Song Lab
MUSIC UNDER A MICROSCOPE • Essays by Carolyn Bacon
In and Out of Context
Out of context, a song can be almost completely transformed. The gender of the performer can change or the gender of the subject. Changing (or not changing) pronouns in jazz and popular songs about love has a long history. The singer can stretch as far as creatively possible - but only to the furthest boundary that the text allows. The writer dictates what story is told, whose story, how it is told, and which words are used to tell it.
Signature Sound
A connection between Ella Fitzgerald and 1930s singing trio the Boswell Sisters lead me down the rabbit hole of musical scholarship on minstrelsy and its legacy: how it has influenced not only popular American music, but how we sound, too. How we sing. When music history paints a confused picture of manipulated sound and identity, how do you sound like yourself?
Transforming Femme Fatale
A juicy song title. A mysterious video. It all leads to Eartha Kitt and her influence as artist and activist. On the surface, “I Want to Be Evil” fits a pretty standard bad girl mold. But lurking underneath is a more radical world where Kitt uses beauty standards as a mask and subverts the traditional femme fatale.