Essay Sample on the History of Janelle Monae and Pink

Introduction

Janelle Monae is a renown R&B singer born in Kansas City in the year 1985. The began her journey as a musician as a child and got her breakthrough in 2005 when she invited by the Big Boi to make some OutKast tracks. Producer Sean Combs later signed her to his Bad Boy Records label. She is known for several music albums such as 'The ArchAndroid' in 2010 which earned number 17on the Billboard U.S chart and won the Grammy nomination (Redmond, Shana L, pg 393-241). In 2013, she released another album 'The Electric Lady.' However, she joined the film industry and was featured in the Moonlight and Hidden before releasing her third album 'Dirty Computer,' in April 2018. During her childhood, Monae had a clear understanding of the dangers of drug addiction due to the struggles she faced in her upbringing. Her father was a garbage truck driver while the mother a janitor. Through hard work, she got the inspiration to achieve her goals and passionate about doing the right things. However, before the release of her third album, in the late February 2018, Monae released to singles 'Make Me Feel' and 'Pink'. Pink was a collaboration with Grimes which later earned the Best Music Video Grammy nomination.

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The Relationship Between Monae’s Pink Video and the Album Dirty Computer

The Dirty Computer was accompanied by a short film that she called the 'motion picture'. During the 2018 Grammy Awards performance, Monae advocates use of the words 'Times Up' that is used to refer to the movement for equality that rose due to sexual assault allegations in Hollywood. Further, it indicates the end of discrimination and any harassment and the need to shape the culture of Hollywood. She urges people to create a dominant culture by working together.

To create a unified community, Monae went ahead and addressed rumors about her sexuality. There were rumors that she was bisexual and being a black woman in America earned her a lot of misconceptions. However, she directed the issue by saying that she considered herself pansexual; attracted to people regardless of their identity. It was also a breakthrough for her liberation.

There is a close relationship between Monae's Pink video and the Dirty computer in terms of the single's sounds. It was because the sounds had been produced by Prince who had passed on before the release of the other songs. It can also be noted that in her previous albums she used a lot of metaphorical language in expressing herself and her views. However, in this album Dirty Computer, she decided to expose her individuality and assist women to identify their social identity. Again, the video Pink depicted a fantasy about female sexuality and was used as a pathway for the album Dirty Computer.

The video Pink starred Tessa Thompson who exposed her genitals which was a clear indication that the album Dirty was not going to be subtle. She takes her time to talk about her ego and revealed her true self making it the most honest album. Monae can be viewed as a queer lady even through close observation of her previous songs. She took the moment in the Dirty Computer to openly embrace her queer identity where she addressed those people who wanted to celebrate and who she was unhappy with (Elliott H. Powell, Pg 1-5). Pink is also a very queer video with dancers wearing costumes resembling the vagina. She seems to be embracing her womanhood in this particular video. In her songs, she used Cindi Mayweather who is viewed as a futuristic and revolutionary who fell in love with a human expressing herself through art. She reveals the theme of personal code especially when she sings 'Your code is programmed not to love me, but you can pretend' which clearly explains that sexuality is something internal and cannot be implicated on somebody else. Again her idea about the interpretation of sexual orientation can be found in yet another line of her song stating 'I'm not that special, I'm broke inside.'

Evaluate the Unique Use of Pink in Her Title, Its Effect, Why Monae Made This Part Choice

The word Pink comes from the color pink. Pink is deemed to be a color found in the deepest and darkest edges of humanity. She, therefore, decides to use the title Pink to depict celebration of creation, self-love and embrace sexuality through defining it as a place where the is born.

Again, pink can be regarded as a feminine color and so through the use of her well-choreographed video she is able to pass a great message. In this song, she sings "pink is where all of it starts, crazy" indicating the dawn of new beginnings. Her video is characterized by pink lipstick, pink consumes and pink-themed parties. It can be seen as a video that is thoroughly educating women to embrace womanhood and the pleasure that comes along with feminism. The video Pynk and the Dirty computer can be defined as great themes for the black women pride, their sexual liberalization, and feminism which is profoundly layered and has deep insights (Painia, Brianne A).The emotion picture in the Dirty computer indicates a tale of two cities that are facing worst of times. It directly shows the real image of the America politics whereby the people are living in hostility, and the governance lacks democracy. This videos, however, unveils the democratic culture and addresses the civil rights of the most marginalized populations which are referred to as the 'dirty computers.' The Dirty computer is figurative. It is because infected computers are full of viruses which need to be cleaned out. Therefore, Monae clearly shows the fears and challenges the marginalized populations are facing. Monae positions her work as a politic declaration in her constant conversation with the present affairs through the creation of a fictional government performing the same acts. For instance, "They started calling us computers. People began vanishing, and the cleaning began. You were dirty if you looked different. You were dirty if you refused to live the way they dictated..."

Works Cited

Aghoro, Nathalie. "Agency in the Afrofuturist Ontologies of Erykah Badu and Janelle Monae." Open Cultural Studies 2.1 (2018): 330-340.

Badu, Erykah, and First Lady Michelle. "Janelle monae."

Painia, Brianne A. " My Crown Too Heavy Like Queen Nefertiti": A Black Feminist Analysis of Erykah Badu, Beyonce Knowles, Nicki Minaj, and Janelle Monae. Diss. George Washington University, 2014.

Redmond, Shana L. "This Safer Space: Janelle Monae's "Cold War"." Journal of Popular Music Studies 23.4 (2011): 393-411.

Smalls, Shante Paradigm, and Elliott H. Powell. "Introduction: An ImPossibility: Black Queer and Trans* Aesthetics." (2019): 1-5.