HΘMΣCΘMING: A Netflix Experience Unlike Anything You've Ever Seen
On the night of Beyoncé’s original, live-streamed Coachella performance, I was sound asleep. Over the years, I have become a fan of Beyoncé’s work, especially Lemonade. But I am by no means a member of the B-Hive.
However, once I woke up to all the buzz the next morning, I tried to find a video of the performance on YouTube and then Tidal but couldn’t find anything longer than a 4-minute clip and an Apple Music playlist.
Luckily for me, Queen Bey was already planning an intimate, biographical, and documentary version of the performance. HΘMΣCΘMING is a type of artistic magic I’ve never experienced before.
The film opens with a quote from Toni Morrison and fades first to an image of the desert, the sky, and the Coachella ground before black-and-white film captures the Queen herself strutting to the stage to open the show in a breathtaking Nefertiti costume.
The magic of the film lies in how engaging and engulfing it really is. By the time Formation came on, I had turned off all the lights in my apartment and increased the volume way more than I should have. I felt like I was there. I danced to some of my favorite songs. I sang along. When I finally cut the TV off, my ears were numb from that same after-concert feeling you get at a live performance.
But the magic goes far beyond the performance itself. Through documentary footage of rehearsals, preparations, and family videos, Beyoncé is able to give life to the creative process itself. She is able to effectively explain how much this performance meant to her and why it needed to be so damn black.
After watching this film, I felt powerful and inspired and alive. Beyoncé gives us an in-depth look into what she sacrificed and how hard she worked to put this show together. Seeing that sacrifice projected on the screen made me wish that I was that strong, that I could work that hard, or that I was that talented. And once I was done watching, I was able to enjoy the music in the shower by streaming the live album on Apple Music.
And that’s the other amazing part of HΘMΣCΘMING, how many different revenue streams Beyoncé was able to generate from this one event. She was paid an estimated $3 million to perform at Coachella. HΘMΣCΘMING merchandise ranging from $10 to $115 is still being sold on beyonce.com. Most reports have only speculated about the amount Netflix paid to air the film, but I’m sure it was no small fee; not to mention the revenue she’s generating by streaming the live album on Apple, Amazon Music, SoundCloud, Deezer, Spotify, YouTube Music, and Tidal, according to Wired magazine.
Now THAT’S what I call money moves! Fan or not, no one who watches HΘMΣCΘMING will be able to deny Beyoncé’s prowess as an artist, performer, and creator.
