{"id":1804,"date":"2016-11-15T17:09:47","date_gmt":"2016-11-15T22:09:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bowdoinglobalist.com\/?p=1804"},"modified":"2016-11-15T17:09:47","modified_gmt":"2016-11-15T22:09:47","slug":"the-pop-culture-matrix","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/students.bowdoin.edu\/bowdoin-review\/art\/the-pop-culture-matrix\/","title":{"rendered":"The Pop Culture Matrix"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Disclaimers: <\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Big data might <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.techrepublic.com\/article\/10-big-data-projects-that-could-help-save-the-planet\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">save the world<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, but this exercise is entirely subjective. Any references from before 2008 come from covers of Us Weekly that we saw in the grocery store.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Names that appear on the matrix might more accurately be associated with public perception of the individual rather than with their true character (e.g., Ariana Grande\u2019s public image versus her private personality).<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">We exclusively listen to soft folk music played by tender white guys who wear beards as an aesthetic.[note]Although Simon \u201creally enjoyed\u201d <i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">To Pimp A Butterfly<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">.[\/note]<\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> We are, therefore, wholly unqualified to talk about celebrity and pop culture.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Our liberal arts educations have indoctrinated us with dangerously progressive ideas, such as \u201cwomen are disproportionately obstructed by systemic factors in their pursuit of general equality and individual success in the United States\u201d and also \u201cbigotry maybe ain\u2019t so hot.\u201d<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">MTV hosted the Video Music Awards (VMAs) on August 28, 2016. The awards celebrate what we know as \u201cpop\u201d\u2014the culture, the phenomenon, and the collection of individual people. But the show that featured Britney Spears, Nick Jonas, and Adele became more coronation than celebration; Beyonc\u00e9, the woman of a million \u201c#yaaaasqueens,\u201d was <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.billboard.com\/articles\/events\/vma\/7487965\/beyonce-rihanna-vmas-recap-2016\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">epic<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. She <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/music\/features\/how-beyonce-demolished-the-2016-video-music-awards-w436706\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">demolished<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/culture\/2016\/aug\/29\/mtv-vmas-2016-recap-review-beyonce-britney-spears-kanye-west\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">shined<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.vox.com\/2016\/8\/28\/12686370\/vma-2016-beyonce-lemonade-video-performance\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">destroyed<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, and <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/tv\/news\/beyonce-rihanna-kanye-own-2016-mtv-video-music-awards-w436616\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">owned<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> the night. She showed up on the red carpet wearing a <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.mtv.com\/news\/2924910\/beyonce-vma-2016-red-carpet\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">shag rug<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> shaped like angel wings. In case no one got the metaphor, for Beyonc\u00e9, the heavens aren\u2019t just accessible, they\u2019re part of the deal. She\u2019s made a career out of being independent, and in the months after the release of her album dealing with infidelity and identity, she\u2019s only become more important and more \u201cpop.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Pop culture means a lot of things. It\u2019s Bethenny hawking cocktails on the <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Real Housewives of New York City<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">[note]<\/span>Drew watched this show with his family religiously for two years and is only a little bit ashamed of it.[\/note]\u00a0<span style=\"font-weight: 400\">and Larry David doing Bernie Sanders impressions on <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Saturday Night Live<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. It\u2019s America\u2019s industrialized guilty pleasure and default selling point. If the Kardashian empire drags society down, Frank Ocean gives Americans something to wear on their sleeves. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">In a year when sixty\u00a0million people voted for a reality TV star to become president, it\u2019s something we need to understand. For every Donald Trump, there\u2019s an \u201cAlright\u201d that becomes the anthem of a protest movement and a \u201cWhite Privilege Part II\u201d that absolves white rappers of guilt. Built into the BeyHive[note]This would be worthy of a sarcastic footnote about bad puns if it weren\u2019t already so well publicized.[\/note]<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u00a0is a set of assumptions about whom America celebrates, how that group conducts itself, and what it represents.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">In the following discussion, we look at a few case studies in order to help better contextualize and understand the way we treat pop culture in America. The cases don\u2019t represent every celebrity we place in a given category, but rather provide an example of the way a given celebrity-type can act. We then abstract the discussion from individual categories and look at the career paths of two of America\u2019s biggest stars today.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>The Pop Culture Matrix<\/b><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_1832\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1832\" style=\"width: 2400px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1832 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/bowdoinglobalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/matrix-hq-down-down-2-1.png\" width=\"2400\" height=\"2332\" srcset=\"https:\/\/students.bowdoin.edu\/bowdoin-review\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2016\/11\/matrix-hq-down-down-2-1.png 2400w, https:\/\/students.bowdoin.edu\/bowdoin-review\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2016\/11\/matrix-hq-down-down-2-1-300x292.png 300w, https:\/\/students.bowdoin.edu\/bowdoin-review\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2016\/11\/matrix-hq-down-down-2-1-1024x995.png 1024w, https:\/\/students.bowdoin.edu\/bowdoin-review\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2016\/11\/matrix-hq-down-down-2-1-768x746.png 768w, https:\/\/students.bowdoin.edu\/bowdoin-review\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2016\/11\/matrix-hq-down-down-2-1-1536x1492.png 1536w, https:\/\/students.bowdoin.edu\/bowdoin-review\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2016\/11\/matrix-hq-down-down-2-1-2048x1990.png 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2400px) 100vw, 2400px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-1832\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ann Basu \/ The Bowdoin Globalist<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Pop Culture Matrix is a two-dimensional graph with the y-axis running vertically from <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Confessional<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> to <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Aspirational<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and the x-axis running horizontally from <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Idiot<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> to <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Self-Aware<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Aspirational<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> artist is the one who thinks: \u201cThere are problems in the world and I will use my art to fix them.\u201d The <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Aspirational<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> artist sees that issues exist, believes in their inherent negativity, and tries to be a positive force for change; this artist genuinely strives for improvement (or at least, what they perceive as improvement), whether or not they achieve it.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Confessional<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> artist, on the other hand, muses: \u201cSure, there might be problems in the world, but <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">qu\u00e9 ser\u00e1, ser\u00e1<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">.\u201d The <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Confessional <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">artist embraces the fact that there are issues that could be dealt with or subscribes to a kind of absurdist philosophy that rejects any inherent negativity in them. The <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Confessional <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">artist, then, either plays into these issues without effect or actively aggravates them for personal gain.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Turning to the x-axis, <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Self-Aware <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">is pretty straightforward. A <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Self-Aware <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">artist understands the fundamental pieces of the celebrity game and how they can be used most effectively. A <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Self-Aware <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">artist, furthermore, is an autonomous artist. Not only do they know how to do what they do, but they have the ability to do what they know how to do how they know how to do it.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Idiot<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, on the other hand, is arguably a misnomer; but it is a term near and dear to the heart of one of your authors and we already put it on the graph so it stays.[note]The authors have also only now recognized that this is the only non-adjectival descriptor in the bunch and therefore ask you to note that when you read the term \u201c<i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Idiot<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> artist\u201d it is as well if not better applied to us.[\/note]<\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u00a0The <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Idiot <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">artist is more or less the opposite of the <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Self-Aware<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> artist; yet, for the sake of accuracy, we may break it down into two species. These two <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Idiots <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">have similar superficial qualities which justify their falling opposite <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Self-Aware<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> in presentation, but as distinct species, they bear subtle-but-critical differences in makeup.[note]And an inability to produce fertile offspring.<span style=\"font-weight: 400\">[\/note]<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The first species of the <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Idiot <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">artist, <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Idiot Insapiens<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, is the simple antithesis to the <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Self-Aware<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> artist. Like the <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Self-Aware<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> artist, <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Idiot Insapiens<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> is autonomous, but what sets it apart is that it does not understand the rules of the game it is playing. To some extent, it might not even be aware there is a game at all. It\u2019s like your grandmother using The E-Mail. She can Turn The Computer On and she knows that she needs to Click The Little E to get Online To The Internet; but if (God forbid) someone changed the homepage your brother set up from AOL to literally anything else, or if anyone even mentions the word PDF\u2014well, break out the biscuits and tea, because you\u2019ve got a distressed Grammy. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">This is all to say that Grammy, like <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Idiot Insapiens<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, is capable of participating in the system at a surface level, but\u2014as demonstrated by her inability to adapt to changes in it\u2014does not fundamentally understand it. This <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Idiot<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> artist cannot adapt to a shifting landscape, nor can it self-reflect and try something new.[note]Macklemore please <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=Y_rl4ZGdy34\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">stoooooop<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">.[\/note]<\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> What\u2019s more, because there is no higher and wiser power pulling the strings, autonomy may even work against the <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Idiot Insapiens<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. Imagine what a relief it would be for all involved if your brother could simply operate your grandma.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">This brings us to <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Idiot Invitus<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, the reverse of <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Idiot Insapiens<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Idiot Invitus<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> may or may not know the game; it matters not. The defining characteristic of this species of <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Idiot<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> artist is a lack of autonomy. <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Idiot Invitus<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> is a puppet. <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Idiot Invitus<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> is a pawn. <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Idiot Invitus<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> is your brother writing and sending your grandmother\u2019s emails for her. While <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Idiot Insapiens<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> is there by its own doing,<\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Idiot Invitus<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> has been pigeonholed into the domain of the <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Idiot<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> by whatever powers that be. If the <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Idiot Insapiens<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> simply can\u2019t help itself, in the colloquial sense that it is responsible for its own follies, the <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Idiot Invitus<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> literally<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400\">cannot help itself\u2014save <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.billboard.com\/articles\/business\/6281722\/kesha-sexual-assault-lawsuit-text-dr-luke\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">drastic measures<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. Show me a Macklemore, and I\u2019ll give you a Big Ariana.[note]Simon took Spanish and wants you to know it.[\/note]<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">We will revisit the significance of this distinction further on.[note]\u201cSignificance\u201d might well be taken with an entire shaker of salt.[\/note]<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> But first, now that we\u2019ve defined our axes, let\u2019s have ourselves some <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/halleonard-pagepreviews\/HL_DDS_0000000000854200.png\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">fun.<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_1851\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1851\" style=\"width: 505px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-1851\" src=\"http:\/\/bowdoinglobalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/8675093061_5cf81365e5_o-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"Courtesy Matthewjs007\/flickr.com\" width=\"505\" height=\"337\" srcset=\"https:\/\/students.bowdoin.edu\/bowdoin-review\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2016\/11\/8675093061_5cf81365e5_o-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/students.bowdoin.edu\/bowdoin-review\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2016\/11\/8675093061_5cf81365e5_o-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/students.bowdoin.edu\/bowdoin-review\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2016\/11\/8675093061_5cf81365e5_o-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/students.bowdoin.edu\/bowdoin-review\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2016\/11\/8675093061_5cf81365e5_o-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/students.bowdoin.edu\/bowdoin-review\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2016\/11\/8675093061_5cf81365e5_o.jpg 1732w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 505px) 100vw, 505px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-1851\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Courtesy Matthewjs007\/flickr.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><b>Aspirational Idiot<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">In the fall of 2012, Seattle-based rapper Macklemore released his first studio album, <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Heist<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. The album caught fire almost immediately, opening at number two on the Billboard 200 chart and going platinum by the following spring. One of the singles, \u201cThrift Shop,\u201d became unavoidable, with Macklemore\u2019s earnest appreciation for quirky, hip, and fun clothes leaving a deep imprint on his public persona.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">A year and a couple months later, Macklemore won four Grammy awards for <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Heist<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, including \u201cBest New Artist\u201d and \u201cBest Rap Album.\u201d Apparently, he disagreed with the decision. As shown in the screenshot he posted on Instagram in the hours following the awards ceremony, Macklemore texted fellow nominee Kendrick Lamar that night and said: \u201cYou got robbed. I wanted you to win. You should have. It\u2019s weird and it sucks that I robbed you. I was gonna say that during the speech. Then the music started playing during my speech and I froze.\u201d The whole thing would have been nice\u2014if not a little weird\u2014except for the fact that Macklemore told the whole world what he did. The whole chain of events gave the impression that Macklemore tried to play the game and craft his public persona, yet his actions just came across as bizarre and patronizing.<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"instagram-media\" style=\"background: #FFF;border: 0;border-radius: 3px;margin: 1px;max-width: 658px;padding: 0;width: calc(100% - 2px)\" data-instgrm-captioned=\"\" data-instgrm-version=\"7\">\n<div style=\"padding: 8px\">\n<div style=\"background: #F8F8F8;line-height: 0;margin-top: 40px;padding: 50.0% 0;text-align: center;width: 100%\"><\/div>\n<p style=\"margin: 8px 0 0 0;padding: 0 4px\"><a style=\"color: #000;font-family: Arial,sans-serif;font-size: 14px;font-style: normal;font-weight: normal;line-height: 17px;text-decoration: none\" href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/jqXYYAwK_y\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">My text to Kendrick after the show. He deserved best rap album&#8230; I&#8217;m honored and completely blown away to win anything much less 4 Grammys. But in that category, he should have won IMO. And that&#8217;s taking nothing away from The Heist. Just giving GKMC it&#8217;s proper respect.. With that being said, thank you to the fans. You&#8217;re the reason we were on that stage tonight. And to play Same Love on that platform was a career highlight. The greatest honor of all. That&#8217;s what this is about. Progress and art. Thank you. #grammys<\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"color: #c9c8cd;font-family: Arial,sans-serif;font-size: 14px;line-height: 17px;margin-bottom: 0;margin-top: 8px;overflow: hidden;padding: 8px 0 7px;text-align: center\">A photo posted by Ben Haggerty (@macklemore) on Jan 26, 2014 at 10:18pm PST<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">In the intervening years, Macklemore\u2019s only become more, well, Macklemore-ish. He released <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/genius.com\/Macklemore-and-ryan-lewis-white-privilege-ii-lyrics\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">White Privilege II<\/span><\/i><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> to the collective groan of everyone, and he released \u201cDowntown,\u201d a less well-liked sequel to Thrift Shop.[note]Macklemore\u2019s \u201cWhite Privilege II\u201d deals with the implications of being a white rapper in a predominantly black culture and questions how he, as a white person, can best fight on behalf of black people. He produced the song with a black artist, but then released the song as \u201cWhite Privilege II feat. Jamilah Woods.\u201d Upshot: Macklemore used a black artist to defend his moral crusading, took credit for the song, and then decided that his rapping was totally cool and all he had to do was abstractly support black people.[\/note]<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Throughout his career, he\u2019s shown an abstract familiarity with difficult questions and tried to wrestle with them, but without fail he comes up short. Macklemore comes across as a real fan of hip-hop, but it\u2019s never quite clear that he really understands what\u2019s going on. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">His song \u201cSame Love,\u201d a plea for recognition of same-sex marriage rights, provides a useful example of the issue. In it, he takes on a tough topic and then never offers anything to the debate. And he\u2019s close to saying something real, too\u2014he works in a genre <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.complex.com\/music\/2016\/06\/how-homophobic-is-hip-hop-in-2016\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">infamous<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> for its homophobia, which he name checks in the song and then never confronts head on. He raps, \u201cIf I was gay I would think hip-hop hates me,\u201d and he follows it up with, \u201dHave you read the YouTube comments lately?\u201d It\u2019s the only section that he debates something beyond \u201chomophobia is bad.\u201d And in it he takes common knowledge\u2014hip hop is homophobic\u2014and then spits it back out diluted. It\u2019s not the rappers at fault; it\u2019s the YouTube commenters. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">This is not a Macklemore problem. The <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Aspirational Idiot<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> artists almost all work this way: they connect their music to some higher significance, connect their personas to that issue, and then offer some lukewarm\u2014or discreetly <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.slate.com\/blogs\/browbeat\/2014\/10\/14\/all_about_that_bass_by_meghan_trainor_is_still_no_1_on_billboard_why_video.html\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">wrong<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u2014take on the issue. Beyond that, though, it\u2019s possible that the <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Aspirational Idiot<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> artists are the most harmless types on the matrix. They\u2019re generally easy to ignore, their messages are diluted to the point where they lose all meaning, and their songs almost universally lack staying power.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Artists: Macklemore, Meghan Trainor, Mumford &amp; Sons, will.i.am, Chris Martin, Bono, J. Cole.<\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_1850\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1850\" style=\"width: 506px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-1850\" src=\"http:\/\/bowdoinglobalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/22526384215_ac07d2ede0_o-300x199.jpg\" alt=\"Courtesy Jessica Barbaio\/flickr.com\" width=\"506\" height=\"336\" srcset=\"https:\/\/students.bowdoin.edu\/bowdoin-review\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2016\/11\/22526384215_ac07d2ede0_o-300x199.jpg 300w, https:\/\/students.bowdoin.edu\/bowdoin-review\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2016\/11\/22526384215_ac07d2ede0_o-1024x678.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/students.bowdoin.edu\/bowdoin-review\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2016\/11\/22526384215_ac07d2ede0_o-768x508.jpg 768w, https:\/\/students.bowdoin.edu\/bowdoin-review\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2016\/11\/22526384215_ac07d2ede0_o-1536x1017.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/students.bowdoin.edu\/bowdoin-review\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2016\/11\/22526384215_ac07d2ede0_o.jpg 1737w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 506px) 100vw, 506px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-1850\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Courtesy Jessica Barbaio\/flickr.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><b>Confessional Idiot<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Miley Cyrus has been listed among TIME\u2019s 100 most influential people twice: once in 2008 and again in 2014. Within those six years lies a Robert Caro-worthy history of events, with aggressive self-promotion and brand management leading the way. She shed her Disney sheen twice over, challenging societal norms and expectations for how women should act in the public eye. She also just seemed like she was having a lot of fun. Miley Cyrus is not a <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Confessional<\/span><\/i> <i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Idiot<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Ariana Grande, however, is. Grande is only two years younger than Miley, but they feel generations apart, and the difference between the two helps to contextualize the gap between the <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Confessional Idio<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">t and the <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Self-Aware Confessional<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> groupings. Miley <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/news\/miley-cyrus-smokes-a-joint-on-stage-at-mtv-emas\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">smoked a joint<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> on stage in Europe to shed her image; Grande got <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.today.com\/popculture\/ariana-grande-apologizes-doughnut-lick-i-hate-america-t31006\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">caught licking an unpurchased donut<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and saying, \u201cI hate America.\u201d Grande later released a statement <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ArianaGrande\/status\/618905544959459328\/photo\/1?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">explaining<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> her actions and tying them to a larger message about nutrition and obesity in America; the headlines still only talked about her trying to lick a donut.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">In this way, Grande\u2019s the perfect example of why both the <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Idiot Invitus <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">and the <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Idiot Insapiens<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> fall under the same umbrella: the difference doesn\u2019t necessarily matter.[note]Ke$ha is an entirely different story, and a good example of the ways in which the difference between <i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Insapiens<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Invitus<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> can be incredibly impactful for the artists themselves.[\/note]<\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u00a0Either Grande is an impulsive prisoner of her managers who released a statement to mitigate the damage from the incident, or she\u2019s an artist trying to act out and break away from her past as a teen pop star\u2014except her act of rebellion was licking something that\u2019s not hers and announcing something controversial just to say something controversial.[note]Not to mention just how poorly her attempt to confront the real issue of obesity in America went. In the Donut Incident, Grande trivializes any aspirations that she has for a better America, doing the ultimate <i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Confessional<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> thing.[\/note]<\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u00a0In other words, her attempt to escape her teen branding came by doing the most 11-year-old thing she possibly could have done.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Grande\u2019s ascent to stardom shouldn\u2019t be discredited; while someone like Miley was made for the limelight, Grande worked her way up.[note]Miley\u2019s father is former country star Billy Ray Cyrus, and her godmother is Dolly Parton. If she wanted to be famous, she had the avenues to get there.[\/note]<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> The same is true for many of the <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Idiots<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, whether <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Invitus <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">or<\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Insapiens<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. But pop culture requires constant innovation\u2014sitting still makes one less exciting, and being less exciting is the antithesis of pop culture. Once the <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Idiots <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">reached their status, they couldn\u2019t lose what they\u2019d already made. It could be that their managers took control of their image, or that they didn\u2019t understand what exactly made them popular in the first place. Conversely, the celebrities we discuss and admire and hate to love understand exactly what got them to where they are in the first place. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Artists: Ariana Grande, Chris Brown, Justin Bieber (pre-<\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Purpose<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">), Ke$ha, Robin Thicke.<\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_1853\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1853\" style=\"width: 505px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-1853\" src=\"http:\/\/bowdoinglobalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/5681569104_556ea12a2d_o-300x199.jpg\" alt=\"Courtesy Rodrigo Ferrari, Lollapalooza Chile\/flickr.com\" width=\"505\" height=\"335\" srcset=\"https:\/\/students.bowdoin.edu\/bowdoin-review\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2016\/11\/5681569104_556ea12a2d_o-300x199.jpg 300w, https:\/\/students.bowdoin.edu\/bowdoin-review\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2016\/11\/5681569104_556ea12a2d_o-1024x680.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/students.bowdoin.edu\/bowdoin-review\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2016\/11\/5681569104_556ea12a2d_o-768x510.jpg 768w, https:\/\/students.bowdoin.edu\/bowdoin-review\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2016\/11\/5681569104_556ea12a2d_o-1536x1020.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/students.bowdoin.edu\/bowdoin-review\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2016\/11\/5681569104_556ea12a2d_o.jpg 1734w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 505px) 100vw, 505px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-1853\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Courtesy Rodrigo Ferrari, Lollapalooza Chile\/flickr.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><b>Confessional Self-Aware<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Kanye West has <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.grammy.com\/artist\/kanye-west\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">21 Grammy Awards<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and appears <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/music\/lists\/500-greatest-albums-of-all-time-20120531\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">three times<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> on <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Rolling Stone\u2019s<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> \u201c500 Greatest Albums of All Time.\u201d Kanye West sold a white t-shirt online for <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.okayplayer.com\/news\/style-kanye-west-apc-120-plain-white-hiphop-t-shirt-sells-out.html\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">$120<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. Kanye West is one of the<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/List_of_best-selling_music_artists#120_million_to_199_million_records\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> best-selling artists of all time<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and arguably the world\u2019s best living <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.spin.com\/2015\/03\/101-best-kanye-west-produced-songs-that-dont-feature-kanye\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">hip-hop producer<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. Kanye West tweeted that he was $53 million in debt and asked Mark Zuckerberg for $1 billion because \u201c<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/kanyewest\/status\/699107725356199936?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">one of the coolest things you could ever do is to help me in my time of need<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">.\u201d<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> During a televised benefit concert for Hurricane Katrina, Kanye West interrupted Mike Myers to assert, \u201c<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=zIUzLpO1kxI\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">George Bush doesn\u2019t care about black people<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">.\u201d During the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards, Kanye West interrupted Taylor Swift to say that <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=RvaakT52RjQ\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">he liked Beyonc\u00e9\u2019s music video a lot<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. The <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Atlantic<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> called Kanye West the <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/magazine\/archive\/2012\/05\/american-mozart\/308931\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">American Mozart<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. Barack Obama called him a <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=078BGtKNL1o\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">jackass<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. Kanye West called himself a <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=Ge33hrlN2Uc\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">god<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Divinity notwithstanding, we must at least give him this: Kanye works in mysterious ways.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Kanye\u2019s name seems always to be in the news attached to a new scandal; yet a Kanye West scandal is a unique sort. Rarely, if ever, does a Kanye West scandal carry the objective deplorability of a Donald Trump scandal. While the latter alienates populations and groups unable to defend themselves, the former often consists of complicated-but-petty feuds with celebrities a decade his junior. Even when a Kanye scandal enters the arena of social justice, it is brief and sporadic, or not <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=Ge33hrlN2Uc\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">altogether coherent<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, perhaps functioning more as <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=UQgFebtMrXw\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">self-aggrandizement than as ceiling-breaking<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. But still, in this respect, it is exceptionally successful; for the more we wonder about Kanye\u2019s motives, the longer we think about him. Nor is a Kanye West scandal as clearly a result of thoughtlessness as, to take an earlier example, an Ariana Grande scandal. When Kanye declares bankruptcy, on Twitter, and asks Mark Zuckerberg to invest in him, <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">on Twitter<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, he\u2019s done something far more bizarre, more layered, and more inexplicable than licking a donut. It may be difficult to like Kanye, but it is equally difficult to call him a bigot or an idiot.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Kanye West operates chaos professionally. He could probably lead a seminar on the maxim \u201cAny press is good press.\u201d In fact, it is not unrealistic to imagine that he would. Kanye West could found a Spin Medical School and countless Spin students\u2014having dedicated years of their life to Spin Pre-Med, poring over Spin textbooks and studying all night for the Spin MCAT\u2014would hope to attend, while only the lucky few would receive their Spin MDs from the Head Spin Doctor himself. And if the whole operation crashed and burned, it wouldn\u2019t matter. Because in failure and success alike, Kanye West comes out on top, gracefully disgraceful. <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=R4SYIfhzMmU\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Because his life is dope and he does dope shit<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. Because as the Creator of His own rules, He can play the game better than any mere man.[note]<i>Then Kanye said, \u201cLet there be lucrative petty scandal\u201d; and there was lucrative petty scandal. Kanye saw that the lucrative petty scandal was eaten up by fans; and Kanye separated the lucrative petty scandal from the career-ending blunder. <\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">(Pop Culture Genesis 1:3)[\/note]<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Artists: Kanye, Drake, Nicki Minaj, Rihanna, Justin Bieber (post-<\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Purpose<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">), Taylor Swift (post-<\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Red<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">), Kim Kardashian.<\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_1852\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1852\" style=\"width: 506px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-1852\" src=\"http:\/\/bowdoinglobalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/8457449877_64a787b91f_o-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"Courtesy Merlijn Hoek\/flickr.com\" width=\"506\" height=\"337\" srcset=\"https:\/\/students.bowdoin.edu\/bowdoin-review\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2016\/11\/8457449877_64a787b91f_o-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/students.bowdoin.edu\/bowdoin-review\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2016\/11\/8457449877_64a787b91f_o-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/students.bowdoin.edu\/bowdoin-review\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2016\/11\/8457449877_64a787b91f_o-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/students.bowdoin.edu\/bowdoin-review\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2016\/11\/8457449877_64a787b91f_o-1536x1025.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/students.bowdoin.edu\/bowdoin-review\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2016\/11\/8457449877_64a787b91f_o.jpg 1731w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 506px) 100vw, 506px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-1852\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Courtesy Merlijn Hoek\/flickr.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><b>Aspirational Self-Aware<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">On \u201cuntitled 1| 8.19.2014,\u201d the first track of his album <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">untitled unmastered<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, Kendrick Lamar raps \u201cI made <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">To Pimp A Butterfly for you <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\/ Told me to use my vocals to save mankind for you,\u201d ostensibly talking with God, but more so bargaining with America. The effect would be Kanye-esque if it weren\u2019t so true. Kendrick is a singular icon in American pop culture, a man with the weight of the future on his shoulder. When he talks, <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/music\/news\/barack-obama-declares-kendrick-lamar-better-than-drake-20160115\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">America<\/span><\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/music\/news\/barack-obama-declares-kendrick-lamar-better-than-drake-20160115\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">listens<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The album <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">untitled unmastered<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> is half-impenetrable, half-project in motion. Kendrick raps without choruses and sings without bridges; songs contain live commentary from friends and discursive \u201cjam sessions.\u201d The album\u2019s rawness reflects Kendrick\u2019s reality: he\u2019s already inspired the Black Lives Matter movement, and he\u2019s struggled with what it means to be black in America in the most public way possible. In effect, his personal life has become public; his friends commenting on bars is public domain material now. The album is effectively a work of sacrifice. It\u2019s Kendrick ripping the doors wide open and showing the world what he\u2019s going through. This sacrifice is also a necessary process for Kendrick to become the savior of mankind that we actually expect him to be.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">When Kendrick took the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/vimeo.com\/156180581\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">stage<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> at the 2016 Grammys, he clearly intended to broaden his base. The Grammys aren\u2019t exactly the Oscars in terms of formality, but Kendrick\u2019s performance nonetheless broke with convention. Here was one of America\u2019s biggest rappers, performing at a celebration of the year\u2019s best music, taking the stage dressed in a prison outfit and wearing chains. His material wasn\u2019t comfortable either\u2014he sang \u201cAlright\u201d and \u201cThe Blacker The Berry\u201d; and while \u201cAlright\u201d can be intensely optimistic, \u201cThe Blacker The Berry\u201d deals directly with being black in America and the uncomfortable messages about race that society promotes. The songs are two of Kendrick\u2019s most \u201cblack\u201d songs\u2014the ones that deal with the <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/themuse.jezebel.com\/listen-to-kendrick-lamars-black-rage-anthem-the-blacker-1684788284\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">rage<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.huffingtonpost.com\/stanley-t-talbert\/kendrick-lamars-theology-_b_7956752.html\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">institutional oppression<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> of black people, the ones that aren\u2019t \u201cfor\u201d white people, insofar as any music is \u201cfor\u201d anyone\u2014and he opened them up to mass culture.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Kendrick\u2019s place in pop culture is still evolving. He\u2019s gone from rap sensation to movement icon, and everybody seems ready to welcome the change. It\u2019s a hallmark of the <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Aspirational<\/span><\/i> <i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Self-Aware<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> artist: they\u2019re not only comfortable with the mechanics of their stardom, but they also have a vision of America so well formulated that they can communicate extraordinarily complex ideas to mass audiences. They use the sheer power of their being to facilitate conversations which would otherwise be unwieldy. At their core, these artists have to be optimists, or else the entire experiment would become irrelevant. They believe in a better destination, which allows them to guide us forward. They\u2019re almost, with one notable exception, exclusively men.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Artists: Kendrick Lamar, Frank Ocean, Beyonc\u00e9, Jay-Z, Chance the Rapper.<\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_1854\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1854\" style=\"width: 506px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-1854\" src=\"http:\/\/bowdoinglobalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/6966854433_77725a4828_o-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"Courtesy Eva Rinaldi\/flickr.com\" width=\"506\" height=\"337\" srcset=\"https:\/\/students.bowdoin.edu\/bowdoin-review\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2016\/11\/6966854433_77725a4828_o-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/students.bowdoin.edu\/bowdoin-review\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2016\/11\/6966854433_77725a4828_o-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/students.bowdoin.edu\/bowdoin-review\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2016\/11\/6966854433_77725a4828_o-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/students.bowdoin.edu\/bowdoin-review\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2016\/11\/6966854433_77725a4828_o-1536x1025.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/students.bowdoin.edu\/bowdoin-review\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2016\/11\/6966854433_77725a4828_o.jpg 1731w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 506px) 100vw, 506px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-1854\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Courtesy Eva Rinaldi\/flickr.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><b>Case study: The Taylor Frontier<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Taylor Swift of 2016 can be hard to reconcile with Taylor Swift of 2006. Things look pretty similar on the surface\u2014her \u201cgirl next door\u201d look has transfigured into a \u201csupermodel next door\u201d look and her music still deals with roughly the same themes\u2014but virtually no one thinks of her the same way they once did.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">When Taylor burst onto the scene in 2007, she was still young and unknown enough to play the na\u00eff. She could sing about the love that high schoolers feel\u2014true love in its own way\u2014and optimistically retell her own outside perspective. She hadn\u2019t found love, but she certainly <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/genius.com\/Taylor-swift-our-song-lyrics\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">believed<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> in it. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Taylor\u2019s early music is hard to place on the matrix. It\u2019s not <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Aspirational<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, exactly, but it\u2019s certainly not <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Confessional<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> either. It offers a belief in America as a fundamental good. Sure, times can be tough, times can be easy, but in the end, everybody wins. The earnest naivete made it easy to smile patronizingly at Taylor, and it underlines the complex dynamics of celebrity in America: though we\u2019d later learn Taylor knew what she was doing the whole time, early Taylor\u2019s position on the matrix is unquestionably <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Idiot<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. The high schooler who believes in love can\u2019t be respected as an artist truly aware of their role in the pop culture universe.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">In a 2015 <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">GQ<\/span><\/i> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.gq.com\/story\/taylor-swift-gq-cover-story\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">profile<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, Taylor recounts how, as a child, she used to watch <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Behind the Music<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> every day.[note]A VH1 show that profiled artists on the rise and post-stardom.[\/note]<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> It wasn\u2019t an exercise in star-admiration though. As she described:<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">I would see these bands that were doing so well, and I\u2019d wonder what went wrong. I thought about this a lot. And what I established in my brain was that a lack of self-awareness was always the downfall. That was always the catalyst for the loss of relevance and the loss of ambition and the loss of great art.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">It\u2019s a funny image\u2014tiny Taylor Swift, sitting in front of a TV and thinking \u201cif only Alanis Morissette had been more self-aware\u201d[note]Who would\u2019ve thought\u2026 it figures.[\/note]<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u2014but it jibes with 2016 Taylor. 2016 Taylor is someone who plays the na\u00eff, but the act is only <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2014\/10\/26\/arts\/music\/taylor-swift-1989-new-album-review.html\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">halfhearted<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">On her most recent album, <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">1989<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, Taylor released a string of hits mostly written in the \u201ctime is a flat circle\u201d branch of philosophy.[note]Sources say it\u2019s unlikely <i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">True Detective<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> season 2 will have strong ties to Taylor\u2019s next album.[\/note]<\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u00a0\u201cBlank Space\u201d discusses the way celebrity allows people to manipulate those around them, and \u201cStyle\u201d entirely sheds the novelty of the relationships Taylor dreamt of in 2006. In \u201cStyle,\u201d she sings, \u201cI should just tell you to leave \/ Cause I know exactly where it leads \/ But I watch us go round and round each time.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">In \u201cStyle,\u201d Taylor\u2019s telling a story. But there\u2019s a more important B plot happening: the song is <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.buzzfeed.com\/elliewoodward\/you-got-that-james-dean-daydream-look-in-your-eyes\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">allegedly<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> about Taylor\u2019s relationship with One Direction star Harry Styles. It\u2019s a knowing wink to the way in which Taylor\u2019s personal life has become public property. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Taylor\u2019s always had something of a knowing wink, but the extent to which it was clear largely tracks with the evolution of her pop culture persona. Looking back, it does become relatively clear that she was always self-aware, if not to the extent to which she is today. Her fans <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/theringer.com\/when-did-you-first-realize-taylor-swift-was-lying-to-you-bb5a00a32b65#.e6xuai49e\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">realized<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> this at different times, a testament to just how successfully she swindled the American public, but her self-awareness is out in the open now. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Taylor has always controlled her image, which became progressively more defined as her career progressed. In 2008\u2019s <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Fearless<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, Taylor purposefully cultivated her na\u00efve, optimistic image. She released \u201cLove Story\u201d as the album\u2019s first single, while \u201cTeardrops On My Guitar\u201d and \u201cYou Belong With Me\u201d became massive successes. The storyline isn\u2019t exactly nuanced: beautiful country star believes in love. As one critic <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.today.com\/id\/39763300\/ns\/today-today_entertainment\/t\/why-taylor-swifts-good-girl-image-sells\/#.V_qwwZMrKRs\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">wrote<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, \u201cshe lets the whole world know that in high school she wasn\u2019t the popular girl,\u201d as absurd as that sounds today.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The album also marked Taylor\u2019s debut as a public personality. Now legally an adult and already developing a more conventionally pop sound, Taylor opened herself up beyond her lyrics. Or, she sort of did. <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Rolling Stone<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> wasn\u2019t <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/music\/news\/the-very-pink-very-perfect-life-of-taylor-swift-20090305\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">convinced<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">; everything felt too perfect.[note]Money quote: \u201cIf this is Swift&#8217;s game face, it must be tattooed on, because it never drops.\u201d[\/note]<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u00a0She dealt with Kanye\u2019s interruption at the Grammys and <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.redeyechicago.com\/music\/redeye-nice-girl-taylor-swift-20160719-story.html\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">came across<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> as the innocent teenager; Joe Jonas dumped her over the phone and she <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=O6WA1Fk09vY\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">confessed<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> that although it was tough, she\u2019d rise above it. Hers was a controlled entrance to pop culture, where the stakes were low.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Between <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Fearless<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and 2012\u2019s <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Red<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, Taylor\u2019s persona and career evolved in a pretty straight line. She had <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/taylorswift.wikia.com\/wiki\/List_of_Taylor_Swift%27s_ex-boyfriends\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">impressively public<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> relationships with everyone from Calvin Harris to a Kennedy, and her music became steadily more pop and less country.[note]The Kennedy was still at Deerfield Academy, a Massachusetts prep school and a place with the highest proportion of people who actually enjoyed the song \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=8PvebsWcpto\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Cruise<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201d at the time.[\/note]<\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Her persona became marginally less \u201cperfect,\u201d but her music still mostly dealt with questions about past boyfriends and surface level preferences.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The breaking point came after <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Red<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. On the album, she lashed out against more boyfriends and discussed more difficult relationships. She made vague references to <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.vulture.com\/2012\/10\/who-is-each-song-on-taylor-swifts-album-about.html\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">past relationships<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and pushed on with the sparkly-eyed optimism that had driven her to the top. On the matrix, she was clearly more <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Self-Aware<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u2014quietly distrustful of certain types of love, open about relationships so public that they belonged more to <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Us Weekly<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> than her\u2014but she was still optimistic. She was on the positive y-axis.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">And <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.anewmode.com\/dating-relationships\/taylor-swift-sucks-relationships-learn\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">then<\/span><\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cinemablend.com\/celebrity\/Why-Has-Taylor-Swift-Had-So-Many-Relationships-48569.html\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">the<\/span><\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/gawker.com\/5965470\/who-has-taylor-swift-dated-a-brief-history-of-all-the-men-in-the-universe\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">world<\/span><\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.businessinsider.com.au\/timeline-of-taylor-swifts-relationships-2012-12\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">started<\/span><\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/nymag.com\/thecut\/2013\/06\/taylor-swifts-fan-army-defeats-abercrombie.html\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">slut-shaming<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> her. It wasn\u2019t her fault\u2014and it was really unfair\u2014but it meant she couldn\u2019t be that same character anymore. She couldn\u2019t play the hurt, downtrodden lover; she had to take control. And so came <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">1989<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, and the exaggerated knowing wink. The game was up. She had a reputation and she had to counteract it.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">When it became clear that Taylor was incredibly self-aware, pop culture treated her differently. People don\u2019t ask if she is in love, they ask if her relationships <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.seventeen.com\/celebrity\/celebrity-couples\/a41576\/hiddleswift-conspiracy-theories\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">are even real<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">.[note]Not to say that this is an unfair question, necessarily.[\/note]<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> 2016 Taylor controls her career and her image, but she\u2019s limited by the length of her shadow. She can\u2019t be <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Aspirational<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, because that has been taken from her. Once people saw her as someone more interested in image than love, she had to sing about her image. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">It\u2019s possible that Taylor is more image-conscious that any other\u2014particularly male\u2014celebrity. Pop culture values openness and honesty about oneself above all else, and so it makes sense that, for her fans, Taylor\u2019s image-conscious marketing feels like a betrayal. In effect, we\u2019re not getting her; we\u2019re getting what she thinks we want. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">But at the same time, celebrity is all about image. We don\u2019t call Kendrick a snake when he <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/mic.com\/articles\/90411\/the-524-000-reason-kendrick-lamar-is-the-most-humble-man-in-hip-hop#.WjYSXRbgB\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">buys<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> a suburban home at a modest price. It can be what he really wants, or just a bone he throws to lifestyle writers, but we don\u2019t really question it. It just kind of is.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">For Taylor, and the vast majority of our female celebrities, there\u2019s always been a certain skepticism. From the <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Rolling Stone<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> article to Abercrombie\u2019s slut-shaming, we always assume there\u2019s something else going on. And once we find out that that something else is a sense of self-awareness, female artists immediately have to address it. They\u2019re shoved in the <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Confessional Self-Aware<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> mold, barred from talking about anything apart from their own reputation. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The lesson from Taylor thus becomes: women in pop culture can absolutely be <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Self-Aware<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, but it will always come at the price of one\u2019s message. Any hope for discussing issues larger than oneself immediately fades away, as self-awareness necessarily entails self-defense. And if female artists try to speak to larger issues, their argument is <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/music\/2015\/jul\/22\/taylor-swift-nicki-minaj-faux-feminist-tone-deaf\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">viewed through<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> the lens of their own experience and reputation. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">This is the Taylor Frontier. It charts the evolution of the way pop culture treated Taylor Swift from album to album and stretches from <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Idiot<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> to <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Confessional Self-Aware<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">.[note]Female artists can outperform Taylor as an <i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Aspirational Idiot<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> (see Meghan Trainor), but it\u2019s poor consolation.[\/note]<\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u00a0It also represents the outer limits of how women can be seen in pop culture. They can be <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Confessional Idiots<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, sure, but they can\u2019t extend beyond where Taylor has been. Importantly, this means the Taylor Frontier excludes the <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Aspirational Self-Aware<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_1849\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1849\" style=\"width: 506px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-1849\" src=\"http:\/\/bowdoinglobalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/8444247320_551c5e5147_o-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"Courtesy Jose Manuel Ub\u00e9\/flickr.com\" width=\"506\" height=\"337\" srcset=\"https:\/\/students.bowdoin.edu\/bowdoin-review\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2016\/11\/8444247320_551c5e5147_o-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/students.bowdoin.edu\/bowdoin-review\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2016\/11\/8444247320_551c5e5147_o-1024x682.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/students.bowdoin.edu\/bowdoin-review\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2016\/11\/8444247320_551c5e5147_o-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/students.bowdoin.edu\/bowdoin-review\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2016\/11\/8444247320_551c5e5147_o-1536x1023.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/students.bowdoin.edu\/bowdoin-review\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2016\/11\/8444247320_551c5e5147_o.jpg 1732w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 506px) 100vw, 506px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-1849\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Courtesy Jose Manuel Ub\u00e9\/flickr.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><b>Queen Bey<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Beyonc\u00e9 has never been really <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Confessional<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. Nor has Beyonc\u00e9 ever truly been an <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Idiot<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. Yet she did not use to be as <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Aspirational<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> or <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Self-Aware<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> as she has become. For Beyonc\u00e9 has not always been Beyonc\u00e9, and neither has anyone else.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Beyonc\u00e9 Knowles\u2019s career began somewhere north of the matrix\u2019s origin. In 1996, Girl\u2019s Tyme rebranded themselves <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.mtv.com\/news\/1504044\/destinys-childs-long-road-to-fame-the-song-isnt-called-survivor-for-nothing\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Destiny\u2019s Child<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, a name inspired by a passage from the Book of Isaiah, and though the lineup would be altered slightly over the next decade, Beyonc\u00e9\u2019s primacy and the personal success that would follow might as well have been written in stone. In addition to being one of history\u2019s[note]\u201cHistory\u201d can be substituted here with \u201cSimon.\u201d[\/note]<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> favorite and most successful girl groups, Destiny\u2019s Child was also, arguably, <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Aspirational<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> in its own right. If the implications of piety implied by its name weren\u2019t enough to merit <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Aspirational<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">-ity, certainly the group\u2019s music bridges the gap. With the qualification that a girl group perhaps by necessity (or rather more accurately, by obligation) will sing primarily about \u201cgirl issues,\u201d and even conceding that \u201cBootylicious\u201d and \u201cBills, Bills, Bills\u201d may be more frivolous than they are feminine anthems of empowerment, there is still much to work with. \u201cNo, No, No\u201d from their debut album offers a complete reversal in gender roles; where typically the cupidinous male would sing pitifully of his lady-love\u2019s ambivalence, Beyonc\u00e9 (backed by her girls) swaps it and bemoans the teasing indecision of her \u201cboy.\u201d \u201cSurvivor,\u201d though <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Survivor_(Destiny%27s_Child_song)#Background\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">admittedly<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> written in response to negative press surrounding the fragility of the group\u2019s cohesion, may well be interpreted as a declaration of individual [female] autonomy and perseverance. \u201cIndependent Women,\u201d however, is an unambiguous affirmation of a mature sort of girl power, in all its liberation and self-sufficiency.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Even so, despite all the praise worthy of Destiny\u2019s Child, Beyonc\u00e9\u2019s beginnings are humbled by the radiance of her current royalty. Since Destiny\u2019s Child, Beyonc\u00e9 has grown into a dominant force in the music industry, an accomplished actress, and perhaps pop culture\u2019s most venerated female icon. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cCrazy in Love,\u201d the lead single of Beyonc\u00e9\u2019s premier solo album <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Dangerously in Love<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> (2003), was an easy hit. It put aside <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Aspirational<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> substance in favor of a horn-driven exemplar of early noughties Hip-Pop; yet to quote <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/music\/lists\/100-best-songs-of-the-aughts-20110617\/beyonce-crazy-in-love-20110616\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Rolling Stone<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, \u201c<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The horns weren&#8217;t a hook. They were a herald: Pop&#8217;s new queen had arrived.\u201d Thus Queen Bey had laid the catchy and necessarily inoffensive groundwork upon which she would come to understand the full power of her sovereignty and build an empire unequalled by any in all of Black Womanhood.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Cut to 2008\u2019s <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">I am\u2026 Sasha Fierce<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, which opens with \u201cIf I Were a Boy,\u201d a heartstring-tugging song about men\u2019s lack of empathy and the emotional abuse of women in relationships. Later on in the album, things turn less doleful as Beyonc\u00e9\u2019s powerful alter ego Sasha Fierce takes on uncommitting men in \u201cSingle Ladies\u201d\u2014a brasher, more mature, and altogether <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">fiercer<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> update of \u201cNo, No, No\u201d mixed with <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">B\u2019Day<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u2019s (2006) \u201cIrreplaceable.\u201d Sasha Fierce<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400\">was a woke Sgt. Pepper.[note]Beatles references: the \u201cFree Square\u201d of pop-music-analysis Bingo.[\/note]<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Its identity-breaking alias gave the queen agency of her crown and the opportunity to alter her own ego\u2014enter 2013\u2019s <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Beyonc\u00e9<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. \u201cPretty Hurts\u201d takes on the perpetual beauty contest of femininity. \u201cHaunted\u201d tells us of Beyonc\u00e9\u2019s distrust of record labels and <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.billboard.com\/articles\/review\/5839712\/beyonce-beyonce-track-by-track-review\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">how she plans to run her own business<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. From \u201cBlow\u201d to \u201cRocket,\u201d the album is rife with <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">no-more-Ms.-Good-Girl<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> innuendo and sexual reclamation. <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.eonline.com\/news\/771208\/beyonce-literally-sneezed-on-the-beat-and-the-beat-got-sicker\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Even her sneezes have the Midas Touch<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">By <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Beyonc\u00e9<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, Beyonc\u00e9 had just about become Beyonc\u00e9. She controlled her image and could give interviews <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nickiswift.com\/2814\/beyonce-stopped-giving-interviews\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">when and where she wanted<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u2014if ever at all. The spotlight shone only on her terms, and her purposeful distance from it offstage protected her from the vicious whirlpool of tabloids and gossip which seems somehow to drown more women than men. Beyonc\u00e9 could be praised by some as an icon of sexually progressive and self-determining womanhood, while still being adored and objectified by the crowd her celebrity required. Men wanted her <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">and<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> wanted to be her. Women were in the same boat. She was as <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Self-Aware<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> as she would ever be, but one thing remained before she could could claim present <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Aspirational<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> status. Beyonc\u00e9 had more or less conquered the arena of sexuality\u2014now it was time for her to take on something higher-risk.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">In February 2016, Beyonc\u00e9 made a lot of white people mad by reminding them she was black. \u201cFormation\u201d was another contribution to Queen Bey\u2019s impressive catalogue of female anthems, but this one came with a twist. In the first few lines of the song\u2019s opening refrain, Beyonc\u00e9 professes, \u201c<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/genius.com\/Beyonce-formation-lyrics#note-8640216\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">My daddy Alabama, Momma Louisiana \/ You mix that negro with that Creole make a Texas bama \/ I like my baby heir with baby hair and afros \/ I like my negro nose with Jackson Five nostrils<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">.\u201d The music video accompanies these lyrics and the rest of the song with various images of black identity\u2014most notorious are the clips of Beyonc\u00e9 perched on floating cars in flooded cities, evoking post-Katrina New Orleans. \u201cFormation\u201d would be included on 2016\u2019s <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Lemonade<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, whose release and very nature were shrouded in such mystery achievable by few but Beyonc\u00e9. <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Lemonade<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> in general dealt with similar themes to those of \u201cFormation.\u201d It was the passionate declaration of a black woman scorned, both <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=PeonBmeFR8o\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">by her lover<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=NdpqxqQX554\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">by her country<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. Beyonc\u00e9 had officially become Beyonc\u00e9. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">And indeed, only Beyonc\u00e9 could be Beyonc\u00e9. Of course, her career was not without bumps, and the release of \u201cFormation\u201d could not be said to have lacked controversy. But to <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/news\/article-3445116\/Queen-cynicism-No-stunt-s-shameless-Beyonce-accused-trying-look-white-week-posed-heroine-black-power.html\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">those who call her hypocritical<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> for having tried to \u201clook white\u201d and only now embracing her race and its suffering, one may point out that it was her playing along that enabled her to perform such a politically divisive song center stage at the Super Bowl, America\u2019s hallowed ground\u2014and only a day after the song\u2019s release. No artist comes to mind who has maintained a consistent image and dedicated his or her entire career to activism while achieving that same kind of exposure. Ditto to those who fault Beyonc\u00e9 for being called a paragon of female autonomy while also flaunting her physical beauty onstage, in dress and gesture. There is no other female pop star that attained the level of attention Beyonc\u00e9 has gained without doing the same\u2014let alone the level of veneration. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Beyonc\u00e9\u2019s <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Self-Aware<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">-ness and her <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Aspirational<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">-ity are exceptional. She has been beautiful but not too slutty, intelligent but not in an ostentatious way, a girl, a woman, a mother, a celebrity. Her career\u2019s abnormality provides a stark and revealing contrast to the norm. It shows us an impossible but mandatory aspiration, something society has defined and demanded in such terms that it precludes the thing\u2019s very actuality\u2014namely, the perfect woman. Only Beyonc\u00e9 could breach the Taylor Frontier because only Beyonc\u00e9 is allowed to be Beyonc\u00e9. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">But of course, that\u2019s not Beyonc\u00e9\u2019s fault. It\u2019s ours.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Disclaimers: Big data might save the world, but this exercise is entirely subjective. Any references from before 2008 come from covers of Us Weekly that we saw in the grocery store. Names that appear on the matrix might more accurately be associated with public perception of the individual rather than with their true character (e.g., [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":567,"featured_media":1832,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,11],"tags":[229],"class_list":{"0":"post-1804","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-art","8":"category-features","9":"tag-mx-bey","10":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/students.bowdoin.edu\/bowdoin-review\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1804","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/students.bowdoin.edu\/bowdoin-review\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/students.bowdoin.edu\/bowdoin-review\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/students.bowdoin.edu\/bowdoin-review\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/567"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/students.bowdoin.edu\/bowdoin-review\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1804"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/students.bowdoin.edu\/bowdoin-review\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1804\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/students.bowdoin.edu\/bowdoin-review\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1832"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/students.bowdoin.edu\/bowdoin-review\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1804"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/students.bowdoin.edu\/bowdoin-review\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1804"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/students.bowdoin.edu\/bowdoin-review\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1804"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}