Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Why Do Good Girls Have to Be Bad? The Cultural Industry's Production of the Other and the Complexities of Agency

2009; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 7; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/15405700903224438

1540-5710

Murali Balaji,

Social and Cultural Dynamics

Abstract The political economy of popular culture often overlooks the ideologies that determine how identities are commodified. The commodification of what is reductively known as black music is unique because the commodification routinely intersects with historical constructions of blackness and black gender identities. Therefore, any analysis of the relationships between black musical artists and the cultural industries and the subsequent production of performative identities must take into account America's exploitation of black music genres and black sexuality. This article examines the tension between record labels' construction of young black female performing artists, focusing on Atlantic Records' unwillingness to market teenage singer Keke Palmer over her refusal to be "urban." Drawing from Ryan and Hesmondhalgh's definition of the cultural industries, Negus's idea that culture produces industry, and Toynbee's explanation of artistic agency within cultural production, the article shows the conflicts that emerge in the commodification process while arguing that the cultural production of black womanhood in popular music continues to be predicated upon historical constructions of Otherness. Notes 1Porter's comments were taken from a public forum on hip-hop at the Pennsylvania State University on November 12, 2007. 2Porter defines wholesome as being family-friendly and appealing to young viewers. There is also a moral implication with wholesome when it comes to young women in popular culture; wholesome seems to be equivalent with chaste, whereas a description such as edgy has implications of being provocative or more sexually promiscuous. 3I would also argue that Raven's success was aided by her contract with Disney, which has produced That's So Raven and marketed her as a wholesome, family-friendly young actress. Keke, however, had not been developed by the Disney marketing machine. 4This is an excerpt of an email from Keke Palmer to Paul Porter, forwarded to the author with the permission of Keke.