Dig If You Will the Picture…: Reading Prince’s Semiotic World

Aggie Toppins

doi:10.1162/desi_a_00698

Dig If You Will the Picture…: Reading Prince’s Semiotic World

Aggie Toppins

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

Prince Rogers Nelson (1958–2016) was an innovative American musician whose life and work defied categorization. His music combined the spiritual with the sexual while spanning funk, rhythm and blues, soul, rock and roll, and pop genres. Prince embraced nonbinary gender performance and, as a Black artist of enormous celebrity, exemplified what W. E. B. Du Bois named double-consciousness: a sensibility gained from looking at oneself through the eyes of others; a “two-ness” derived from being both American and Black. Prince used multivalent signs, symbols, and codes to craft an enigmatic personal mythology. In this essay, I use Roland Barthes's poststructuralist theory and Stuart Hall's writing on stereotypes to examine Prince's semiotic world. By studying recurring motifs in his lyrics, fashion, and visual communication design, I show that Prince's signifying practices constitute a sensual text that, through illegibility, catalyzed emancipatory cultural expressions.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	63-75
Number of pages	13
Journal	Design Issues
Volume	38
Issue number	4
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1162/desi_a_00698
State	Published - Sep 1 2022

Keywords

African-American studies
communication design
gender studies
history
popular music
post-structuralism
Prince
semiotics
stereotypes

Access to Document

10.1162/desi_a_00698

Cite this

@article{158d950d713b46609790a24f6a2d12c1,

title = "Dig If You Will the Picture…: Reading Prince{\textquoteright}s Semiotic World",

abstract = "Prince Rogers Nelson (1958–2016) was an innovative American musician whose life and work defied categorization. His music combined the spiritual with the sexual while spanning funk, rhythm and blues, soul, rock and roll, and pop genres. Prince embraced nonbinary gender performance and, as a Black artist of enormous celebrity, exemplified what W. E. B. Du Bois named double-consciousness: a sensibility gained from looking at oneself through the eyes of others; a “two-ness” derived from being both American and Black. Prince used multivalent signs, symbols, and codes to craft an enigmatic personal mythology. In this essay, I use Roland Barthes's poststructuralist theory and Stuart Hall's writing on stereotypes to examine Prince's semiotic world. By studying recurring motifs in his lyrics, fashion, and visual communication design, I show that Prince's signifying practices constitute a sensual text that, through illegibility, catalyzed emancipatory cultural expressions.",

keywords = "African-American studies, communication design, gender studies, history, popular music, post-structuralism, Prince, semiotics, stereotypes",

author = "Aggie Toppins",

note = "Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2022 Massachusetts Institute of Technology.",

year = "2022",

month = sep,

day = "1",

doi = "10.1162/desi\_a\_00698",

language = "English",

volume = "38",

pages = "63--75",

journal = "Design Issues",

issn = "0747-9360",

number = "4",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - Dig If You Will the Picture…

T2 - Reading Prince’s Semiotic World

AU - Toppins, Aggie

PY - 2022/9/1

Y1 - 2022/9/1

N2 - Prince Rogers Nelson (1958–2016) was an innovative American musician whose life and work defied categorization. His music combined the spiritual with the sexual while spanning funk, rhythm and blues, soul, rock and roll, and pop genres. Prince embraced nonbinary gender performance and, as a Black artist of enormous celebrity, exemplified what W. E. B. Du Bois named double-consciousness: a sensibility gained from looking at oneself through the eyes of others; a “two-ness” derived from being both American and Black. Prince used multivalent signs, symbols, and codes to craft an enigmatic personal mythology. In this essay, I use Roland Barthes's poststructuralist theory and Stuart Hall's writing on stereotypes to examine Prince's semiotic world. By studying recurring motifs in his lyrics, fashion, and visual communication design, I show that Prince's signifying practices constitute a sensual text that, through illegibility, catalyzed emancipatory cultural expressions.

AB - Prince Rogers Nelson (1958–2016) was an innovative American musician whose life and work defied categorization. His music combined the spiritual with the sexual while spanning funk, rhythm and blues, soul, rock and roll, and pop genres. Prince embraced nonbinary gender performance and, as a Black artist of enormous celebrity, exemplified what W. E. B. Du Bois named double-consciousness: a sensibility gained from looking at oneself through the eyes of others; a “two-ness” derived from being both American and Black. Prince used multivalent signs, symbols, and codes to craft an enigmatic personal mythology. In this essay, I use Roland Barthes's poststructuralist theory and Stuart Hall's writing on stereotypes to examine Prince's semiotic world. By studying recurring motifs in his lyrics, fashion, and visual communication design, I show that Prince's signifying practices constitute a sensual text that, through illegibility, catalyzed emancipatory cultural expressions.

KW - African-American studies

KW - communication design

KW - gender studies

KW - history

KW - popular music

KW - post-structuralism

KW - Prince

KW - semiotics

KW - stereotypes

UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85139471866

U2 - 10.1162/desi_a_00698

DO - 10.1162/desi_a_00698

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85139471866

SN - 0747-9360

VL - 38

SP - 63

EP - 75

JO - Design Issues

JF - Design Issues

IS - 4

ER -

Dig If You Will the Picture…: Reading Prince’s Semiotic World

Abstract

Keywords

Access to Document

Other files and links

Fingerprint

Cite this