Interrogating Female Pop Star Documentaries

Nyhet

Inbunden, Engelska, 2026

1 869 kr

Kommande

From Five Foot Two (2017) starring Lady Gaga to BlackPink’s Light Up the Sky (2020) and Billie Eilish’s The World’s A Little Blurry (2021), documentaries on female pop stars have been released in increasing numbers since the early 2010s. Many of the world’s most famous female artists - Taylor Swift, Katy Perry, MIA, Pink, JLo, Mary J Blige, Tina Turner and Shania Twain, amongst others - have allowed fragments of their onstage and offstage lives to be filmed and released for public consumption as part of the bolstering of their brand. Unlike earlier examples of the form which were often much ‘softer’ in their depiction of difficulties of the working life of the artist, like Dolly Parton’s Here I am (2019) and Beyonce’s Life Is But A Dream (2013), more recent films have provided deeper insight into the relentless scrutiny of famous women’s bodies, the ensuing mental health tolls, fear of cancel culture and observations on the illusion of female power in the music industry.Interrogating Female Pop Star Documentaries examines the female-oriented pop star documentary (pop doc), starting from its inception in 1991 with In Bed with Madonna. Paying particular attention to the complexities of the construction of celebrity femininities, bodily aesthetics and gendered disciplinary norms as portrayed through the form, the collected scholars demonstrate the shift to the pop star's use of documentary as a means to exert narrative control over the restrictive nature of the music industry and their treatment by the mainstream and social media. The collection offers a pathway to engage with how the pop doc focused on female pop stars creates, reconciles and perpetuates the realities and myths of their lived experiences and legacies both on and off stage.

Produktinformation

Utgivningsdatum2026-09-03
Mått152 x 229 x 25 mm
Vikt454 g
FormatInbunden
SpråkEngelska
Antal sidor272
FörlagBloomsbury Publishing Plc
ISBN9798765108369

Tillhör följande kategorier

Film inom Kultur
Populärmusik inom Kultur
Musiker, sångare och grupper inom Kultur
Kultur och medier inom Samhalle och politik

Kirsty Fairclough is Head of Research and Knowledge Exchange and Reader in Screen Studies at the School of Digital Arts (SODA) at Manchester Metropolitan University, UK. She is the co-editor of The Music Documentary: Acid Rock to Electropop (2013), The Arena Concert: Music, Media and Mass Entertainment (Bloomsbury, 2016), Music/Video: Forms, Aesthetics, Media (Bloomsbury, 2017), The Legacy of Mad Men: Cultural History, Intermediality and American Television (2020), Prince and Popular Culture (Bloomsbury, 2020), and author of the forthcoming Beyoncé: Celebrity Feminism and Popular Culture (Bloomsbury). She is the curator of Sound and Vision: Pop Stars on Film and In Her View: Women Documentary Filmmakers film seasons at HOME, Manchester and Chair of Manchester Jazz Festival.

IntroductionDefining the Female Pop Star Documentary: Authenticity, Liveness, Persona, Celebrity (Kirsty Fairclough, Manchester Metropolitan University, UK) Part I: Histories and Evolutions, Forms and Functions1. Still in Bed with Madonna?: Revisiting the Mother of all Female Pop Star Documentaries (Susan Hopkins, University of Southern Queensland, Australia)2. Hostage to History: The Politics of Survival in Love to Love You, Donna Summer (2023) (Mike Alleyne, Middle Tennessee State University, USA)3. ‘The Youth Need to See Greatness’: Homecoming, Renaissance and the Documented Dualities of Beyoncé’s Black Excellence (Jennesa Williams, Independent Scholar, UK)4. A Brazilian Global Pop Star in the Making: A Case Study of Anitta’s Netflix Documentaries (Ayla Pinheiro Gomes, Independent Scholar; Bruno Campanella, Fluminense Federal University, Brazil; and Melina Meimaridis, Independent Scholar)Part II: The Star Machine: The Industry on Screen5. Complaint and the “All-American Girl”: Shut Up & Sing! (2006) (Andrew Lennon, Birmingham City University, UK)6. Documentary Film as Public Relations: Demi Lovato’s Dancing with the Devil (2021) (Kristen Fuhs, Woodbury University, USA)7. Subjectivity, Subcultural Capital and the Self in Matangi/Maya/M.I.A (Danny Cookney, Manchester Metropolitan University, UK)8. Alone Together, Exploited Afar: Ambivalent Dynamics of Agency and Control for the Platform Era Popstar (Paxton Haven, University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA)Part III: Effects and Subjects9. The Ageing Pop Star in the Present Tense: Grace Jones: Bloodlight and Bami (Laurel Westrup, Emerson College, USA)10. A Closet Full of Cardigans: Taylor Swift’s Political ‘Coming Out’ in Miss Americana (Wilson, 2020) (Maryn Wilkinson, University of Amsterdam, Netherlands)11. ‘Oh – it’s a bit upsetting at the end, isn’t it?’: The Posthumous Reclamation of Agency in Amy (2015) (Maria Spear, Independent Scholar)12. Taylor Swift as/in Miss Americana: The Shrew as Female Empowerment (Maria Juko, Independent Scholar)Part IV: New Directions: The Future of the Format13. Playing Rockstars in Movies: St Vincent's The Nowhere Inn and the Meta-Music Documentary (Amy McCarthy, Independent Scholar)14. How We’re Feeling Now? Charli XCX: Alone Together (2022) and the Resilient Pop Documentary (Alice Pember, University of Warwick, UK)15. Post-#MeToo Pop-Star Documentaries and Believability Economies: Kesha: Rainbow – The Film (2018) and Demi Lovato: Dancing with the Devil (2021) (M Casey)Contributors Index