on most nights but this time no one came to visit me.  I would’ve like if some other friends would’ve walked in to see Candice’s reaction to how they felt about the music.  Overall I realized that even though the music was enjoyable for me, it wasn’t so enjoyable for Candice.  

The movie fan

I have been to blockbuster only a few times in my life.  It was what expected from a video store; loads of movies I’ve never seen.  But due to economic reasons I guess, blockbuster is no longer in my area.  For homework I was asked to go to The Movie Fan which is a locally owned video store.   I wasn’t really excited about this simply since I’m a frequent Netflix user.  To me, Netflix is convenient and not that expensive.  Since it was required, I took the adventure of a lifetime to the video store.  I didn’t really know what to expect since it was locally owned and not a big enterprise store.  While looking outside the video store looked old and boring.  My initial thought was this video store would suck and it wouldn’t have any movies I would want. When I first walked in, it had a rustic feel.  I was right by thinking it was old, but it was a welcoming atmosphere.  When I walked in, I was bombarded with films old and new.  I initially didn’t know what movie I wanted to rent so I went with a classic that I know I would like.  I asked the employee if they had Lion King 2 and he replied “no, someone stole our copy.”  This tainted my already bad view of the video rental place because they didn’t have the movie that every video store SHOULD carry.  I didn’t let this minor setback stop me from finding a movie, so I attempted to find a new movie.  I walked through the store for about five minutes until I find the “New Releases” section.  I was so excited because they had Puss In Boot.  After I found this movie I went to the checkout counter and was ready to leave.  The employee was very nice and informal.  He explained the rental process and gave me my movies.