14 DAY TRIAL // There's no denying that the pop industry has become a cutthroat business these days, where only the fittest survive and you have to kick and scratch your way to the top. Don't kid yourself into thinking that by simply making good music, you will stay ahead of the competition, those days are long gone. And Beyonce knows it.
The singer has been at it for years, becoming a household name in her musical genre and having lots of number one singles and albums under her belt. So then she shouldn't have to resort to cheap tricks and gimmicks to get the media's attention and the fans' undying love, right? Wrong.
The "On the Run" tour ticket sales were boosted by divorce rumors
When Beyonce and Jay Z announced their summer tour, “On the Run,” people mostly freaked out with excitement, and gushed over the trailer and poster for the tour, both of which were very promising and enticing. But when the time came to buy the tickets, people didn't come flooding in.
So, initial reports said that Beyonce's concerts were going to be a bust, not a single venue being sold out, and ticket vendors forcibly dropping prices to cut their losses. Guess what happened next.
What happened was a sudden blow to Beyonce's marriage, which, it needs to be said, was in perfect working condition up to that point. In fact, people in the industry were giving Beyonce and Jay Z as examples of what a showbiz relationship was really like.
There was some “leaked” footage of Solange, Beyonce's sister, lashing out violently at Jay Z in a New York hotel elevator, with Beyonce looking passively on. No audio, no further details. The media swallowed the bait hook, line and sinker. Even People Magazine reported that the couple was headed for a divorce.
And while this game of “guess the divorce date” was making headlines in the news, Beyonce and Jay Z kept silent, did their concerts and posted photos suggesting only marital bliss on social media.
Beyonce's father would later admit the divorce was just a PR stunt
Then an interesting phenomenon occurred: all of a sudden, ticket sales for the concerts began going up, ticket vendors were happy again, as people rushed into arenas to see with their own eyes, the tension between Beyonce and Jay Z on stage that was supposedly palpable.
When Beyonce starts crying on stage during a certain song and changes the lyrics to make it seem like she had been cheated on, the media goes wild. Interestingly, this cat-and-mouse game abruptly finished at the exact moment the tour ended.
By this point, Beyonce's father came forward and unofficially claimed the entire story was a PR move. Not only that, but he confessed during a radio interview that it wasn't the first time they tried to pull the wool over people's eyes with some made-up scandal.
The wardrobe malfunction stunt: a direct result of poor ratings
Let's fast forward a bit now to last week. Beyonce and Jay recorded their Paris show and aired it on HBO as a special. Ratings showed that people weren't that interested, in fact, the special pretty much bombed.
So you really can't be surprised when on Friday last week, during a concert in New York, Beyonce all of a sudden suffers a wardrobe malfunction. Her blouse comes undone seconds after she begins singing and she, being the professional she is, decides to keep going, despite the fact that her womanly bits kept popping out. Don't worry though, Beyonce just happened to be wearing a skin-colored bra, so no, curious folks could not get a free peek at the singer's assets.
Coincidence? Perhaps. But one can't fail to notice how these scandals keep popping up just when Beyonce seems to be losing ground in terms of popular appeal.
It's just sad that an artist so accomplished as Beyonce, who, earlier this year, dropped a stunning full visual album and beat all previous records in terms of chart-topping power, has to resort to such tricks, usually reserved for people just starting out in the business.
As far as the future goes, Beyonce's PR team has a couple more scandals all laid out in case her appeal begins to show the slightest signs of decreasing.
For example, right now, the big thing is that second pregnancy everyone is talking about, and Beyonce's social media accounts have already begun to post photos hinting towards that direction.
Finally, maybe Jay Z can sleep with Rihanna and thus save all of their careers.