Beyoncé and a Lesson on Accessibility: OTR II Review

On July 27, I went to see Beyoncé and Jay-Z on their OTR II tour at FedEx Field in Landover, Maryland. I thought about buying tickets when the tour was announced but wasn’t convinced until I saw Beyoncé perform at Coachella. I also didn’t want to go alone, but after Coachella, I had to go, so I bought a ticket for my sister as well. It was only fair since she bought my Reputation ticket.

Because of my moderately low income, I bought the cheapest tickets available. I don’t have a choice. This has been my strategy since I started buying any type of ticket. As a result, I fail to ignore the location of the seat in relation to the stage for concert tickets and the departure times for airplane tickets, which has caused some stress in the past, but when I bought my OTR tickets, I thought I did good: “$50 for Beyoncé AND Jay-Z?! What a steal!” Little did I know, how much these billionaires had swindled me because my seats, for lack of a better word, sucked.

Two weeks earlier at the Taylor Swift concert, my sister and I had scouted our OTR II seats and thought they would be nicer than our Reputation seats because well, we’d actually get a seat, as opposed to standing room only.

As a result, we were in positive spirits when we sat in our seats for OTR. We were even closer to the stage than last time. That all changed when opening acts, Chloe x Halle came on, and we couldn’t understand a word they were saying, which was really disappointing because I think they’re really talented and wanted to hear their music. Yet, my sister and I were still optimistic: “Okay, maybe their sound engineers just suck, but Beyoncé and Jay-Z, they’re experienced veterans, so they’re going to sound awesome.” We were wrong because I couldn’t understand a word Jay-Z said throughout the entire concert. I only understood Beyoncé because I was more familiar with her songs (I thought Jay would sing more songs from his most recent album, 4:44, which was the only album I had listened of his, but he only sung “The Story of OJ” from it. They also didn’t sing any songs from Everything is Love except for “Apeshit”).

We couldn’t understand anything because all the speakers were frontwards facing, and according to my sister, sound waves travel in straight lines, so our positioning for Taylor Swift, while farther, was better because we were facing the stage.

To make matters even worse, we couldn’t even enjoy the visual show because we couldn’t see anything. We didn’t see them enter the stage because they entered at the center of the stage, which was blocked off by the screens, which were also all frontward facing and partially covered by speakers. As a result, we didn’t even get a clear look of the exclusive images of the Carter family during Beyoncé’s performance of “Perfect” (My favorite moment of the night even though I could never love a man the way Beyoncé loves Jay-Z. I also enjoyed “****** in Paris” and “Apeshit” aka the Jay-Z songs I was familiar with. Everything else I couldn't understand or I had already seen from Coachella i.e. it wasn’t anything new).

Taylor Swift’s screens were curved for those on the flanks of the stadium (see below).

Alas, my sister and I weren’t the only disappointed ones at FedEx Field on July 27. Our whole section was silent for the majority of the night. The party next to us even left before the concert was over. I had wanted to get there early so we could see the opening acts and get the most of our $50 tickets, but the whole experience was a bust.

Together, Beyoncé and Jay-Z are worth a billion dollars. There is no reason why they can’t afford to make their stages, screens, and speakers curved so everyone in attendance can hear and see. This is what accessibility is: providing an equitable experience for all. If celebrities really cared about their fans, then they would do this, but all they care about is maximizing their profits, so they can provide better lives for themselves, not us. Otherwise, why would bad concert seats exist? They don’t care about us, which is why we need to stop worshipping them. While we may not have the same talents as Beyoncé and Jay-Z, we have the same capability to improve ourselves and make the world a better place for others. That’s the message I took from this concert: how to make the world a more equitable and accessible place for all.

TL;DR: OTR II sucked. We couldn’t hear or see anything, and they didn’t even play any new songs. Celebrities are cancelled because they have the money to do something about this inaccessibility, yet they choose not to. Also, if these artists really cared about us, then they would end their concerts before public transportation stops running, so everyone can get home in a safe and timely manner, but they don’t, so we try not get trampled as we fight for a spot on the last Metro [1] and wait two hours to haul an affordable Uber home. [2]

[1] OTR II was on the weekend so the Metro was still open when the concert ended.

[2] Taylor Swift’s concert was on a Tuesday so the Metro was closed when the concert ended. The whole transportation situation was a mess. First, we had no idea what direction the Uber pick up zone was. Once we eventually got to the pick up zone, we had to wait at least two hours for the surge to go down from $80 to its normal price of $15. Then, the stadium staff wanted the Uber drivers to park and then call their customers, but this was not clearly communicated, as the drivers wanted us to meet them where they were in the pick up line. As a result, there was a lot of yelling and annoyance. Thankfully, our Uber driver wasn’t difficult and getting a ride home was the only blip in our Reputation experience. I wish I could say the same thing about our OTR II experience.

P.S. Jay-Z wore a headband. It was cute.

I stumbled across my best friend in elementary school’s Facebook again and learned she’s going to be a teacher too. I discovered how she also suffers from anxiety and has an entrepreneurial spirit like me. It’s amazing how our lives have diverged—she’s super “conservative” while I’m super “liberal” for lack of better words—yet converge towards the same goals. This brought me back to something I wrote after the 2016 Presidential Election:

The aftermath of this election has made me realized how disconnected my privileged friends are from a large portion of the population-the rural working class. I grew up in a small town (technically a city) in Southern Virginia, while the rest of my peers grew up in suburbia, Northern Virginia, some of the richest counties in Virginia, etc. The differences in our lives can be looked at through many different lenses, but today I’m going to focus on friendships.

My first best friend was a white girl, but she’s unlike any white girl at UVA. We became friends because my dad knew her parents. Her dad and my dad both worked in the same textile company. We were also two of the smartest students in our grade—the two shortest too. We lost contact after I transferred schools. I went on to go to UVA, while she never made it to a four-year college. We reconnected on Facebook a couple years ago, and by perusing our timelines, you can see how different we are. She’s deactivated her Facebook since then, but I could definitely tell she was voting for Trump.

My next best friend was a Chinese girl. She fits in with most of the UVA demographic: pre-med, college-educated parents, etc., which in retrospect is probably why our friendship didn’t last long. I told her I used to live in a trailer, and that was probably one of the first times I was judged for my socioeconomic status.

The Chinese girl and I were also friends with a Mexican. I didn’t realize it until now, but I was actually part of a clique in 6th grade that included two other white girls. Anyways, this Mexican girl and Chinese girl connected through Spanish. The Chinese girl actually has roots in Peru, but she eventually shunned this Mexican girl too. This Mexican girl eventually got pregnant in 8th grade, like a lot of girls in my middle and high school, and moved away. I don’t know where she is now. She also never made it to college as far as I know.

After our clique dissolved (the Chinese girl started ignoring me, and the rest were assigned different 7th grade classes), I had difficulties finding friends until sophomore year of high school.

Actually, let’s go back to 9th grade for a bit. My best friend in 9th grade gym was a girl people made fun of because they thought she was a lesbian. What’s funny is a lot of people I went to school with have now come out as gay. Kids can be so mean. I always wish I had done more and stood up for those who were made fun of in school. One of the kids who was made fun of actually died from an infection stemming from cancer treatments. Everyone was super nice to her posthumously.

Back to 10th grade: in 10th grade, my crew (i.e. the people I ate lunch with) included three Mexicans and a black girl. One Mexican girl I had met earlier in middle school, but I can’t remember exactly the moment we became friends. She went on to college and majored in psychology like me, so we get each other. She even defended me recently in one of my “controversial” Facebook posts. She was raped as a child. The other Mexican girl has two kids now. I don’t remember when she got pregnant—I think it was after high school. Her sister, who also joined us for lunch sometimes, had a baby while in school though. I think the first Mexican girl’s younger sister had a baby too. The last Mexican in our group was a boy. He was a good student but didn’t take the traditional route post-graduation. I think he has his own photography business now. I wasn’t friends with any of the white boys, but I was friends with him. Last but not least, the black girl—she was one of the first people to get me to come out of my shell. She helped a lot of people but she didn’t go to college either. I recently found out she had a baby too.

Junior to senior year, I went to a magnet school for half of the school day, so the people I was surrounded by were more like the people I eventually met in college. We developed a bond over the hardships of school, but I didn’t really make any lifelong friends among this group.

Outside of school, I had a group of Vietnamese friends. We know each other because of our parents—none of whom are college educated. The majority of us have gone on to college, but one of them now lives on a chicken farm in Arkansas. She followed the father of her two children there. She had her first child when she was 16. A lot of these childhood friends moved away when the recession hit. When my sister recently visited this friend in Texas, where her family had moved, she told her my major: she didn’t know what it was.

One of these childhood friends now shares a studio with me. She is college educated as well, and like a lot of college-educated students, she was anti-Hilary but very anti-Trump, which is a shame. I’ve always been with Her, but I was too ashamed to admit it because of my roommate. Hilary honestly lost touch with the working-class voters, which she was so close to earlier in her career. My roommate’s dad voted for Trump because of Catholic values like pro-life. My dad voted for Hilary because of women’s rights. Who knew my dad would the most woke dad in Martinsville?

These were my friends before college. They’re a lot different than the friends my privileged college friends had.