The Carters have lost some control. One of my jobs as an entertainment editor is to book celebrities for interviews. That means reaching out to a celeb's publicist, requesting time with the celeb, and negotiating the terms of the story (who the writer will be, when it will run, etc.) You learn pretty quickly that there are certain stars who are nearly impossible to land. Among them are Jay Z and Beyoncé. At my last job, I must have tried for a Jay Z feature at least five times in three years; I also made at least one attempt at Beyoncé. I knew every time that their publicists (they each have their own) would politely turn down the offers. And although a part of me always hoped for a surprise "yes" (it would have made my editor happy), a bigger part of me would have been disappointed if I actually got one. The great media legacy of the Carter family is that they don’t need traditional press. They have high-powered, capable publicists, of course, to get them the press opportunities they do want, to oversee their overall coverage, and to presumably consult behind the scenes. But it's not as if Jay Z and Beyoncé need aggressive media outreach in order to register with the public. 10 Things He’ll Never Tell You Beyoncé announced her pregnancy by showing up to the MTV Video Music Awards with a baby bump, singing “Love On Top,” and literally dropping the mic. Jay Z announced “Magna Carta Holy Grail” through a Samsung commercial that aired during an NBA finals game. Beyoncé released her self-titled album on iTunes just before midnight on a Thursday because who even needs an announcement when bloggers would spend a whole day writing about you even if it weren’t a slow December Friday? Most recently, the Carter’s “On the Run” tour was a mere rumor until a casual email went out to the Beyhive announcing pre-sale dates; the Internet took the news and ran with it. Jay Z and Beyoncé are Jay Z and Beyoncé: They can forgo things like run-up interviews, press releases, and statements. Until yesterday, that is, when they gave a formal response about elevator-gate via the Associated Press. It was a smart outlet choice — People, the average celebrity’s statement engine, would have felt too much like a surrender, as if they were now allowing their lives to be the subject of entertainment gossip when they are, in fact, classy American royalty. But they waited too long to break their silence. It was just a few days. It was a family matter. All families fight. I hear what you are saying, and you are right on all counts. But this is a couple that has so carefully controlled its public image and so clearly relied on the media to write about their every move — when they knew those moves were positive — that damage control was in order. They tried at first to do it in the only way they know how: By getting photographed courtside at a basketball game, by posting cheerful family pics on Instagram. But by that point everyone had already seen just how different a private Carter moment, when captured on hidden camera, could look from a “private” Carter moment on social media. Likewise, they saw the way Beyoncé appeared when she walked out of The Standard Hotel a minute after Solange was done kicking her husband: radiant, smiling. It was a reality check that just as you or I sometimes have to fake our happiness — like when we’re having a secret fight with our boyfriends at a party — so does Beyoncé. As she said herself in her HBO documentary, she is not perfect. It goes without saying that neither is Jay Z. Neither is Solange. (Neither am I. Neither are you.) But there’s a huge difference between hearing a celebrity say she’s not perfect and seeing her in a less-than-perfect state. There’s an illusion that gets shattered, and when that illusion belongs to the Carters, it’s that much greater. Also, if Beyoncé was putting on a show in this instance, how many other times was she putting on a show? And so now here we are, heading into the “On the Run” tour, about to get bombarded by backstage photos on Instagram and “Crazy in Love” videos on YouTube, all while being slightly less trusting of the meticulously curated, Carter-approved images we’re seeing. For the first time in a long time — certainly in my memory — Jay Z and Beyoncé need their publicists to step in and set up traditional press. They need a reporter objectively telling their story for them, convincing people that the united front the Carters show is the united front that stands. As I told my friend who works at a magazine the other day: If ever one has a shot at selling Jay Z or Beyoncé on a cover story, it’s now. They need to reclaim their narrative. And once they do, may they go back to never doing ordinary press again.
May 17, 2014
The Carters have lost some control. One of my jobs as an entertainment editor is to book celebrities for interviews. That means reaching out to a celeb's publicist, requesting time with the celeb, and negotiating the terms of the story (who the writer will be, when it will run, etc.) You learn pretty quickly that there are certain stars who are nearly impossible to land. Among them are Jay Z and Beyoncé. At my last job, I must have tried for a Jay Z feature at least five times in three years; I also made at least one attempt at Beyoncé. I knew every time that their publicists (they each have their own) would politely turn down the offers. And although a part of me always hoped for a surprise "yes" (it would have made my editor happy), a bigger part of me would have been disappointed if I actually got one. The great media legacy of the Carter family is that they don’t need traditional press. They have high-powered, capable publicists, of course, to get them the press opportunities they do want, to oversee their overall coverage, and to presumably consult behind the scenes. But it's not as if Jay Z and Beyoncé need aggressive media outreach in order to register with the public. 10 Things He’ll Never Tell You Beyoncé announced her pregnancy by showing up to the MTV Video Music Awards with a baby bump, singing “Love On Top,” and literally dropping the mic. Jay Z announced “Magna Carta Holy Grail” through a Samsung commercial that aired during an NBA finals game. Beyoncé released her self-titled album on iTunes just before midnight on a Thursday because who even needs an announcement when bloggers would spend a whole day writing about you even if it weren’t a slow December Friday? Most recently, the Carter’s “On the Run” tour was a mere rumor until a casual email went out to the Beyhive announcing pre-sale dates; the Internet took the news and ran with it. Jay Z and Beyoncé are Jay Z and Beyoncé: They can forgo things like run-up interviews, press releases, and statements. Until yesterday, that is, when they gave a formal response about elevator-gate via the Associated Press. It was a smart outlet choice — People, the average celebrity’s statement engine, would have felt too much like a surrender, as if they were now allowing their lives to be the subject of entertainment gossip when they are, in fact, classy American royalty. But they waited too long to break their silence. It was just a few days. It was a family matter. All families fight. I hear what you are saying, and you are right on all counts. But this is a couple that has so carefully controlled its public image and so clearly relied on the media to write about their every move — when they knew those moves were positive — that damage control was in order. They tried at first to do it in the only way they know how: By getting photographed courtside at a basketball game, by posting cheerful family pics on Instagram. But by that point everyone had already seen just how different a private Carter moment, when captured on hidden camera, could look from a “private” Carter moment on social media. Likewise, they saw the way Beyoncé appeared when she walked out of The Standard Hotel a minute after Solange was done kicking her husband: radiant, smiling. It was a reality check that just as you or I sometimes have to fake our happiness — like when we’re having a secret fight with our boyfriends at a party — so does Beyoncé. As she said herself in her HBO documentary, she is not perfect. It goes without saying that neither is Jay Z. Neither is Solange. (Neither am I. Neither are you.) But there’s a huge difference between hearing a celebrity say she’s not perfect and seeing her in a less-than-perfect state. There’s an illusion that gets shattered, and when that illusion belongs to the Carters, it’s that much greater. Also, if Beyoncé was putting on a show in this instance, how many other times was she putting on a show? And so now here we are, heading into the “On the Run” tour, about to get bombarded by backstage photos on Instagram and “Crazy in Love” videos on YouTube, all while being slightly less trusting of the meticulously curated, Carter-approved images we’re seeing. For the first time in a long time — certainly in my memory — Jay Z and Beyoncé need their publicists to step in and set up traditional press. They need a reporter objectively telling their story for them, convincing people that the united front the Carters show is the united front that stands. As I told my friend who works at a magazine the other day: If ever one has a shot at selling Jay Z or Beyoncé on a cover story, it’s now. They need to reclaim their narrative. And once they do, may they go back to never doing ordinary press again.
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