Beyoncé · S6 E5

Ghost / Haunted

The experimental wing of the album — where Beyoncé stopped performing and started confessing

Cold Open

The beat stutters like a broken transmission, the bass drops into something subterranean, and Beyonce's voice comes out so processed it barely sounds human. "Haunted" is the moment the visual album stops being a pop record and becomes something nobody can categorize.

"Haunted" official music video, Beyonce (2013). Horror-film aesthetics, aggressive choreography, and a side of Beyonce that none of her previous work hinted at. The most visually ambitious video on the visual album.

Song Breakdown

HAUNTED

"Haunted" opens with a distorted vocal sample that sounds like it is being played through a broken speaker. Boots builds the production around stuttering electronic beats, heavy bass, and layers of processed vocals that make Beyonce sound like she is singing from inside a machine. The choreography in the video matches the music's intensity, with sharp, angular movements closer to contemporary dance than pop performance.

The Pair

"Ghost" and "Haunted" sit back-to-back on the album and work as a single emotional arc. "Ghost" is the fear: ethereal, fragile, built on a vocal loop that floats like smoke. "Haunted" is the confrontation: aggressive, electronic, a song that sounds like Beyonce kicking down the door of her own comfort zone.

SECRET REVEAL

TAP TO REVEAL: How Beyonce found Boots

Quick Quiz

A remix of "Haunted" was later featured in the official trailer for which major film?

Bonus Listening

Superpower (feat. Frank Ocean)

Where "Ghost" and "Haunted" explore personal fear, "Superpower" turns outward. Beyonce and Frank Ocean sing about love as a form of resistance, and the video features both artists walking through scenes of civil unrest. A combination that only happened once.

RAPID FIRE

Ghost / Haunted in Context

Coming Next

Before the visual album launched careers and redefined how albums are released, it started with a question Beyonce asked herself on camera: what does beauty actually cost? Next: "Pretty Hurts," the song that opens the album and the one that almost did not make it.

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Pretty Hurts