Beyoncé Nation: The Remix

Catalog description

This popular course was introduced here at Cornell a decade ago. This year will mark the third time that we’ve been able to offer it, in light of all the moving parts and unique components that pulling it off requires. Beyoncé’s recent albums and related tours, namely Renaissance and Cowboy Carter, have taken her iconicity to new heights evidenced in contexts from the 2024 Olympics to advertisements for Levi’s Jeans. Her song “Freedom” from her Lemonade album was the anthem for the 2024 presidential campaign of Vice President of Kamala Harris. As a musical artist, Beyoncé emerged at the forefront of activism during the past decade, and helped to advocate for a more inclusive vision of the U.S. as a nation, while drawing attention to the long-overlooked contributions of African Americans to the genre of country music. All of these dimensions of her artistry and many more are important to study in order to understand her national and global impact. In this course, we examine her contributions, along with various figures connected to her, including her closest family. Beyoncé’s trajectory from Houston, Texas as a member of the group Destiny's Child to international fame and superstardom and a successful career as a solo singer, actress, clothing designer and entrepreneur holds important implications for critical dialogues on the U.S. South and national femininity. We will carefully trace Beyoncé's journey to global fame and iconicity and the roles of the music business, social media and technology, fashion, and film in her development.