Queerness in Pop Music by Hawkins Stan;

Author:Hawkins, Stan;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Taylor and Francis
Published: 2016-03-06T16:00:00+00:00

Example 4.3 Bass line in ‘Anaconda.’

After Whitney Houston’s ‘I Will Always Love You,’ ‘Baby Got Back’ was the second-most selling song in 1992. What many will recall in the song are the sexually explicit lyrics, although Sir Mix-a-Lot, who wrote and recorded the track, has been adamant in his defense of this song’s subject matter (that deals with females’ buttocks), stating that most black women responded favorably (because they recognized his own personal condemnation of the fashion industry that pressurizes women to be skinny). Problematically, the video of ‘Baby Got Back’ opens with a dialogue between two white valley girls as they observe a black female dancer: Oh, my God, Becky, look at her butt! It is so big … She’s just so … black! This snide observation is lifted, sampled, and inserted into ‘Anaconda’ as a mocking retort by Minaj, I got a big fat ass (ass, ass, ass).

The narrative of ‘Anaconda’ concerns a Detroit boy, let’s say a ‘bad boy,’ who has bought his girlfriend extravagant clothes made by Alexander McQueen from drug sales, without being caught by the police. We learn, however, that she earns enough money herself, and just wants to have fun with the boy to the point of not even caring ‘if he bites her with his grills’ (gold plated teeth). In the song, Minaj also refers to Michael, who we learn is a well-endowed dude (dick bigger than a tower), who calls her NyQuil (a medication to aid sleep at night) after they have ‘played together.’ Another anaconda reference appears in the phrase, Little in the middle but she’s got much back, which graphically describes her slim waist and large bottom. That her guy prefers the fat ones to the skinny bitches is made crystal clear.

Weighed down with such quips and clichés in the lyrics, the video aesthetics are designed to supplement the narrative in vivid ways. It begins with the scene of a jungle, exotic and ‘primitive,’ where we catch sight of a group of black women poised like anacondas in anticipation of the grind of the beat. The kitsch quality of this opening scene functions dialectically in terms of its excessive antagonism. The location of the jungle hints at all the subversive features of Minaj’s performance we can anticipate. Snakelike, the bass sample from ‘Baby Got Back’ slithers around the melodic lines and instrumental textures with foreboding sexiness and scorn. Self-effacing in mannerisms, Minaj and her troupe writhe like pole dancers while looking defiantly into the camera; the strategy is one of belligerence, to lure in the male gaze before ensnaring it. Replete with corny referents, the sequence of shots is hyperbolic all the way through. For instance, in one scene (3:03–3:23), whipped cream is slowly smeared over her breasts from a spray can while fellatio is performed with a banana. This scene ends with a brutal amputation of the banana into slices as Minaj, sneering into the camera, discards the remains over her right shoulder. It is the lap dance

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