If you just really don’t want to go to the site, I think I can post it:
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Let’s talk about overexposure.
It started when I went to Sandra Rose’s website today.
I’m not ashamed to say I visit her site.
I’m not particuarly interested in 2-week old news stolen from Black America Web, or photos of Negro gatherings at random clubs in Atlanta, and I really don’t care that Monica has new living room furniture, but I visit her site for the same reason my mother made me volunteer with the homeless and mentally handicapped. Sometimes you need to see someone much less fortunate in order to appreciate what you have. So I go to Sandy Mae’s site because she makes me realize how truly blessed I am. But mainly I go for Beyonce.
As quiet as it’s kept, Sandra’s a huge Beyonce fan, but she recently realized that her dreams of one day bumping vaginas with Beyonce will probably never come true, so she hides her pain in hateful posts towards Beyonce. Every once in a while I head on over to her site to read her Beyonce topic of the day. Usually what happens is she will post a lie about Beyonce and her readers will say something like “You are really obsessed with Beyonce aren’t you?.” and when no one agrees with her she will argue with them under several different screennames. Well, her Beyonce topic of the day was “Raise Your Hand If You’re Sick of Beyonce.”
(raises hand)
Allow me to explain.
Yesterday, I found myself arguing with somebody about Beyonce, while talking to my friend about Beyonce, and downloading a Beyonce performance, and watching another one on YouTube and searching for decent Beyonce tickets on eBay. By the end of the day, I was kind of sick of Beyonce, but it was my own doing. Entertainment in the year 2007 is instant and on-demand. We search for it, find it, watch, and save it for later. We decide what we want to watch and how many times we want to watch it. There are countless sites, channels, boards, and blogs, and I’m suppose to be believe that Beyonce is smiling and tossing her weave on all of them?
I highly doubt it.
Last time I checked these browsers had a little “x” up top, and no one forced me to register at any message boards or blogs. And as far as I know, Matthew Knowles doesn’t bust in your houses at 2AM, put a gun to your head and make you buy Beyonce tickets (Does he?) Don’t spend 16 hours a day in front a computer staring at Beyonce or hating or praising Beyonce and then wondering why you’re so sick of her. We control our level of exposure to Beyonce therefore we control Beyonce’s exposure to us.
But lately there seems to be a conscious effort to get Beyonce to go somewhere and sit down. So we throw around the word “overexposure.”
“People are getting sick of her.”
“She is everywhere.”
“I am so tired of her.”
“B’Day was rushed.”
OH. This is one of my favorites:
“Beyonce should sit down so real talent can shine.”
(UMMM. What is real talent? Where is this real talent and why are they so scared of Beyonce. I am to believe that record labels are holding the next Stevie Wonders, Michael Jacksons, and Princes, until Beyonce goes away?)
I highly doubt it.
(sigh)
Is Beyonce overexposed? That’s a matter of debate, but before you answer that question, think about this one. Who are we comparing her to? More specifically who in THIS era are we comparing her to? We can’t compare her to the Whitneys, Madonnas, and Janets of the past because attention spans are different from when those megasdivas were in their prime. We criticize music, videos, and performances but how can you truly enjoy videos and performances with one eyeball on the TV and the other eyeball on the computer screen, having an argument with somebody about the performance as it happens. There are too few fans and too many critics, and with that there was no one left to actually BUY the music. So albums turned into digital downloads, and digital downloads turned into ringtones. Can you blame Beyonce for wanting to get as much as she can, as fast as she can?
She may be the queen of the industry, but that industry changes everyday. So back to the original question. Beyonce is overexposed in comparison to whom? Many of these new girls have been underexposed and underpromoted in comparison to Miss Deluxe DVD with 8 New Videos. Record labels seemed utterly confused about how to market these girls while Beyonce’s label seemed to pull out all the stops for her. Taking breaks and underachieveing didn’t work well for these other girls, so why blame Beyonce for loving what she does and trying to make money while she has the opportunity?
We should dig into why we want her to go away. It may be because that we have been programmed for too long to get as much as we can by doing as less as we can. So overachievers like Beyonce with albums and 8 videos done in 2 weeks, plus a movie and a tour, don’t sit right with us. Like that smart-ass in school who always finished her tests first, we roll our eyes at her work ethic. She did what? She did how many videos? In Spanish? With one arm tied behind her back? Blind-folded? While doing a handstand? What exactly is she trying to prove? Who is she trying to upstage?
Beyonce needs a break. I know this. You know this. Beyonce knows this. Deaf and blind people know this, but will she actually take a break? Who knows. I’ve adopted Bernie Mac’s philosophy to life “I don’t believe shit until shit happens.” I’ll believe it when I see it. But the important question is not whether Beyonce will take a break, but will we allow her to take one?
No.
The only way we can be cured of Beyonce is if she goes in a cave deep under the earth Osama-style, because wherever Beyonce goes, whether she’s going to St. Tropez to get dicked up by Jay, or Walgreens to get tampons there will be a camera on her, and then there will be pictures, and then there will be comments about the hair, the shoes, the smile, “she looks tired” “she looks skinny”, “she looks fat”, “ect.”
I imagine the paparazzi will even find their way in the delivery room when she finally has a baby and I can only imagine some of the comments:
“Why is her hair looking like that? I know she’s having a baby but she could have ran a hotcomb through that.”
“Why is she making that face? I know she’s in severe pain pushing out Jay’s large-headed babies, but I know she sees that camera on her.
“Beyonce is so fake! I know this has nothing to do with her having a baby but I thought I would just throw it in if nobody else will say it.”
“Hey can somebody send me a link of Beyonce having the baby? I can’t see YouTube at work.”
The issue is not whether or not Beyonce can resist the temptation to record another album or shoot another movie, but can we resist the temptation to discuss her when she’s living life away from showbiz, when she’s going about her everyday routine and trying to be a normal woman. Do you think we’ll leave her alone?
Of course not. There are too many blogs and boards whose succeess is based on the fact that you don’t want to leave her alone. They care that you may think Beyonce is Queen of the Universe or that you think Beyonce is satan in a blond wig. Now come together and argue! And don’t forget to click on one of our sponsors’ links.
(sigh)
So I imagine, sometime in 2008 while Beyonce is “on break” she decides she wants to go to the grocery store. I imagine she’s going to get those Little Debbie Honey Buns, the ones that come 10 in a box. I assume she likes to stick hers in the microwave for about 15 seconds, and sometime she eats vanilla ice cream with it. She’s getting two boxes because she gets really upset when Jay eats from her box, last time he ate out of her box she popped him in the eye. He couldn’t see out of it for two weeks. But I digress…
So Beyonce’s at the grocery store. Paparazzi snap the picutre and it finds its way on the internet. YOU make the deciscion to click on that picture. YOU make the decision to comment on the picutre. YOU make the decision to argue about the picture.
Now the picuture is on the front of every blog, and now you’ve cut it up in Photoshop and now it’s on your MySpace page. And you leave the computer wondering why you’re so sick of her, even though she’s suppose to be taking break.
Beyonce simply walking away from the spotlight won’t cure us of her “overexposure” because she’s only as overexposed as we make her.
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