The No. 1 complaint I read about Beyonce’s music video for “Best Thing I Never Had” — my own voice included — was that the release and result of the clip felt rushed, a half-baked idea to get Beyonce partly naked and in tip-top position to look beautiful beyond any substance.
Now, the singer seems to be taking a tack that makes the bare minimum concept even thriftier, though it may have fans clamoring to further wear emotions on their sleeves.
“Beyoncé is making an alternate fan video for her hit single ‘Best Thing I Never Had,’ and she wants home videos and photos from her fans joyous wedding day, or from a prom they”d rather forget,” reads a release. “Fans can upload their wedding or prom video to YouTube and their wedding or prom photos to Flickr, and tag them with the following tag: #BeyonceBestThing.”
In a partnership with Celebuzz and BeyonceOnline, a crowd-sourced fan video will ultimately surface after submissions have been culled and fawned-over by Team Bey.
The key here is fan. But as I ascertained in my original criticism of the vid, “Best Thing I Never Had” wasn’t a story for the critics, it already was made specifically with a Beyonce fan in mind.
And perhaps this stunt is what Columbia had in mind all along — and good for them, to give this leggy tune some extra lift as it makes its way through Top 40 rotation (having peaked at No. 23 thus far on The Hot 100). God knows, I love a wedding, particularly a real one and not one imagined up in a video marketing roundtable brainstorm session that included “golf course” and “extended garter shot” on the docket.
(As for prom home movies, the best “Prom Sucks And Nothing Helps Being 17 Year Old” video footage has likely been burn as evidence by now. To those video editors: sucks to be you right now.)
Don’t get me wrong: I still love this tune, though some lyrics cause its only missteps. But my mouth is already mealy; like Gaga draped in a rainbow flag, I smell pandering. Not that I’m particularly married, but to boast one’s nuptials in lieu of jilting an ex seems, I dunno, petty? Besides the point? To live in YouTube infamy over a loosely choreographed dance of na-na-na-na-boo-boo could cheapen that dearly beloved .mov.
Here’s the original, in case you dodged the bullet: