ABSTRACT
In order to explore the cultural relevance of 'Video Phone' and its discursive transmission, this chapter presents an analytic methodology that focuses on the constitutive elements of the music video. In order to analyse the music video, it considers its three domains – lyrics, music and images – and identify and interpret the content that characterises each of these domains according to four cross-cutting parameters: thematic, gestural, spatial and relational. Working within the constructs of the music video genre and the confines of new media technology, Beyonce's video can be seen to say two key things about gender, sexuality and the politics of looking. Beyonce's voice fills the musical texture, reinforcing the message of her accessibility. In particular, the chapter examines how the expressive content in the domains of lyrics, music and images raises complex questions about gender, sexuality, subjectivity and embodiment in an age of handheld media technologies.
