Then you remember: These are real human beings with real inner lives and real relations. And, as there’s no audio, there’s an irresistible mystery: Why did this happen? All of this is happening at one of the most glamorous celebrity events in the world.
But then you have Solange appearing to angrily attack Jay Z and being restrained by a bodyguard, as Beyoncé stands more or less composed off to the side. Getting a glimpse into what appears to be a truly private, personal moment for these three is alluring enough. The Knowles-Carters are gods not necessarily because people worship them (though plenty of people’s fandom is so fervent as to resemble worship) but because many perceive them-fairly or not-to embody abstract ideals. So you have these sort of symbolic figures, the kind who give credence to the common interpretation of celebrity culture as a modern-day manifestation of the same desires that fueled Greek mythology. Solange is the hipster sister she covers Dirty Projector songs and her producer is a Pitchfork darling. But she’s also a torchbearer for a kind of counterculture. One of them is, of course, the stereotypical drama that people imagine to be inherent in show-business families, where one sibling must compete with the other. Her little sister Solange, a singer with her own following, has come to represent other things. Beyoncé, remember, was just named the most influential person in the world. They are icons-of hip-hop and R&B’s cultural and economic rule, of the modern marriage in which the wife is as powerful as the husband, of the idea that commercially successful music can be critically lauded, of the American Dream made real for two people of color, of some indefinable notion of “classiness” in comparison to other celebs, and on and on. Jay Z and Beyoncé aren't just famous people.
So far, I’ve got four explanations-or maybe four self-justifications-for the significance of this odd scandal. Or at least, that’s what I tell myself as I watch the #WhatJayZSaidToSolange jokes scroll by. The video is gossip fodder, but it’s also more. What Rush Limbaugh Got Right About Beyoncé