Fashioning the Body: Versions of the Citizen, the Self, and the Subject

The other day, I watched a bunch of music videos on YouTube, and I've been thinking a lot about the video for No Scrubs by TLC since then. I really wanted to embed a bunch of Youtube videos in this post, but it doesn't seem to work, so I will just do links.

http://www.youtube.com/v/Av7m_Pgt1S8

I'm really interested in the futurism of the video, and the way that they're vaguely robotic at times in the video. I know we're going to learn more about cyborgs in weeks 7 and 8, but I wanted to comment on this now before I forgot about it. I'm going to post a number of videos that are interesting to me because of the way they play with technology and identity. I don't really have too many thoughts that I can put into words right now, and certainly no conclusions. Does anyone else have any thoughts on these videos?

Missy Elliott - Sock It 2 Me

http://www.youtube.com/v/ZH5OqrqCCes

Missy Elliott - The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)

http://www.youtube.com/v/ZCbvYY9PKRg

Lil' Kim - How Many Licks (WARNING: This is very ... explicit, I guess)

http://www.youtube.com/v/qPWmcWS5PvQ

There's a really interesting article I found on Ebscohost that talks about "The Rain" and "How Many Licks." It's "Supa Dupa Fly: Black Women as Cyborgs in Hip Hop Videos," by Steven Shaviro, and it's from a 2005 issue of Quarterly Review of Film and Video. (Ebscohost can be accessed from the Evergreen library web page under databases).

Kylie Minogue - Love at First Sight

http://www.youtube.com/v/oBi0p4gRcDY

I think this is interesting for the robotic back up dancers and all the grids, which remind me of Julia's lecture on the first day of class.

Britney - Oops! I Did It Again

http://www.youtube.com/v/unBACOHFXes

This was the first Britney single where the lyrics of the song show any personal agency on Britney's part . . . and in the video, she's a Martian.

Cher - Believe

http://www.youtube.com/v/0bTREzJL83A

If you're interested at all in vocoders, you need to read the article "Believe?: Vocoders, Digitalised Female Identity, and Camp" by Kay Dickinson. It's from the Journal of Popular Music and it's on Jstor.

Truesteppers ft Victoria Beckham - Out of Your Mind

http://www.youtube.com/v/neLfgzdxlMw

Another interesting vocoder song.

T-Pain - Buy You a Drank

http://www.youtube.com/v/Oy-nqyfR_w4

And here's a man singing with a vocoder. There's nothing technological about the video, though, which I think is very interesting in and of itself.