This module will run a whole range: from Verzuz battles, DJ D-Nice’s Club Quarantine, Lemonade, Suede the Re-Mix God, Tik Tok dances, to the host of accounts like the Soul Music Society. We are centering the "virality" of Black music, sound, and dance here. Our readings all explore the ways that digital culture amplifies, renews, re-mixes, re-introduces the central role of Black music and dance-- past and present.  In parts of the class like this, we are working in two directions: understanding the history of Black culture; understanding new technological affordances.
Your Reading Options:
  1. "A Black Girl’s Song: Misogynoir, Love, and Beyoncé’s Lemonade" by Zeffie Gaines
  2. ​​​"Black Feminist Hip-Hop Rhetorics and the Digital Public Sphere" by Regina Duthely
  3. “The Breakdown: Black Culture, Video Games, and the Importance of Adult Play”--- A Conversation between TreaAndrea M. Russworm and Cicero Holmes
  4. "Giving Form to Black and Brown: The Art and Politics of Solidarity Maurice" by Rafael Magaña
  5. "Fighting for Attention Through Rap Music:  Shock-Value, Racial Play and Web Culture in the Persona of Tyler, The Creator" by Gustavo Souza Marques 
  6. "How #BlackGirlMagic Cultivates Supreme Love to Heal and Save Souls That Can Heal and Save the World: An Introduction to Endarkened Feminist Epistemlogical and Ontological Evolutions of Self Through a Critique of Beyoncé's Lemonade" by Jeanine Staples
  7. "How #Blacklivesmatter: Exploring the Role of Hip-Hop Celebrities in Constructing Racial Identity on Black Twitter" by Summer Harlow and Anna Benbrook
  8. "How D-Nice’s Club Quarantine Created An All-Inclusive Healing Space Through Music" by D'Shonda Brown
  9. “'I’m A Stripper, Ho': The Sonics of Cardi B’s Ratchet, Diasporic Feminism" by Karen Jaime
  10. “'Last Night a DJ Saved My Life' @Dnice #ClubQuarantine: Digitally Mediating Ritualistic Leisure Spaces during Isolation" by Corliss Outley, Shamaya Bowen, and Harrison Pinckney
  11. "'Let the Records Spin...': A Conversation with DJ Shorty Wop" with Todd Craig
  12. "'My Pen is Mightier Than Your Sword': A Conversation with Reef the Lost Cauze" with Todd Craig
  13. “The Power of Black Girl Magic Anthems: Nicki Minaj, Beyoncé, and “Feeling Myself” as Political Empowerment” by Aria S. Halliday & Nadia E. Brown
  14.  “On Black Queer Joy and the Digital” by Christopher J. Persaud and Ashon Crawley
  15. "Ratchet Black Lives Matter: Megan Thee Stallion, Intra-Racial Violence, and the Elusion of Grief" by Nikki Lane
  16. "The Role of New and Social Media in Tanzanian Hip-Hop Production" by Msia Kibona Clark
  17. "Sista Girl Rock: Women of Colour and Hip-Hop Deejaying as Raced/Gendered Knowledge and Language" by Todd Craig and Carmen Kynard
  18. “Soulcraft: Theorizing Black Techne in African and American Viral Dance” by Reginold A. Royston
  19. "Sounding Soul (Food): The Discursive Interconnection of Sound, Food, and Place in Southern Hip-Hop" by Tyler Bunzey
  20. "Straight Outta Erasure: Black Girl Magic Claps Back to the Hyperinvisibility of Black Women in Straight Outta Compton" by Amber Johnson
  21. "Thee Megan Movement: Defining and Exploring Hot Girl Rhetoric" by Ebony Perro
  22. “'Tryna Free Kansas City': The Revolutions of Janelle Monae as Digital Griot" by Cassandra L. Jones
  23. "Twerk sumn!: Theorizing Black Girl Epistemology in the Body" by Aria S. Halliday
  24. “Twitter is Really Therapeutic at Times': Examination of Black Men’s Twitter Conversations Following Hip-Hop Artist Kid Cudi’s Depression Disclosure" by Diane Francis

Forthcoming new book:
  • "‘Sisters in the Name of Love’: The Rhetorical Construction of Sisterhood in the Verzuz Challenges between Gladys Knight vs. Patti Labelle And Erykah Badu vs. Jill Scott" by Goyland Williams & Mtalika Banda
  • "Don’t Take it Personal: Perceptions of Authenticity, Envy and Competitiveness in the Brandy v. Monica Verzuz Battle" by Aisha Damali Lockridge and Janée N. Burkhalter
  • "The Way We Were: How Black Women Created Space with Verzuz" by Kirstin Cheers
  • "DJ’s Gig: Affective Hip Hop Culture and Affordances of Participatory Platforms during a Global Pandemic" by June Mia
  • "Old Hits Verzuz New Technology: How a Pandemic Ushered Legacy Artists into the Clout Economy" by Jabari Evan
  • "Black and Quarantined: Celebrating Black Identity During COVID-19 via Instagram" by Katrina Overby, Gheni Platenburg, and Niya Pickett Miller
  • "The Culture Wins: Continuing Black Cultural Traditions through Verzuz" by Karl Lyn

The First "Viral" Music/Dance Video

VIRAL: an image, video, advertisement, etc., that is circulated rapidly on the internet
​(but before the internet, there was cable TV)
(885,212,182 as of February 2023)  Official 4KRemastered in 2009
Michael Jackson's 14-minute short film "Thriller" revolutionized the music video genre forever. Hailed as the greatest music video of all time by MTV, VH1, Rolling Stone and others, "Thriller," directed by John Landis, is also the only music video selected to be included in the Library of Congress' prestigious National Film Registry.
RELEVANT FACTS
  • Begun in 1981 as a music video channel, MTV didn't feature Black artists until two years later in 1983.  The first Black video they played regularly was Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean."
  • Today MTV denies that a record label had to force them to play Billie Jean; they claim they saw the importance of playing Black music on their own after 2 years.  They didn't play rap, however, until 1988, seven years after being in business and four years after Michel Jackson's success.
  • "Thriller" was the most expensive music video ever made at the time.  It was a 14-minute video that had its own movie-type debut on December 2, 1983.
  • "Thriller" had a set design, choreographer, costumes, fashion design, actors, signature dance, professional dancers, breakdancers/b-boys, producer, director, script--- all the makings of a professional movie and a professional dance ensemble.  Nothing like it had existed before and no one expected it to be the success that it was.... except Michael Jackson, that is.
  • The video itself was also sold as a movie and was its own bestseller.  It was the first time that a music video drove up the sales of an album and record.  Music videos have never been the same.  It was also the catalyst for Michael Jackson's cross-over phenomenon as previous albums had mostly Black audiences.
  • "Thriller" only aired on MTV and Showtime (and at specific times).  As such, it also changed the popularity of MTV and Showtime--- these are household names today because of "Thriller."

Chris Brown's MJ Tribute
VIRAL BLACK BODIES: Ongoing Histories of Viral Black Music/Dance Videos

"Savage" Megan 
"Megan Thee Stallion and Michael Jackson are part of a continuum. They definitely share the same passion and focus of creating extravagant content in their music videos; they are connected in what they choose to share with the world. They both chose to step far outside of the normal boundaries of music of their time and create something untraditional. They both reached several millions of people in unprecedented ways: in the case of Megan, it was through TikTok and a TikTok dance; and in the case of Michael Jackson, it was through his Thriller music video. They both created content that had context, meaning. This is activism in the ways that their art was shared with masses of people in new ways."
​~ Rachel, Class of 2025

"Don't rush" DIASPORIC/transnational quarantine bAES 

Bey's lemoNade

Read this essay first... to give you a sense of the historical impact.

Hbcu marching bands
(Click on image above to go and play on IG)

Kida the great

crank that soulja boy

"Crank That (Soulja Boy)" co-wrote and produced the track when he was just 16, making him the youngest solo artist to write, perform and produce a chart topper.  Soulja Boy created this song in one hour on the Fruity Loops computer system. 

digital blackness

A College Rhetoric Course at TCU
www.hitwebcounter.com
<>