Diva: Feminism and Fierceness from Pop to Hip-Hop

by Benjamin Halligan (Editor), Shara Rambarran (Editor), Nicole Hodges Persley (Editor), Kirsty Fairclough (Editor)

Overview

The diva – a central figure in the landscape of contemporary popular culture: gossip-generating, scandal-courting, paparazzi-stalked. And yet the diva is at the epicentre of creative endeavours that resonate with contemporary feminist ideas, kick back against diminished social expectations, boldly call-out casual sexism and industry misogyny and, in terms of hip-hop, explores intersectional oppressions and unapologetically celebrates non-white cultural heritages. Diva beats and grooves echo across culture and politics in the West: from the borough to the White House, from arena concerts to nightclubs, from social media to social activism, from #MeToo to Black Lives Matter.

Diva: Feminism and Fierceness from Pop to Hip-Hop addresses the diva phenomenon and its origins: its identity politics and LGBTQ+ components; its creativity and interventions in areas of popular culture (music, and beyond); its saints and sinners and controversies old and new; and its oppositions to, and recuperations by, the establishment; and its shifts from third to fourth waves of feminism.

This co-edited collection brings together an international array of writers – from new voices to established names. The collection scopes the rise to power of the diva (looking to Mariah Carey, Whitney Houston, Dolly Parton, Grace Jones, and Aaliyah), then turns to contemporary diva figures and their work (with Beyoncé, Amuro Namie, Janelle Monáe, Cardi B, Megan Thee Stallion, Shakira, Jennifer Lopez, and Nicki Minaj), and concludes by considering the presence of the diva in wider cultures, in terms of gallery curation, theatre productions, and stand-up comedy.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781501368264
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Publishing
Publication date:	09/07/2023
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	304
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

Kirsty Fairclough is Professor of Screen Studies at the School of Digital Arts (SODA) at Manchester Metropolitan University, UK. She is the co-editor of The Music Documentary (2013), The Arena Concert (Bloomsbury, 2015), The Legacy of Mad Men, Music/Video (2019), Prince and Popular Culture (Bloomsbury, 2020) and author of the forthcoming Beyoncé: Celebrity Feminism and Popular Culture. She is the Chair of Manchester Jazz Festival.

Benjamin Halligan is the Director of the Doctoral College of the University of Wolverhampton, UK. His publications include Michael Reeves (2003), Desires for Reality: Radicalism and Revolution in Western European Film (2019), and Hotbeds of Licentiousness: The British Glamour Film and the Permissive Society (2022). He has co-edited: Mark E. Smith and The Fall (2010); Reverberations (Bloomsbury, 2012); Resonances (Bloomsbury, 2013); The Music Documentary (2013); The Arena Concert (Bloomsbury, 2016); Stories We Could Tell (2019); Politics of the Many (Bloomsbury, 2021) and Adult Themes (forthcoming).

Nicole Hodges Persley is Professor of American Studies and African and African American Studies at the University of Kansas, USA. Her books include Sampling and Remixing Blackness in Hip-Hop Theater and Performance and Black Matters: Lewis Morrow Plays (2021) and, as co-editor, Breaking it Down: Audition Techniques for Actors of the Global Majority and Hip-Hop in Musical Theater (2021).

Shara Rambarran is Senior Lecturer at the University of Brighton, UK. She is a musicologist for the award-winning Spotify music podcast, Decode, co-runs the Art of Record Production conferences, and is an editor for the Journal on the Art of Record Production. Her publications include Virtual Music: Sound, Music, and Image in the Digital Era (Bloomsbury, 2021) and (as co-editor) The Oxford Handbook of Music and Virtuality (2016), and The Routledge Research Companion to Popular Music Education (2020).
Benjamin Halligan is the Director of the Doctoral College of the University of Wolverhampton, UK. His publications include Hotbeds of Licentiousness: The British Glamour Film and the Permissive Society (2022), Desires for Reality: Radicalism and Revolution in Western European Film (2016) and Michael Reeves (2003), and the co-edited collections: Politics of the Many (2021); Stories We Could Tell (2018); The Arena Concert (2015); The Music Documentary (2013); Resonances (2013); Reverberations (2012); and Mark E. Smith and The Fall (2010).
Shara Rambarran is Senior Lecturer in Music, Business and Media at the University of Brighton, UK. She is the musicologist for Spotify's award winning music podcast, Decode, co-runs the Art of Record Production conferences, and is an editor on the Journal on the Art of Record Production. Shara is the co-editor of The Oxford Handbook of Music and Virtuality, The Routledge Research Companion to Popular Music Education, and Diva: Feminism and Fierceness from Pop to Hip-Hop (Bloomsbury, 2023). Shara is the author of Virtual Music: Sound, Music, and Image in the Digital Era (Bloomsbury, 2021).
Nicole Hodges Persley is Professor of American Studies and African and African American Studies at the University of Kansas, USA. Her books include Sampling and Remixing Blackness in Hip-Hop Theater and Performance and Hip-Hop in Musical Theatre (Bloomsbury, 2023).
Kirsty Fairclough is Professor of Screen Studies at the School of Digital Arts (SODA) at Manchester Metropolitan University, UK. She is the co-editor of The Music Documentary: Acid Rock to Electropop (2013), The Arena Concert: Music, Media and Mass Entertainment (Bloomsbury, 2016), Music/Video: Forms, Aesthetics, Media (Bloomsbury, 2017), The Legacy of Mad Men: Cultural History, Intermediality and American Television (2020), Prince and Popular Culture (Bloomsbury, 2020), and author of the forthcoming Beyoncé: Celebrity Feminism and Popular Culture (Bloomsbury). She is the curator of Sound and Vision: Pop Stars on Film and In Her View: Women Documentary Filmmakers film seasons at HOME, Manchester and Chair of Manchester Jazz Festival.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations
Acknowledgements
Contributors
Introduction: 'Y'All! The Diva and Us'
Kirsty Fairclough, Manchester Metropolitan University, UK, Benjamin Halligan, University of Wolverhampton, UK, Nicole Hodges Persley, University of Kansas, USA, and Shara Rambarran, University of Brighton, UK
Section One: The Rise to Power
1. “Proceed with Caution”: Mariah Carey – the Ultimate Diva in Popular Music and Culture?
Shara Rambarran, University of Brighton, UK
2.Performing Creative Labour: Whitney Houston Metanarratives on MTV, 1985-1988
Gwynne George, Independent Scholar, USA
3. A Girl of Many Colours: Dolly Parton's Image Evolution, 1967-2022
James Reeves, Independent Scholar, UK
4. A Fondness for Shock: The Celebrated Outburst of Grace Jones
Mark Duffett, University of Chester, UK
Section Two: The Diva and Our Times
5. Aaliyah's Voice and After
Benjamin Halligan, University of Wolverhampton, UK
6. “Suck On My Balls, Bitch!”: #MeToo and Beyoncé – A Paradigm Shift
Hannah Strong, Independent Scholar, USA
7. Amuro Namie: Japan's Diva in the Postmodern Era?
Dorothy Finan, Independent Scholar, UK
8. Reconstructing the American Dream: Janelle Monáe's Afrofuturist Performances
Timmia Hearn DeRoy, Independent Scholar, USA
9. “WAP”: Erotic Revolutionary Hip-Hop by Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion
Shawna Shipley-Gates, Independent Scholar, USA
10. Putting the Divas Back in Their Place: Controversy and Backlash at the 2020 Super Bowl Halftime Show
Gina Sandí Díaz, California State University, USA
11. Simultaneously Black: Drake and Nicki Minaj and the Performance of Hip-Hip Cosmopolitanisms
Nicole Hodges Persley, University of Kansas, USA
Section Three: Diva Cultures
12. Curating the Diva
Harriet Reed, Victoria&Albert Museum, London, UK
13. A Diva on the Iranian Stage: Ali Akbar Alizad's Remix of Jean Genet's The Maids
Rana Esfandiary, University of Kansas, USA
14. Recasting Diva Culture: Performative Strategies of Fourth Wave Black Feminist Stand-Up Comedy
Rachel E. Blackburn, Independent Scholar, USA
15. Independent Women: The Impact of Pop Divas on Stand-Up Comedy
Ellie Tomsett, Birmingham City University, UK, and Nathalie Weidhase, University of Surrey, UK
Index

Editorial Reviews

This book is a work of ideological expansion in which 15 essays about how charismatic female 'stars' choose to perform and represent themselves to the public are compiled to produce data intended to encourage the formulation of a truly global, truly intersectional, style of feminism. Because we know the semantically unstable term 'diva' can be deployed to either praise or damn any female actor, pop star, comedian, or drag queen who dares to use their Dionysian stagecraft to defy repressive stereotypes of how women are allowed to behave, the four editors of Diva: Feminism and Fierceness from Pop to Hip-Hop encourage scholars to embrace the word's semantic drift the better to affirm that for truly gifted performers there is no self-mythologizing body image, social media post, song lyric, or verbal quip so transgressive that it cannot function as effective cultural critique and resistance.” —Dr. Carol Cooper, journalist, cultural critic, and Adjunct Professor, Clive Davis Institute for Recorded Music, New York University, USA

“Diva: Feminism and Fierceness from Pop to Hip-Hop will forever change the way you define diva! From Grace Jones to Mariah Carey to Cardi B, the book highlights the complexity and multivalent narratives of the diva in contexts inside and outside of popular music. The ever-shifting identity of the diva is interrogated as a far more intricate and nuanced view than the stereotype allows, affirming the term diva as an empowering, multifaceted cultural icon.” —De Angela L. Duff, Industry Professor & Associate Vice Provost, New York University, USA

From the Publisher