Albums Review: Sounds Of Yesterday, Society Of Tomorrow
LGBTQIA+ Community — Transformer vs. Dirty Computer
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For me, the most significant element that music has is the power to get to know each other better and better. By dissecting and extracting our identity, both ideologically, sexually and emotionally, it makes us realize what our own thoughts, feelings and reactions are to everyday life and, in my opinion, there is no other area (along with fashion) that highlights greater acceptance of the LGBTQIA+ community.
From the beginnings of the 1960’s sexual revolution until today, it has shown to have a vocal and awareness-raising role for society at large, helping in the learning process of respecting others.
Since then, the essence of this community is increasingly catalyst, exposed by musical genres such as disco, glam rock, new wave and queer core, to solo artists and groups such as Elton John, David Bowie, Wham!, Culture Club, Pet Shop Boys, among others, who have provided a “dialogue” between generations and mentalities while weaving thoughts, such as frustration to their marginalization and hope for acceptance and understanding.
Therefore, the two albums, under review, are examples of all these elements which we associate with the LGBTQIA+ community.
Lou Reed — Transformer
Genre(s): glam rock
Tracklist: Here
The first album, under review, is entitled Transformer by American artist Lou Reed, which was released in 1972 by RCA Records.
Since his youth in The Velvet Underground (one of my favorite groups of the 60’s and pioneers in the avant-garde, proto-punk and art rock scene, which I recommend to fans of these genres) marked by decadent lyricism, nihilistic and deprecating views of society, Lou Reed had already assured his status in musical history.
However, Reed was not content and sought a different approach in his solo career.
Not having had much success with his debut album and seeking to be controversial as always, he took a more mainstream approach than previous works, looking for a change in his look (suggested by Angie Bowie, who persuaded him to dress more exotically, adopting an alabaster-faced black-eyeliner persona, named The Phantom of Rock), and exploring biographical and characteristic topics, from the early 1970’s.
Having this as a goal, he asked his friend and artist David Bowie to cooperate in the creative, promotional and music production process of this project.
Bowie brought his guitarist Mick Ronson, from The Spiders from Mars (a band that collaborated with Bowie between 1971 and 1974), for the production process and instrumental arrangement, providing a greater vision of practical technical character.
Production wise (under the supervision of Reed), Bowie and Ronson (responsible for the arrangement of the entire album and main session musician of it) held the recording at Trident Studios in London, England, with the participation of several instrumentalists, such as Lou Reed himself (lead vocals and rhythm guitar), David Bowie (backing vocals, keyboards; acoustic guitar on “Walk on the Wild Side” and Wagon Wheel”), Mick Ronson (lead guitar, piano, recorder (type of windwood flute instrument) and string arrangements), Herbie Flowers (bass guitar, double bass; tuba on “Make Up” and “Goodnight Ladies”), John Halsey (drums), among others.
All these participants contributed to a more commercial and basic sound of chord progressions, impeccably characterizing the glam rock genre (although I don’t consider it the best work in this genre).
Of the most notorious details it contains are in tracks such as “Perfect Day” or “Satellite of Love”, which evidences Ronson’s contribution to the sharpest arrangement in the strings to prevail over Reed’s voice.
Although I appreciate the production, Reed’s lyricism throughout the album is, in my opinion, his best solo work and what should really be taken into account.
By weaving content on various topics, such as sexual identity and irreverence (on “Vicious”, inspired by Andy Warhol, who provided him the idea by a dialogue: “Oh, you know vicious like, I hit you with a flower”), biographical character through creative wordplay (on “Andy’s Chest, dedicated to Warhol, referring to scar on his chest after he was shot by Valerie Solanas, his former employee in his The Factory studio; on “Hangin’ Round”, influenced by his appreciation for cowboys and artistic affirmation in the post-Velvet era; and on “New York Telephone Conversation”, which highlights the distancing from the glam rock persona in Warhol’s time as manager of Velvet, for a solo storytelling maturity), metaphorical approach between loveloss, depression and drug abuse (on “Perfect Day”, my favorite song from the album, which is mentioned to have been inspired by both his first love, Shelley Albin, and the manipulative and mentally perverted effect she had on Reed, and his heroin addiction, emphasizing it as crucial and stabilizing to his life: “Oh such a perfect day/You just keep me hanging on”; on “Wagon Wheel” and “Goodnight Ladies”) and the criticism of capitalist envy and ostentation (on “Satellite of Love”, of my favorite tracks, which had been conceived in the days of the Velvet Underground, with a much faster tempo version, than the more downtempo ballad ironized type of the album), demonstrates all the mundane and raw narrative exploration, which seeks so much to convey.
However, the three songs that portray more notoriously and descriptively, his outtake of the LGBTIQ+ community (Also, Reed was allegedly bisexual, but was never confirmed by the artist) are “I’m So Free”, in which he portrays New York’s life marked by gender identity, androgyny, prostitution and gay culture (“Then we went down to Times/And ever since I’ve been hanging around there”; “Make Up”, in which he seeks to raise awareness of LGBTIQ+ lifestyle society in the era, describing a homosexual relationship with a drag queen, from the moment she wakes up (“And then when you open your eyes”) until the moment she transforms (“You’re a slick little girl”); and “Walk on the Wild Side”, which is arguably Reed’s best-known and reviewed song. In this song, Reed pays tribute to Warhol’s Factory friends and superstars (“I thought it would be fun to introduce people you see at parties but don’t dare approach”), addressing various elements of the New York underground scene, such as drugs (“Jackie is just speeding away/Thought she was James Dean for a day”), cross-dressing, transsexuality (“Shaved her legs and then he was a she”), prostitution (“In the bathroom, she was everybody’s darling”) and oral sex (“But she never lost her head”/Even when she was giving head”), wanting to make us experience the life of this community, which is so often discriminated against, marginalized and ostracized.
“Walk on the Wild Side” is the ultimate ode to the LGBTQIA+ community, and its influence, like Transformer, endures to this day as one of the ultimate LGBTIQ+ subject musical works.
Therefore, I recommend this album to anyone interested in glam rock, punk, songwriting and the artist’s perspective on the LGBTQIA+ community (Link here).
Janelle Monáe — Dirty Computer
Genre(s): Pop, funk, hip hop, R&B, neo soul
Tracklist: Here
The second album, under review, is entitled Dirty Computer, the third album studio of African-American artist Janelle Monáe, released in 2018 by the Wondaland Arts Society, Bad Boy Records and Atlantic Records.
The release was accompanied by an “Emotion Picture” (as said by Monáe), in a 46-minute-long narrative-film format; according to the artist when talking about her trailer, the purpose was “accompanying [the] musical album” (depicted through Janelle Monáe’s android character, Jane 57821, which is in its essence, a human computer), providing a more cinematic and conceptual perspective.
Since the beginning of her career, Monáe has always demonstrated her interventional and social character on several themes, such as LGBTQIA+ rights and feminism. With this project, she evokes all these moral and ideological principles, immediately evidenced by the title.
By an analogy between the role of the human being and his/her self-judgement in society, high-tech devices and their consequent revolution (in this case computers), Monáe speaks to all those who are treated or seen as “dirty computers” (“We come from dirt and when we transition out we go back to dirt”), weaving that it is crucial to have a discussion “as a society, as human beings, about what it means to tell somebody that their existence, either they’re queer, minorities, women, poor, makes you have bugs and viroses”.
This reflexive eradication will make it possible to refuse other people’s opinions, making it possible to be faithful to oneself, because there is something the digital revolution cannot offer, and that is uniqueness and self-conscience.
The album was recorded and conceptually developed, between 2015 and 2018, at several studios such as Wondaland Studios and Stankonia in Atlanta, Georgia, Chalice Studios and Atlantic Records in New York, NY, and Shawty Ra in Los Angeles, California.
It had the collaboration of numerous producers, such as Janelle Monáe herself (co-producer on tracks, like “Dirty Computer” and “Americans”, vocal production and recording), Nate Wonder (producer, co-producer on “Django Jane”, recording and vocal production), Mattman and Robin (producers on “Make Me Feel”), Chuck Lightning (co-producer on tracks like “Crazy, Classic, Life” and “Americans”, additional producer on “I Got the Juice”), among others; and instrumentalists/arrangers such as Janelle Monáe (leading vocals, backing vocals on “Django Jane” and musical arrangement on “So Afraid”), Pharrell Williams (lead vocals on “I Got the Juice”), Brian Wilson (background vocals on “Dirty Computer” and “Take a Byte”), Nate Wonder (arrangement, among other duties).
These collaborations provided a sonic exploration of various musical genres such as pop, funk, hip hop, R&B and neo soul, by incorporating elements/details of several others such as electropop, futurepop, pop rock (like on “Pynk”, inspired lyrically and conceptually, by Aerosmith’s song “Pink”), minneapolis soul (notoriously popularized by Minneapolis native and music icon Prince, one of Monáe’s biggest inspirations and mentors), trap, new wave, synthpop and latin music.
The quite synthesised and harmonically driven process was developed by Prince’s input (until his death in April 2016; he cooperated with Monáe in particular on “Make Me Feel”, which eludes sonically to his song “Kiss”, and honours Michael Jackson in the chorus) and Stevie Wonder (like on “Stevie’s Dream”, which is inspired by conversations with the musician), which was later continued by Monáe, with the purpose of a specific sonic concept, divided into three categories: Reckoning (the perception that Monáe has of how society sees her), Affirmation (acceptance by the artist of the visions and critics pointed out by society) and Reclamation (redefinition and hope for change of the American identity).
Following the same premise of the sonic division, this is also applied lyrically with the collaboration of several co-writers, such as Nathaniel Irvin III, Charles Webb II, among others.
Here we have, in mind, all of Dirty Computer’s artistic impetus which, according to Monáe, is a “homage to women and the spectrum of sexual identities”.
By addressing several subjects, Monáe completelly “undresses” introspeciously, exposing a vulnerability that she has worked so hard to reveal, such as:
- Link of humanity to technological machines (on “Dirty Computer”, in which it refers to the so-called virus instilled in each one of us, in need of being decomposed; and “Take a Byte”, in which it’s elaborated through a wordplay comparison, between the forbidden fruit of the history of Adam and Eve, and computer jargon (words related to computers and associated topics), i.e., the melding of human characteristics, with the most synthetic and computerised impetus);
- Freedom of socio-cultural expression (on “Crazy, Classic, Life”, in which Monáe weaves her desire to live in a world in which she is accepted for being who she is, like all others who feel oppressed by it);
- Feminism and women empowerment (in tracks like “Take a Byte”, which by her android character Jane 57821, refers to the influence of feminist figures in her creative process, like Queen of Sheba, Eve, from the Book of Genesis, among others; “Django Jane”, in which she praises her strength as an African-American woman, and all that she has surpassed until then, supporting all those who feel oppressed by their gender and race; “Pynk”, in which she points out pride in her feminine identity, correlating it to a stereotype typical of Western culture, which associates the boy with blue, and the girl with pink);
- Religion (on “Stevie’s Dream”, in which she mentions that all religions should be integrated with affection);
- American socio-cultural situation (on “Jane’s Dream”, in which her android character Jane 57821, yearns for a new direction for the future of America); “Screwed”, which applies an analogy between sexual identity and the state of America; “I Got the Juice”, inspired by the film “Juice” and the top floor of the National Museum of African American History and Culture, referring to power and justice; and “Americans”, the last track of the album, which according to the artist, is an ode to racist habits and social issues in America, that she’s so eager for change, such as police brutality, sexism, xenophobia, homophobia, immigration, among others).
However, there’s no other social topic (apart from feminism, which in my opinion is the central one) that Monáe opens up as much as her view of the LGBTQIA+ community, since she herself identifies with it, being a pansexual “queer woman”.
She portrays these turmoils within herself, in songs such as “Make Me Feel” (exposing questions both for a lover and for herself, regarding her sexuality), “I Like That” and “Don’t Judge Me” (referring to the refusal of importance given to rumors around her sexuality, adjectivating herself as a “free-ass motherfucker”, by appealing to self-love on the part of all who feel the same), “So Afraid” (in which she reflects on her failures as a human being, representative of these “bugs” and “viruses”, and sporadic fears and anxieties that she feels, relative to her sexual orientation), evoking a total expressiveness, in a tone of hope and example for this community.
Putting this, I recommend this album to anyone interested in pop, current R&B and social sciences, you will not be disappointed (Link here).
Clash of Times (Transformer vs. Dirty Computer)
With Transformer, Lou Reed provides a personal perspective and representative voice of the New York LGBTQIA+ community, making this one of his most important musical projects.
In a 1970’s era marked by several sexual revolutions, such as the Women’s Liberation Movement and the Stonewall Riots in New York (which made possible the first gay pride parade, in 1970), Reed was one of the precursors for this discussion and openness to the eyes of society.
However, this prejudice is still found today both on social, business and constitutional levels.
And this is currently confirmed by projects such as Dirty Computer, in which Monáe demonstrates an artist who intends, according to her personal experience, to deconstruct a generalized perception by defying stigma in society, thereby making her one of my generation’s biggest icons for the LGBTQIA+ community.
With distinct challenges from the 70’s, fortunately there are more ways to expose themselves both in the area of culture and by the use of high technology. A greater acceptance and demand, by younger age groups, has been shown through movements such as Pride, as well as media and audiovisual exposure by reality shows, documentaries, social media, among others, setting an example for future generations to move away from hatred and prejudice, and embrace compassion and understanding.
Regardless of our sexual orientation, we all deserve to be treated with dignity and respect, and when these mentalities are eradicated, we will be able to evolve, even further, as a society.
“No child is born homophobic. Teach acceptance, not ignorance”.
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