Warren Hastings Capstone Andrae Alexander 1 May 2020

Final Capstone Summary

Drag: Live Event’s Emerging Juggernaut GE/Music Elective 4 Units, satisfies A&G GEs Learning Objectives (15 weeks) ​ 1. 1.1: Understanding what is and where it comes from. a. Queer Theory b. Drag vs. Transgender Women c. Origins of drag i. 80s ballroom culture in NYC ii. Paris is burning 2. 1.2: Iconic Drag figures and drag media a. Divine b. RuPaul c. the desert movie d. look up more examples 3. 1.3: How drag has recently broken through into the mainstream a. RuPaul’s / rise of b. gay rights movement c. commodication of queer identity d. the rise of MUA and makeup e. screening of one episode of ’s drag race i. ensure that the class has an understanding of what drag race is ii. fun 4. 1.4: Understanding the drag beyond rupaul a. what is the drag scene like b. Bring a drag queen to class c. the daily life of a touring drag queen d. understanding, in-depth, the rigor of a drag performers life e. homework i. go to a 5. (split over 2 weeks)Market potential a. DragCon: 9million dollars, 40,000 attendees b. Various successful drag queen tours i. del rio wembley ii. trixie c. Instagram success i. millions of followers d. Youtube success i. & Katya, Review with a jew e. queens make thousands of dollars per gig, specialty gig f. makeup brands i. trixie cosmetics g. deals i. trixie mattel documentary ii. Drag race h. blockbuster movies i. a star is born ( and william) 6. Drag and the music industry a. the relationship between music and drag i. lip-sync b. The success of drag music i. millions of views on ii. the release of songs and videos corresponding to drag race c. queens singing/performing live at shows i. trixie, monet d. Successful drag musicians i. trixie ii. adore iii. etc 7. Marketing for drag a. companies that specialize in marketing to queer audiences: karpel group b. marketing for drag performers will often be collaborative because events host multiple queens c. brand partnerships in the past i. crest ii. jet blue d. if you’re not queer, how to rspect the community while being involved 8. Managing a drag artist a. Producer Entertainment Group i. manages a lot of the most successful RuPaul queens ii. the structure of the deal b. case study: sued Producer Entertainment Group for allegedly stealing from her i. within 3 years Adore had made over 2.5 million dollars and she alleged that PEG was stealing from her ii. she has since moved on and manages herself, but many queens have stayed c. partnerships with brands d. a drag artist is multifaceted i. theatre ii. acting 9. International drag potential a. drag race in UK, Australia, Thailand b. defying/battling homophobia abroad i. Pablo Vittar case study 10. The money being made in the drag industry a. Rupaul’s drag race 11. Building connections in a straight, white male dominated industry, how do you connect yourself? Appropriate ways to create a queer and ally community. a. How to foster and build a queer friendly work environment. From intern to CEO, we will cover how and why making the workplace an undeniably queer friendly space. 12. Discrimination in the drag world a. sources of discrimination and why b. how to combat the discrimination and support marginalized artists 13. Market potential of live events in general 14. Drag--it’s more than just queens! a. exploration of drag kings, AFAB and more b. Dragula

Assignments 1. Case studies - revenue streams - merch - sponsorships - marketing campaigns - case study on karpel group - learning about queer companies that do marketing specific to queer communities - management deals - Producer entertainment group - Adore Delano suing producer entertainment group 2. Mandatory screenings a. RuPaul’s Drag Race b. The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert c. Paris is Burning 3. Attend at least 1 drag show and write a reflection of 500 words

Summary of Research

After websites like Napster and subsequent streaming services toppled the traditional music consumption of purchasing physical records, the music industry was left in shambles, desperately in need of some reorganization. Since then, reports that MIDiA Research found that streaming revenue is the "the engine room of growth" in the music industry and Julia Hartz of LinkedIn reports that more people, especially millennials and gen z, are preferring lived experiences over material things. These factors have contributed to a rebirth of the music industry as a whole, but most notably in the live event sector. In tandem with this reshaping of the music industry, the queer rights movement has made substantial advancements in the pursuit of equality. In 2015, same-sex marriage was declared legal by the United Sates federal governement and nationwide consciousness has also begun to include queer stories and protections, with more and more queer artists, like Troye Sivan or Kehlani, rising to global prominence and selling out large tours.

During the music industry’s most recent revolution, the recognition of queer equality has largely been established as a societal necessity as well. RuPaul’s Drag Race has positioned itself as one of television's most engaging programs. The premiere of season 10 attracted over 1 million viewers on VH1 and its twelfth season premiered in February 2020 with a fifth season of

All Stars slated for the week after season 12’s finale. Clearly the show is in high demand. Most importantly however, it has generated a wealth of income for past contestants, essentially creating its own economy. BBC reports that queens from Rupaul’s Drag Race regularly make

5,000 to 10,000 dollars per gig as they tour post drag race and net annual incomes in the six figure range. Additionally, Rupaul’s Dragcon has since emerged as another high profile drag event hosted in both LA and New York City, with future iterations in other cities in development. These conventions have been huge successes. In 2017, over 40,000 people attended Dragcon in alone, with ticket prices around the $40 mark and merchandise sales in excess of 9 million dollars (BBC).

Because of these three developments, I believe that touring drag queens are one of the most exciting and lucrative emerging markets in the music industry. Many scholarly analyses of

RuPaul’s Drag Race focus on the impact it is having on drag in general, wondering about its detriment to drag’s authenticity and possible over commodification. However, I will be focusing on the positive impact of the show and the ability it has given to former contestants and winners to have successful touring careers, creating hugely successful brands.

Before delving into the success of drag queens post RuPaul’s Drag Race, I want to first describe what drag is. Drag in the way that we know it today originated in in the 80s in NYC, but drag has been used as a term since the 19th century in theatre productions and was first recognized as an art form by primarily gay cisgender men in the 1950s (them.). People unfamiliar with drag often get confused about the difference between drag queens and trans women. In order to better present my argument for the potential of the emerging drag touring market, I want to elaborate on the distinctions between drag queens and trans women. Drag queens are typically cisgender gay men who dress up as women and perform, playing with the idea of gender as a whole. Drag queens are not the only form of drag artists however, there are also kings, qwings, creatures and so much more yet to be discovered as the landscape adapts and transforms (them.). A helpful way to understand how people play with gender in this way can be found in Judith Butler’s queer theory. In a much longer, in-depth analysis Butler outlines the performativity of gender. Performativity is the idea that gender is not inherent to sex. Instead it proposes that gender is something assigned to us at birth, often times even before birth at events like gender reveal parties, and people grow up doing their best to perform the gender they are told that they are or society expects them to be. Performances of gender include but are not limited to: clothing, haircut, pronouns, and the notion of gendered responsibilities such as women being caregivers and men being providers. This leads to terms for people who do not ​ ​ conform to these stereotypes, with girls commonly referred to as “tomboys” and more offensive terms for boys like “sissy boy”. People who do not align with or do not want to perform the gender they have been assigned often fail to meet society's expectations and often are conflated with being transgender, which actually has little to do with performance of gender but rather internal sense of self which is invisible to the outside world. Gender expression is how people often signal to the world their gender, but ultimately gender expression does not indicate someone’s gender identity. Thus, drag is the intentional performance of gender and costume that is removed off stage, unlike transgender people for whom their gender is consistent on and off stage, engaging in drag or not. Frequently, drag bends our understanding of gender completely, with many artists refusing to be stagnated by the gender binary. Contrastly, trans people are people who do not identify with the sex they were assigned at birth and they live their lives as their true gender 24/7. Drag artists perform in clubs, on tours and such, but trans people live their lives in the way that feels most authentic to them, at all times. It is important here to understand that a theory like Butler’s does not refute the idea that gender exists, it just aims to expand upon the binary expectations of gender. This is not to say that some trans people do not identify within that binary as men and women, but drag seeks to expand peoples’ notions of what gender is and can be through performance. Therefore, it is important to understand that drag artists and trans people are separate, though they can overlap. In fact, some of the most successful drag artists from RuPaul’s Drag Race are trans women such as and . Many trans women share that performing in drag allowed them to express their femininity in a safe place first, which enabled them to then accept themselves and live their lives on and off stage as the women they are (Butler).

With these foundational elements of my argument laid out, I want to begin highlighting the successes of touring drag queens post drag race. As I mentioned earlier, drag artists typically start out performing in clubs and bars in their local area. With the national stage that RuPaul’s

Drag Race affords to contestants however, queens in the past few years have been able to do international tours. One of these drag artists is . After winning the sixth season of

RuPaul’s Drag Race, Bianca Del Rio went on to tour around the globe, eventually headlining

Wembley arena in England. The capacity of Wembley arena is around 12,500 people and Rio is credited as the only drag queen to perform at this venue. With over 2 million followers on instagram, two film releases, a book and stand-up comedy tours, Rio has established themselves as one of the most successful queens post RPDR (NME). However, this sort of success is not unique to Rio alone. Shangela, another successful RPDR queen, logged an impressive 180+ city tour in 2018 and 2019, travelling all across the globe. With performances in blockbuster films like A Star Is Born, being the first drag queen to walk the red carpet of the Oscars and starring in ​ ​ the new HBO show We’re Here, Shangela is a great example of the hard work and dedication ​ ​ that can lead a RPDR queen to international stardom (Sim). In 2020, three of RPDR’s most successful queens will be going on tour: Trixie Mattel, BenDeLaCreme and . I want to highlight Trixie Mattel specifically however, because they represent a full blown, multi-faceted brand and the epitome of what a modern day drag superstar looks like. Grown Up ​ will be Mattel’s fourth and “most ambitious” tour yet as they tour their new album, Barbara, ​ ​ original standup comedy material and their signature aesthetic at 1,000 to 2,000 person venues across the US, and eventually the world. Mattel also has a successful cosmetics brand,

Trixie Cosmetics, and has reached number one on the iTunes singer-songwriter charts with previous albums (Lorusso). As if that wasn’t enough, Trixie has an incredibly successful

Youtube presence in tandem with fellow drag queen, Katya. Their show UNHhhh regularly racks ​ ​ up millions of views per episode and they have also begun a successful Netflix series on Youtube where they watch shows and make commentary. How does this relate to touring? Well, Trixie and Katya also do live sessions of UNHhhh and will be touring together in Australia and New ​ ​ Zealand in the summer of 2020. Because of the performance based nature of drag, not without proper credit to Mattel’s hard work and dedication, Mattel’s success does not have to be, and is not, a one time thing. With the right sort of investment by key music industry players, this sort of success can be replicated.

Drag artists are given unprecedented marketing attention each time there is a new season of drag race, which does not seem to be slowing down anytime soon, if anything it is only ramping up. Across the globe, other drag race competitions are held in Thailand, the UK and a production of drag race is currently in development in Australia (Jordan). Mattel was a great example of a multi-faceted brand, but as this is related to the music industry, I also want to highlight the career of Adore Delano, who is a drag queen with a more centralized focus on music. With over 500,000 subscribers on Youtube, Delano has amassed millions upon millions of views on their music videos. Delano has one of, if not the strongest, music brands in drag.

This quote from Bernardo Sim outlining Delano’s success for Screen Rant says it all.

“Her first album after the show, 2014’s , reached number 59 on

the Billboard 200 chart, as well as number 3 on the Dance/Electronic Albums of

Billboard Magazine. Needless to say, it became the highest-charting album of any Drag

Race contestant, ever. Adore then proceeded to release 2016’s After Party and 2017’s

Whatever, headlining nothing less than seven tours to promote her albums.”

Despite drag being a safe haven for queer people who are often disadvantaged by society’s heteronormative existence, there is still racism and other bigotry that have affected other minority groups within this community such as black drag artists. In response to this disparity, , who appeared on season 10 of RPDR, has created the Black Girl Magic tour that features queens , , Bebe Zahara Benet, Peppermint and more. It’s goal is to promote black drag artists because of the unequal treatment black drag artists have received from promoters and booking agents, as vocalized by The Vixen themselves

(Daw). I want to highlight this facet of the drag industry to explain what investors in this emerging market need to be aware of. Drag cannot be viewed as some sort of cash cow. While there are many opportunities available with drag and an audience thirsty for more shows due to the extreme vacancies in queer entertainment, the involvment of others in the drag industry needs to be authentic. Time and time again companies pander to the LGBTQ+ community in hopes of a big payout, commonly referred to as “queer-baiting”. This type of involvement is easy to spot and will automatically delegitimize businesses who do so (Ritschel).

As most of the world is aware of, the LGBTQ+ community is largely oppressed. Despite advances in the queer rights movement in the United States, most of the globe still punishes homosexual activity with things like jail, fines and sometimes physical abuse or death. From a business standpoint, this may seem like a deterrent from entering the market. However, one of the most successful drag queens of all time hails from one of the most homophobic places in the world. Pabllo Vittar has amassed over 8 million followers on Instagram and has been deemed

Brazil’s “pop queen” according to Billboard magazine. Her videos on Youtube have amassed over 1 billion collective views, she has over 5 million monthly listeners on Spotify and is grammy nominated.

Sources are not unified on just how much the touring industry will grow, but they are united in the fact that it will grow. Digital Music News projects the industry to be worth 31 billion dollars by 2022 and Facebook reports that it will be worth 25 billion dollars by 2023, which is a 14% increase from 2019. At the very least, it will grow by a lot. Additionally,

Facebook reports that over 57% of internet users across the globe prefer unique live experiences over status gained from purchasing certain brands, which supports Hartz’s claims on LinkedIn that I mentioned earlier. Thus, there is no better time to invest in drag than right now. The touring industry is growing, RuPaul’s Drag Race has created its own economy with built in marketing and fans, and drag artists like Pabllo Vittar, Shangela, Trixie Mattel, Adore Delano and more are paving the way for the next generation of drag superstars, while remaining in the prime of their own careers. Drag is the largest, bubbling facet of the live touring industry and I hope that the music industry begins to rally around them like never before.

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