Freakifying history

Remixing royalty

Bibliographic Data

ID12915652
AuthorsLia T Bascomb (Georgia State University, corresponding author)
Year2015
Volume9
Issue1
Pages57-69
Publication date2015-09-12
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueAfrican and Black Diaspora An International Journal (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1752-8631 • E-ISSN: 1752-864X
PublisherTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/17528631.2015.1056403
OpenAlexW2181267611
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited18

Afrocentric revisions of world history have given way to Afrofuturist imaginings of the future. In the 2013 video for the song ‘Q.U.E.E.N.’, black American artists Janelle Monae and Erykah Badu offer an Afrofuturist redefinition of queenliness. While visually and lyrically presenting themselves as queens, they repeatedly ask ‘am I a freak for getting down?’ The idea of being a ‘freak’ and its associations with sexuality, abnormality, and deviance has a long history within the African diaspora that centers on the intersection of different forms of spectacle and performances of (un)respectability. By situating the video within the context of Monae's Electric Lady album and a larger lineage of musical and visual performance, this article explores the relationship between remixes of royalty, respectability, and spectacle in black artists’ use of African diasporic and Afrofuturistic imaginaries, while arguing for the sociopolitical power of the conscious performance as a ‘freak’

Archaeology · Art · Art history · Context (archaeology · Diaspora · FREAK · Human sexuality · Media studies · Musical · Political science · Sociology · Spectacle · Visual arts · Cinema and Media Studies · Computer Science · Gender Studies · Gothic Literature and Media Analysis · History · Law · Music History and Culture

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