A Tiny Tour through the Fantastical Catalogue of Janelle Monáe 

To say Janelle Monáe is an extremely talented artist feels like an enormous understatement. With her gorgeous voice, slick lyrics, and well-curated outfits, she knows the importance of committing to a sound. She is also an incredible inspiration to many LGBT+ as well as Black and brown people who see the recording artist as a role model. People have looked up to her for years. She answered questions regarding her sexuality coyly, claiming to be attracted to androids. But she finally came out in 2018 and it felt like her popularity exploded when she said she was pansexual. Just recently, Monáe also came out as non-binary, saying, 

“I’m nonbinary, so I just don’t see myself as a woman, solely. I feel all of my energy. I feel like God is so much bigger than ‘he’ or ‘she.’ If I am from God, I am everything, but I will always, always stand with women. I will always stand with Black women. But I just see everything beyond the binary.”  

“My pronouns are free-ass motherf-----, they/ them, her/she” 

In addition to their skills as a musician, they are a talented actor and I hope they work their way to winning the EGOT. Janelle also includes some wonderful references to many themes and works in genre fiction. Here is a list of some of the many references she makes in her works. 

Metropolis

Debuting in 1927, this German film explores many themes common to the sci-fi films that followed. Monáe was deeply inspired by the film since one of their EPs and at least two studio albums comprise a concept album series comprised of multiple suites with the same name. The artwork of her debut studio album The ArchAndroid, deliberately references art and posters for the film. On the cover, Monáe regally gazes into the lens, wearing art deco inspired pieces, a looming, futuristic cityscape is her crown.

The concept albums follow the messianic android Cindi Mayweather who wants to free her fellow androids from the oppression they suffer. Cindi is also in a forbidden love affair with a human, Anthony Greendown. This android must fight for her fellows as well as the right to pursue her own love. She is a mediator, here to bring peace between the androids and humans, taking inspiration from Maria in the original film. Monáe has also said that the Matrix’s Neo is an inspiration for Cindi. The matrix franchise was a groundbreaking series of films helmed by the Wachowski sisters that took inspiration from their own experiences, fantasy literature, and anime imagery. 

The order of the story is not in chronological order of album releases. Monáe mentioned The Electric Lady could be a sort of prequel to the events of the ArchAndroid. The genres of music are also wide with ballads, psychedelic rock, blues, and so many others. 

Afrofuturism

Monáe’s works focus a lot on the topic. Afrofuturism explores how the various cultures of people with African ancestry interacts and influences the fields of science and technology. How do these STEM aspects intersect with these cultures and take them into the future? Ytasha L Womack states,

“[Afrofuturism is found at] an intersection of imagination, technology, the future and liberation.”

I am a big fan of afrofuturism (and africanfuturism, which specifically focuses on the those still living in Africa while afrofuturism includes the African diaspora). While I love fantasy, there is often a backlash to the presence of Black and brown people in fantasy worlds, like some of the complaints lobbed at “The Witcher” adaptation on Netflix or when promo images for the “Rings of Power” or the “House of the Dragon” were released. However, since science fiction often looks to the future, there is a greater opportunity for people of color to be included and use their own stories to inspire and illuminate. Monáe says,

“What Afrofuturism does is it allows Black people to tell our stories, from our voice, of how we see ourselves in the future, thriving”

“In order for Black and Brown folks to speak about the future, you got to know where we are in the world. You got to know where we were in the past. And the past can piss you off, can make you mad. You can get stuck there. You can become angry; you can become like a stone. When I think about Afrofuturism, it’s more like water, it’s more about us dreaming up who we are in the future, how we see ourselves, defined by ourselves. If we want to write about us in totalitarian societies, how do we prevail? How are we thriving? It’s us defining us on our own terms.”

The music videos for Q.U.E.E.N. and large segments of the Dirty Computer: Emotion Picture pay homage to these elements and even some fashion choices she makes pay tribute to this area.      

In an interview, Monáe seems like they also want to focus on the present. They seemed worried about the current state of the US and how it is affecting Black, brown, and LGBTQIA+ people. They appeared to be proud of how they are often associated with the future and seems still to be striding towards making it the best it can be while also trying to be more present. 

“I think what I learned about myself is that, number one, it’s important that I stay present. You know, stay present, I think when I’m writing about the future, I’m in the future so much, I think now is my moment, where you will see me, through music, through art, being more present.’”

“I encourage people now to stand up and speak up when you have something to say or when you feel like something is wrong. But just as much as you are putting your energy in all that, please put your energy into being present. Please put your energy into celebrating life and making memories—making the best memories that you possibly can, because we know that our memories determine the qualities of our lives.”

They remind us that while our future is important, we should never neglect what is currently going on around us or ignore the past we came from.

Science Fiction Media

In addition to Metropolis, Monáe also references the works of Philip K. Dick in her music. “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep”, which was adapted into the Blade Runner film, is mentioned in songs from ArchAndroid and The Electric Lady.

Monáe has also mentioned using synthetic humans as a stand in for minorities.

“Because to me the android will represent a “new Other” – just like any of us who’ve ever been considered “the minority” at some time can feel like “The Other”!”

Which is why a story about androids fleeing from being shut down, daring to love humans, and the blurred lines between real and artificial seems to be a through-line of her work. In addition, Monáe has worked with fellow sci-fi enthusiast Grimes, who herself has a concept album related to Frank Herbert’s sci-fi series, Dune, entitled Giedi Primes. “Venus Fly” and “PYNK” were two songs they collaborated on together. “Venus Fly” has Monáe singing lead in the chorus. They tell us about a woman who chooses to turn her beauty into a weapon and uses it to instill fear in others. While Venus Fly is fast-paced, aggressive, gleefully fierce, and energetic, PYNK relies on a slower pace, gentle melodies, feminine beauty, and joy. PYNK is a love song to many ways we can view the titular color. The art direction for the two music videos suggests that women in sci-fi (and reality) don’t need to choose between wielding flaming blades or enjoying a slumber party with your best friends. We can do both depending on our mood!

 I love how PYNK reclaims a color that many women/ femme identifying people feel conflicted about. In addition to the pink hues and airy vocals, Monáe uses fun “vagina pants” in myriad pink shades but made sure to includes women who weren’t wearing them, highlighting how womanhood is more fluid than many would have you believe. 

They say, 

“There are women in the video that do not have on the pants, because I don’t believe that all women need to be possess a vagina to be a woman”

In Django Jane, Monáe also references the two warring factions in the Transformers universe, the benevolent Autobots and devious Decepticons. Monáe references that the political climate at the time reminded her of these two opposing groups. Now, the Bay helmed Transformer films are largely trash (other than Michaela who DOES have a good character arc and deserved to be the lead in the first film!) but the other media related to the toy brand may be more interested in the themes Monáe focuses on. Although I have not read them myself, I hear there are fascinating comics about the robots exploring their identity and other topics. 

Neuroscience

In Dirty Computer’s opening track, I felt like Monáe was referencing how her brain is the titular dirty computer. The human brain is computational marvel that is capable of many complex feats as well as being potentially built or wired “wrong”. Many people with cognitive disorders, learning disabilities, mental illnesses, or those who are neurodivergent can feel state feeling this way when they were younger or when they don’t have access to a good support group that validates their experiences. The imagery in the accompanying “emotion picture” questions exactly what is a “bug” in the system of the brain. In an interview, she says,

“We’re CPUs, our brains are uploading, downloading, transmitting, passing back and forth information. And with all computers you got your bugs, you got your viruses. But are those negatives, positives, features? Or not?”

I love how they see things that others may have initially seen as a negative as a positive or how they can sometimes function as both. These ideas must have been milling around in their mind since they mention being reprogrammed and deprogrammed in Q.U.E.E.N and again as early as Audition. This could refer to the reprogramming malicious conversion therapy attempts to do with members of LGBT+ or that many believed LGBT+ orientations were mental illnesses that people had to be cured from. The human brain is also referenced in PYNK, which mentions our brains themselves are a pale shade of the hue. 

Recently, Monáe has collaborated with other authors to pen a book called “Memory Librarian”. One of the most fascinating parts of neuroscience, for me, at least, is how our brain makes, stores, and retrieves memories. Memories! Specific scents conjure images without the aid of magic wands or staffs while singers and dancers delight in the sudden recall of the intricate harmonies and choreography we have not done in years but surged forth as soon as the background music came on. Diseases attack the memory, either removing it in various dementias and dissociative disorders or weaponizing it to cause harm in addiction or post-traumatic stress disorder. Our memory is so important to our identity but it’s so fallible, sometimes just recalling memories can make them wobblier and unstable, for lack of a better term. In an interview, she discusses a nightmare that inspired “Dirty Computer” and one of the stories in her book. It centered on an authoritarian regime, forcibly removing people of their memories and thusly their identity. 

“It was a nightmare that I had before I wrote the album Dirty Computer, this book is inspired from the same soil. And, I had a nightmare that I was kidnapped at a movie theater. … I was one of them, that they had caught, and they swiped all of my memories clean and made me into somebody different. And, so, this book deals with them literally taking people’s identities, erasing our pasts, erasing the people that we once were, and making us into something that they can control.”

This nightmare resonated with me because I am only a sum of both my genetics and experiences. Without my memories, who am I? It is deep fear I have, of losing the precious memories, and even my painful ones, because they all led me to who I am today, for better or for worse. They are a part of me but in a broader sense, memories also inform of us of our collective past. Losing memories from an individual is heart wrenching and expounding upon that, losing the memories of an entire group of people is devastating loss of knowledge and insight that cannot be replaced. Memories are fragile, precious, and painful, they tell us who we are. 

Final Thoughts

It is easy for many to see the immense talent Janelle Monáe brings to the table every time she releases a new album or takes part in a new project. She seems to be full of confidence while also humble, she purposely acknowledges every author she collaborated with on “The Memory Librarian” during an interview I watched while writing this. Some may have seen it as her stalling for time, but I saw it as someone shining a light on the people who helped them achieve their dreams. The themes I’ve listed are merely a small sampling of the wondrous topics she discusses in her beautiful music. Monáe is so integral to these topics that there are terms being coined after them! Famed author N.K. Jemisin mentioned a term “Monáeism” and the artist was touched Jemisin knew of them and responded with;

“I love that. Wow. First of all, I’m a huge fan of N.K. Jemisin. So to be able to have her mention my name, yeah, let’s do Monáeism! I will say that when I have something to say, I say it. I’m not afraid to piss off white supremacists, I don’t give fuck about that, but I also love living life. I love joy. I love being in love. I love partying. I love being able to have the freedom to play games with my friends: I have game night, murder-mystery parties. I love talking about sci-fi. I love going to strip clubs. I love just living my life. And I think that’s ultimately what white supremacy does: It stops you from living your life because you put your attention on fighting and fighting against them. It becomes about them.”

This love of life, the fire, joy, wit, and wisdom are key to Monáe’s multifaceted works in a wide array of mediums. Another thing I also love about Monáe, is they are constantly evolving. They are on a journey of discovery, and I’m so pleased I have the luxury of being able to experience it alongside them. This doesn’t even really focus on the many many topics that I’m sure they address in their book, which I’m excitedly awaiting to read. I feel like no one article can truly encapsulate everything this free-ass motherf----- incorporates in their work so if you haven’t, I encourage you to check out this phenomenal polymath! I’ll leave with this last quote of hers, about what she was feeling during the early days of the coronavirus pandemic.

“I went through some depression, some anxiety, some isolation, and honestly, this was a really good way for me to just like, go inward, and see like how can I still help people and reach people?” 

That, to me, encompasses Monáe’s voice, in whichever medium they choose to express it in <3

Article by Dee

Twitter @Sirenofscience