Rachel Plummer

Intermediate Composition ENGL2089

Aaron Kerley

Discourse Analysis

Janelle Monáe is an alien from outer space, a cybergirl without a face, a heart, or a mind.

At least, this is how she defines herself in the first sung lyrics of her debut album Metropolis in

2008. And even today, in 2018, Monáe has not stopped meticulously crafting and programming

her image as a dynamic, sci-fi messiah for the oppressed everywhere. Her work is futuristic,

smart, and allegorical; the nature of it requires references to numerous past and present topics of

human life, from forbidden love to political unrest. Furthermore, her artistry isn’t confined solely

to tracks burned onto a disc and put on music store shelves. Her body of work includes a

combination of tight performances, creative music videos, and overall dedication to various

forms of art: film, painting, fashion, dance. With all elements of her young yet ambitious career

considered, there are many angles at which to view the artist that is Janelle Monáe, and thus,

many discursive media and communities involved.

The modes of discourse I chose to analyze are magazine articles, video documentaries,

and scholarly journals. Though I also looked through news reports, radio shows, interviews, and

such during my research, I chose the three modes that I consider most powerful and

representative in the discussion of Janelle Monáe. Inititally, I conducted my search for the

sources through the University of Cincinnati’s library database. Then, I gathered sources that are

not present in the UC database, but are published by well-known authorities in popular music
commentary, like Youtube Music and Rolling Stone. In order to analyze magazine articles, video

documentaries, and scholarly journals, I studied the value and limitations inherent within each

genre. Of every source, I had to question the characteristics of its audience, the scope of its

coverage of Monáe, its subjectivity or implicit bias, and overall what it contributes to our picture

of the artist Janelle Monáe. My analysis addresses each genre on its own as well as its

relationships with the other two.

I will introduce magazine articles as a mode of discourse, then do the same with video

documentaries. I will examine the crossovers between the two, and the differences as well. Then

I will introduce scholarly journals and explain if and how they align with magazine articles and

video documentaries. Finally, I will evaluate all modes’ effects in “creating” who Janelle Monáe

is.

The benefit of magazine articles is that they are one of the most publicly accessible and

ubiquitous forms of both printed and digital entertainment. Magazines provide information, not

only to people with a specific interest, but to anyone standing in a grocery checkout line, waiting

at the doctor’s office, or scrolling through links on a social media homepage. The author of an

article in a magazine is usually writes as someone in the realm between a fan, supporter, and

expert of the topic they are writing about. While that may lend to subjectivity, it is not

subjectivity that obscures or discounts the total content of the article, but becomes useful for a

sensational and interesting piece for the reader. Article “Janelle Monáe” by Variety magazine

starts off with a shining depiction of the musician: “With her retro-fresh pompadour-and-tux

image and futuristic musical mélange of R&B, funk, rap, punk and psychedelia, Janelle Monáe

cuts quite a startling figure in the contemporary music scene--as if James Brown, David Bowie,

Fritz Lang and Salvador Dali had all collaborated in creating the perfect avant-garde artist for the
era.” Magazines create strong statements like this to inform the reader and hype the subject of

the article simultaneously. This is the value of a magazine article; what they best accomplish is Commented [P(1]: Variety citation

delivering a big topic to a broad audience, through either of two methods. One method is shown Commented [P(2]: Rolling Stone citation and concluding
sentence
in the previous example in Variety - employing condense, exciting language to cover a lot of

information quickly and superficially. The other method is evident in “Janelle Monáe Frees Commented [P(3]: Variety citation

Herself” by Brittany Spanos of Rolling Stone Magazine. Here, rather than gliding along light,

basic information Spanos delves freely into Monáe’s insecurities, her musical stylings, her

sexuality, her home life, and more. But to maintain a connection with her audience, who may not

be familiar or interested in the story of Janelle Monáe, Spanos uses language that is habitable for

the reader and a relatable tone, shifting through the emotions that the readers would feel. When

discussing Monáe’s hardships, there is a tone of compassion: “She studied musical theater and

shared a small apartment with a cousin where she didn’t even have a bed to herself. When she

wasn’t in class, she was working.” When writing of Monáe’s family, Spanos adds cute,

heartwarming details of family members gathered by the piano to sing gospel hymns, and how

Monáe is known by the sweet nickname “pun’kin” amongst family. Besides a personable tone,

magazine articles use other methods to cater to their audience and maintain a connection with

them; because magazines host advertisements for revenue, they often pick ones that are attractive

to their target audience. Magazine articles also embed eye-catching photographs or videos they

may have referenced in the text, as well as strong graphics, for example, a bubble that highlights

an important quote from the interviewee. Magazine articles, as a genre, always try to reach their

audience, whether broad or of a specific interest, through expert insight, sensational details, and

relatable tone. Commented [P(4]: Rolling Stone citation and concluding

sentence
 A video documentary has the unique ability to express its ideas with auditory and visual

elements. While perhaps a biographical encyclopedia would paste an image of Janelle Monáe

solely as information of her physical appearance, it is not the same as the cinematic scenes

composed in a film. The visual components of documentaries are more than pictures; there is

motion, transition, and lighting, and furthermore, documentaries have the license to add audio to

the experience. In “A Revolution of Love”, the YouTube-produced documentary of Janelle

Monáe, her music is the soundtrack to a visual manifesto of her vision and journey. For example,

the song “Stevie’s Dream”, which features Stevie Wonder proclaiming that change should be

rooted in love and understanding, plays behind a montage of clips of Monáe’s music videos,

appearances at political rallies, and live stage performances. This instance of the film serves to

connect the message in her songs of peace and understanding with her beliefs as a human and the

activist movements she abides by. Audio also enhances storytelling by giving quotes a human

voice, instead of just black-and-white text. In watching the documentary, the audience listens to

the warm and respectful tone in the voices of Janelle Monáe’s mother, co-creators, and fans as

they explain who she is as an artist and person. This aspect is related to the overall allure of a

documentary. While the director can choose what is seen and heard by the audience, the

subjectivity is less imposed, and audience members feel free to judge for themselves. Though

their senses are controlled by the director, it is unlike being fed words from a page. When the

camera roves around Wondaland HQ, showing the record collections, white silk curtains, grass

carpet, chandeliers, and “Pussy Power” neon sign, any individual with access to YouTube is

invited into that space. They can enter the world of Janelle Monáe “for themselves” and

formulate their own opinion. Most video documentaries share these same basic elements because

of the nature of what it takes to create biography and commentary through film. In video
documentaries, it is more evident that there is not just one creator, but a multi-person team; when

the audience watches a scene, we expect there is a director, cameraman, audio editor, and more

personnel involved. Video documentaries also take longer to digest. Even a 15-minute

documentary asks that you sit down and view it like a film, as opposed to how you might

carelessly watch an infomercial. Video documentaries also incorporate more firsthand, original

sources. “A Revolution of Love” has footage of Monáe having fun at rehearsal, an interview

with her record label’s CEO, and shots of everyday life in her hometown. These examples of

original, direct footage are the baseline requirement for a documentary; without them, the film

would have no material or otherwise just be a narration from the director. Video documentaries

are a genre of discourse that use auditory and visual features to build a unique, immersive look

into the life and vision of their subject.

Fascinatingly, vivid sensory detail is where magazines articles and video documentaries

can be similar. Though text cannot truly create visual information like a film can, successfully

descriptive text be equally as evocative. Both “Mind Control” by Carrie Battan of Pitchfork

Magazine and “Janelle Monáe Frees Herself” by Brittany Spanos of Rolling Stone are features

that are so well-researched, thorough, descriptive, and organized with flawless transitions that

they read like documentary transcripts. “A Revolution of Love” opens with Monáe sitting under

magenta light, dressed in a chic black and white outfit, bubble accessories winding through her

braid, and a backdrop of Wondaland, guitars on the walls and palm leaves draping over the

piano. And the words of both articles are akin to the same setup of scenery. “Mind Control”

begins “At the Atlanta headquarters of Janelle Monáe’s Wondaland Arts Society, a giant turkey

has been roasting slowly for hours...and the hot tub on the deck out back is overflowing with

iridescent blue bubbles and topped with a sprinkling of flower petals... everyone here is gyrating
and twirling and shimmying and twisting and strutting so elastically that even limber onlookers

could feel like awkward lumps by comparison”. “Mind Control” builds up an atmospheric

setting, and the second article, “Janelle Monáe Frees Herself, goes with a one-liner. Just like

staging the initial, attention-grabbing shot to a film, it opens with the short hook “Janelle Monáe

is crying in her space suit.” Magazines and documentaries, unlike a blog post or an encyclopedia Commented [P(5]: There should be another sentence
here.
page, are responsible for explaining an artist, their background, and their position to anyone who

may not be familiar with the artist in the slightest. Although the scope of the content can be

different, both magazine articles and video documentaries aim to be faithful to their narratives in

a way that is between cold and factual, and casual and opinionated.

The scope of content is where magazine articles and documentaries are notably different.

Documentaries service their subjects with broad coverage. They follow timelines and gather lots

of primary sources in order to present a wide assortment of information. Magazines, however,

have the choice to focus on a small, singular event or subtopic, if that should match their theme

and audience. The disparity between the breadth of information of magazine articles and

documentaries is due to their respective purposes. Magazine articles are written as components

of a larger publication, and thus, are often short pieces delivered to an audience presumed to

have a short attention span. Sometimes, a magazine will publish a featured story that offers a big

picture, but the majority of magazine articles are trying to capture the attention of someone who

is casually skimming the pages. On the other hand, the cause for a documentary is to track the

history, cause, and effect of its subject and make an expository work that anyone can watch and

understand. Music documentaries usually show a desire to pay tribute to a musical act’s

development and impact. Occasionally, the documentary contains an agenda tied to a scandal or

movement that the musical act is associated with. In this way, video documentaries cover many
bases and prepare a work that is not meant to be browsed lightly. Aforementioned documentary

“A Revolution of Love” travels from the steps of Robert W. Woodruff library, where Janelle

Monáe used to play guitar, to the stage of the BET awards, where she performed live in 2018. It

runs through several songs from her discography and talks with everyone from her co-CEO to

her “fan-droids” on the streets. Only spanning 16 minutes, the documentary presents a wide

scope of information from the past to the future, effectively explaining Janelle Monáe’s journey

and subtly promoting liberal activism that Monáe values. The magazine article “Amandla

Stenberg, Janelle Monáe get real on racism: ‘Now is the time to stand tall’”, written by Brooke

Metz of USA Today and published August 2017, is wholly unlike a documentary. Its motive is to

connect to its target reader with trendy and culturally relevant stories told by popular celebrities;

in this case, it is about diversity in movies, mental health, and the empowerment of Black

women, told by Amandla Stenberg and Janelle Monáe. The article also belongs as a smaller part

of an entire publication; if a documentary functioned like this article, it would be similar to a 30-

second news report squeezed between weather and traffic. In all, the magazine article and the

video documentary are unalike because, in consideration of Monáe’s entire career, the article’s

information is shallow and specific, and the video’s information is comprehensive and varied.
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International Journal, 9(1), p. 57-69. Talor & Francis, 2015,

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Jones, C. L.. “’Tryna Free Kansas City’: The Revolutions of Janelle Monáe as Digital Griot.”

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Metz, Brooke. "Amandla Stenberg, Janelle Monáe Get Real on Racism: 'Now is the Time to

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Accessed 03 Nov 2018.