In her debut album
Metropolis, Janelle Monáe portrays a story about an android that has developed
a forbidden love for a hum, for which the punishment is disassembly. The first
song gives us an overview of the story, and the later songs expand on her idea,
taking the listener into a futuristic world where creativity is stifled and the
world has become completely unoriginal.
The narrative is a metaphor for the modern world, where she believes
that originality is fading and people are just becoming followers. I would say
that this album is a very interesting mixture of soul/r&b, which attracts a
wide audience. It fits in as an r&b album because the album tells a story,
and the songs mostly highlight her voice with a soft beat in the background,
rather than focusing on the music. I think it works as a soul song because she
has some songs (such as smile) where she just sings in a sad voice with some
soul music in the background. Also, she uses an organ, which is definitely a
soul staple.
I think her
demographics definitely affect her music. The fact that she is an African
American woman coming from a low in come family definitely inclines her towards
making soul/r&b music. The way she dresses is certainly an iconic trait
about her. She always wears weird tuxedos with her trademark hair-do, which
gives her a very distinct and classy look. This originality is a major theme in
her music, and her image couples with the originality of her lyrics while
matching the classiness of the brass instruments in her jazzy music. When
questioned about her style, she told rolling stone magazine, “I call it my
‘uniform… My mother was a janitor and my father collected trash, so I wear a
uniform too.”
Overall, the album
is bristling with originality and spunk, and she is really trying to wake the
American people up from what she sees as a “creative crisis.”
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