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This essay reads Beyoncés vocal practices, visual productions, and comments on her own music to theorize her changing conceptions of artistic labor in relation to neoliberal theories of work. I argue that whereas her career is initially shaped by a spectacular performance of hard work and perfectionism that peaks on her 2011 album 4, her 2013 album BEYONCÉ knocks her own hustle, in Lester Spences terms, advancing an aesthetic of spontaneity and imperfection that rejects the incessant labor that neoliberalism demands and that her own oeuvre had long celebrated. Enabled as it is by her global pop stardom, this new ethos and aesthetic is no more democratic than her earlier articulation of work; yet Beyoncés release of Formation in 2016 aims to resolve this contradiction by articulating myriad forms of labor that are available to everyday people and whose aim is to challenge the system that makes people of color (especially women) hustle so hard to survive in the first place. In this way, her changing conceptions of work illuminate her transformation from pop star to artist to activist-or, better, her efforts to link all three.
I'm a survivor, I'm not gon' give up, I'm not gon' stop, I'm gon' work harder
-Destiny's Child, "Survivor (2001)
I have a lot of awards . . . and they're amazing and I worked my ass off, I worked harder than probably everybody I know to get those things. But nothing feels like my child saying, "Mommy." . . . Nothing feels like when I look at my husband in the eyes. Nothing feels like when I'm respected, when I get on the stage and I see I'm changing people's lives. Those are the things that matter. And at this point in my life, that's what I'm striving for. Growth. Love. Happiness. Fun. Enjoy your life, it's short. That's the message.
-Beyoncé, "Self-Titled Documentary," Part 2: Imperfection (2013)
I see it, I want it, I stunt, yellow bone it I dream it, I work hard, I grind till I own it.
-Beyoncé, "Formation" (2016)
For all the questions she raises, one thing is clear: Beyoncé has worked hard to become Beyoncé. The daughter of the famously enterprising Mathew and Tina Knowles clearly learned a great deal...