Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-fbnjt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-10T05:17:45.606Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Is the post- in post-identity the post- in post-genre?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 December 2016

Robin James
Robin James*
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy, UNC Charlotte, 9201 University City Blvd. Charlottte, NC 28223 E-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The ‘post-’ in both post-identity politics and post-genre musical practice refers to the same thing. Through readings of Taylor Swift's ‘Shake It Off’, Diplo's description of his practice as a DJ, producer and impresario, Sasha Frere-Jones's infamous New Yorker piece on indie rock miscegenation, and critical race theorists Cristina Beltran and Jared Sexton's critiques of post-racial politics, I demonstrate that progress past traditional commitments to white racial purity is both the defining characteristic of post-racial whiteness, and what makes multigenre pop practice count as post-genre. The ‘post-’ in post-identity is what distinguishes post-genre practice from supposedly more primitive forms of genre transgression, such as the love & theft-style cultural appropriation Eric Lott identifies in 19th century blackface minstrelsy or Pitbull's Latin American style racial/musical mestizaje.

Type
Articles
Information
Popular Music , Volume 36 , Special Issue 1: The Critical Imperative , January 2017 , pp. 21 - 32
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2016 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

References

Alcoff, L.M. 2006. Visible Identities: Race, Gender, and the Self (New York) Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Appiah, K.A. 1991. ‘Is the “post” in “postmodern” the “post” in “postcolonial’”?’, Critical Inquiry, 17/2, pp. 336–57CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Aswad, J. 2014. ‘Taylor Swift's pop curveball pays off with “1989”’, Billboard, 24 October. http://www.billboard.com/articles/news/6289405/taylor-swift-1989-album-review Google Scholar
Beltran, C. 2014. ‘Racial presence versus racial justice’, Du Bois Review: Social Science Research on Race, 11/1, pp. 137–58CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brown, W. 1995. States of Injury: Power and Freedom in Late Modernity (Princeton) New Jersey, Princenton University Press.Google Scholar
Cook, S. 2001. ‘“R-E-S-P-E-C-T: find out what it means to me”: feminist musicology and the abject popular’, Women & Music, pp. 140–5Google Scholar
Cooper, G.F. 2014. ‘Pitbull's pants are the talk of social media after World Cup performance’, Today, 12 July. http://www.today.com/popculture/pitbulls-pants-are-talk-social-media-after-world-cup-performance-1D79796451 Google Scholar
Escobedo-Shepherd, J. 2014. ‘In defense of Pitbull’, Deadspin, 16 June. http://theconcourse.deadspin.com/in-defense-of-pitbull-1591370901 Google Scholar
Ferguson, R. 2004. Aberations in Black (Minneapolis) MN, University of Minnesota Press.Google Scholar
Frere-Jones, S. 2007. ‘A paler shade of white: how indie rock lost its soul’, The New Yorker, 22 October 22. http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2007/10/22/a-paler-shade-of-white Google Scholar
Heath, C. 2013. ‘Mars expedition’, GQ, 19 March. http://www.gq.com/story/bruno-mars-interview-gq-april-2013?currentPage=2 Google Scholar
Lenin, A. 2011. ‘What happens to anti-racism when we are post-race’, Feminist Legal Studies, 19/2, pp. 159–68Google Scholar
Lott, E. 1992. ‘Love & theft: the racial unconscious of blackface minstrelsy’, Representations, 39, pp. 23–50 Google Scholar
McRobbie, A. 2007. ‘Top Girls: Young women and the post-feminist sexual contract’, Cultural Studies, 21/4-5, pp. 718–37Google Scholar
McWhorter, L. 2009. Racism and Sexual Oppression in Anglo-America (Bloomington) IN, Indiana University Press Google Scholar
Peterson, R. and Kern, R. 1996. ‘Changing highbrow taste: from snob to omnivore’, American Sociological Review, 61/5, pp. 900–7Google Scholar
Roberts, T. 2011. ‘Michael Jackson's kingdom: music, race, & the sound of the mainstream’, Journal of Popular Music Studies, 23/1, pp. 19–29 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schecter, J. 2015. ‘Diplo & Skrillex are Jack Ü: the Cuepoint interview’, 20 March. https://medium.com/cuepoint/how-diplo-and-skrillex-became-the-coolest-guys-in-music-230c8fa7475e#.ae3zoenna Google Scholar
Sexton, J. 2008. Amalgamation Schemes (Minneapolis) MN, University of Minnesota Press Google Scholar
Spence, L. 2011. Stare in the Darkness (Minneapolis)Google Scholar
Wang, W. 2012. ‘The rise of intermarriage’, The Pew Research Center, 16 February. http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2012/02/16/the-rise-of-intermarriage/?src=prc-headline Google Scholar

Discography

Swift, Taylor. 2014. ‘Shake It Off’. 1989. Big Machine Records.Google Scholar