Beyoncé explains why she stopped making music videos

From the moment she blew bubble gum in “Crazy In Love” to the day she destroyed an entire fleet of cars with a baseball bat in “Hold Up,” Beyoncé has created some of pop’s most unforgettable music videos.

Her mastery of the medium was in no way inferior to that of Madonna and Michael Jackson in the 1980s – the videos for her album “Lemonade” were a powerful homage to black femininity and female power.

Then she suddenly stopped. Her last two albums, Renaissance and Cowboy Carter, were devoid of visual elements and left fans confused.

Now Beyoncé explained her decision in a rare Interview with GQ magazineand said she did not want her videos to “detract from the quality of the voice and the music.”

“I thought it was important for the world to focus on the voice at a time when all we see is images,” the star said.

She explained that her recent records – which aim to contextualize the often overlooked contribution of black musicians to genres such as house, disco and country – had to stand on their own.

“The music is so rich in history and instrumentation. It takes months to process, explore and understand,” she said.

“The music needed space to breathe on its own.”

She added that for Renaissance in particular, the live concert experience is more important than shooting music videos.

The album, released in 2022, was written during the pandemic and was conceived as “a place to dream and a refuge in a scary time for the world.” The subsequent tour and the tour film released last year were intended to be a moment of community and catharsis for their followers.

“The fans from all over the world became the picture,” Beyoncé told GQ.

“We all got the picture on the tour.”

The interview, which took place to promote the star’s new whiskey brand, is the first time Beyoncé has spoken in detail about her career since a joint interview with her sister Solange in 2017.

Between 2013 and 2014, she rarely gave interviews and instead wrote personal essays for publications such as Vogue or addressed her fans directly on social media.

The GQ article didn't reveal much about the notoriously reserved star.

She revealed that she had given up meat (except turkey) over the summer and briefly addressed the threat of artificial intelligence, saying she recently heard a song generated by an artificial intelligence “that sounded so much like me that it scared me.”

The star also spoke about her efforts to protect her family from the press.

“I have worked extremely hard to provide as much normality and privacy as possible for my children and to ensure that my private life does not become a brand.

“It's very easy for celebrities to turn our lives into performance art. I've tried very hard to stay true to my boundaries and protect myself and my family. No amount of money in the world is worth my peace.”

The article was published a day after it was announced that Beyoncé had been passed over at the Country Music Awards and Cowboy Carter failed to earn a single nomination at the genre's most prestigious ceremony.

Her music was overlooked, even though it was the first album by a black woman to reach number one on the US country album chart and the song “Texas Hold 'Em” spent two weeks at the top of the country singles chart.

The interview took place before the CMA nominations were announced, and Beyoncé is quoted as saying she is “thrilled” that her country experiment is “receiving global acceptance.”

However, the singer's father and former manager, Matthew Knowles, criticized the organizers of the awards ceremony and said the decision to skip Cowboy Carter “speaks for itself.”

Speaking to TMZ, he said: “There are more white people in America and unfortunately they don't vote based on ability and achievement. Sometimes it's still a white versus black thing.”

1) Single ladies (put a ring on it)

Sometimes the simplest ideas are the best. Directed by Jake Nava, this black-and-white clip features just Beyoncé, a simple background, and choreography inspired by Bob Fosse.