It is quite fortuitous that
#Lemonade ended up premiering in the same news cycle of the passing of an
undisputed music and cultural icon. At this moment, probably more than ever, we
can point to the very gendered way(s) in which artist genius is measured and
bestowed/withheld and how gender bias colors how we view artistic achievements
and production. The ways in which we, men and women regardless of race, traffic
in language that defaults to greatness for some but finds very convenient ways
to discount, question, disperse credit, and challenge authenticity for other
artists--who for all intent and purposes put in the same super human drive,
discipline, commitment and care into their craft--is no short of predictable
but also sadly bemusing. The responses to the loss of iconic figures in the
last 6 months bears out this communal crooked room ethos in fortissimo when it
pertains to black female artistic achievement and its cultural impact.
Taking that into consideration, I
was moved to provide yet another check list for those of us endeavoring to have
thorough conversations about how we subtly reinscribe bias in our readings
black women artists, particularly in popular music. Just a
check-your-privilege/gaze tract you can pull out and ponder at your leisure.
1. Fandom is not a requirement
for recognition of genius. (Say this 3 times before you sit in front of your
think piece altar.) When you say, "I'm not a fan but..." it
communicates the belief that genius is predicated on fandom or popularity.
Often some genius isn't recognized until after an artist is dead. Half of the
classical music you think is standard today was summarily a flop when it was
first performed hundreds of years ago. The need to align oneself or not to
fandom in order to grant approval or recognition of an artist's genius is
something that we just don't do for male musical genius. There was no,
"I'm not an Earth, Wind and Fire fan but..." statement made when
Maurice White passed...neither was it done for Bowie or Jackson. But when Donna
Summer's passed, "I'm not a fan of disco but...." Really? You don't
have to know Diane Warren wrote most of the biggest songs over the past 30
years across several genres to recognize her genius on its own
merits--->timeless hit songs.
2. Observe the moving timelines
(read: goal posts) of perceived growth and achievement that we place around
female artists. Beyoncé in particular is a key example of this. "This is
the best ______ I've seen from her" only is valid if you didn't say the
exact same thing the last time she put something out and the time before
that....and the time before that. If a female artist is continuously raising
the bar for herself and others in her field, you don't get to reset the PlayStation
because you missed the last few rounds or opted out because your recognition of
success is tied to fandom and not just general awareness. Even though Rhythm Nation exceeded the success and
global impact of Control, often it
was assumed that Janet Jackson could not sustain her successful career because
she wouldn't release a "part 2" to Control.
3. In the realm of pop stardom,
the push to negate black female genius is unfortunately standard procedure in
how we read them in the past and how we read them in the moment due to the
retractable fences we place around 'what' actually 'makes' a pop star. We very
comfortably negate, value less or withhold full acknowledgement from (black)
female artists when we give over all credit to some mythical
"machine" and magical "packaging" of female artists. We
grade the discipline, planning, strategy and preparation female artists put
into their total creative offerings as "sanitized"
"calculating" "controlled" and "mediated" when some
of THE MOST controlling icons in pop were Michael Jackson, Prince, James Brown,
and a host of male artists upon which we've bestowed the label genius. Brown
fined musicians for playing wrong notes or missing cues. Jackson demanded songs
be performed exactly like the record more often than not. Prince was known for
10+ hour rehearsals on concert sets and would change the entire thing the next
day. How are those things not considered packaging or controlled? People accuse
Madonna, Taylor, Janet, Beyoncé, and other female artists as being packaged but
did not Marvin Gaye and Michael Jackson come out of the most successful
"machines" in music industry history, Motown? Gordy literally built
the production approach after Detroit motor company assembly lines. But black
pop acts like Whitney Houston, Rihanna, Beyoncé, and Nicki Minaj are the robots?
This line of reading also makes one susceptible to point #1 in that if our
visceral fandoms aren't aroused, it must not be authentic, organic or profound
and thus sometimes labeled as manufactured.
4. Observe how female empowerment
championed by male artists is often over valued as compared to female artists
championing the exact same empowerment and more in their art and business.
Having a female MC in your crew isn't empowering if her contract is the worse
one in the area code, much less the rest of the crew. If an artist championing
of women stops at the end of the stage, platform or music video screen, its
impact is limited and at worse seasonal. That is one area where Prince is
probably in a class by himself. His support of women extended to staff,
non-performing employees, and women musicians and singers he didn’t necessarily
sign to his label.
5. Straight no chaser moment:
Originality as a measure of genius is a false quantifier that often is used to
disqualify female genius. (Particularly when not exerting the effort towards
comparing high achieving female artists to male examples.) Originality is
routinely used to discredited female MCs in hip-hop regardless of album sales
when male MCs have collaborated on rhymes and brought in ghostwriters without
having their icon status questioned in the least. #HowSway? With the power of YouTube
clips we can now probably prove that Michael Jackson was the least 'original'
pop icon only second to Elvis. Yes, this last one will probably explode many a
fans' cerebellums, however, the proof is in the footage from the Jackson 5
onward. Michael has always been clear about his many influences and now with
videos we can see where his genius really was oriented around elevating and
compiling multiple influences from broad sources. (If you are moved to fight me
in the street on it, come with a strong Wi-Fi connection or don't come at all.)
5B. The culture that routinely
posits women as muses or vessels to work male genius/creativity through also is
blind to female artistic creativity. The instrumental musical genius behind
Ashford and Simpson is Valerie Simpson, Nick's strong suit was lyrics. Sheila
E. was already a force before working with Prince because he saw her playing
with George Duke and holding her own--out front, not just in the back. We can
easily recognize Larry Graham's originality and innovation on the electric bass
in ways we do not for Rosetta Tharpe on the electric guitar. We call her the
first Queen of Rock And Roll but we miss how the former child prodigy helped to
popularize Gibson guitars and how her style of Pentecostal gospel innovated
electric guitar performance right along with T Bone Walker, Buddy Guy, and
others she easily pre-dates. We praise Phil Spector's "Wall of Sound"
but don't recognize the dozens of black female studio vocalists who created the
harmonies and backing vocals to develop the wall beyond instrumentation and
audio engineering. These are the vocalists who modeled for vocal arrangement
for the likes of Luther Vandross, mind you.
6. With female artists the Catch
22 stereotype is that women can't work together/with others and when they do,
it is counted against them as "needing help" or not being
"skilled enough" or "original enough" on their own. So when
people counted the writers and producers on Beyoncé’s album and decided that
Beck was better because he was a one-man band, they conveniently overlooked the
same number of collaborators Bey pulled in was standard in the making of Off the Wall, Thriller, and a host of iconic albums by Sting, Bowie, et al. When
Kendrick Lamar pulls in half of the LA jazz and independent artist scene for To Pimp a Butterfly, no one utters a
world about him 'needing help' or not being original. The exact opposite
occurred. Robert Glasper owes his current fame to collaboration albums and he's
considered a savior of jazz. Why is communitas and collaboration among female
creatives in pop projects not valued? Why is their agency dispersed because
they don't mind sharing credit and pooling voices to represent a broader
(largely under represented) whole?
7. How often do we notice when a
female artist's authenticity is tightly attached to whether or not we perceive
her work to be autobiographical? How often do we limit the ability of black
female artists to speak to the collective concerns of black womanhood because
it didn't line up with our own assessments of their personal life? Stevie
Wonder can write phone books about songs comparing love to trees, flowers,
stars, and the oceans but no one questions the authenticity of his art based on
him being sightless nor having more baby-mommas than Steve Harvey but with
fewer ex-wives. (Yes, Stevie has FIVE baby mommas.) If we apply the same
protocols to Wonder as we apply to female vocalists, he should have more "Hear
My Dear" tracks than Marvin Gaye and James Brown. We don't count the
genius and authenticity of Stevie Wonder as less than because he's not
producing diary albums. Why are women artists left to replicate "I Will
Survive" motifs in order to be granted credit for wider resonance with
audiences?
Just a few questions/observations for now and until the next time a top tier performer releases a project destined to snatch wigs and edges unbossed and unbothered OR when a legend is called into the eternal afterparty and we feel moved to laud his or her greatness with readings of her or his contributions to pop music and the world as a whole.
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