Purple Visions of Blackness: Prince’s Expansion of the Depictions of Black Experiences Through his Music Videos

Abstract

Childish Gambino’s music video for “This is America,” garnered national headlines for its controversial depictions of the Black experience in America. However the use of music videos by pop music icons depicting the Black experience is not new. Long before Gambino, Prince’s provocative attire, gender fluidity, and suggestive lyrics stretched the boundaries of what it meant to be Black in America. Although the themes of Prince’s music have been analyzed thoroughly, his visual depictions of Blackness have not been considered for exploration. This study uses an exploratory thematic qualitative media content analysis approach to discuss Prince’s depictions of Blackness and Black experiences as depicted in the seven music videos, written and directed by the artist, thus giving him complete artistic control and expression (Altheide & Schneider, 2013; Macnamara, 2005). This project concludes that Prince used his music videos to redefine depictions of Blackness, take political stances, and envision a new future for Black people. Prince’s music videos rebuke the tired troupes of the Black experience and offer an energetic, thought-provoking portrayal of Blackness as being multifaceted and complex, a tradition that has carried on in the music and music videos of Black pop artists who have followed since Prince.

KEYTERMS:

• African American studies
• grounded theory
• identity
• media
• race

Acknowledgments

The author would like to thank his reviewers for their insightful guidance on an earlier draft of this paper.