



In Beyoncé’s music video “Hold Up,” one of the many reoccurring objects is water. Water is symbolized as many different things in works of literature, world events, and visual representations. Because “Hold Up” is one of the songs in the visual album Lemonade, it contributes to a bigger overall theme that some theories have led audiences to believe that Beyoncé’s husband committed adultery. Although each song and their corresponding music video led to the overbearing story of Beyoncé’s journey through her husband’s affair, the song and visual aspects are concentrated on the different emotions she experiences during this time period. In “Hold Up,” Beyoncé uses things like color, setting and filmic devices to establish her point and through her use of water she is able to manipulate many different ways to the desired effect and mood. 

The first scene of the video, the audience observes Beyoncé completely submerged in water and is then transitioned into a room that is underwater. Here, she is speaking about how she is has done several things to alter her appearance and mind to adjust to what she thinks her husband wants. The purpose of being underwater is to symbolize that she feels suffocated and trapped under the constraints she is putting on herself to make her husband happy and keep her marriage alive. The room she is in while underwater is shown with a green tint. The color represents the mental and physical illness that she has undergone to meet the standards she has set for herself. In this scene Beyoncé also incorporates long shots to show her isolation and struggle for air in the water. 

The next occurrence of water is when Beyoncé exits the underwater room and opens the doors to the outside. As she stands at the door, the water flows out behind her. In this image, she resembles Moses as the water parts around her powerful stance giving her a godly presence she looking over the city. After being submerged in water and feeling suffocated, she exits the negative environment and goes on to look for her where her husband’s loyalty stands in their relationship. At the beginning of her search, she stands at the frame of the door in the middle ground and overlooks a bright city street in the foreground and the song begins to play. Beyoncé begins her descent down the stairs in slow motion as the water moves rapidly past her. This fast moving water also represents her yearning to escape the suffocation she has undergone and face the problems in her relationship. Exiting this building gives her a new wave of confidence which then translates into some of the lyrics that state, “Hold up, they don't love you like I love you/ Slow down, they don't love you like I love you/ Back up, they don't love you like I love you/


What a wicked way to treat the girl that loves you” (1:53-2:06), saying no one can love her husband like she can.

Another appearance of water is when Beyoncé hits the fire hydrant and it sprays over the streets. From the middle angle that is shown, the water coming from the fire hydrant is used to replicate rain in the attempt to symbolize cleanliness and rebirth. Beyoncé incorporates this in the ladder half of the video to show her audience that although she may be crazy and jealous shown in the close up shots taken of her facial expressions, she is no longer trapped and confined to trying to be perfect for her husband. Smashing the fire hydrant also symbolizes the release of all of her emotions and worries that have been bottled up. 

Although each appearance of water is in different forms and mean different things, they all contribute to the overlying message Beyoncé is constructing in her video. She uses water as a tool in this visual art form to purify her ideals because it is a natural element. Whether the water in the video is giving her a feeling of isolation, power, or cleanliness, it helps her audience understand the journey through her different emotions during the song. The three different uses of water are different because they each represent something different in their appearance of the video. At the beginning she is submerged and feels small, in the middle she is surrounded and feels empowered and at the end she is showered upon and feels reborn. This almost replicates a religious ceremony similar to baptizing or other rituals where water is present. However, in their differences, they are similar by association in helping to develop the overall theme. 

Through the duration of the video Beyoncé is able to go from being controlled by the water to her manipulating the water in using it to show how she feels and gaining a sense of dominance from it. The transition from being submerged in water and feeling isolated and ill to being surrounded by it shows how this object can be manipulated to make someone feel small and useless to feel empowered and also supports the idea of symbols having multiple and interchanging meanings. Because Beyoncé uses different angles and shots to tell her story, she is able develop her message not only in video but the visual album as well. Using these filmic devices allows her to carry themes throughout the different songs and emotions that she depicts in her film. 


