In the last session on American avantgarde music, the progressivism in avant-gardist musicality was extended on a political level through the aesthetic and political concept of “Afrofuturism.” Afrofuturism, a notion I had not heard of, is an umbrella term coined in 1994 by culture critic Mark Dery in his “Black to the Future” essay, that serves as a cultural blueprint for Black empowerment. Implicit in the word, Afrofuturism is future orientated. It is a scholarly and artistic movement that imagines a future through the lens of Black experience, departing from a predominantly white cultural scene.
The futuristic orientation in Afrofuturism is highlighted by its attentiveness towards technological terms and concepts in the context of twentieth- and twenty-first century technoculture. This is crucial, since the technological progress signifies a humanistic advancement often envisioned without Black people and Black experiences, as seen in the still white dominated science-fiction and fantasy films. It is a challenge to the dominant white Eurocentric culture, that aims to rewrite the African-American narrative with representation and hope as its transformative social technologies. Hence, Afrofuturism redresses white predominance by incorporating science fiction elements in Black culture to imagine alternate worlds with regard to racial politics and belonging.
Even though the term “Afrofuturism” was novel to me, I was intrigued by its highly visual conceptuality and paradigm-shifting potential, which I had already subconsciously perceived numerous times without being able to categorize it. As an OutKast fan, this mode of contemporary Black expression ‘clicked’ for me as soon as a I made myself familiar with it. As the band’s name in itself already serves as a resignifier of the duo’s outsider status, they not only draw on the idea of being alien to the status quo but connect it further throughout albums and songs to extraterrestrial themes. Hence, OutKast not only makes use of the African-American empowering resignification processes but fall within the lines of Afrofuturist musicians. One of their albums, “ATLiens” (1996), highlights the group’s character with its musical style, as they draw on and embed different musical elements, like funk, to create a signature sound and ultimately stylize themselves as futuristic and in some of their videos even sci-fi, Black leaders. Contrary to Hip-Hops often notorious realist conventions of “keeping it cool” and “being real,” the group OutKast manages to think and pave the way beyond the genre’s conventions. Particularly André 3000, one half of the duo, can be seen as exceedingly progressive in that vein. His status as an eccentric yet popular rapper and Hip-Hop artist can be considered the epitome of Afrofuturism as he was able to successfully alter the stereotypical view of a black man in the music industry through his unconventional musical, as well as fashion style. In the track “ATLiens,” he melodically critiques the way the future looks today through the lens of Black experience:
“Because the future of the world depends on,
If or if not the child we raise gon’ have that n***a syndrome.
Or will it know to beat the odds regardless of the skin tone.”
As an Afrofuturist, André 3000 envisions a future, that is not raceless, but that does not discriminate against Blacks anymore. Where your individual future does not depend on what society can offer you because of your race, but on your own desires. He takes pride in the difference in another verse:
“The alienate us cause we different keep your hands to the sky.
Like Sounds of Blackness when I practice what I preach, ain’t no lie.”
And empowers black people to fight for their own self-determined futures.
“I’ll be the backer and the maker of the piece of my pie.”
As exemplified here, Afrofuturism is rooted in Black people having a better future for themselves on their own terms. It is a tool to evaluate the past and future to create better conditions for the present generation of Black people by using a futuristic outlook, often through technology presented in art, music, and literature. In another later track by OutKast, the Afrofuturist thematization of an extraterrestrial world is strongly visualized. The music video of “Prototype” is a silver-doused video featuring André 3000 equipped with a platinum wig and space suit leading a group of extraterrestrial beings from the planet Proto onto Earth. Upon meeting a human woman, the video depicts the friendly encounter between the two species and ends with the acceptance of the human woman into the alien species. The video is a strong Afrofuturistic example of how the world can be united as one through love, acceptance, and equality, featuring Black protagonists.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.