Author: Alexis Peart

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Think PYNK

So, about a year ago, Janelle Monáe blessed the world with her album Dirty Computer, which contained 14 super amazing tracks, and was also nominated for the Grammy Award Album of the Year . One of the most notable was her song PYNK:

As you can probably guess from the thumbnail, this video blew up the internet and simultaneously summoned the community of internet dwellers to emerge from the deeps of the net and provide Janelle with the worship and praise she deserves:

When discussing the nature of this song, Monáe describes something more of an anthem or manifesto rather than your generic 21st century love song, saying:

“PYNK is a brash celebration of creation. self love. sexuality. and pussy power! PYNK is the color that unites us all, for pink is the color found in the deepest and darkest nooks and crannies of humans everywhere… PYNK is where the future is born….”

The idea of the future being born with PYNK is prevalent throughout the entire music video. Right from the start, PNKY creates this futuristic and seemingly unearthly landscape: The floating car seen in the middle of an entirely pink-hued desert shows a different world where the freedom of “sexuality” and “self love” that Monáe describes is a reality, subtly implying that this pink world is what we should strive to have. Throughout the course of the video, the color transitions from the futuristic pink overlay (which symbolizes this new world) to more real world color, which implies that this “pink reality” is attainable and we are on the path towards it (but not quite there yet).

Throughout the piece, there are several visual images that create quite an impact. Most notably perhaps are the Vagina pants. These pants, whose coloring resembles the two tones that make up the labia majora and the labia minora, provide a powerful (and in the eyes of some commenters, “graphic”) visual representation of the “pink” she is singing about. It is also worth noting that everyone’s vagina pants look different: they are all different widths and sizes with different ratios of light pink to dark pink, showing that there is no one “correct” way a woman’s vagina, and by extension, a woman should look.

But, it’s not all about vagina. Like most of Monáe’s songs, the lyrics of PYNK are packed with multiple meanings. Monáe sings: “Pink like the inside of your…baby / Pink like the walls and the doors…maybe / Pink like your fingers in my…maybe / Pink is the truth you can’t hide / Pink like your tongue going round, baby” while the backup vocals reminds us that “deep inside, we’re all just pink.” So even though this song talks a lot vaginas and sex, it also focuses on the fact that in the end the other “pink” parts of a person, which Monáe mentions later in the song when she sings “Pink like the folds of your brain, crazy” and “Pynk, like the holes of your heart,” are equally as important and valued.

This song also isn’t all about female sex, from the opening line “Pink like the inside of your…baby” and when it is sung again in the second verse as “Pink like the inside of your…maybe,” Janelle Monáe acknowledges the fact that not all women have vaginas, therefore making the song about more about gender than a women’s sex. Monáe extends “pynk”-ness outside of physical genitalia, showing that being a woman and being “pynk” don’t have biological limitations. This is not only hinted at in within the lyrics, but also shown visually as two of the women are not wearing vagina pants; which really shows the incredibly amount of detail that went into crafting the subtleties of the song.

One of the most important things that PYNK does is find a way to display and celebrate female sexuality without trying to appeal to the male gaze. The male gaze, for those who are unfamiliar, is an artistic term coined by film critic Laura Mulvey to describe the depiction of women as sexual objects for the pleasure of the male viewer from the masculine, heterosexual perspective. Monáe’s depiction of women visually comes out of a desire to celebrate the beauty of all women. This idea culminates visually during the second chorus when Monáe is sporting this number:

First the pubic hair, a direct act of rebellion against the male gaze, which bolsters the ridiculous idea that in order for a woman to be most pleasing or attractive to a man she must be hairless or she is considered unattractive or undesirable. The bold hands-on-hips confident stance that Monáe has in this moment is incredibly empowering; shattering the notion that only a person who looks a certain way can be confident. Then there is the “sex cells,” a fun play on words, with “sex cells” like reproductive organs and also the fact that sex sells. Of course, last but certainly not least, their is the pink background which emcompasses the video at all times.

Like any racy and progressive music video, PYNK received its fair share of negative reactions. Some were pretty outrageous and made some outlandish accusations:

It’s definitely the growth hormones in our food, they’re turning everyone gay and making them aware of the people around them. Better watch out, Tony.
Wow. Couldn’t the way the society you live in, TheyLive YouSleep, be considered a fascists suppressing a person’s ability to express themselves freely by imposing your preconceived notions of morality and decency on everyone and calling it “morally correct?”

However, some people did express some alternate points of view that were more…earthly:

Although it is understandable why some people may have viewed PYNK in this way, there are several holes in these arguments that show a lack of understand of the entire concept of the video. The “too styled” and “too obvious” nature of PYNK that lisa evers complains about was the Monáe’s intent. By creating a highly stylized and obvious cinematic world, Monáe is more successfully able to exaggerate how crazy it is that we need to have music designed specifically to empower women in the first place (shouldn’t female empowerment be a given in our society?). By creating an obvious overlay, Monáe is also able to more effectively include the hidden meanings and double entendres throughout the entire piece, making them more understandable by a broader range of people (did you catch the “I grab back” @ to Donald Trump at 2:26 or all the trophies showing female athletes at 2:51?).

In response to TheBlackBird WhoAnnoyedPoe; the song and video, solely based on the fact that there is so much symbolism and is so well constructed verbally, makes it impossible for it to be “dumb,” regardless of whether or not you like the music or not. You can disagree with the concept and the execution of the video, but it technically isn’t “dumb” due to the sheer amount of intelligence needed to create symbolism in language. The point of how “men don’t going around empowering themselves in dick costumes” is a rather interesting one. Yes, that doesn’t happen in modern society, but perhaps it’s because we in exist in a world where men are born into a position of empowerment automatically and therefore these drastic measures of reclaiming the power behind their genitalia is unnecessary? This comment also highlights the stigma around genitalia that Janelle Monáe addressed through the use of her vagina pants: Why is it that a vagina is only viewed positively when it is associated with sex and male pleasure (especially in heteronormative culture)?

That is part of the beauty of Janelle Monáe’s PYNK; it addresses all of these unanswerable questions in some way shape or form. PYNK highlights powerful message of self-love, acceptance, and the embrace of female sexuality in a way that is playful and a little outlandish while still having incredible meaning and symbolism behind every choice. PYNK is an anthem for empowerment, an song to inspire and celebrate women in modern day society.

PYNK Fun Fact courtesy of the internet:

Here’s the link from the comment (beware, it’s in Dutch): https://www.ad.nl/utrecht/centraal-museum-utrecht-koopt-beroemde-vaginabroek~a84e666d/

#1 Best PYNK Video Comment:

…(edited)
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Strange Fruit: A Declaration of War

It was a March night in 1939 New York City. You and a group of friends decide to go out to Cafe Society, a new night club in the former speakeasy on West 4th Street. Billie Holiday, the 23 year old up-and-coming black jazz singer, is performing. She in all her melanin splendor with a single gardenia adorned on her hair, is standing on the stage of the L shaped hall, about to perform her last piece. The lights dim to darkness and a single spotlight illuminates her golden face as she begins to sing:

Southern trees bear strange fruit,
Blood on the leaves and blood at the root,
Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze,
Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees.

Whispers quickly spread amongst the audience.”Lynching? Is this song about lynching?” someone says. The song continues and the chatter quickly dies out as every single ear and eye is on Holiday. The room is still, the air frozen.

Pastoral scene of the gallant south,
The bulging eyes and the twisted mouth,
Scent of magnolias, sweet and fresh,
Then the sudden smell of burning flesh.

Here is fruit for the crows to pluck,
For the rain to gather, for the wind to suck,
For the sun to rot, for the trees to drop,
Here is a strange and bitter crop.

After the last word, the room snaps to black. When the lights are brought back up, Holiday is gone. No one moves. Do you applaud for the “courage and intensity of the performance, stunned by the grisly poetry of the lyrics, sensing history moving through the room? Or do you shift awkwardly in your seat, shudder at the strange vibrations in the air, and think to yourself: call this entertainment?”

This is “Strange Fruit.” Although not written by Billie Holiday, her deeply personal and visceral vocal performance ultimately made the song an instant anthem for anti-lynching during the Civil Rights movement . The song began as just a poem written by Jewish communist Abel Meeropol, when he was inspired by this photo of a double lynching. Meerpool later composed the melody. Even though lynching was in decline at the time of piece’s composition, the image of a black person being lynched in the American south acted as a universal and incredibly vivid symbol of American racism as a whole during the Civil Rights movement, making this piece truly one of protest.

“‘Strange Fruit’ was not by any means the first protest song,” writes Dorian Lynskey for The Guardian, “but it was the first to shoulder an explicit political message into the arena of entertainment. Unlike the robust workers’ anthems of the union movement, it did not stir the blood; it chilled it.” Never before had a piece of music so explicitly called out the injustices in America by name, which is part of the reason why Holiday’s primary recording company, Columbia, refused to record the song. Holiday eventually had the piece recorded by Commodore Records, and within its first year was added to Library of Congress’ National Recording Registry.

Emmett Till (1941-1955)

Holiday’s piece had struck a nerve among the American people, and sent a surge forward in the progress of the Civil Rights movement. Atlantic Records founder Ahmet Ertegun called the song “a declaration of war… the beginning of the civil rights movement”. Which couldn’t be more fitting. This piece began a wave of publicizing lynchings; bringing them out of the shadows of their perpetrators and into the light–forcing the American people to face the injustice happening in their own backyards. “Strange Fruit” paved the way for future lynchings to be more publicized as a result. Take, for example, the lynching of Emmett Till in 1955 Mississippi, who at the age of 14 was lynched after being accused of offending a white women. Emmett’s body, disfigured beyond recognition when it was discovered, was displayed in an open casket funeral for all to see, so everyone will know the horrors and the aftermath of racist acts of violence.

At its core, “Strange Fruit” is a song about injustice: a call to action to stop the lynchings and racist acts of violence. A call that is still incredibly necessary today, in the age of Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner, Oscar Grant, Sean Bell, and so many others. A call that has been answered boldly by the actions of some, notably San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick who refused to stand during the national anthem stating n an interview with NFL Media., “I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color…To me, this is bigger than football, and it would be selfish on my part to look the other way. There are bodies in the street and people getting paid leave and getting away with murder.”

The injustices against our black brothers and sisters, both in the murder of innocent lives and in the subtle microaggressions experienced daily by black people now in this country, can no longer be ignored a pushed aside. Which makes the message of “Strange Fruit,” as an anthem against racism of all forms, all the more relevant today. Just as the way it inspired people during the Civil Rights movement to shed light on the injustices, it inspires people in the today century to do the same. It also begs the question about the longevity of the Civil Rights movement: Did it ever really end or was it just pushed out of the forefront of the social stage to lie dormant until people were once again unable to ignore the injustices happening around them?

And what of Billie, whose voice and soul sparked a movement? Her impact as a performing artist, who seemed to sing with an “immaculate sadness,” still lives on today, even after her death. The music of Billie Holiday and the impact she had on the Civil Rights movement and their lasting effects on so many people today is undeniable. Her act of “war” really was in some ways, a bringing forth of light to show the world that racism in America was no longer something that could be covered up or hidden. Above all else, “Strange Fruit” calls for a willingness to endure–to endure through a world filled with hate until the message embedded in this song is no longer needed.

“Behind me, Billie was on her last song. I picked up the refrain, humming a few bars. Her voice sounded different to me now. Beneath the layers of hurt, beneath the ragged laughter, I heard a willingness to endure. Endure—and make music that wasn’t there before.”

Barack Obama in Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance (2007), p. 112
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The Thrilling Theremin

When you think of the theremin, what is the first thing that comes to mind? Perhaps a violin being played under water? Ghost movies? Alien abductions?? For me, I always think of that one episode on the Big Bang Theory where Sheldon used it to played the Star Trek theme song (much to the annoyance of his friends).

Even though your views of the theremin might not be as intrinsically linked the the Big Bang Theory as mine, I’m sure we can all agree that this instrument is already pretty cool. And now that we have established that the theremin is pretty freaking cool and therefore worth studying, I’m about to flood your brain with all the necessary knowledge you never thought you needed about how this pretty incredible piece of electronic technology came to be.

A History of Lev and his Theremin

Léon Theremin
(1896-1993)

The thermain begin in the mind of Russian inventor Lev Sergeyevich Termen, more commonly known today as Léon Theremin in 1919. The 23 year old soviet (who was also a KGB spy) invented the device accidentally while working on a meter that measures the density of gas. Basically this gas meter created an electromagnetic field that would produce a sound when the area around it was disturbed. Theremin realized that the closer he brought his hands to the gas meter, the higher the pitch became, and the further away he pulled his hands, the lower the pitch became. So, like any 23 year old in a laboratory when you find out your new machine makes funny noises, Theremin busted out some tunes for his lab buddies. His buddies and his boss were like “Wow that’s so cool . How about you like make an actual instrument out of it and like take it on the road and stuff?” And, so he did.

But first young Theremin made a pit stop at Vladmir Lenon’s house in 1922 to show him the new diddy maker he had just made, which he called the Aetherphone. And Lenin was like “Woah, this is cool, like really cool. It electronic technology like this that will help me spread all the communism. You should totally go out and share this Aetherphone with the people (and also maye think of a new name while you’re at it.)” So, with Lenin’s gold star of approval, Léon Theremin went out and spent the 1920s touring Europe with his fancy new doodad, which he now called the Thereminvox (which was then shortened to Theremin because it’s easier to say).

from “Theremin: Ether Music and Espionage” by Albert Glinsky, and Bob Moog

After traveling and performing around Europe, Mr. Theremin and his wife Katia then made their way to America in 1927. In America, Theremin performed in the nation’s top concert halls and venues making his debut at the Metropolitan Opera in 1928, then New York Philharmonic in 1928, and Carnegie Hall in 1928 and 1929. It was at this time that Leon Theremin also patented his theremin in the United States and the Theremin began to be produced and marketed by RCA (*Radio Corporation of America) in 1929 and 1930. Unfortunately, they were not a commercial success.

However, while in America Mr. Theremin met Clara Rockmore (née Reisenberg) who would go on to become a theremin virtuoso and perpetuate the use of theremins in modern music and cinema. Clara went on to devise her own fingering to allow for greater control and dexterity on the instrument, and as their partnership continued, Clara convinced Mr. Theremin to continue to refine his instrument, expanding the instrument’s range from three octaves to five octaves. Mr. Theremin, who was so encapsulated by Clara’s gifts, then proposed to her (a bunch of times) ((even though he may have still been married to Katia)), and was rejected, and Clara went on to marry the attorney Robert Rockmore.

Leo Theremin and Clara Rockmore

In the 1930s, Mr. Theremin established a laboratory in New York where he continued to develop the Theremin and other electronic instruments including the Rhythmicorn (electronic drum set) and the Fingerboard (cello) Theremin. Theremin even went on to perform a 10 theremin program in Carnegie Hall in 1930 and conducted his first electronic orchestra in 1932. Mr. Theremin also went on to marry the African-American ballet dancer Lavinia Williams, which resulted in his ostracization from society.

Lavinia Williams, second wife of Leo Theremin

The Theremin continued to make appearances in films and media in the background tracks of movies like The Lost Weekend (1945), Spellbound (1945), and Forbidden Planet (1956). Meanwhile Clara Rockmore continued to play the Theremin in a variety of concert halls and venues (and was also featured in the 1932 performances in Carnegie Hall). Clara went on to release an album entitled “The Art of the Theremin” in 1977 with Delos CD, containing a variety of selections from the classical canon. Even moving into the late 20th and early 21st century, the Theremin is still heard in a variety of pop songs including in the Beach Boys 1996 single “Good Vibrations,” the 1967 Rolling Stones albums Between the Buttons and Their Satanic Majesties Request.

And through the theremins continued success across the mainstream media and musical performances, what ever happened to Leo Theremin? One day in 1938, he disappeared from his New York studio and vanished, being swept back to Russia, leaving behind his wife, Lavinia, and his theremin (among many his other musical inventions). Never to be heard from again until the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1991.

Technology Behind the Theremin

So how does this thing actually work? We’ll you’re in luck because SciShow made a super informative video that explains the whole thing. The theremin really didn’t change a whole lot since its invention; the body of the device grew smaller due to the advancements in microtechnologies and the rod that determines pitch was made longer as to accommodate a more extended range. Aside from these small adjustments, the science behind the theremin remained relatively unchanged.

The Theremin In Action

Here are some super cool videos of the Theremin in action!