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I'm Every (Black) Woman: Negotiating Intersectionality in the Music Industry

Hudson, Jacqueline P
http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1306-9018
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1626625131222246

Abstract Details

2021, Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, American Culture Studies.
Black women singers have often been lauded and emulated for their musical talents, but also have been regulated to the lower level of societal hierarchy in the music industry. They had to endure racialized and gendered power structures in the field that positioned white men at the top where they had the authority to make music-industry related decisions, white women who achieved success often on the backs of black women’s labor, and black men who took credit in the music-creating process. While this is standard in the music industry for quite some time, there has been long history of this hierarchy in social phenomena such as the institution of slavery, the women’s suffrage movement, the Civil Rights Movement, and the second/third/fourth-wave feminist movement. In both the music industry and social history, black women had to create and maintain agency against these power structures. This dissertation explores how the concept of intersectionality, coined by critical race theorist Kimberle Crenshaw in 1989, informs the way black women singers navigated their identity through the music industry. Incorporating historical context of the social phenomena that was mentioned above, this dissertation also takes a cross section of black women singers from both different eras and genres of music (Willie Mae “Big Mama” Thornton, Nina Simone, Janet Jackson, Janelle Monae, and Lizzo) in illustrating the narrative on how that they used their personal intersectional experiences in the music industry to fight against racism and sexism in the music industry.
Katherine Meizel, PhD (Advisor)
Lee Nickson, PhD (Other)
Radhika Gajjala, PhD (Committee Member)
Angela Nelson, PhD (Committee Member)
173 p.
African American Studies; American Studies; Black History; Music
Intersectionality; race; gender; black women; Big Mama Thornton; Nina Simone; Janet Jackson; Janelle Monae; Lizzo, music industry, black music

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Hudson, J. P. (2021). I'm Every (Black) Woman: Negotiating Intersectionality in the Music Industry [Doctoral dissertation, Bowling Green State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1626625131222246

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Hudson, Jacqueline. I'm Every (Black) Woman: Negotiating Intersectionality in the Music Industry. 2021. Bowling Green State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1626625131222246.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Hudson, Jacqueline. "I'm Every (Black) Woman: Negotiating Intersectionality in the Music Industry." Doctoral dissertation, Bowling Green State University, 2021. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1626625131222246

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

bgsu1626625131222246
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© 2021, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by Bowling Green State University and OhioLINK.