From June 14-20, I am in residency at New WORLD Theater, working to develop a tourable production of my two-woman play EXPATRIATE. Among other things, the play is about music, friendship, sexual tension and race. To prepare, I've been watching a lot of footage of black women performers who were/are popular in France. Josephine Baker. Nina Simone. LaToya Jackson. Grace Jones. Of these, I find the Grace Jones persona/icon to be one of the most fascinating, appealing and appalling. Take, for example, her 2007 single "Corporate Cannibal." Lyrically, it's a smart and powerful protest against New Imperialism but the racial exoticization featured in the (albeit technologically compelling) music video is way too distracting! Who decided that recycling the tired "black woman as insatiable man/eater" image was going to make the song more palatable and pop? Why did Jones agree to this hyper-sexed (and indulgent) distortion of her features? Does her embodiment of the evil she condemns make sense here? Does "blackness as excess" sell the song or the message in the song? Did she write it? Will viewers miss her critique of hyper-capitalism altogether and dismiss the video as just another cool/weird/avant garde offering? In other words, do you think "Corporate Cannibal" is seen first or heard first? Either way, are you moved?
Saturday, June 13, 2009
Grace Jones as Corporate Cannibal?
From June 14-20, I am in residency at New WORLD Theater, working to develop a tourable production of my two-woman play EXPATRIATE. Among other things, the play is about music, friendship, sexual tension and race. To prepare, I've been watching a lot of footage of black women performers who were/are popular in France. Josephine Baker. Nina Simone. LaToya Jackson. Grace Jones. Of these, I find the Grace Jones persona/icon to be one of the most fascinating, appealing and appalling. Take, for example, her 2007 single "Corporate Cannibal." Lyrically, it's a smart and powerful protest against New Imperialism but the racial exoticization featured in the (albeit technologically compelling) music video is way too distracting! Who decided that recycling the tired "black woman as insatiable man/eater" image was going to make the song more palatable and pop? Why did Jones agree to this hyper-sexed (and indulgent) distortion of her features? Does her embodiment of the evil she condemns make sense here? Does "blackness as excess" sell the song or the message in the song? Did she write it? Will viewers miss her critique of hyper-capitalism altogether and dismiss the video as just another cool/weird/avant garde offering? In other words, do you think "Corporate Cannibal" is seen first or heard first? Either way, are you moved?
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2 comments:
my two cents: yes, it does make sense for her to embody what she condemns, for the perhaps overly simplistic reason that the song is in first person. I agree that the distortion, while pretty, is excessive and that less could be more. however, rather than hyper-sexing, I thought it de-sexed her, in that it made her both androgynous and asexual to me - more like the "machine" that she condemns/temporarily embodies. therefore, yes, the message DID resonate with me through the video, and was not lost through the technological vanity. I saw and heard together.
I'm open to being argued with, though.
No arguments here, Mariah :) Thanks for responding. I enjoy your phrase “technological vanity.” I say “hyper-sexed” because something about the lush lipstick mouth claiming to be “a man...eating machine” suggests that her consumption would somehow be pleasurable for the consumed. It’s very “vagina dentata” which, for me, cheapens the protest. That said, not every artful critique can/should be a militant slam poem. Jones is subversive for sure. But I wonder WHY she uses the first person in this song? Is it easier to take this way? Would we roll our eyes if she insisted, “He’s a man...eating machine. He can’t get enough prey. Pray for him”? I do appreciate that Jones doesn’t play the victim here. Nevertheless, I’m still not convinced that she is an appropriate stand-in for New Imperialism.
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