Marcus Grant Thesis
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UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI “SAY THEIR NAMES”: BLACK MUSIC-MAKING IN A TIME OF PROTEST By Marcus Randall Grant A THESIS Submitted to the Faculty of the University of Miami in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Music Coral Gables, Florida May 2021 ©2021 Marcus Randall Grant All Rights Reserved UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Music “SAY THEIR NAMES”: BLACK MUSIC-MAKING IN A TIME OF PROTEST Marcus Randall Grant Approved: ________________ _________________ Melvin L. Butler, Ph.D. David Ake, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Musicology Professor of Musicology ________________ _________________ Gabrielle Cornish, Ph.D. Guillermo Prado, Ph.D. Assistant Professor of Musicology Dean of the Graduate School _________________ M. Scott Heerman, Ph.D. Assistant Professor of History GRANT, MARCUS RANDALL (M.M., Musicology) “Say Their Names”: Black Music-Making (May 2021) In a Time of Protest. Abstract of a thesis at the University of Miami. Thesis supervised by Dr. Melvin L. Butler. No. of pages in text. (100) The spring and summer of 2020 saw a resurgence of Black Lives Matter protests following the murders of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and George Floyd—all unarmed Black people killed either at the hands of police or rogue vigilantes. Several artists subsequently released music in support of these protests, using their platforms to raise awareness of the ongoing struggles plaguing Black communities. This thesis focuses on the creative responses of a select few of those artists who included particular chants and slogans from BLM protests (“I Can’t Breathe” and “Arrest the killers of Breonna Taylor”) in their music. I argue that while Black musical artists deploy narratives of protest to speak truth to power, their socially mediated music and imagery also plays a more complex role in addressing Black social trauma, often desensitizing consumers to Black suffering and mortality. Through analyses of composed music, song lyrics, and music videos, I outline a trend in Black artists’ expression following incidents of police violence and explore how these art forms are created and consumed through social media and other outlets. This ethnography incorporates my personal experience as a participant in a peaceful protest in Miami in order to outline the dynamic soundscape of protests. It also touches on conversations with peers who problematize Black artists’ music. This thesis thus contributes to ongoing discussions pertaining to the representation, commodification, and social “memeification” of Black tragedy, specifically that experienced by Black women in the United States (Halliday 2018, Vandagriff 2016). TABLE OF CONTENTS Page List of Examples ........................................................................................................... iv List of Figures ........................................................................................................... v List of Tables .............................................................................................................. vi Introduction .............................................................................................................. 1 Chapter 1 The Sounds of Protest: Ethnography of Miami Protest, May 30, 2020 ... 9 Chapter 2 Analysis of Miami Protest ........................................................................ 21 Recorded Music as Protest ............................................................................... 32 Chapter 3 Black Protest Music: From Civil Rights to Black Lives Matter ................. 37 Chapter 4 “I Can’t Breathe” - H.E.R. .......................................................................... 42 Lyrical Analysis ................................................................................................ 44 Music Video Analysis ....................................................................................... 50 Chapter 5 “The Bigger Picture” - Lil’ Baby ................................................................ 55 Lyrical Analysis ................................................................................................ 58 Music Video Analysis ....................................................................................... 61 Chapter 6 “I Need You To (Breonna Taylor)” - Tobe Nwigwe .................................. 66 Lyrical Analysis ................................................................................................ 68 Music Video Analysis ....................................................................................... 69 Chapter 7 The Memeification of Breonna Taylor: A Critical Look at Discursive Performative Activism in Digital Culture and Song .................................................... 75 #BreonnaTaylor ................................................................................................ 76 Memes vs. Digital Memes ................................................................................ 79 The Semiotical Relationship of Memes ........................................................... 82 A Case for the Memeification of Breonna Taylor ............................................ 87 Conclusion .............................................................................................................. 94 Bibliography …………… .......................................................................................... 96 iii List of Examples Example 2.1. Transcription of Table 3 Chant ............................................................. 28 Example 5.1. Introduction Piano Sample ................................................................... 56 Example 5.2. Flow Melody on Opening Verse .......................................................... 57 Example 7.5. Transcription of Breonna Taylor Meme Message in 12/8 .................... 85 iv List of Figures Figure 0.1. Meme of Tory Lanez and Megan Thee Stallion altercation ....................... 5 Figure 1.1. My protest “uniform” ................................................................................. 12 Figure 1.2. Marching north on NW 3rd Ave. I-95 expressway to my left .................. 17 Figure 6.1. Performers make an “X” while singing “Arrest” (2020, 0:23) .................. 70 Figure 6.2. Performers hold imaginary gun while singing “Killers” (2020, 0:24) ...... 70 Figure 6.3. Performers “hit the woah” while singing “Breonna Taylor” (2020, 0:26) . 70 Figure 7.1. @zelliemani tweet on Breonna Taylor, June 23, 2020 .............................. 77 Figure 7.2. @heatherbarmore tweet on Breonna Taylor, June 11, 2020 ...................... 77 Figure 7.3. @theredcrayonstastethebest Instagram meme of Breonna Taylor hashtag, August 4, 2020 ............................................................................................................. 84 Figure 7.4. @haradasound Instagram meme on Breonna Taylor, August 7, 2020. ...... 84 Figure 7.5. ZZNinjaX’s comment on Nwigwe’s video, YouTube, 2020 ...................... 89 Figure 7.6. Comment on Nwigwe’s video, YouTube, 2020. ........................................ 89 Figure 7.7. Texanii’s comment on Nwigwe’s video YouTube, 2020. ........................... 89 Figure 7.8. OK OK’s comment on Nwigwe’s video,YouTube, 2020 ........................... 89 Figure 7.9. Bih35822’s comment on Nwigwe’s video, YouTube, 2020. ...................... 90 Figure 7.10. Google search suggestions for Breonna Taylor. ...................................... 92 v List of Tables Table 1. Black Lives Matter protest, Chant #1 ........................................................... 25 Table 2. Black Lives Matter protest, Chant #2 ........................................................... 25 Table 3. Black Lives Matter protest, Chant #3 ........................................................... 25 Table 4. Black Lives Matter protest, Chant #4 ........................................................... 26 Table 5. Black Lives Matter protest, Chant #5 ........................................................... 26 Table 6. Black Lives Matter protest, Chant #6 ........................................................... 26 Table 7. Black Lives Matter protest, Chant #2 with Djembe ..................................... 31 vi Introduction Since 2015, the Washington Post has been tracking deadly shootings by police officers in the United States, updating the database with each documented incident.1 In this time, there have been 6,139 people killed by police in the United States, 1,021 in 2020 alone.2 Because many police departments fail to publicly report each incident, the database relies heavily on social media and news outlets for information. Statistics show a consistent number of police shootings every year since 2015 with around 1,000 shootings annually. The numbers also show that Black Americans are killed at a significantly higher rate than other racial groups. Although more White Americans have been shot by police, Black Americans are victimized at a disproportionate rate.3 The majority of those shot are young Black men between the ages of twenty and forty years old. Women fall victim to police violence at an average rate of about one in every twenty-three shootings. Of the 1,021 people killed by police in 2020, 241 were Black, and 54 were unarmed. These statistics include emergency room technician Breonna Taylor, who was shot in her home on March 13 by Louisville Metro Police officers investigating a drug operation with a no-knock warrant.