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spellofhelterskelter · 5 years ago

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RuPaul’s Drag Race Analysis

Overview

RuPaul’s Drag Race is an American reality competition TV show where the contestants compete to be named “America’s Next Drag Superstar” and earn a cash price of US$100,000 and a cosmetic supply sponsored by some major makeup brand like Anastasia Beverly Hills. It is hosted by RuPaul Charles, a famous American Drag Queen and fashion icon, and it counts with the participation of countless celebrity guest judges. The show was released on 2009 and launches a new season every year. This February the season 12 will be premiered. The contestants are mainly American, but the main requirement is just to be living in American, so in these years many non-American Queens coming from Australia, England, Puerto Rico, Panama, South Korea, amongst others, have competed for the title. The contestants are basically all male but in its 11 past seasons, the show has counted with the participation of some transgender women that still compete as Drag Queens.

Format

The show has a much defined format, where every episode starts with a mini challenge followed by a main challenge and it closes with a runway presentation. At the end of the episode, the contestants with the lowest performance are selected and they must make a lipsync competition to earn the right of remain in the competition until there is only 3 or 4 contestants left, who will move to the grand final and the winner is announced in a live show held in a theater. At the beginning of the season, the challenges tend to be group challenges, but as the competition moves forward and the Queens are eliminated, the challenges tend to become individual or pair challenges. RuPaul himself is the main judge and its present in every episode, along with Michelle Visage as a permanent judge and it usually have 2 celebrity guest judges that goes from TV show actors to big Hollywood personalities.

Queer Community

Since its release and due to the notoriety that the show has earned with the time, the show has become a world symbol for the queer community. This has happened not only because of the change of the Drag Queens image, that went from being only associated to night clubs and comedy to the runway of mayor couture brands, but also because RuPaul Drag Race has been treating the contemporary problems associated to the LGBTQ community since the very first episode. From supporting charities to speaking up for transgender rights, the contestants and RuPaul himself has made a mayor impact when it comes to these issues. Since the show became very popular, is not uncommon to see characters related to it in the Pride season all over the world and taking over social media to speak about issues like gay marriage and sexual discrimination. The show has also served as an inspiration for queer people all over the world to make front to their personal issues related to their sexuality and its even known that it has helped the same participants to overcome past disagreements in their families, since it puts a strong emphasis in the acceptance and the concept of family in the queer community, and also in the problems of bullying or generalized discrimination against the LGBTQ community.

Impact

The impact that this show has had on the world is not limited to the queer community. After RuPaul Drag Race’s first episode and with the popularity boom that the show has experienced over the years, Drag itself and Drag performers’ image started to change. Since it was an open TV show (currently it can be seen on VH1 and Netflix), the art of Drag came out of Night Clubs and became more approachable as the reality behind it and the life of the ones involved are shown naturally as part of the episodes, so the audience can know the reality behind something that they used to see only on the stage. The “behind the scenes” of the Drag scene was exposed in a massive way for the first time, so it was not just the performer what we were seeing on the screen, but we also had a look at the person behind the mask, and that even became relatable for people with a similar lifestyle. The popularity of the show has grown to such a level that it had to stop being exclusive of America and in 2019 was premiered the first season of RuPaul Drag Race UK, also featuring RuPaul himself and Michelle Visage as main judges but with british contestants and guest judges. Although not necessarily from RuPaul’s hand, other Drag shows also came up after Drag Race, like Drag Race Thailand, Queen of Drags (Germany), La más draga (México), The Switch (Chile), amongst others. Even in these international versions of the competition, it is common to see former Drag Race alumni as guest judges or even contestants. Not only the show itself brought Drag closer to the masses, but the creation of the Drag Con on 2015 (a massive event with a format like the famous Comic Con but with Drag as a main theme) also helped to take Drag out of the closed sphere were it used to be to put it in a weekend-long event where families and even kids can assist and get to know a little bit closer what it means to be a Drag Queen. With discussion panels, runway shows, sales booths and meet & greet with the different contestants, the popularity of the Drag Con has already reach a level where the event is held in different cities at least twice a year. This month was also held the first Drag Con UK after the huge success that the british version of Drag Race had last year after its first season. Hollywood has also recognized Drag Race as something big. The show has won several Emmy awards and different recognitions for its visual and reality-TV quality, including the award of best reality TV show host given to RuPaul. On the other hand, Drag Queens became usual characters in big Hollywood productions, like the case of the movie “A Star is Born” featuring Lady Gaga. The Fashion World has also expressed its interest as it became more and more usual to see the contestants attending famous designer’s shows, being the stars of Fashion Week and even walking in important runways and appearing in ads for mayor brands like Prada, but the ultimate success in the Fashion World happened on 2019, when for the very first time Drag Queens walked on the red carpet at the Met Gala sponsored by brands like Nyx cosmetics and Moschino. Drag Race has even reached the beauty world as the collaboration with established brands or the launch of original cosmetics collections by the participants became a reality, and now is even possible to find a perfume inspired and co-created by Season 7 winner, Violet Chachki. The popularity of the show comes mainly from its groundbreaking character; is the first time that something like this is done. If well it’s true that Drag had appeared in pop culture before, like in the documentary Paris is Burning or under the hand of Divine, a famous Drag Queen, Drag Race was able to reach a whole new level by opening the Drag art to the rest of the world and presenting it in a way that turned out entertaining a pleasantry to watch. Also, since we are talking about a reality show, each contestant can tell his story freely, which ads a layer of authenticity and makes the program more relatable. It is also entertaining and visually appealing, as the show focus a lot on visual aspects, glamour and beauty, since Drag is truly and art, and Drag Race honors it as such. But is not only the visuals of the show what put it in the top, but the fact that it deals with issues related to the LGBTQ community in such a direct and straightforward way is what made it attractive for the target audience, people inside the community and the so called “allies”.

Analysis

There are 3 main points that are worth to talk about when it comes to Drag Race. The first one is gender, which turns out to be the most and the less important thing. The most important because is the most obvious topic related to Drag Queens since Drag is all about the gender fluency, and the less important because it doesn't really matter; when it comes to drag, the lines separating the masculine and the feminine are completely gone. Drag tells you that regardless of the gender you were born with, you can express yourself like you want without considering the social constructions and the labels that has been put into certain things, like makeup and heels being taken like something exclusively feminine. The second element is clothing. Drag is all about visuals, and clothes say a lot about how you want to present yourself. If you want to be a fashion queen, a conceptual queen or a comedy queen, the first thing to pay attention is the outfit. Especially in the show, the runway outfits will always be part of the evaluation and many challenges are about creating customes that fit into a theme, so the show pays special attention to the details on how the queens look. The third element is the role of TV. When it comes to reality TV shows, entertainment and drama are the first, but Drag Race goes beyond that. As it was mentioned before, the issues related to the LGBTQ community are a mayor thing that is constantly being mentioned and discussed in the show. Whether from the point of view and personal experience of the participants, the way of thinking and historical context provided by RuPaul himself or even the activism that happens off screen, problems like equal rights or the discrimination against queer community are never left out and educating the audience about them is something that always seems to be on RuPaul's mind ("educating the children" is a phrase that can often be heard), so when it comes to Drag Race, entertainment is always there, but TV also takes an active educational role on a certain issue that has a mayor importance on the show.

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spellofhelterskelter · 6 years ago

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Lady Marmalade Video Analysis

Overview

Lady Marmalade is a video performed by Christina Aguilera, Mya, Lil’ Kim and Pink, featuring also Missy Elliott, 5 artists that were totally in vogue the year the song was released (2001). Lady Marmalade was the main track for the movie Moulin Rouge, so the cabaret style and the image of the femme fatale were used as distinctive elements of the video and the red was presented as a dominant color.

Aesthetics

As it was said, Lady Marmalade is completely based on a cabaret style and the luxurious lifestyle surrounding the Moulin Rouge, the famous Parisian cabaret, on the 1900’s, but mixed with contemporary pop culture elements, like red leather boots and hip-hop style jewelry. The customs, makeup and hairstyles are over exaggerated and sensual, evocating lust through lingerie with lots of lace, corsets and hot pants, finishing the look with high heels and lots of diamond-like jewels to accompany the expensive, sensual and empowered woman portrayed in the video. The colors in this video are strong and saturated, still dark, with black and red as main colors of customs and props to accentuate the concept of lust and luxury and to emulate the modern Moulin Rouge.

Lyrics

The lyrics tell the story of Lady Marmalade, a girl from the streets of the red-light district, who seduced a man inviting him to spend the night with her (in the song, the lyrics are in French, “Voulez-vous coucher avec moi, ce soir?” translated as “do you want to sleep with me, tonight?”), which leads us to think that Marmalade was actually a prostitute that prowled around the Moulin Rouge or the local red-light district in New Orleans, since the original version (1974) was actually inspired in that city, but while Patty Labelle, the original singer, admitted the nature of the song, the 2001 version added one new verse that fight against this interpretation and add a whole new perspective, denying the simplest interpretation that was given to the song by adding the words “we independent women, some mistake us for whores”, which challenged the original meaning of the song and giving it a more empowering, rich, luxurious feeling of a strong and independent woman that just lives her sexuality freely. The song also talks about luxury and money and a expensive lifestyle (“we drink wine with diamond in the glass, by the case, the meaning of expensive taste”) and it puts an special accent in the strong woman image that is not dominated by anyone’s opinion (“disagree? Well that’s you, and I’m sorry, I’ma keep playing these cats out like Atari”). The lyrics are in tune with the video, that show us two sides for each artist, one that appears to be on a room (or bedroom) with maids that are dressing them or giving them some sort of grooming or attention while they look unsatisfied or bored despite being surrounded by luxury and attention.

Editing

The video starts with Missy Elliott welcoming to the Moulin Rouge while a curtain opens to show a stage with a heart made of lights with the word “Moulin Rouge” on top. Then, a very expensive-looking and elegant Lil’Kim starts with the introduction and then the rest of the singers appear in the screen one by one and join the initial part of the song. Then, Mya starts singing the first verse and dancing accordingly while the performance part is intercalated with images of Mya being taken care of by her maids. Then, the same is repeated for Pink, who performs and dances to her verse and, at the same time, is shown in a more “intimate” side, in a bedroom. The next is Lil’ Kim and the strategy is repeated until we reach Christina and then we switch to a view of the performance of the 4 singers, who are subsequently presented by Missy Elliott when getting to the end of the song and the video is closed with a rain of confetti and the artists posing as the song ends.

Reception

The song became a hit instantly, reaching the number 1 in the Billboard hot 100 in USA. It also reached the top in 15 different countries and stayed in the top 40 list for 17 weeks. The video was also named of the sexiest videos in history and it became “Video of the year” in the MTV Music Awards that year. The song itself had different receptions, being considerate too provocative and therefore being censored in some countries, where instead of “do you want to sleep with me” the verse would say “do you want to dance with me”. As for the video, even on these days it remains as one of the most iconic videos in music history and the song is still an anthem of luxury and glamour and female empowering.

Goodwin's Theory

According to Goodwin’s theory about the relationship between the song and the video, we could say that Lady Marmalade is used in a illustrative way to promote the single, this means, the video is related to the lyrics and is used to explain the song in a certain way; it gives us an idea of what the song is trying to tell. As for the narrative, Lady Marmalade follows the principle that the singer should be the star in the video, since this helps to give a recognizable face and “personality” to the video and is a way to engage the viewer since it makes it more realistic if you see the actual performer interpreting the song. This is called the “star image”, where the performer is actually the center of attention in the video, and it helps creating an image of the artist and giving a memorable face to the video itself. In terms of the notion of looking, this video is particularly an example of the female body voyeurism, since the whole video shows women in lingerie and dancing with provocative movements that accompany even more provocative lyrics. The 4 main singers also follow the beauty canons that still rule in our time: rather slim and athletic bodies with a tiny waist and prominent bust and hips, feminine faces covered in makeup and perfect hair, dancing provocatively to a pop song. Since this is the theme of a movie, the video has a very close relation to the movie, following the same style of scenography and costumes, so intertextuality is a very powerful element in this particular video, since it could perfectly fit as an actual scene of the movie. As for the performance, the use of illumination, close-ups and transitions help to set the mood and the atmosphere of the video, at the time it gives the “star quality” to the performers since it forces us to center our attention in them and what they are wearing and what they are doing. The video is dynamic, it goes from one scenery to another and gives us to aspects closely related , creating some sort of “private” and “public” face of the artists and making the video rather fast and interesting, accompanying the beats of the song. In conclusion, this is a video that is closely related to the song itself and its lyrics. It gives us a vision that the song is trying to show using techniques like beauty, captivating dance and perfect female bodies. It embodies the very soul of the song and it’s made in a way that can fit in the movie that is representing and promoting. From the aesthetics to performance to singers themselves, Lady Marmalade is a captivating video that has been in vogue for almost 20 years and that gives us a concept and an image that even on these days stays strong in the society: the empowering of female gender.