POPULAR MUSIC AND THE POLITICS OF HOPE In today’s culture, popular music is a vital site where ideas about gender and sexu- ality are imagined and disseminated. Popular Music and the Politics of Hope: Queer and Feminist Interventions explores what that means with a wide- ranging collection of chapters that consider the many ways in which contemporary pop music perform- ances of gender and sexuality are politically engaged and even radical. With ana- lyses rooted in feminist and queer thought, contributors explore music from different genres and locations, including Beyoncé’s Lemonade, A Tribe Called Red’s We Are the Halluci Nation, and celebrations of Vera Lynn’s 100th Birthday. At a bleak moment in global politics, this collection focuses on the concept of critical hope: the chapters consider making and consuming popular music as activ- ities that encourage individuals to imagine and work toward a better, more just world. Addressing race, class, aging, disability, and colonialism along with gender and sexuality, the authors articulate the diverse ways popular music can contribute to the collective political projects of queerness and feminism. With voices from senior and emerging scholars, this volume offers a snapshot of today’s queer and feminist scholarship on popular music that is an essential read for students and scholars of music and cultural studies. Susan Fast is Professor in the Department of English and Cultural Studies and Director of the Graduate Program in Gender Studies & Feminist Research at McMaster University. She is co-e ditor of Music, Politics, and Violence (2012), and author of Michael Jackson’s Dangerous (2014) and In the Houses of the Holy: Led Zep- pelin and the Power of Rock Music (2001). Craig Jennex is Assistant Professor in the Department of English at Ryerson University. His work is published in Popular Music and Society, GUTS: Canadian Feminist Magazine, and TOPIA: Canadian Journal of Cultural Studies. POPULAR MUSIC AND THE POLITICS OF HOPE Queer and Feminist Interventions Edited by Susan Fast and Craig Jennex First published 2019 by Routledge 52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017 and by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2019 Taylor & Francis The right of Susan Fast and Craig Jennex to be identified as the authors of the editorial matter, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. Library of Congress Cataloging- in-Publication Data Names: Fast, Susan. | Jennex, Craig. Title: Popular music and the politics of hope : queer and feminist interventions / edited by Susan Fast and Craig Jennex. Description: New York : Routledge, 2019. | Includes index. Identifiers: LCCN 2018052986 (print) | LCCN 2018056308 (ebook) | ISBN 9781315165677 (ebook) | ISBN 9781138055865 (hardback) | ISBN 9781138055896 (pbk.) Subjects: LCSH: Popular music–Political aspects. | Sex and popular music. | Homosexuality and popular music. | Feminism and music. Classification: LCC ML3918.P67 (ebook) | LCC ML3918.P67 P664 2019 (print) | DDC 781.64081–dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018052986 ISBN: 978-1-138-05586-5 (hbk) ISBN: 978-1-138-05589-6 (pbk) ISBN: 978-1-315-16567-7 (ebk) Typeset in Bembo by Wearset Ltd, Boldon, Tyne and Wear To the memory of Aretha Franklin (1942–2018) Her murmurs gave shape to a sensuality that defeated repressive moral codes and replaced them with the commandments of tenderness, of sweet bitter love. Her high notes made hope happen. When she sang, we remembered that we could walk on the moon. —Ann Powers CONTENTS Acknowledgments x Introduction 1 Craig Jennex and Susan Fast PART I Displacing Whiteness 19 Introduction: Displacing Whiteness 21 Daphne A. Brooks 1 Visions of Wondaland: On Janelle Monáe’s Afrofuturistic Vision 31 Marquita R. Smith 2 Listening to Difference: Recognition and Refusal in Queer Music Diasporas 49 Craig Jennex 3 Who’s Your Daddy?: Beyoncé, the Dixie Chicks, and the Art of Outlaw Protest 63 Francesca T. Royster viii Contents PART II Rethinking Difference 77 Introduction: Rethinking Difference 79 Annie Janeiro Randall 4 “Brave New Ideas Begin”: Disability, Gender, and Life Writing in Twenty- First-Century Pop 85 Laurie Stras 5 “Round My Hometown”: Listening to London in the Racial Politics of Post- Millennial British Soul 105 Freya Jarman with Emily Baker 6 Born to Run and Reckless: My Life as a Pretender: Rewriting the Political Imaginary of Rock Music Memoir 123 Pamela Fox PART III Decolonizing Sound 143 Introduction: Decolonizing Sound 145 Ellie M. Hisama 7 Sounding the Halluci Nation: Decolonizing Race, Masculinity, and Global Solidarities with A Tribe Called Red 151 Alexa Woloshyn 8 Addict(ive) Sex: Toward an Intersectional Approach to Truth Hurts’ “Addictive” and Afro-S outh Asian Hip Hop and R&B 173 Elliott H. Powell 9 Hip Hop Dialogues: Sampling Women’s Hand Drum Songs and the Canadian Popular Mainstream 187 Liz Przybylski Contents ix PART IV Refusing Conventions 207 Introduction: Refusing Conventions 209 Maureen Mahon 10 Electro- Pop as Trojan Horse: Hearing the Call to Arms in Anohni’s HOPELESSNESS 217 Maria Murphy 11 Genders, Genres, Generations: Jacqueline Warwick and Susan McClary in Conversation 231 Susan McClary and Jacqueline Warwick 12 Power in the Darkness and “Angry Atthis”: Anthems, Genres and the Queer Voice 247 Jack Halberstam PART V Voicing Resilience 259 Introduction: Voicing Resilience 261 Murray Forman 13 Resisting the Politics of Aging: Madonna and the Value of Female Labor in Popular Music 267 Tiffany Naiman 14 Vera Lynn 100: Retirement, Aging, and Legacy for a “National Treasure” 283 Christina Baade 15 Sounding Lockdown: Singing in Administrative Segregation at the Louisiana Correctional Institute for Women 299 Benjamin J. Harbert and Consuela Gaines Notes on Contributors 317 Index 323