I’m generally not a fan of pop music, but the recent Beyoncé/Jay-Z video really is masterful:

So many difficult questions are held up for reflection, especially for successful producers and consumers of today’s arts. If you are a successful black or female artist, are you ready to have your work put up next to the great works in the Louvre – many of which trade upon racial injustices? As a viewer, how do you put together the historical power of western culture with today’s culture? (“Have you ever seen a crowd going apeshit?”) And what about the Janus-faced values of American culture – which rewards this video with over 34 million views in just a week, while also decrying the black athletes who take a knee in protest of institutional racism?

JSTOR’s blog has a good general discussion of the artwork featured in the video here.