Beyoncé - The Study

Beyoncé has now been considered Ivy League material by Harvard University and students are now studying the megastar as a corporate case study. Her fifth solo album released in December 2013, required a unique marketing strategy whereby the singer released a full album with each song accompanied by a new music video. The Harvard Business School’s stance is to analyze and evaluate the measures which were taken to gain triumph with this costly and risky project. Ramifications included current market conditions, technical obstacles and possibly ambitious sales expectations facing Columbia Records. There were also other implications from traditional retailers who were rejecting sales of a physical album later on no matter the success of the record. The outcome and effect on the music industry was enormous as well as fascinating. A case study has been published by Elberse and Smith simply called ‘Beyoncé’ in honor of her self-titled endeavor, also reflecting the icons influence.

Harvard Business School have asked students to place themselves in the shoes of Beyoncé’s staff and decide on the financial implications of such a campaign, but also to understand how and why it succeeded in the unconventional way in which it did. Students are similarly analyzing the unconventional album announcement and release as well as the team’s relationship with Facebook, Apple and Instagram in creating publicity overnight. Beyoncé is now being referred to as a ‘philosophy’ by Harvard by way of her albums explosion on iTunes overnight in 119 countries. There is an obvious emphasis on Beyoncé’s artistic desire to reflect her work through this album, but students are considering that Beyoncé may be the only artist who could ever do this successfully simply due to her label as a ‘superstar’.

Beyoncé’s success means many know and understand her power and presence as a celebrity. Nonetheless, what is absolutely stressed here is the possible fallout which was anticipated before the project was released for those involved. Anita Elberse, Harvard Business School professor has verbalized that this is a very popular class to take because students assume they know what the project ‘Beyoncé’ entails from afar but actually how wrong they are.

The Girl On The Train

 “Drunk Rachel sees no consequences, she is either excessively expansive and optimistic or wrapped up in hate. She has no past, no future. She exists purely in the moment.” 

Rachel Watson commutes to work on the train every day into London, except she is not on her way to work; Rachel is a hard-core alcoholic, fired for her drunkenness. Reeling from her divorce to ex Tom, she begins lying to her roommate  and travels daily on the train as a disguise. Really, she enjoys passing her old home on the way into London, obsessing over Tom who lives in her old home with his new thinner beau Anna and child. Prone to blacking out, Rachel becomes a pathetic mess, constantly putting herself down in this downward spiral she creates for herself. The drinking becomes endless as she becomes addicted to summoning Tom, leaving messages and begging him nightly to love her again. Her physical appearance is unusual of a lead character; an overweight drunk who vomits all over her home with no self-control may turn readers to feels repulsed.

“I am not the girl I used to be. I am no longer desirable; I’m off-putting in some way. It’s not just that I’ve put on weight, or that my face is puffy from the drinking and the lack of sleep; it’s as if people can see the damage written all over me, can see it in my face, the way I hold myself, the way I move.” 

Rachel’s possessive personality is portrayed as testy as she rapidly becomes fixated on another young couple who live on Toms street and whose garden overlooks the train tracks. She lovingly renames them Jess and Jason and soon their allure becomes undeniable beckoning her to keep a close eye, creating soap operas in her mind based on their normal lives. Once she reads in the paper one day that Jess (real name Megan) has vanished and is then found out to be killed, Rachel feels an overwhelming urge to inform the police that Jason (real name Scott) would never harm her and that she is sure she spotted Jess with another man on the day of her disappearance. But this backfires. Rachel’s drunken blackouts prevent her from remembering anything. She realizes she actually left the train on the night of the disappearance to go and see Tom, blacked out and cannot remember anything of that night.

In comparison to Rachel, Megan Hipwell is a highly puzzling character. Blonde, beautiful and glamorous with a gorgeous husband she is dreadfully endearing, yet the entire praise protagonist Rachel unknowingly gives her is torn down by Megan herself. She is a selfish cheater, bored with her life and spends her time hurting those around her for her own self pleasure. “I can’t sleep. I haven’t slept in days. I hate this, hate insomnia more than anything, just lying there, brain going round, tick, tick, tick, tick. I itch all over. I want to shave my head.” Megan has menacing anxiety problems coupled with an incredibly dark past, the twist approaching when she applies to become a babysitter for Tom’s baby out of boredom, eventually leading to major trouble. Megan also begins attending therapy sessions to deal with her issues and unknowingly encouraged by her husband Scott, falls for her therapist Kamal.  Soon, Rachel’s obsession goes even further than watching Megan and Scott whilst on the train. During the investigation she causes massive ripples she cannot take back quickly. Her blurry memory is fruitless in turn making her doubt conclusions, losing confidence in her sightings. Once she becomes dismissed by the police due to her inconsistent theories, Scott, Tom and Anna now become integral characters to the murder. 

‘‘I have lost control over everything, even the places in my head.”

Hawkins juggles an incredibly intriguing web of complex characters with an attention-grabbing murder story throughout. This chilling psychological thriller is a must read due to its temperament. Hawkins is able to evoke sympathy for Rachel, an unusual character who does more wrong than right as well as Megan, a misunderstood woman with a dark past. The twists in this novel are ingenious and unending and sure to shock readers.