Diva

Feminism and Fierceness from Pop to Hip-Hop

Kirsty Fairclough, Kirsty Fairclough, Benjamin Halligan, Shara Rambarran, Nicole Hodges Persley

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Year: 2023
• Print ISBN: 9781501368257
• eBook ISBN: 9781501368264
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: Music

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.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-Title
• Title
• Contents
• List of figures
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction: Y’all! the diva and us
• Section one The rise to power
• 1 ‘Proceed with Caution’: Mariah Carey – the ultimate diva in popular music and culture?
• 2 Performing creative labour: Whitney Houston metanarratives on MTV, 1985–8
• 3 A girl of many colours: Dolly Parton’s image evolution: 1967–2022
• 4 A fondness for shock: The celebrated outburst of Grace Jones
• Section two The diva and our times
• 5 Aaliyah’s voice and after
• 6 ‘Suck On My Balls, Bitch!’: #MeToo and Beyoncé – A paradigm shift
• 7 Amuro Namie: Japan’s diva in the postmodern era?
• 8 Reconstructing the American Dream: Janelle Monáe’s Afrofuturist performances
• 9 ‘WAP’: Erotic revolutionary hip-hop by Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion
• 10 Putting divas back in their place: Controversy and backlash at the 2020 Super Bowl Halftime Show
• 11 Simultaneously Black: Drake and Nicki Minaj and the performance of hip-hop cosmopolitanisms
• Section three Diva cultures
• 12 Curating the diva
• 13 A Diva on the Iranian stage: Ali Akbar Alizad’s remix of Jean Genet’s The Maids
• 14 Recasting diva culture: Performative strategies of fourth wave Black feminist stand-up comedy
• 15 Independent women: The impact of pop divas on stand-up comedy
• List of contributors
• Index
• Copyright