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Last explanation about my project

Finally, I would like to do a quick presentation and summary of one of the secondary source that I found.

The main secondary source that I will connect to my topic is the Negus and especially the chapters of identities, politics and audiences which are directly related to my question. 

As another academic source I am thinking about concentrating on a journal article that I found on Jstor : 

- “Black Artists and Activism : Harlem on My mind” (1969), by Bridget R.Cooks published in American Studies. 

Dr Cook is professor in the Department of African American Studies and her research interests center on African American art history, Black visual culture and employ a feminist, postcolonial and critical race theory lens. She has published more than forty articles appearing in publications such as Afterall or American Studies. 

I think that this article could be relevant to understand my primary sources more and to have a bigger background of the Black community’s activism in popular music. This will help me to analyse how artists and consequently Frank Ocean make their opinion audible.

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Time frame and methodology of my project

This week I would like to give more details about my project and give an explanation of how I am going to analyse my sources.

As a reminder my final topic is about the singer Frank Ocean and my key question was : How does Frank Ocean expresses his activism in his album Blonde and how is it related to his personal life ?

Methodology :

To answer to this question I will have to focus on lyrics from different songs especially in the album Blonde and explain how he succeeds in addressing important topics in today's society.

I will explain the meaning behind the cover of the album and the magazine "Boys don't cry"+ the visual album Endless that go with it.

I will read primary sources articles and listen to interviews and videos that are relevant to answer my question and focus on Frank's personal life and background as a queer Black man.

I will eventually focus on the Black Lives Matter movement and the LGBT community which are the main topics related to his activism.

I think it will be important to see how music is a powerful platform for this message.

Time frame

It begins in 1987, when Frank Ocean was born (because I will talk about his personal life) until 2016, when the album Blonde was released.

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The importance of places in Rap  

Two weeks ago we talked about the chapter of the Negus focusing on the link between recorded musical sounds and particular places. In other words : the way that particular musical sounds became associated with specific places. 

After the debate around the terms “global” and “world” musics, the question of “local” music was raised. What about it ? Local distinctiveness shows that there is a real connection between an actual place and the cultural forms produced there, music is a real “place-maker”. 

This is actually relevant for Rap, which is part of the Hip-hop culture. This culture was initially localized in boroughs of New York (South Bronx) and it included rap music, graffiti, breakdance (or b-boying), fashion… 

Then it spread across many cities in the United States such as Atlanta, Miami, Seattle, Detroit, Chicago… where communities with their own local styles were developed so as to express their experience of living in these urban locales. 

Indeed, geography plays a central role in the world of the Hip-Hop culture. 

In these places a peculiar slang and flow of the artists created a unique and geographical specific soundscapes. Many cities in the US have been associated with distinct musical sounds. 

Rap is so attached to geographical identities because of its idea of representing and the artists'' will to reappropriate their identity. 

One example that I would like to talk about is the city of Chicago. It is in the early 1990s that Chicago began to have a nationally recognised hip-hop community which is now central to the cultural landscape of the city. 

Rappers like Twista or Common paved the way for many other rappers such as : Kanye, Lupe Fiasco or Noname : I highly recommend you to listen to her album “telefone”, released in 2016, if you have never heard of it! 

Sources :

Negus, chapter Geographies 

https://storymaps.esri.com/stories/2017/hip-hop/essay/index.html

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Frank Ocean’s album Blonde  

For my final project, I would like to focus on one of my favourite singer : Frank Ocean. 

His concept album “Blonde” (or “blond”) has been widespread acclaimed for challenging the conventions of R&B and pop music. 

Frank Ocean, whose real name is Christopher Francis, is a queer black men who offers a sonic safe space for alternative articulations of Black male identity. 

From sexual identity, police brutality, racial profiling and the Black Lives Matter movement, he succeeds in expressing how he feels and brings awareness on these topics. 

So my key questions will be : How does Frank Ocean expresses his activism in his album Blonde and how is it related to his personal life ? 

Here are the primary sources I will use : 

-Websites : 

https://www.ebony.com/frank-ocean-matters/

https://voxatl.org/frank-ocean-black-lives-matter/

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/how-frank-oceans-blonde-redefines-pop-queerness-109009/

-Albums : 

Blonde (+cover)

Endless

-Interviews :

https://www.billboard.com/music/rb-hip-hop/frank-ocean-gq-interview-8492979/

-Videos :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLUIUPBAyfE

-Popular Music in Theory, Keith Negus

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The Black community’s influence on the music industry 

In this week’s lecture, we discussed about the chapter of Identities of the Negus and we introduced the links between race and specific genres and the concept of “Black Music”. 

In people’s mind, Black people were more likely to go to specific genres and before the 1920s, the popular music was targeted to a White audience. 

By doing some research, I found out that Black people actually created most of our favourite genres ! 

Indeed, Black music is highly diverse and although many people still associate it with conventional and stereotypical genres like rap and R&B, black people really invented a wide variety of other musical styles. 

Today, one can see the appropriation of Black culture heavily riddled throughout aspects of pop culture. For instance, in 2013 Miley Cyrus used her place in the hip-hop scene to her advantage by creating her album Bangerz with hip-hop producer Mike Will Made-It. Black hip-hop culture was a big influence on the album's music videos, but three years later Miley admitted in a Billboard interview that she left the hip-hop scene because she is "so not that," demonstrating how she appropriated Black culture for her own benefit.

While appropriation is presently a problem in the music industry, some genres are still considered as “white” music - however, there is a chance that a Black person created the genre or at least had a significant influence on it.

Here are three exemples : 

Country music : it is a melting pot of Black culture. 

Hillbilly music in particular is a mashup of folk songs created by African immigrants from the British Isles in the 18th and 19th century.

- Rock ’n’ Roll” : the early beginnings of rock ’n’ Roll are deeply rooted in the influence of Black music and culture and are influenced by a Deep South Black music genre called rhythm and blues. 

Sister Rosetta Tharpe - a guitarist who crossed over from gospel music to the sound of rhythm and blues - is seen as a precursor to rock ‘n’ roll.

Early rock 'n roll musicians like Little Richard, Johnny Cash, and Elvis Presley were influenced by her sound.

- Techno music : it is often associated as a type of upbeat, fast-paced European club music; however, the electrifying beats of techno music were created in the Black community.

​In the 80s, DJ Robert Hood - originator of techno music, used a combination of gospel, disco, and funk music , and blended to create the sounds of techno.

Then, these Black musical pioneers undoubtedly paved the way for some of our favourite music genres today and consequently influenced the popular music industry. 

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Glimpse of US, by Joji  

This last summer, the Japanese singer and songwriter Joji has released his new highest-charting single titled “Glimpse of Us”. 

His music can be described as trip hop and lo-fi that blends elements of trap, folk, electronic and R&B. His style has often down tempo with melancholic themes, Joji himself characterises his songs as “dark love songs”.

His second famous album “Nectar”, released in 2020 is a great exemple of the bitter emotions in sweet-sounding melodies that Joji likes to express in his songs. In this album, he encompasses all the feelings of heartache and what people are willing to risk for love.

Glimpse of Us is also a melancholic/ dark love song where Joji compares his current relationship to the previous one. Joji is not able to forget the love and feelings he had in his last relationship so he tries unsuccessfully to relive those feelings (that “Glimpse of Us”) with his current partner. 

He describes his current girlfriend as perfect as “She’d turn the rain to a rainbow” but he simply cannot forget his ex “Why then, if she’s so perfect, do I still wish that it was you?”. Then, when he looks in the eyes of the woman he’s with right now, he’s actually looking for a glimpse of what he experienced before. “ Cause sometimes I look in her eyes and that’s where I find a Glimpse of Us”

The meaning behind the lyrics is very melancholic, emotional and the main effect that you feel when you listen to it, is sorrow. 

The huge success of the song can be attributed to its viral moment on TikTok, where thousands of people used the song for relationship-related videos. 

However, the video of “Glimpse of Us” expresses a radically different feeling when you watch it. 

According to Goodwin’s theory, there are three different types of music videos.

One of them is disjuncture, where the narrative themes are not at all related to the lyrics of the song. This basically means an abstract video that can sometimes not make a lot of sense. 

In my opinion Glimpse of Us can be one example of a disjuncture video.

When I listened to the song I did not except to see this kind of video at all!

The video seems to be filmed on a telephone with poor image quality, it is a quick succession of short clips with zooms. There is a sense of complete chaos and even debauchery, dirt, nonsense, stench, violence, illegality… 

For me, the harshness and destruction really contrast with the melancholic lyrics and soft melody of the song. People have blurred faces, they are fighting, you can hear insults and the rhythm is very fast and stressful. 

The opposition between the song and the video is actually very interesting because it is meant to show the loud and chaotic side of depression, it really adds another layer to the meaning of the song. 

What do you think about Joji’s Glimpse of Us music video and the impact that it has?

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From Hannah Montana to Miley Cyrus  

Many people still remember Miley Cyrus as the blonde girl from Hannah Montana on Disney Channel, who quickly became the idol of young girls. 

However, her style took a complete different direction and drastically changed as Miley wanted to finally be able to express her true self in the music industry. In 2013, she cut her hair short, dyed it blonde and released the well-known hit “Wrecking Ball”. 

The audience and the media criticised her new rebellious image of a woman who releases explicit content. In an Interview of People Magazine, Miley said “I’ve got to be by myself for now and just figure who I really am.” She has always wanted to stay true to herself no matter what kind of hate and mockery she had to deal with at that time. As Miley Cyrus has always had a passion for music and acting she has always stick to her will of wanted to be perceive as a grown up woman because she felt like it was the time to move on. 

However, it is difficult as a woman in the music industry to adopt a drastic change in her style and creativity when it goes against the culture industry’s rules. As a result, her popularity has been impacted among the audience and she has been hyper-sexualised by the media. 

When the video clip of “Wrecking Ball” was seen as too explicit for young girls, she was held accountable and responsible of her image as an artist but it was actually necessary to break out her shell for her music to thrive !

I think that Miley has inspired other artists who have been willing to do the same by showing that her music style is not limited. 

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Arctic Monkeys and the Alternative/Indie rock genre

Arctic Monkeys is an English rock banded formed in 2002 and is composed of Alex Tuner, the lead vocalist and guitarist, Jamie Cook, Nick O’Malley and Matt Helders. The band’s wider international fame came with the success of their fifth album AM, released in 2013.

The band’s genre is known as Alternative or Indie rock which is a sub-genre of rock music that has emerged in the wake of the punk rock movement since the mid 1980s. 

At the beginning in the 1990s, rock musicians who were out of sync with mainstream culture developed a genre known as Alternative rock.

“Alternative” is an umbrella term for underground music with a distinction from mainstream or commercial rock or pop music. This sub-genre is often linked to “Indie” Rock, which comes from independent term describing the small and relatively low-budget labels on which it is released and the do-it yourself attitude of the bands and artists involved.

These labels attempted to retain their autonomy, leaving them free to explore sounds, emotions and subjects of limited appeal to a large, mainstream audience.

The artists’ attitude and ideology towards the music industry differed from the mass production system. 

Pop Rock for instance (with the famous band Queen), is a more commercially successful music that uses elements from rock music with greater emphasis on professional songwriting and recording craft, and less on attitude.

However, the growing success of Arctic Monkeys and their new hit songs such as “Do I wanna know?” increased their popularity among the audience.

As a result, Arctic Monkeys made history as the first independent label band with five consecutive number 1 albums in the UK. 

Then, other famous rock artists like them (Pixies, The Strokes) widespread this new sub-genre mostly among the younger generation and made it widely popular !