Perhaps you heard about Beyoncé's album and music video release from last week? It was released at midnight on Thursday and people understandably went nuts since nobody knew it was going to happen. And so now we've got a sweet new set of tracks about Beyoncé and Jay Z having sex.
But all the posturing in the last 5 years to position Beyoncé as the serious, singular queen of pop music only makes me more and more nostalgic for the Beyoncé of 10+ years ago. Then part of Destiny's Child, Beyoncé had an amazing talent for selling ridiculous songs with steadfastly earnest and enthusiastic performances. Many of her music videos were your standard 90s fare, but a few really stood out. Today let's look at one of those videos, 2001's "Survivor", directed by Darren Grant.
Going with the literal interpretation of the song's lyrics, "Survivor" starts with the three ladies of Destiny's Child waking up after washing ashore on a desert island. They are confused and a little bit scared (except for Beyoncé, who wastes no time in starting her camera mugging), but they soon find some awesome island clothing that has been left out for them by a mysterious island man.
Unfortunately, this plot thread is pretty much abandoned after we get a glimpse of this guy. Who is this mysterious man who left them that clothing? Nothing else in the video is teased like this, so why the need to explain where they got their island bikinis from? It definitely has an "others" from LOST thing going on for a few minutes.
Anyways, the trio finds their way to a waterfall and discovers an ancient ruin behind it. This is the scene of a dance, and then soon afterwards they are out in a boat in a storm before getting picked up again on the island by a helicopter.
Obviously, the plot elements of this video are not really important. It follows a very loose "stranded on island -> rescued on island" narrative, but the real draw is of course to see Destiny's Child, and more specifically, Beyoncé. In fact, most of the first half of the song is Beyoncé singing with Kelly Rowland and Michelle Williams humming in the background. It's a testament to their commitment to the group that the other members of Destiny's Child spend most of the first half of the video following Beyoncé around and visibly humming.
This feels like a video that could have been made in 2013 - not many other Destiny's Child videos can claim that (Coincidentally, 2013 was a big year for stranded on a desert island music videos.) It's artfully shot and composed, and the island scenes are still some of the most memorable video moments for Destiny's Child from their pretty extensive music video career. Plus, they spent time on a desert island and no one had to compromise their Christianity.
