Prince - Controversy
1 2017-12-12T10:12:38-08:00 Sam Schaefer 394cfd47fa9812b1affb27b8128defe57fcac106 27540 1 Prince performs his song "Controversy," in which he discusses the way people speculated about his race and sexual orientation. He, at once, coyly made fun of the discussion and perpetuated it, using the mystery and "exoticism" as part of his artistic and commercial appeal. plain 2017-12-12T10:12:38-08:00 YouTube 2017-07-24T21:59:23.000Z 4gazNwzC4H0 Prince Sam Schaefer 394cfd47fa9812b1affb27b8128defe57fcac106This page is referenced by:
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2017-12-13T17:03:51-08:00
Racial Ambiguity and the Sale of Identity and Art
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2017-12-13T17:33:45-08:00
Although the midcentury years were a key period in the commodification of racial ambiguity, as well as the development of its use as a license for complex artistic expression that defied racialized genre restrictions in music, these modes of culture have continued.
In 1981, rising star Prince released a song and album entitled Controversy, where he coyly asked, "Am I Black or white? Am I straight or gay?" answering his own query with a sly answer, "controversy." By doing so, Prince simultaneously mocked and amplified outside speculation about his identity, which was inextricably linked to the art and entertainment he produced for sale.
Musicians who used racial ambiguity as part of their craft often used it to critique homogenized constructions of race, opening the door for more complex understandings of racial identity. Those efforts, however, have been unsuccessful in dismantling racialized codings of art, music, images and entertainment, leaving Charles Mingus' dream of a "colorless island" far out of reach of contemporary platforms for popular culture.