Matt Williams #7

            Janelle Monae is an extremely unique artist. She does things her way, and goes with it. Although more and more artists are starting to be extremely unique, Monae still stands out. Her album Metropolis is no different. It would seem that she didn’t listen to musical critiques and recorded what she felt was best to record. I don’t think she cared about record sales. She did what she wanted. It paid off.  This album is unlike anything I have heard, although I do not listen to many genres of music.

            In this album, Monae seems to be singing about the future. She focuses on the science fiction sort of future, rather than the more realistic future. She could be doing this for a variety of reasons. She could do it because it is more entertaining than what is probably going to happen. It could be because she is hoping that is what the future will be like. Or it could be because she truly believes that is what the future will be like. It really doesn’t matter why she performed about this type of future, but it would be nice to know to see what kind of person Monae is.

            The genre of this album is a new-age pop. It makes Monae’s message of the future more relatable for some audiences. Even if they audience doesn’t know that Monae is feeding them different ideas about the future, they still enjoy the music. This is really only true for those who do not have a high enough education to analyze the music like we are doing. I am not saying that educated can’t enjoy this album. I am saying that they will be able to analyze what Monae is trying to say in this album, and this could really be said about any album and type of music.

Sofia Gasperino Journal #7

        The narrative she tries to construct talks about the problems in our society and what’s wrong with it. She also does a futuristic version that implies humans are becoming robotic and are losing feeling.  She talks about how hard it is to follow your dreams because we are stuck. She says our minds are prisoners and we need to make changes in our lives. The purpose is to inform her listeners about the problems and to convince them to see it and to change it. She also tries to uplift her listeners and encourage her listeners to not allow them to be knocked down but to change their lives. The genre is R&B with her own twists of funk and other genres. I think this album is different from other genres because it has a story line similar to plays. I think that her race affects who she admires as artists and the genre she mostly sticks to. She comes from a lower working class family, which is the reason why she wears a suit to perform because she wants to be in “uniform” like her parents were (Janelle).

Janelle Monáe Biography." Bio.com. A&E Networks Television, 2013. Web. 01 Apr. 2013.

Sofia Gasperino

The first time I fell in love with music I was in my sister’s room. She played a song for me that I really liked. Later on, I listened to the entire album and it was amazing to me. The lyrics spoke so clearly to me and I was able to connect to it on a personal level. I also really liked it because all of the songs were sang with so much intensity and the instruments in the background were unique and intensely played as well. I could hear the emotions of the singer in his voice so vividly. I have been listening to the album for a while now and you don’t have to like bluegrass to enjoy it. This music helped me cope with strong feelings and it could do the same for anyone else who listens to it. 

Emily Babski -Journal #7

Monae’s album is a brilliant work full of passion and true artistic expression. The album Metroplis is about a rebel and forbidden love between essentially a robot and a human. It is a modern day Romeo and Juliet story to be sure. I think her message is that no matter who you are, there are no bounds to love and you can love whomever you want. No one should or can tell you who your love should go to. She could have been making a statement to society considering the high attention gay rights have been receiving in our world today and there is a lot of negatively towards homosexuals and she may be saying that they should be more accepted in our world. This is one possible message I think she may be trying to send in regards to our society. This album is apart of the R&B genre, I think, but we cannot stop and say this album is solely R&B. Monae incorporated other genres as well such as a little jazz, rap and new age funk.  It fits in quite well with the R&B genre because throughout the album it has that semi- jazzy, lush vocal sound, and slightly swingy style that R&B music is known for. Occasionally it has instances of brass instruments and light percussion added into the music. These additions absolutely add to the R&B genre that I am familiar with.  Monae is a really unique individual. Her particular style of dress, make up, hair, etc. is not something that is seen a lot. I think she is making a statement and making her mark in society. Monae is an African-American female as well, which is common for R&B artists. Even though Monae does not fit completely in this genre, R&B is a subset of jazz, which is also a genre that African-Americans had a major part in developing.

http://www.digitaldreamdoor.com/pages/best_rb-greatest-RB-artists.html

Haleigh Hutcheson - Journal #7

        Janelle Monae’s Metropolis: The Chase Suite is an interesting album that expresses Monae’s quirky attitude while portraying interesting messages in all of her songs. Monae takes this album to creatively express some sort of forbidden love scenario in some sort of alien/robot alternative world. As shown in an album review by Helium.com, “[this album is] the year 2719 in Metropolis and to guide us around we have Monáe taking on the role of the android Cindi Mayweather – a character who has wrongfully fallen for a human. From there things get interesting” (XICripZ). I believe her purpose of this was to creatively tell a story; whether it is necessarily pertinent to her own life or not, which pulls the listeners into the songs with several references to the modern world that we live in today.  This theme is most prominent in her songs “March of the Wolfmasters” and “Violet Stars Happy Hunting!” but then she gets more expressive in her songs “Smile” and “Mr. President.” This puts emphasis on her versatility as a singer and songwriter.
         Monae combines genres of funk, soul, and pop to create a creative delivery of heartfelt music. “Neo-Soul, R&B, Pop, Hip Hop, Dance-Punk, Funk and others are all said to be a part of what this EP” (XICripZ) and these genres seem to blend together to make a creative, adventurous mixture of music. She even manages to incorporate some opera-like music within one of the songs, further expressing her flexibility in music. Based on this combination and the variety of her musical expression, I feel that it is difficult to place this album in a specific genre. She was “an artist who had immerged from under the wing of Hip Hop’s most versatile duo: OutKast. Young theatre student, Janelle Monáe received her break after having settled in amongst Big Boi Purple Ribbon All-Stars and releasing the first ‘suite’ of a four-part series…back in 2007” (XICripZ). Her unique background influenced how she produced her music, as well as her own individual spirit. Monae’s appearance and outfit choices help express her own individuality that she reveals in her music. These identity characteristics supports her rare take on music, and the uniqueness of the noise that the genres she has blended.

        Overall, Monae expresses her music in a creative abstract way that reflects her breakout from the original genres and typical music that has been previously expressed in the past. The combination of her past experiences, her individuality, and her futuristic outlook is all portrayed in this album very clearly, leaving the listener to leave thinking ‘wow, she has an incredible voice!’ and leaving the songs imprinted in their minds for days to follow. 

XICripZ. "Album Reviews: Metropolis, The Chase Suite, by Janelle Monae." Helium. 
Helium, 26 July 2010. Web. 01 Apr. 2013 http://www.helium.com/items/1904127-album-reviews-metropolis-the-chase-suite-by-janelle-monae