Unless you’ve been living under a rock (which honestly, in these times, good for you), you’re bound to have seen the phrase “thank you beyonce” somewhere on your social media feeds. Now, there’s of course no occasion needed to pay homage to Queen B, and the internet would be nothing without new trends being born overnight out of seemingly nowhere, but this harmless trend has some not-so-harmless implications that serves as a fascinating case study on how social media seems to constantly transform serious discussions into digestible trends.
“Thank you, Beyoncé” has some dark beginnings. Again, unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve also seen the very public and ongoing exposé of rapper P Diddy, whose world-famous Beverly Hills parties are not as glamorous as they look, or at least aren’t what we would define as glamour (rich and powerful people, who would’ve thought?). While the alleged sex-trafficking and drug-related manipulation behind-the-scenes was being unearthed at a shocking pace and tearing down the facades of many celebrities who were known to be practised attendees of these parties, the internet snagged onto a recurring pattern: celebrities thanking Beyoncé in their award acceptance speeches. Beyoncé and her husband, Jay-Z, have long been thought of as an untouchable star couple, and following Diddy’s arrest, the conspiracy around Beyoncé has only thickened because of Jay-Z’s known friendship with the rapper. Around the same time, a TikTok edit of Beyoncé’s fellow musicians thanking her at award shows went viral, even at victories that had nothing to do with her (like the infamous stunt Kanye West pulled with Taylor Swift), and the newest conspiracy theory is that all these mentions were all veiled requests for protection, and might be a way of seeking protection from whatever powers Queen B wielded behind the scenes, especially now that Diddy was in the spotlight.
To add fuel to the fire, social media ran wild with connections between J. Cole’s song “She Knows” and Beyoncé’s possible involvement in not just Diddy’s antics, but even in darker celebrity tragedies, such as the deaths of Aaliyah, Michael Jackson, and Left Eye. Theories floated that Cole’s lyrics—“Rest in peace to Aaliyah / Rest in peace to Left Eye / Michael Jackson, I'll see ya”—alluded to Beyoncé’s knowledge or involvement in their untimely demises, especially since Jay-Z was known to have connections to each of these stars. Before long, this had escalated into a viral TikTok trend, with users nervously and humorously thanking Beyoncé to the melody of “She Knows”, and then bled into marketing and real-life humour as well, in a matter of days.
A large part of Beyoncé’s fanbase has called this a “smear campaign”, feeling that this is a racially-charged attack on one of the most successful Black women in history being covered up with memes, and undermines her hard work and influence while making dangerous assumptions about her character that are completely unfounded.
It’s equally funny and dystopian that one of the most disturbing news in recent years about the dark underbelly of the celebrity world has its own soundbite and trend attached to it, and this switch from controversy to content raises critical questions about how social media packages complex issues through the lens of virality. Consider how quickly the narrative transformed from serious allegations regarding power dynamics in the music industry to teenagers making nervous TikToks before mundane activities. Now consider how many times you’ve learnt of big happenings around the world through a TikTok trend. This wasn’t the first time for me either.
There are larger implications to this than just short attention spans, it’s about how we as a generation metabolise information, especially the difficult kind, through the safety net of humour. There’s no doubt that meme culture allows us to engage with a lot of traumatic content in a more accessible way, and actually sheds light on them to some extent. But this comes at a worse risk of trivialising serious issues. The phrase “it’s not that serious” that has become a staple in internet spaces is the perfect example of this, and forces us to question whether we are actually democratising important conversations or diminishing their impact. All of the praise for the internet being a tool for widespread information becomes redundant when the result is sensationalization rather than discussion and knowledge.
“Thank You, Beyonce,” is truly a situation on the line between humour and horror that brings in the question of morality and responsibility in popularity of trends. It highlights how much we’ve allowed conspiracy and allegations to shape pop culture in the current landscape, and is all a perfect mirror of the double-edged sword that is the influential power of social media; and whether we like it or not, its seemingly evergreen nature in the digital age.
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