Positing, not claiming:

A contested area in pop writing/listening/fandom is what to do with black women who make pop music that doesn’t fit into the preselected categories of Tragic Diva, Imperious Diva, or Hypersexual Fantasy Figure. Who make pop music that is silly, or disposable, or fluffy. Who make pop music, that is, like white girls (are allowed to) make pop music: sugary, not necessarily attitudinal, wistful, bitchy (if bitchy) not as a public posture but as a means of interpersonal relations.

The thought experiment swirling round in my head is: would (could) Carly Rae Jepsen have been so warmly embraced if she were black? How about Katy Perry? Dev? Taylor Swift? Post-Blackout Britney? What markers of “authenticity” do we require from black women that we don’t from white women? What performative identities do we limit them to? And has this narrowed over the past ten years — is it, for example, why Ciara, Cassie, etc. have found it hard to mount commercially viable second acts?

Apologies for the eye-bleeding obviousness (if it is obvious), as well as for my clumsiness in stating it. It’s just been percolating, and the recent Minaj dustup forced my brain to attempt to twist my thoughts into words.

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  1. poeduff reblogged this from reverenddollars
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  8. piratemoggy reblogged this from jonathanbogart and added:
    That’s extremely depressing. I’m genuinely struggling to think of a white US artist off the top of my head- when I...
  9. jonathanbogart reblogged this from piratemoggy and added:
    Not just sales. Since the main Billboard chart is an arcane algorithm combining sales and airplay, and black radio has...
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  12. novazembla reblogged this from nickminichino
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  14. occupythedisco reblogged this from ironstring and added:
    Willow Smith sort of manages to make frothy, sugary pop while being feisty, attitudinal and not having the latter traits...
  15. simonlegend said: Missy Elliott?
  16. cureforbedbugs said: Also, save it for Rock Roundtable, yo.

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