Prince the provocateur: The disruption of masculinities through the style of Prince Rogers Nelson

Often revered as one of pop culture’s most erotic and sexually charged beings, Prince’s influence within fashion and gender expression is now being fully realized academically. Many fans have long linked their admiration to the Purple One with their own personal sexual awakenings, citing the musician’s overt displays of sexual liberation as being key within their own development. Although Prince never self-identified as queer, his fearless expression of self through fashion, performance and lyrics continued to defy traditional hegemonic masculinities throughout his career spanning across four decades. This article will discuss Prince’s varying disruptions of masculinities through his career. It must be noted that this study is not an expansive critique; rather, this article will focus upon three pivotal sartorial moments within Prince’s career that have played a defining part of his legacy as one of popular culture’s most revered and celebrated gender non-conforming stars. All three outfits represent a defining moment within Prince’s career from his emergence into pop stardom, mainstream success and the comeback following an arduous relationship with his record company. Through examining the musician’s wardrobe, this article will underpin the many ways in which Prince slashed gender assumptions through clothing and paved the way for many performers within the queer community after him.

The Brooklyn Soca Connection

Chapter 6 focuses on the rise of Brooklyn soca (soul/calypso), beginning with the story of the early Bronx-based independent record company Camille Records, before shifting to the three most important Brooklyn-based labels: Straker’s Records, Charlie’s Records, and B’s Records. These Caribbean-owned businesses, along with a cadre of influential calypso/soca singers and the music arrangers with whom they collaborated, played a crucial role in the evolution of modern calypso and soca music during the 1970s and 1980s. Brooklyn’s Labor Day celebration had been dominated by calypso from its inception. Indeed, calypso and the new variant soca (soul/calypso) were essential hallmarks of the festivities. Equally important, and concurrent with the rise of Brooklyn Carnival in the 1970s, was the borough’s emergence as a vital transnational center for the recording and production of calypso and soca music.

The Number-One Banjo Player

Bill Monroe’s opposition meant that for years Flatt and Scruggs would lack the coast-to-coast coverage of Opry station WSM’s 50,000-watt signal. Instead, they played stints at regional stations. By 1953, they once again were being heard over WSM radio, though not on the Opry. Through the second half of the 1950s, the factors for another level of stardom came together for the band—a new record company, repertoire, songwriting, performance, band lineup, presentation, publicity, and business operation. By mid-decade, Louise Scruggs was managing the band from the family home on Donna Drive in the Nashville suburb of Madison. Scruggs’s banjo work gained thoughtful, skilled followers such as Ralph Stanley and Sonny Osborne from country backgrounds and Mike Seeger and Eric Weisberg from the city side.

Ioannis Halikias, aka Jack Gregory (1898–1957) 1

In 1932, Ioannis “Jack” Halikias (1898-1957), a Greek American, recorded “Minoretouteke” for Columbia Record Company, the first bouzouki solo and probably the most influential bouzouki recording ever made. This and a few subsequent recordings were responsible for the decision to start openly recording the bouzouki in Greece, which in turn created opportunities for the rise of the most famous players. Halikias was essentially a mangas—engaging in petty crime and black market sales as well as owning kafeneia or coffee shops.

George Dimitrios Grachis (1882–1965) 1

When George DemetriosGrachis arrived in America in 1907, he was already a master instrument maker and an accomplished violinist. By 1910, he launched the Terpandros instrument workshop in Chicago’s Greektown. Later, he and santouri player Spyros Stamos (1894-1973) owned Chicago’s Greek Record Company, which was between 1922 and 1923. For decades, he toured the county as an acclaimed musician.