What a Wonderful Kiki!: Music and Queerness at Mixtape, a Washington, DC Gay Dance Party

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Bowen, Christopher Phillip
- Affiliation: College of Arts and Sciences, Department of Music

Abstract

This thesis explores the relationship between queerness and music through two case studies: a monthly Washington, DC gay dance party called Mixtape and a recent song by the band the Scissor Sisters, called Let's Have a Kiki. In so doing I examine and analyze the discursive categories of alternative and mainstream to show on the one hand the ways in which the party and song are constituted and experienced as truly alternative; on the other hand, I show how within this carved-out space new norms and regulatory ideals begin to function, creating mainstreams against and through which behavior and identity are judged and created. I find that these terms partially embody a complex reality of power structures in queer communities, articulated through music.

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