SHOW NOT TELL: Beyoncé’s lyrical expressions for writing inspiration
As horrible as some life experiences they have led to some of the most beautifully crafted arts, including intense and powerful lyrics. Beyoncé’s pain and emotions of being cheated on are portrayed skillfully in her music. In the lemonade era, we got insight into her raw pain. The process of her discovering the infidelity, experiencing the pain, in other words, “crashing” out and finally healing. This pain has transcended into her new album, Cowboy Carter. Even though it is the same pain from being cheated on. It is approached from a completely new angle.
Black music month: Emotions in music
Black Music Month recognises black people’s impact on music through creating and curating some of the most beloved genres today, such as R&B, jazz and rock. There has always been profound storytelling in black music, portraying so many emotions of our ancestors carried through the tides of history that transcends generations. Musicians pour their emotions, such as joy, pain, anger, and gratitude, into their music, allowing the listeners to identify and empathise by seeing their own stories in the music.
As an avid lover of music, lyrical analysis and Beyoncé, we are going to do a deep dive into the song "Tyrant" and how aspiring authors can use it as inspiration for their work in showing a character’s emotions rather than just telling the reader.
Literary devices in the song
Beyoncé conveys the various emotions of being cheated on, including heartbreak and dilemma, primarily through the use of interchanging personal deixis. The song has impeccable storytelling through multidimensional lyrics and literary devices, bringing the song’s story to life.
The song is written from two perspectives, and Beyoncé embodies both. The first perspective is of a woman who has been cheated on by her partner with an adultress. She's inquiring about the adultress’ methods of getting men to cheat, including her man, and how she can remain so heartless in committing adultery. The first woman's perspective is only present in the very first and last verses, and it's a completely different melody from the rest of the song.
The second perspective is of the Tyrant. This is the main melody which most of the song is composed of. She’s a seductress moving around town getting men in a relationship to cheat with her. Beyoncé portrays the dilemma of the innocent woman. She envies the tyrant and wants to be like her; she has her reservations, which are shown when Beyoncé interchanges between pronouns. She only assumes the role of the tyrant using the personal deixis “I” to claim the appealing part of the tyrant, such as being sexy.
However, she rejects the negative aspects of the tyrant's character, such as being an adulteress, by using the third-person deixis referring to the tyrant as “her” or “she”, depicting her as a separate person. For example, Beyonce says, Have you seen her 5’9 thick and fine? What a tragedy.” What a tragedy that she is stealing other people's man despite being so beautiful.
Ultimately, Beyonce ends the song with the original melody continuing to ask the tyrant to “just tell me [her] how” she stole her man. Beyonce has gone through a journey to understand the tyrant's actions by assuming her identity despite the lapses of dilemma, but still there is no conclusion, and she is back to square one as the innocent woman. This shows that Beyonce, as a person who's been hurt, is not meant to understand the actions of bad people, which are the tyrant and the cheating partner. Most importantly, her heart is too good to be corrupted by them.
Significance for writers
Writers are meant to show and not tell. Beyoncé has not explicitly told you that she cannot understand the actions of the tyrant; she simply reused the same melody as she did from verse 1 to the last verse. The symbolism in the repetition, also known as refrain, shows the recurring dilemma and is a conclusion in itself that she will remain an innocent person unable to understand harmful behaviour.
This can be an inspiration to writers to portray their characters’ dilemma in attempting to understand other characters’ bad actions towards them, or the impossible cycle of trying to understand. The literary devices in the song, such as the refrain, the personal deixis, and the symbolism, are examples of what you can use in your writing to show a character's dilemma and not just tell the reader.
For example, make a character revisit a location where they were betrayed by a loved one previously, but this time they are alone and healed. Or make them repeat the same words during the betrayal and later healing, such as “I don't understand” the first time betrayer, and for the second time (healing)“, I don’t understand, but I don’t need to. I am healed”
As a writer, I implore you to explore various forms of media to garner writing inspiration from. The song “Tyrant” used multiple literary devices to carry out the narrative. And by trying these writing inspirations, you can experiment, learn and see if it suits your style of writing.
Written By: Salimatu
Substack ID: @Salitalks