All These Poses, Such Beautiful Poses
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
ALL THESE POSES, SUCH BEAUTIFUL POSES: ARTICULATIONS OF QUEER MASCULINITY IN THE MUSIC OF RUFUS WAINWRIGHT by MATTHEW J JONES (Under the Direction of Susan Thomas) ABSTRACT Singer-composer Rufus Wainwright uses specific musical gestures to reference historical archetypes of urban, gay masculinity on his 2002 album Poses. The cumulative result of his penchant for pastiche, eschewal of traditional musical boundaries, and self-described hedonism, Poses represents Wainwright’s direct engagement with the politics of identity and challenges dominant constructions of (homo)sexuality and masculinity in popular music. Drawing from a vast lexicon of musical styles, he assembles an idiosyncratic persona, ignoring several decades of pop with an “utter lack of machismo [and] a freedom that comes to outsiders disinterested in meeting the requirements of the dreary status quo.”1 Though analysis of musical and lyrical characteristics of Poses, I establish a dialectic between Wainwright’s musical persona and four historical modes of urban gay masculinity: the 19th Century English Dandy, the French flaneur, the 20th Century gay bohemian, and the “Clone.” In doing so, I introduce Wainwright as a reinvigorating force, resuscitating the subversive potential of radical gay sexuality as a 21st Century model for imagining gay male subjectivity. INDEX WORDS: Rufus Wainwright, Masculinity, Queer, Gender, Sexuality, Popular Music 1 Barry Walters, “Rufus Wainwright,” The Advocate 12 May 1998. ALL THESE POSES, SUCH BEAUTIFUL POSES: ARTICULATIONS OF QUEER MASCULINITY IN THE MUSIC OF RUFUS WAINWRIGHT by MATTHEW J JONES B.A., The University of Georgia, 2002 A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of The University of Georgia in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree MASTER OF ARTS ATHENS, GEORGIA 2008 © 2008 Matthew J Jones All Rights Reserved ALL THESE POSES, SUCH BEAUTIFUL POSES: ARTICULATIONS OF QUEER MASCULINITY IN THE MUSIC OF RUFUS WAINWRIGHT by MATTHEW J JONES Major Professor: Susan Thomas Committee: Jean Kidula Adrian Childs Electronic Version Approved: Maureen Grasso Dean of the Graduate School The University of Georgia May 2008 DEDICATION To my parents, Linda and Anthony Jones, for a life filled with music, love, and unwavering encouragement. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Without the continued support and guidance of many, many people, this project might have been a dismal failure. My unwavering gratitude and admiration extends to Dr. Susan Thomas, whose influence and instruction shattered my paradigm again and again then patiently sorted through the rubble with me as I revised, rethought, and reconstructed. To all the musicology faculty at The University of Georgia: Dr. David Haas, Dr. Jean Kidula, Dr. Dorothea Link, Dr. David Schiller, and Dr. Steve Valdez for providing a supportive, nurturing, and rigorous intellectual climate. Thanks also to my committee: Dr. Adrian Childs, Dr. Jean Kidula, and Dr. Susan Thomas for their patience while I found my way to a final draft. The other MA, MM, and PhD musicology students for the countless conversations in hallways, over the phone, and via email and our special fusion of work and camaraderie. My dearest friends Bret, Ben, and Jason for putting up with me during the process and getting me out of the house and library when they could see I needed a break, and the folks at Walker’s Pub & Coffee who kept me caffeinated. v TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS.............................................................................................................v LIST OF FIGURES ...................................................................................................................... vii CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION .........................................................................................................1 2 SURVEY OF THE LITERATURE................................................................................8 Popular Press Materials.............................................................................................9 Ethnography/Virtual Ethnography ..........................................................................10 Theories of Musical Genres ....................................................................................13 Gender and Genre....................................................................................................20 Genre, Gender, Sexuality, and Rufus Wainwright..................................................25 Masculinities ...........................................................................................................27 Queerness ................................................................................................................28 Queer Geography ....................................................................................................29 Denizens of Queer Space: The Dandy and the Flaneur..........................................32 Gay Bohemians and Clones ....................................................................................39 Masculinities and Music..........................................................................................44 Representations of Queer Sexuality ........................................................................52 3 THE ART OF POSING ...............................................................................................56 Case Study: “Poses” ................................................................................................56 4 CAMPING THE CITY................................................................................................67 Case Study: “Cigarettes and Chocolate Milk” ........................................................72 vi The Voice ................................................................................................................80 Case Study: “In a Graveyard” .................................................................................84 Case Study: “Cigarettes and Chocolate Milk”(reprise)...........................................90 5 A QUEER DUET.........................................................................................................93 6 CONCLUSIONS........................................................................................................107 REFERENCES ............................................................................................................................110 vii LIST OF FIGURES Page Figure 1a,b,c,d: Figure 1a Freddie Mercury ..................................................................................49 Figure 1e,f,g: Androgynous Stars..................................................................................................51 Figure 2: “Poses” Lyrics................................................................................................................58 Figure 3: “Poses” Intro...................................................................................................................60 Figure 4: “Poses” Melody..............................................................................................................61 Figure 5: “Poses” Reduction..........................................................................................................62 Figure 6: “Cigarettes and Chocolate Milk” Lyrics ........................................................................75 Figure 7: “Cigarettes and Chocolate Milk” Melody and Reduction..............................................77 Figure 8: “Cigarettes and Chocolate Milk” Minor Transposition .................................................78 Figure 9: “In a Graveyard” Lyrics .................................................................................................86 Figure 10a,b: “Graveyard” Lowered VI and VII chords ...............................................................88 Figure 11: “Graveyard” Nested Melody........................................................................................89 Figure 12: “The Greek Song” Lyrics.............................................................................................97 Figure 13: “The Greek Song” Structural Levels..........................................................................102 Figure 14a,b: “The Greek Song” Harmony .................................................................................102 viii Chapter One: Introduction Time takes a sabbatical when Rufus Wainwright sings. Most of his songs float above languidly strummed guitar chords or homey piano shuffles, circling until he alights on a yearning chorus. And his voice, with an apparently infinite breath supply, sustains phrases in a pure legato, a moan that pays no attention to gravity.1 Rufus Wainwright (b 22 July 1973), eldest child of Canadian folksingers Kate McGarrigle (b 6 September 1946) and Loudon Wainwright III (b 5 September 1946), grew up near Montreal and divided his time between Canada and New York following his parents’ divorce in 1979. As a child, Wainwright played piano and sang with his mother and aunt, The McGarrigle Sisters. After coming out to his parents at the age of eighteen, Wainwright dreamed of “the perfect boyfriend, the perfect sex life, and the perfect apartment [but] was actually quite disappointed by what the gay life had to offer - at least in Montreal.”2 Following high school at the prestigious Millbrook School, Wainwright briefly studied music at McGill University in Montreal. However, he found classical music education lackluster and endeavored upon his career