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| Book | Searching... Cabell County Public Library | 781.66092 NAM | Adult | Searching... Unknown |
| Book | Searching... Gallaher Village Public Library | 781.66092 NAM | Adult | Searching... Unknown |
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Summary
Summary
Featured in the 2020 Association of University Presses Book, Jacket, and Journal Show
In 1993, Prince infamously changed his name to a unique, unpronounceable symbol. Yet this was only one of a long string of self-reinventions orchestrated by Prince as he refused to be typecast by the music industry's limiting definitions of masculinity and femininity, of straightness and queerness, of authenticity and artifice, or of black music and white music.
Revealing how he continually subverted cultural expectations, I Wonder U examines the entirety of Prince's diverse career as a singer, multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, producer, record label mogul, movie star, and director. It shows how, by blending elements of R&B, rock, and new wave into an extremely videogenic package, Prince was able to overcome the color barrier that kept black artists off of MTV. Yet even at his greatest crossover success, he still worked hard to retain his credibility among black music fans. In this way, Adilifu Nama suggests, Prince was able to assert a distinctly black political sensibility while still being perceived as a unique musical genius whose appeal transcended racial boundaries.
Author Notes
Adilifu Nama is a professor of African American studies at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. He has written numerous books about the intersection between African American studies and pop culture, including Super Black: American Pop Culture and Black Superheroes and Race on the QT: Blackness and the Films of Quentin Tarantino.
Reviews (1)
Library Journal Review
Prince (1958--2016) was known for diversifying his career as a singer, songwriter, producer, actor, and more, all while reinventing himself. Nama (African American studies, Loyola Marymount Univ.; Race on the QT: Blackness and the Films of Quentin Tarantino) focuses on Prince's reinventions and his influence on popular and American culture. By using examples of the performer's work and interviews and referring to other research on the musician, Nama places Prince's bold personality in the context of its effects on black expression, "black music" and "white music," masculinity, gender, and sexuality, all areas that were more rigidly defined in a previous generation and that Prince asks us to reassess. For those born in the 1990s or later, this book explores what were once shocking displays of the human body and sexuality and provides insight into the artist's nonconformity, which many will now see as commonplace. VERDICT A must for Prince fans and for readers interested in his impact on the music industry, pop culture, and race and gender theory.--Elizabeth Berndt-Morris, Loeb Music Lib., Harvard Univ., Cambridge, MA
Table of Contents
| Introduction | p. 1 |
| 1 Incognegro | p. 10 |
| 2 On the Black Hand Side | p. 36 |
| 3 Enfant Terrible | p. 58 |
| 4 Cherry Bomb | p. 82 |
| 5 Chaos and Crossroads | p. 107 |
| 6 Don't Call It a Comeback... | p. 130 |
| 7 Dearly Beloved; An Epitaph | p. 146 |
| Acknowledgments | p. 155 |
| Notes | p. 157 |
| Index | p. 165 |
