I missed that cultural moment.
Per the Madonna Song “Vogue” - apparently there was more to this than just the song - some kind of clubbing performance art thing - What’s the “vogueing” back story?
There was a documentary called “Paris is Burning” about the subculture, You might want to check it out.
It was like drag, but comprised of more than just drag, like doing a 30’s movie star look. And not so much about camp.
See, the “Gays” went through a period where they dropped the pretext that their dancing was anything other than trying to be noticed. So “vogueing” was a combination of modeling (particularly runway) and dancing.
Well, first of all, it wasn’t “the ‘Gays’” (could you clarify why that’s in quotes, anyway?), it was a particular subculture of poor young inner-city gay men and tenns. And it wasn’t a matter of ego finally erupting out of a “pretext” of dancing for enjoyment rather than attention-seeking. It was an expression of creativity in an outlet that these particular gay teens/young adults could afford.
I strongly recommend renting a copy of “Paris Is Burning” if you really want to understand what it was about before Madonna appropriated and commercialized it.
“tenns” = “teens”
Thank you and come again… :smack:
Wasn’t there some backlash about this?
It wasn’t enough to make her persona non grata in the gay community (nothing short of her tearing a baby to pieces with her bare hands then eating the pieces onstage would do that), but there were grumblings from the Earnest College Queer contingent.
Caveat: I haven’t read Paris is Burning.
I always thought of vogueing as a sort of outgrowth of posing. As I see it, the homosexual subculture has, for a long time, been at the forefront of style & fashion. They either create it, or at the very least, they’re right there as it happens. Along came punk rock, and punk rockers who had what was apparently an exciting, non-conformist new “style.” I put that in quotes because I think true punk rockers were really trying to be anti-style. Which is why posing, and being a poseur were insults. Anyone who dressed up like a punk just for the sake of looking cool, without the requisite genuine punk attitude, was a poseur.
Yet the punk subculture with its non-conformist, non-judgemental, all accepting do - and dress - however you want attitude was destined to get co-opted and popularized by the gay fashion - and inevitably drag - subcultures. Music, and fashion, quickly went from punk to new wave, new romantic, rockabilly, etc. You quickly went from a Sid Vicious look to your Adam Ants, Bow Wow Wows, your Straycats, your Boy George & Marilyns. You take a little gothic Cure style, add some New Romantic and get all sorts of Classix Nouveaux type looks.
This had to be an exciting opportunity for the drag subculture, as they suddenly got trendy, and of course along the way they took posing - a bad thing - and turned it into vogueing, and cool and popular thing. Just as they took queer and “reclaimed” it and made it “empowering,” they took posing and turned it into an almost art form.
I’m sure the Harlem drag houses deserve credit as being part of it, or at least the part of it that Madonna pretty much nailed in her video. But vogueing was something that was going on all around the world, too.
Huh. I was the Earnest College Queer contingent and I don’t recall any grumblings…
Anyway, Madonna was hardly the first to appropriate Harlem culture for a mainstream white audience. It’s been going on since at least the 20s. At least Madonna (sort of) gave credit where credit was due.
It’s been a while since I’ve seen Paris is Burning. Do they talk about the history of the Harlem drag balls dating back to pre-Depression days or is it pretty solely focused on the modern timeframe?
You say tomato I say tomatoe.
Thank you, and join us again each week for “Non-Sequitor Theatre”!
Oh, and in looking at the quoted lyrice in the OP, it’s Katharine, not “Katherine.”
One of my more amusing memories, speaking of “Vogue,” was at Chicago’s pride parade the year it was a hit. Every bar the route passed had the song blaring out the windows, and it got to the point where about half the parade was chanting the chorus as a cadence and marching to it.
WTF Otto?
I think I first started seeing people voguing in the mid to late 80’s. Definitely before Madonna’s song. I remember laughing out loud when I heard it and thinking she was at least a couple of years behind the scene on that one.
I saw it in clubs in NYC like The Tunnel, Twilo, Sound Factory, etc. At first in one of the smaller rooms of the larger clubs. Then it made it’s way out to the main dance floors. Then after that song I guess it was everywhere else, except those dance floors.
I’ve never seen Paris is Burning, I’m going to look for it, it sounds interesting.
Sorry, was I not being clear? Your first post was odd, and your second, allegedly clarifying the first, made no sense whatsoever.
Back to Paris is Burning, one of the stars (Dorian Corey) became somewhat notorious when, upon his death, a dead body was found in a trunk in his apartment. It had apparently been there for quite some number of years before Corey’s own death. AFAIK the body was never identified, and Corey obviously wasn’t around to talk.