Beyoncé in the World: Making Meaning with Queen Bey in Troubled Times (Music / Culture)

Description

Essays investigate Beyoncé's global impact From Destiny's Child to Lemonade, Homecoming, and The Gift, Beyoncé Knowles-Carter has redefined global stardom, feminism, Black representation, and celebrity activism. This book brings together new work from sixteen international scholars to explore Beyonce's impact as an artist and public figure from the perspectives of critical race studies, gender and women's studies, queer and cultural studies, music, and fan studies. The authors explore Beyoncé's musical persona as one that builds upon the lineages of Black female cool, Black southern culture, and Black feminist cultural production. They explore Beyoncé's reception within and beyond North America, including how a range of performers―from YouTube gospel singers to Brazilian pop artists have drawn inspiration from her performances and image. The authors show how Beyoncé's music is a source of healing and kinship for many fans, particularly Black women and queer communities of color. Combining cutting edge research, vivid examples, and accessible writing, this collection provides multiple lenses onto the significance of Beyoncé in the United States and around the world. Cover Beyoncé in the World Title Copyright CONTENTS Foreword Acknowledgments Introduction: Beyoncé Studies PART ONE “DIVA” / BLACK FEMINIST GENEALOGIES 1. “I Came to Slay”: The Knowles Sisters, Black Feminism, and the Lineage of Black Female Cool 2. From Colorism to Conjurings: Tracing the Dust in Beyoncé’s Lemonade PART TWO “FORMATION” / A SOUTHERN TURN 3. Beyoncé’s South and a “Formation” Nation 4. Merging Past and Present in Lemonade’s Black Feminist Utopia PART THREE “XO” / FAITH AND FANDOM 5. At the Digital Cross(roads) with Beyoncé: Gospel Covers That Remix the Risqué into the Religious 6. “She Made Me Understand”: How Lemonade Raised the Intersectional Consciousness of Beyoncé’s International Fans PART FOUR “WORLDWIDE WOMAN” / BEYONCÉ’S RECEPTION BEYOND THE UNITED STATES 7. The Performative Negotiations of Beyoncé in Brazilian Bodies and the Construction of the Pop Diva in Ludmilla’s Funk Carioca and Gaby Amarantos’s Tecnobrega 8. A Critical Analysis of White Ignorance Within Beyoncé’s Online Reception in the Spanish Context PART FIVE “HOLD UP” / PERFORMING FEMME AFFINITY AND DISSENT 9. Six-Inch Heels and Queer Black Femmes: Beyoncé and Black Trans Women 10. From “Say My Name” to “Texas Bamma”: Transgressive Topoi, Oppositional Optics, and Sonic Subversion in Beyoncé’s “Formation” PART SIX “FREEDOM” / SOUNDING PROTEST, HEARING POLITICS 11. Musical Form in Beyoncé’s Protest Music 12. Beyoncé’s Black Feminist Critique: Multimodal Intertextuality and Intersectionality in “Sorry” PART SEVEN “PRAY YOU CATCH ME” / HEALING AND COMMUNITY 13. Beyond “Becky with the Good Hair”: Hair and Beauty in Beyoncé’s “Sorry” Kristin Denise Rowe 14. The Livable, Surviving, and Healing Poetics of Lemonade: A Black Feminist Futurity in Action About the Contributors Index