Warning: Gyrating May Occur

Does anyone actually use the term "gyrating" anymore? Seriously, it's about the lamest word one could possibly use to describe something as fun as dancing. I mean I really don't see "gyrating" being a part of your vocabulary unless you're an uptight chaperone at a high school dance or a citizen of the tiny dance-hating town of Footloose or, apparently, a member of the Mississippi Alcohol Beverage Control.

Last week, a Big Freedia show in Hattiesburg, Mississippi was canceled after the owner of the bar at which it was scheduled to take place was advised to pull the plug on the show by the state's ABC because it might violate their codes...because of the potential "gyrating."

"The word gyrating was in there," Ben Shemper, owner of The Dollar Box, told the Times Picayune.

What's perplexing about the cancelation and the ABC's intervention is that Big Freedia has performed in Mississippi numerous times before.

According to the bounce and reality television star, the ABC deemed Freedia's music and style of performance "too sexual" after viewing some her YouTube videos. The cancelation comes just after the release of Beyoncé's "Formation," which Freedia was notably involved in. The song and video sparked controversy because of its anti-police brutality stance and Black Panther-influenced Super Bowl performance, which prompted the NYPD to demand an apology from Beyoncé and the Miami police vowed to boycott her show and refuse to provide protection for her. It even led to the organization of a pitiful, anti-Beyoncé "rally." (Don't mess with Queen Bey, guys. It never works.)While the cancelation could be tied to all of the "Formation" buzz, what I find most disturbing about the situation is the demonization of non-White, non-heterosexual displays of sexuality.

Let's not forget that Mississippi is the proud birth-State of Elvis Presley, notorious gyrator.

But while this ^^ (which amazing at one point in time was considered scandalous) is A-Okay, this

 is not.

There's a pattern in this country of fetishizing but also demonizing black bodies. Attitudes toward sexual expression in America have come a long way, but still a terrible double standard exists. For example, the media tells us that  this:

    

 is edgy and cool while this:

is inappropriate, a joke, trashy, etc.

When I heard about the cancellation, I couldn't help but ask a question, that these days seems clichéd but is still so often necessary to ask: "Would this have played out the same way if she was white?"

In my opinion: no. In today's world, black bodies are only deemed acceptable to act sexually when they are commodities for white consumers. When these bodies are robbed of their voices, used as props, or used to revamp Miley Cyrus' career, that's okay with everybody. Sure, it'll cause a stir, but when you're a affluent white girl with a point to prove, all press is good press.

However, if you're an outspoken black performer embracing your sexuality, claiming it for yourself proudly, that's taboo. That's the butt of a joke White America will giggle at. That doesn't make you radical like Madonna, that makes you a moment at best. If you're Big Freedia, who literally could not give less of a fuck about your gender norms or sexual restrictions, that means your show gets cancelled.

It's important that we not just write off this event as Mississippi being backwards or make it a joke. Sure, it is pretty funny that "gyrating" is against the state's Alcohol Beverage Control's rules (I mean really, is Hattiesburg that town from Footloose ?!), but the way in which the state is looking at bounce reflects the way America views non-traditional (ie. straight, White) sexual expression, and nothing about that is funny.

A Big Week for Bounce?

If you didn't know Beyoncé released a new single this past week, then you probably live in some internet-less underground mole people civilization and aren't reading this blog post, so...we all know BEYONCE RELEASED A NEW SINGLE THIS PAST WEEK.

Behold "Formation" (*Trigger warning: Hurricane Katrina/flood images)

Like any good Beyoncé fan (or human being - seriously who doesn't love Beyoncé??!!), I rejoiced at Queen Bey's latest banger. I applauded her assertion of black self-love and pride. As a New Orleanian, I initially was ecstatic that Beyoncé had made my hometown the setting and a major focus of her music video. Beyoncé's Super Bowl performance decried police brutality and along with the song itself delivered a powerful pro-Black message.

The Katrina imagery in the video seemed to similarly decry the handling of the disaster of the levees breaking and the mass flooding that primarily affected poor, black neighborhoods. I could get down with that message. Kanye may have beat her to it, but it's never too late to call out something like that, so I could get down with it.

But on second thought and after reading Maris Jones' wonderful piece for Black Girl Dangerous (which I highly recommend everyone read), I felt differently. I grew up in one of the more privileged areas of Uptown New Orleans, an area on higher ground that did not flood during Hurricane Katrina, and while my experience was difficult in its own way, I didn't have the experience that requires the trigger warning I included for Beyoncé's video. For many New Orleanians, Katrina meant the loss of everything they knew and loved and is a traumatizing part of their past. Jones perfectly expresses the pain and disappointment New Orleans natives felt upon seeing Beyoncé use the tragedy that was Katrina to provide provocative imagery for her video.

However, bounce superstar Big Freedia, who can be heard speaking about halfway through the track, has expressed nothing but gratitude and excitement about "Formation" and her feature on it. The Queen Dive of bounce has said that she loves that Beyoncé is paying tribute to her southern roots. The feature has garnered a lot of attention for Freedia this past week.

Interestingly enough, despite the political message of "Formation," Big Freedia declined to comment on the anti-police brutality message of the song when talking to The Fader.

Whether "Formation" is a win or lose for the bounce community is unclear and, yet again, we land on the question of nationwide attention being a positive because it means success for artists like Big Freedia or a negative because it often results in appropriation or bounce and New Orleans culture, in this case the city's Katrina stories, being fetishized and turned into a commodity. There's a lot that's positive about "Formation" but the Katrina imagery presents a grey area (leaning toward negative for me). How we can strike a balance in these situations and find a way to mix popularity and understand is a question we are still trying to answer.

Twerk baby twerk, twerk, twerk

When most people think about twerking, they probably think about this:

If you're one of those people, then I'm sorry. Not only am I sorry that this image is permanently seared into your memory, but I am also sorry but you have got it all wrong.

Twenty years before Miley Cyrus made us all go



DJ Jubilee released what many believe to be the first recorded use of the word "twerk" with his hit single and soon-to-be bounce classic "Jubilee All (Stop Pause)." The party song features Jubilee calling out dance moves for the audience to perform. The lyrics are a series of Do-the-insert-dance-move-here's that got people moving and grooving and twerking all over the city.

Twerking, though, was likely already happening in clubs and at bounce shows before "Jubilee All." Two years after "Jubilee All," Cheeky Blakk's "Twerk Something," which you can probably guess is an ode to the dance, became a hit on the bounce scene. Since then, twerking has remained the signature dance move of bounce. If you're at a bounce show and nobody is twerking, then it isn't a bounce show. Music videos are often dance showcases, featuring people of different ages and genders showing off their best moves, and of course, their twerking.

What Miley quickly picked up, made trendy, then discarded was actually a bit of culture with a rich history of celebration and community. Though many tend to racialize and gender twerking, at bounce shows, dancers come in many different forms. While many reserve the move for black women, many young men twerk at shows and are even backup dancers for artists. Further, as bounce has become more popular outside of the New Orleans projects and predominantly black clubs, participation of other races has increased and twerkers of different races can be seen at many shows.

Twerking's origins, though, goes even farther back than bounce. Some say that its lie in West African dance and was carried over into African American culture. Mapouka, a dance native to Cote D'Ivoire, similarly involves women shaking their rear ends. Others argue that the 70s dance trend the bump may have evolved into what we now know as twerking.

Regardless of where New Orleans picked it up from, bounce made twerking its own.

Triggerman: The Beat That Started It All

Whether you know it or not, you've probably heard the Triggerman beat. Released in 1986, “Drag Rap (Triggerman)” by The Showboys became a massive hit throughout the city of New Orleans and is the foundation of bounce music. Its intro will be immediately recognizable for anybody who considers themselves a fan of the southern subgenre, but even those unfamiliar with bounce might also recognize the beat from bounce-inspired, more mainstream hits, T.I.’s 2012 hit "Ball" or Juvenile's "Nolia Clap." Even Death Grips have sampled this beat!

The Showboys' influence, particularly in Southern Hip Hop, has been immense and far beyond anything the rap duo from Queens could have imagined. As it too often goes, though, The Showboys' personal success does not amount to anything near their importance. While those who have used the Triggerman beat have risen to local and even international stardom, its creators have slipped into the shadows of a now long-gone era of Hip Hop. It's been rumored that when a Memphis producer was able to track down locally legendary pair years after the release of "Drag Rap", they were completely unaware of their song's southern success and wave it had set in motion.

MC T. Tucker and DJ Irv’s “Where Dey At?” is considered to be the first true bounce song, and Triggerman’s intro, 808s, and even vocal samples can be heard throughout. “Where Dey At?” is really a reworking of The Showboys’ song, making it more uptempo, danceable, and playful. The lyrics they insert over this rework are repetitive, explicit, and though sometimes combative, they always carry a lighthearted, or celebratory, tone. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is essentially bounce music. In a way, the entire genre is a reworking of this song and bounce music is one city’s way of seeing how far one beat can go. While some of the extremely high tempo and electronic-infused bounce of today may seem a far cry from the more relaxed Triggerman tune, this Showboys’ single is still at the heart of the rhythmic structure and pattern of any song that considers itself bounce.

As people outside the city of New Orleans have begun to pick up on bounce and the genre has spread, copyright issues have arisen for artists looking to venture into more widespread recognition. For years, bounce artists have used the Triggerman beat in their songs then played them at parties or, more recently, posted them online. While the genre remains contained within the local scene, there is no necessity to make the sampling official and draw up a contract whereby the owners of the copyright of “Drag Rap” retain a portion of writer’s rights and earnings. However, when artists begin to want to take their work to the national stage, these illegal samplings become an issue. In a 2013 Pitchfork special on Big Freedia – by far the world’s most popular and success bounce artist – her team expressed concerns about the legality of the beat’s usage in her music, a problem didn’t seem like one at all when the self-proclaimed Queen Diva was rising on the local scene. As bounce begins to attract greater attention outside of the safe space of its mother city, where fans and musicians alike are willing to turn a blind eye any copyright infringement, the Triggerman beat poses a problem for artists taking their careers to the next level. It’s quite the predicament for rising bounce stars but an even bigger one for artists who started it all. According to Complex Magazine, The Showboys themselves do not have any legal rights to “Drag Rap.”

Hello World

As an avid music listener and reviewer, the exchange of music between different cultures and people has always interested me. As a native of New Orleans, the spread of local genres has a personal significance. In the past few years for example, I watched twerking, particularly when it involved Miley Cyrus’ ass, become national news. Instead of thinking, “Wow, there’s the hot new dance trend,” like so many others, I thought, “New Orleans has been doing that for years.” Twerking, a term who’s first recorded use can be traced back to a 1993 DJ Jubilee song, is the signature dance that accompanies bounce music, a fast-paced subgenre of Southern hip hop based in New Orleans. Seeing it become Miley’s thing felt wrong, like a robbery. But at the same time, in the wake of this twerk-madness, Big Freedia, a bounce artist I’d seen play just about every year at Jazz Fest in my hometown, emerged as a budding star and gained national recognition for the first time.

The cultural issues that stem from globalization are complex and many. Cultural appropriation can be a terrible thing. On the other hand, it allows for musicians to build off of one another and push genres above and beyond into new and exciting realms of sound. New Orleans is a culturally rich city, and bounce is one of the newer and increasingly relevant aspects of that culture. However, like Chicago footwork or Jamaican dancehall, it is an extremely local art form. Born from the housing projects of New Orleans, bounce is the music of a particular people and place. When taken out of that origin place of total understanding (a direction in which bounce seems to be heading), it can easily be misinterpreted of fetishized.

As someone with a deep love for the city of New Orleans, an immense respect and appreciation for bounce, and a desire to learn more about the music that comprised the soundtrack to much of my youth, I've created this blog as a space for exploring the roots and characteristics of bounce music as well as discussing trends within the genre, popular artists and songs, and issues and controversy around the music. As bounce artists begin to make their way into the national spotlight, I think it is important for people to understand the music before judging and be able to see it within the context of its origins. As a member of the music department at KXSC radio, I bring my experience reviewing, discovering, and analyzing music to this topic, and as a proud New Orleanian, I bring a personal connection and closeness to this blog. If you've made it to the end of this blog post then I hope I can assume you'll be back to read more. Bounce is a rich and exciting music and culture that I'm just here to deliver to you conveniently. I'm looking forward to it.