Music and Dance Theses and Dissertations

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Browsing Music and Dance Theses and Dissertations by Author "Bates, Morgan"

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    Performing Power, Pursuing Pause: Vocality, Identity, and Listenership in Janelle Monáe’s Dirty Computer
    (University of Oregon, 2021-09-13) Bates, Morgan; Wallmark, Zachary
    This thesis evaluates the musical and cultural components of singer-songwriter Janelle Monáe's 2018 album and “emotion picture” Dirty Computer. I argue that Monáe engages audience members from all walks of life through her Afrofuturistic plotline, imagery, sounds, and statements. I situate understandings of voice and vocality as discussed by Weidman, Meizel, and Malawey within scholarly frameworks of race, gender, and sexuality, particularly “naming” impositions discussed by Hortense Spillers and “figures of sound” described by Nina Sun Eidsheim. I apply these frameworks to Monáe’s album, which follows protagonist Jane 57821 through her escape from white supremacist captors and explores her many life experiences as her captors work to erase her memories. In the case of Janelle Monáe, who, like Jane 57821, identifies as Black, queer, and female, these identities co-exist and are explicitly thematized throughout her album. I argue Monáe’s direct incorporations of these identities in Dirty Computer’s plotline hold even deeper meaning through her musical choices. I analyze three tracks from Dirty Computer—“Crazy, Classic, Life,” “Pynk,” and “Make Me Feel”—in a manner that considers multiplicity of meaning and nuances of characterization and representation not only in the album as a whole, but within each track. I propose that listeners, particularly white listeners, consider their own processes of listening. Through my analyses, I demonstrate the need for listeners to “pause” and account for their own biases, as recommended by Eidsheim.