Investigating Robyn's Postmodern Sense of Style
August 28th 2008 14:30
Category: No Category
I am very interested in the work of Robyn Carlsson, a Swedish pop artist with one of the most gorgeous voices I have ever heard and an unconventional approach to the pop music she is responsible for. Robyn manages to sound seductive even when uttering such lines as 'My new favourite thing to do / is wasting my time on a bum like you' which signal a depletion of energy and creativity... I can't decide whether this is a good thing, but one thing's for sure: she is never boring. In what ways is the tag 'postmodern' revealing of Robyn's musical sensibility? I argue that Robyn finds a way to simultaneously engage with and subvert expectations of a popular female artist. Due to her experience of creating successful music on a mainstream level from the age of fifteen, Robyn has a very rich and layered history in the public eye. In her fourth and eponymous album, Robyn is brought to your courtesy of her very own record label, Konichiwa Records (for those of you who don't know this Japanese word, it means Hello), which symbolises a new sense of commitment to her music on behalf of the singer. Robyn is an infectious bubblegum pop outfit fashioned with lyrical bitterness and disillusionment. I hope to take a look at as many of her videos as possible, starting with my favourite, Who's That Girl.
In Who's That Girl, Robyn appears with arms folded in front of her chest, regarding the camera with what is mostly defiance, but will surely reveal itself to be resignation too, at some point. Her haircut looks boyish from all angles except at the front, where a long triangular strands covers up half her face at all times, reminiscent of a typically female 'over one eye' extended fringe. A backdrop of bricks is faintly superimposed over her image to lend the video a 'street' look, and she stylish in black, on a black background. She begins to sing: “The girls are pretty / Like, all the time / I’m just pretty / some of the time.” She’s positioning herself as at odds with other females in the entertainment industry, where looking appealing is a non-stop effort, which can sometimes directly interfere with feeling attractive. Instead, Robyn focuses on the times when she feels confident enough in herself to feel pretty. ‘Pretty’ becomes a state of mind, and the line turns into a confessional – her self-esteem over her image comes and goes. She performs a degree of apathy over her sporadic bursts of self-appreciation, perhaps a defense mechanism. Robyn makes the relationship between objectifying impulses standards and the ambiguity of her responses more apparent in the corresponding line to her second verse, when she sings: “The girls are sexy / Like, every day / I’m only sexy / when I say it’s okay,” rebelling against the idea that sex appeal comes from being made up for the camera, endorsing the notion that it’s self-validation that really counts. By making the choice of when to feel pretty and/or sexy, Robyn rediscovers her sense of control.
But this is only the beginning of the self-analysis: “The girls are happy / and satisfied / I won’t stop asking / until I die.” I can relate to the sense that questioning the world around you at all times is often unwelcome, and many people seem 'happy' to do without it... but Robyn knows better, rejecting the limitations of reconciling herself to the limitations of conventional thinking by promoting her sense of will-power in respect to challenging the status quo (whatever she sees as such). The line conjures up the idea of nurturing a sense of dissatisfaction, that a sense of always aiming higher is much more satisfying than a traditional settling for what is given to you. Robyn posits the act of questioning (authority, tradition, rules) as very important to her livelihood, a curt affirmation of her inquisitive personality and commitment to following her own intuition.
“I just can’t deal with the rules / I can’t take the pressure,” Robyn gasps after delivering the lyric, as if the shock of her incredulity is present intensely. Robyn shows her inability to connect with the frameworks that she is supposed to work with as a girl, yet her ability to be drained and pained by them anyhow. Her subsequent question, which kicks off the chorus, ‘Who’s that girl?’ seems to be a hypothetical allusion to the kind of women men she is interested in seem to find desirable. Towards the end of the clip we see a few frames of women from all kinds of socio-cultural backgrounds, performing tasks which are seen as stereotypically feminine and traditionally alluring. We have a chic black lady dancing daintily away from the camera, a woman applying red lipstick to her lips in a close-up shot of the lower half of her face, an Asian woman sewing in a factory, a scantily clad model seemingly on a photo shoot by the sea, and many other images.
“What if I’m nothing like [the mythical girl you dream up as your love],” Robyn concludes, re-iterating her earlier lyric of ‘I (swear I) can’t take the pressure.’ ‘I know there’s no such girl,’ she confesses in frustration. The chorus confirms the idea of refusing to accept idealised images of beauty and femininity no matter the frequency with which they are thrown at you. The simulation of the perfect receptor of male desire is revealed not to exist, probably because there never was such a girl. Tellingly, all the images of women are taken from the mass media, although they are over as soon as you register their appearance, with visuals of Robyn constituting 95% of the video clip time. For Robyn’s purposes, no matter the attempts made at conjuring up this ‘ideal girl’, Robyn can only be herself in channeling her disappointment and frustration at the audience.
Robyn wears two different costumes in this clip, one a simple black outfit (on a black backdrop), and the second a red British Army suit – which whiplashes from 'fading into the background'-minimalist to ‘over-the-top’-theatrical, an outfit that seems superfluous to her feminist ideals and would not be out of place in a Harajuku fashion catalogue. Her body styling is more complex – she jerks her shoulders to emphasise the end of one lyric and the start of another, shifting a baton (which seems to double as a drumstick) from the grip of one hand to another other (the position doesn’t change) so as to spread the sensation that her arms can be used for aggressive means. She looks awkward, uncomfortable, but also steady and in control. These aggressively staccato movements and defiant posturing raise the question ‘is Robyn securely insecure, or insecurely secure?’ Is she trying to embody what she sees as extrinsic rhythm instead of letting it come to her?
And now we come to a bridge: “Let’s play a game that you’ll never try / You be the girl and I’ll be the guy.” While Robyn is trying to turn the interaction between the genders on their head, she is inadvertently reinforcing the idea of a gender binaries in terms of behaviour and social codes. Does this lyric represent frustration about the expectations she feels are forced on her as a girl, so that by assuming a ‘male’ identity she would be free of them?
Who’s That Girl is a curious chart topper because the lyrics are subversive towards mainstream values, full of frustration and anxiety, yet the music is very poppy and commercial, a seamless procession of catchy hooks, suave loops and funky beats. It sounds as if it should be wrapped in cellophane. Robyn has created a unique track which flirts very carefully with her image as a pretty, sexy, confident, feminine pop artist, and refreshes the traditional pop refrains by distinguishing them with meaningful lyrics.
Robyn's eye-catching clothing represents her ability to fuse the bright and colourful aspects of her personality with darker stylings, creating an entirely unique and fiercely independent spirit
In Who's That Girl, Robyn appears with arms folded in front of her chest, regarding the camera with what is mostly defiance, but will surely reveal itself to be resignation too, at some point. Her haircut looks boyish from all angles except at the front, where a long triangular strands covers up half her face at all times, reminiscent of a typically female 'over one eye' extended fringe. A backdrop of bricks is faintly superimposed over her image to lend the video a 'street' look, and she stylish in black, on a black background. She begins to sing: “The girls are pretty / Like, all the time / I’m just pretty / some of the time.” She’s positioning herself as at odds with other females in the entertainment industry, where looking appealing is a non-stop effort, which can sometimes directly interfere with feeling attractive. Instead, Robyn focuses on the times when she feels confident enough in herself to feel pretty. ‘Pretty’ becomes a state of mind, and the line turns into a confessional – her self-esteem over her image comes and goes. She performs a degree of apathy over her sporadic bursts of self-appreciation, perhaps a defense mechanism. Robyn makes the relationship between objectifying impulses standards and the ambiguity of her responses more apparent in the corresponding line to her second verse, when she sings: “The girls are sexy / Like, every day / I’m only sexy / when I say it’s okay,” rebelling against the idea that sex appeal comes from being made up for the camera, endorsing the notion that it’s self-validation that really counts. By making the choice of when to feel pretty and/or sexy, Robyn rediscovers her sense of control.
But this is only the beginning of the self-analysis: “The girls are happy / and satisfied / I won’t stop asking / until I die.” I can relate to the sense that questioning the world around you at all times is often unwelcome, and many people seem 'happy' to do without it... but Robyn knows better, rejecting the limitations of reconciling herself to the limitations of conventional thinking by promoting her sense of will-power in respect to challenging the status quo (whatever she sees as such). The line conjures up the idea of nurturing a sense of dissatisfaction, that a sense of always aiming higher is much more satisfying than a traditional settling for what is given to you. Robyn posits the act of questioning (authority, tradition, rules) as very important to her livelihood, a curt affirmation of her inquisitive personality and commitment to following her own intuition.
“I just can’t deal with the rules / I can’t take the pressure,” Robyn gasps after delivering the lyric, as if the shock of her incredulity is present intensely. Robyn shows her inability to connect with the frameworks that she is supposed to work with as a girl, yet her ability to be drained and pained by them anyhow. Her subsequent question, which kicks off the chorus, ‘Who’s that girl?’ seems to be a hypothetical allusion to the kind of women men she is interested in seem to find desirable. Towards the end of the clip we see a few frames of women from all kinds of socio-cultural backgrounds, performing tasks which are seen as stereotypically feminine and traditionally alluring. We have a chic black lady dancing daintily away from the camera, a woman applying red lipstick to her lips in a close-up shot of the lower half of her face, an Asian woman sewing in a factory, a scantily clad model seemingly on a photo shoot by the sea, and many other images.
“What if I’m nothing like [the mythical girl you dream up as your love],” Robyn concludes, re-iterating her earlier lyric of ‘I (swear I) can’t take the pressure.’ ‘I know there’s no such girl,’ she confesses in frustration. The chorus confirms the idea of refusing to accept idealised images of beauty and femininity no matter the frequency with which they are thrown at you. The simulation of the perfect receptor of male desire is revealed not to exist, probably because there never was such a girl. Tellingly, all the images of women are taken from the mass media, although they are over as soon as you register their appearance, with visuals of Robyn constituting 95% of the video clip time. For Robyn’s purposes, no matter the attempts made at conjuring up this ‘ideal girl’, Robyn can only be herself in channeling her disappointment and frustration at the audience.
Robyn wears two different costumes in this clip, one a simple black outfit (on a black backdrop), and the second a red British Army suit – which whiplashes from 'fading into the background'-minimalist to ‘over-the-top’-theatrical, an outfit that seems superfluous to her feminist ideals and would not be out of place in a Harajuku fashion catalogue. Her body styling is more complex – she jerks her shoulders to emphasise the end of one lyric and the start of another, shifting a baton (which seems to double as a drumstick) from the grip of one hand to another other (the position doesn’t change) so as to spread the sensation that her arms can be used for aggressive means. She looks awkward, uncomfortable, but also steady and in control. These aggressively staccato movements and defiant posturing raise the question ‘is Robyn securely insecure, or insecurely secure?’ Is she trying to embody what she sees as extrinsic rhythm instead of letting it come to her?
She looks uncomfortable and comfortable at the same time
And now we come to a bridge: “Let’s play a game that you’ll never try / You be the girl and I’ll be the guy.” While Robyn is trying to turn the interaction between the genders on their head, she is inadvertently reinforcing the idea of a gender binaries in terms of behaviour and social codes. Does this lyric represent frustration about the expectations she feels are forced on her as a girl, so that by assuming a ‘male’ identity she would be free of them?
Who’s That Girl is a curious chart topper because the lyrics are subversive towards mainstream values, full of frustration and anxiety, yet the music is very poppy and commercial, a seamless procession of catchy hooks, suave loops and funky beats. It sounds as if it should be wrapped in cellophane. Robyn has created a unique track which flirts very carefully with her image as a pretty, sexy, confident, feminine pop artist, and refreshes the traditional pop refrains by distinguishing them with meaningful lyrics.
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Comment by RubySoho
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