November is not the cruelest month, but it certainly is the busiest if you’re in school (or writing a novel). Followers may wonder where I’m producing new content. Truth told, it’s basically all in three Word docs. I’m currently drafting three ~25-page term papers, which are all due the same day that I proctor and grade the final for the class I’m teaching. In case you’re wondering, I’m writing on Zooey Deschanel and feminist and womanist anti-fandom, music and male anxiety in relation to Saturday Night Live‘s brand identity, and the function of score and sound in Kelly Reichardt’s “quiet” filmography. By no means am I complaining. I’m just busy.
However, you can read some of my recent work elsewhere. Bitch Magazine’s Underground issue includes my feature on female music supervisors, along with some reviews I wrote. And just this morning, Racialicious posted my essay on the Lizzies, the girl gang in The Warriors. Check it out, and make sure you read Julia Caron’s great piece on Florence + the Machine and white supremacy.
Last night, I got my nose out of the book I was reading (Ien Ang’s Desperately Seeking the Audience, for curious parties) and went out to shake a tail feather. The Majestic, a local venue in Madison, hosted a hip hop-themed 80s vs. 90s dance party.
Grammy winners Salt 'N' Pepa
Obviously, I don’t need to defend the merits of hip hop’s golden era. OutKast’s ATLiens, Tribe’s Midnight Marauders, Queen Latifah’s All Hail the Queen, Wu-Tang’s Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers), Nas’ Illmatic, Biggie’s Ready to Die, Jay-Z’s Reasonable Doubt, Dr. Dre’s The Chronic, De La Soul’s Stakes Is High, Missy Elliott’s Supa Dupa Fly, Pharcyde’s Bizarre Ride, Goodie Mob’s Soul Food, Salt ‘N’ Pepa’s Very Necessary, Ice Cube’s Amerikkka’s Most Wanted, Public Enemy’s Fear of a Black Planet, MC Lyte’s Lyte as a Rock, and The Fugees’ The Score all belong in the history books as much as they do in my car. Since this music scored my adolescence and many bedroom dance parties, I was happy to raise a glass and toast myself on the floor.
As this was the music of my youth, it was also the music of my feminist awakening. While I recognize that many female MCs don’t associate with the term “feminism,” their commanding presence and demand for self-respect and sexual autonomy was hugely influential on how I came to understand the world and my place in it as a teenage girl and later as an adult woman. Later I’d acquire a copy of Tricia Rose’s definitive Black Noise, a tremendously influential piece of hip hop scholarship that I believe has only been surpassed by her more recent effort, The Hip Hop Wars.
Lest we encase this era of mainstream hip hop in amber, there are a number of contemporary female MCs whose careers and artistic contributions warrant attention, including Psalm One, Dessa, Las Krudas, Nicki Minaj, Invincible, Miz Korona, MicahTron, Georgia Anne Muldrow, Lady Sovereign, JNaturaL, Rita J, and Jean Grae, among so many others. Let’s also not forget the veteran female artists who rose to prominence during this point in popular musical history and are still in the game. Missy forever.
Last night, the deejay represented Ladybug Mecca from Digable Planets, Lauryn Hill in Nas’ “If I Ruled the World,” along with Janet Jackson, Salt ‘N’ Pepa, Queen Latifah, and (after I checked in with one of the deejays) TLC. But c’mon–this was a monumental time for women in hip hop, as well as female R&B groups who were influenced by hip hop and hip hop culture. A handful of songs hardly suffice when you could devote an entire night to women’s contributions to hip hop during this period.
To be fair, I didn’t hear Positive K’s “I Got a Man,” Bone Thugs’ “First of the Month,” or the Bad Boy remix of Craig Mac’s “Flava in Your Ear” either. But as fine a time as I had last night, there were a number of voices I’d like to have heard from folks like Amil, Erykah Badu, Eve, Lil Kim, Rah Digga, Foxy Brown, maybe even dig deep into the crates for some Sparky D. Some of them may have gotten their due after I left. But all of them necessitate future dance parties. Maybe some clips can help get one started. Feel free to make requests.
I recently watched the first installment of High School Musical for my media franchising class. I was somewhat familiar with the series. I evaluated a colleague’s term paper on it for a class I took on dance and film. I figured South Park nailed their musical parody, which I now believe they did. I also watched two supremely awesome little girls grow up next door to me for three years. A friend once used Ashley Tisdale’s name as her blogger handle. And I have some chores for a shirtless Zac “Lt. Dangle” Efron to do around my house.
Despite compelling arguments in favor of HSM‘s merits as a franchise or media text, as well as a firm belief that Daft Punk could do a sweet remix of “Bet On It“, I wouldn’t consider myself a fan. Overall, the cloying wholesomeness gets on my nerves. For me, the stakes are so low. Will Gabriella (Vanessa Hudgens, who I recently saw in the so-problematic-it-must-be-blogged-about Sucker Punch) end up with Troy (Efron)? Of course they will–at least on screen. I think I would be a fan of a variety show hosted by Evans and his sister Sharpay (Tisdale). Glee very much tries to provide the archetypes it mines from High School Musical with depth and grit (Kurt Hummel is basically an out Ryan Evans).
I also don’t know what to do with colorblindness, conflict-free inclusivity, and the politics of positive representation, particularly with the girls of color on the show. On the one hand, I think it’s cool that Gabriella is a smart girl who excels in math and science and attends Stanford after graduation. On the other hand, I’m very troubled by how little the series seems invested in her academic pursuits or her ethnic identity. She and her friend Taylor (Monique Coleman) are both beautiful, brainy girls of color, but their presence often veers toward tokenism to me. I don’t want them to be defined by their racial or ethnic identity any more than they’d want to be thought of as nerds. But such attention toward respectability doesn’t give their characters much conflict. However, the white characters are also less-than-compelling for these reasons as well. Although I wish Glee wouldn’t relegate Mercedes to the role of the sassy black girl, at least there are instances within the show where she resists or defies such categorization.
Kelsi Nielsen (Oleysa Rulin)
Taylor is joined by another female character I wish was better incorporated into HSM‘s story world. Kelsi Nielsen (Olesya Rulin) is the shy, nerdy white girl at East High who provides piano accompaniment for the school’s musical productions. She also serves as the productions’ chief composer. Something tells me that if Nielsen wrote a musical that centralized Gabriella and Sharpay and brought in Taylor, it would be far more compelling. Maybe she could get all Max Fischer with it and cast them in a musical remake of Robert Altman’s 3 Women. She could follow it up with Věra Chytilová’s Daisies starring Demi Lovato and Selena Gomez. Or she could come up with something original. I’m sure if she were really given the spotlight, she could share it with the other girls and create something better than a rehash of Romeo and Juliet without any actual romantic conflict.
