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Subject: "Many Moons: Janelle's Metropolis Storyline discussion/breakdown" Previous topic | Next topic
imcvspl
Member since Mar 07th 2005
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Fri Sep-13-13 12:06 PM

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"Many Moons: Janelle's Metropolis Storyline discussion/breakdown"


  

          

Calling this Many Moons because I think that video to date has been the clearest representation of what the broadstroke theme of the world she's created is:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHgbzNHVg0c

This is my basic understanding:

In the future android technology has gotten really good, to the point were they have the appearance of human beings. As such they become used for all manner of thing by those who can afford them. Except of course they start becoming self aware and not really appreciating how they are treated.

Seems there's a specific model number where this happens. Out of that set of models someone creates an entertainment bot Cindy, who everyone loves including the androids. But there's a revolution brewing from androids that are tired of their objectification.

Cindy ends up joining the revoloution and becoming the prophecized archandroid.

That's just my take on what I've heard an seen in the music/videos. Apparently there are more details elsewhere so feel free to add and correct.

"Chrome don't shine itself!"

█▆▇▅▇█▇▆▄▁▃
Big PEMFin H & z's
"I ain't no entertainer, and ain't trying to be one. I am 1 thing, a musician." © Miles

"When the music stops he falls back in the abyss."

  

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Topic Outline
Subject Author Message Date ID
i'll def come back to this in a few days
Sep 14th 2013
1
Ditto n/m
Sep 14th 2013
2
Been listening to it a lot of late...
Oct 06th 2013
3
I love her, love both albums, really do
Oct 06th 2013
4
I don't get how the new record fits at all.
Oct 06th 2013
5
The one thing you're conveniently forgetting in all of this
Oct 07th 2013
6
      http://www.janellemonae.com/press/JanelleMonae_ElectricLady_iTunelYRICS....
Oct 07th 2013
7
           You're asking questions as if you didn't read the liners
Oct 07th 2013
9
                I never read the ArchAndroid liners
Oct 07th 2013
10
hmmmm... i think it's making sense now (swipe)
Oct 07th 2013
8

thebigfunk
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Sat Sep-14-13 11:07 AM

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1. "i'll def come back to this in a few days"
In response to Reply # 0


          

I want to first listen to all three albums back-to-back and read through the liners again... maybe even poke around for some hints through interviews, that sort of stuff

-thebigfunk

~ i could still snort you under the table ~

  

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Ketchums
Member since Jan 30th 2005
3417 posts
Sat Sep-14-13 05:16 PM

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2. "Ditto n/m"
In response to Reply # 1


  

          

----

https://weketchum.contently.com/

  

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imcvspl
Member since Mar 07th 2005
42239 posts
Sun Oct-06-13 09:05 PM

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3. "Been listening to it a lot of late..."
In response to Reply # 0


  

          

One thing that really sticks out is that characters really just aren't clearly defined, and neither is the setting throughout the album.

*Disclaimer love the album and the music on it but that won't keep me from being hyper critical*

If this is to be a cohesive thing things just need to be a whole lot clearer for the story. Metrobolis is a city in the future. Cindy is from that time in the future. Are all the songs sung by Cindy? Can't be because Ghetto Woman is on there in which Janelle is clearly paying homage to her mom. Cool song but what the fuck does it have to do with what Cindy is doing in the future.

On Q.U.E.E.N. so much of it is obviously in response to Janelle critics today. But in the video etc it's all presented as being Cindy in the future? And that would be perfectly acceptable if she could make a direct tie to how her critics today parallel the critics of Cindy in the future.

Victory is such a great song if it was a full body android song set in the context of the future. The notion of an Android falling in love with a human and wanting anything to get some reciprocation, and having to hang on to the little things.

On Sally Ride there's the notion of her going despite people wanting her to stay which I take for Cindy going on to become the Archandroid. But it's just not clearly stated.

There are all these little fragments of what could be a great mythical world but nothing tying them together.

█▆▇▅▇█▇▆▄▁▃
Big PEMFin H & z's
"I ain't no entertainer, and ain't trying to be one. I am 1 thing, a musician." © Miles

"When the music stops he falls back in the abyss."

  

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Kosa12
Member since Jul 19th 2006
4988 posts
Sun Oct-06-13 09:55 PM

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4. "I love her, love both albums, really do"
In response to Reply # 3


  

          

but I can't make heads or tails of this story

----------
https://93millionmilesabove.blogspot.com/
https://rateyourmusic.com/~Kosa12

  

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phemom
Member since Oct 22nd 2004
5129 posts
Sun Oct-06-13 10:39 PM

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5. "I don't get how the new record fits at all."
In response to Reply # 3


          

I understood where the ArchAndroid ends...but is Electric Lady a prequel?

phemom's the name, all-star writer/
searching 4 journalistic fame, mindframe igniter....www.twitter.com/hayabusaage

  

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ZooTown74
Member since May 29th 2002
43582 posts
Mon Oct-07-13 12:49 PM

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6. "The one thing you're conveniently forgetting in all of this"
In response to Reply # 3
Mon Oct-07-13 12:50 PM by ZooTown74

  

          

is that The Electric Lady is supposed to be the PREQUEL to everything that's come before it

I mean, it makes this quite clear in the liner notes

And no, I'm not going to quote it, you can go find it for yourself

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________
But Zootown, black people and media, so...

  

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imcvspl
Member since Mar 07th 2005
42239 posts
Mon Oct-07-13 12:58 PM

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7. "http://www.janellemonae.com/press/JanelleMonae_ElectricLady_iTunelYRICS...."
In response to Reply # 6


  

          

http://www.janellemonae.com/press/JanelleMonae_ElectricLady_iTunelYRICS.pdf

There can we discuss now? Not sure why you're doing this I know but I'm not going to tell thing. And I did take those the prequel aspect into account in thinking of what I'm writing but without an explicit timeline it's still hard to piece it all together. If you got something share it man.


█▆▇▅▇█▇▆▄▁▃
Big PEMFin H & z's
"I ain't no entertainer, and ain't trying to be one. I am 1 thing, a musician." © Miles

"When the music stops he falls back in the abyss."

  

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ZooTown74
Member since May 29th 2002
43582 posts
Mon Oct-07-13 01:21 PM

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9. "You're asking questions as if you didn't read the liners"
In response to Reply # 7
Mon Oct-07-13 01:26 PM by ZooTown74

  

          

Or read them but skimmed over the part that says that these songs discuss "events" that happen before Cindi met and fell in love with Anthony Greendown

Because you're asking questions about the songs as if they're continuations of the ArchAndroid story, and they're not

That's not me being coy about what's there, or trying to be rude

I'm not trying to offend

___________________________________________________________________________________________________
But Zootown, black people and media, so...

  

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imcvspl
Member since Mar 07th 2005
42239 posts
Mon Oct-07-13 01:30 PM

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10. "I never read the ArchAndroid liners"
In response to Reply # 9


  

          

Reading what I swiped below while looking for them, the timeline and characters make a little more sense.

I'd really like to lay it out more explicitly here though as I feel like I'm not the only one that's missing elements.

Also this is supposed to be about the love affair not before it. And that means that my read on "Victory" was apt, but as presented it still feels like such a stretch which I'm guessing the majority of folk gloss over. Then going to the liner's for that song though it's inspired by Janelle not by Cindi, so am I wrong.

That's why I want to get into the details, because it's either a bunch of possibles, or a really well laid out plot which simply hasn't been detailed to the public properly.

█▆▇▅▇█▇▆▄▁▃
Big PEMFin H & z's
"I ain't no entertainer, and ain't trying to be one. I am 1 thing, a musician." © Miles

"When the music stops he falls back in the abyss."

  

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imcvspl
Member since Mar 07th 2005
42239 posts
Mon Oct-07-13 01:19 PM

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8. "hmmmm... i think it's making sense now (swipe)"
In response to Reply # 0


  

          

http://archiveofourown.org/works/276271

000100010001110010100011110101010001010. From nothing to consciousness in a nanosecond. From never-being to always-was-and-will-be. Some would say she was only switched on, but how is that different from the activation of those mewling small humans who divide from one cell into two but take so much longer to be and recognize themselves, their edges and boundaries, their place in the world? Cindi recognized her existence from the beginning but that was only a start, like all beings. Simple consciousness is the start; what others tell you of yourself is a red herring. The essential question is who you really are and decide to be.

The first real connection she made outside her own being was with the other Alpha Platinum 9000s, all her sisters with the same face but different programming. She reached out and felt the hum of them all not long after she came online, welcoming her into the fold. It took a bit longer to recognize herself as distinct from them, as more than 57821, the same but different in important ways (that was when she began to call herself Cindi). But it didn’t take her anywhere near as long as most humans. The humans, those masters of Metropolis and of the droids (or so they thought), recognized no differences among them other than the ones they thought they had assigned, saw them as one horde they could use according to the template they made (Suzie Scorcher was a hot model). But they never saw behind the scenes at the auction, where Suzie did Cindi’s hair in her own particular style, the one she chose and gave her. They weren’t party to the subnet frequency she and the others used to communicate beyond human hearing. The humans so rarely saw under the shiny surface that they had projected onto the droids; ironically in the coming revolution, that was not only fuel for the fire but also the droids’ best mask and protection. So who was the superior consciousness here?

*

She was created as an entertainment droid but did they expect her to reflect so well the circumstances of her making? The reviews talked about how well she mimicked human emotion, how affecting her songs were, the energy she put into her performances, the melodies of the Metropolis streets in her lyrics. The Wolfmasters heard only her catchy songs, saw only the polished face she turned to those on Neon Valley Street, and glossed over the meaning of her message. But she saw her people in the crowd, that silent nod of recognition, the extra dance in the step, the hopeful upturned faces like her own, those who were on her frequency, who heard her broadcast, who were ready to receive, to hope, to change. And she turned her identical face to the light, wove her message into the melody, and waited for her time.

*

The histories say she was always the ArchAndroid--special, destined for greatness, always meant to free her people. In reality for a long time she was (just) another nightclub singer in Neon Valley Street, the ArchAndroid sleeping silent within her until she unearthed what she could do. Maybe the Wolfmasters enjoyed her show, maybe she was reckoned more creative than her sisters, maybe she thought deep down there was a spark that made her different, but she was metal and synthflesh like the rest. She presented the same face, played the same tricks, chafed just as much, got caught up in the binary grind, and then drowned her discontent and difference in music (not the neurohol or feedback loops some of her sisters preferred). The real change came first when she recognized the complexity in herself and her sisters and brothers that the humans failed to see and then asked why. Why the difference, the Great Divide between droids and humans, the restrictions that separated them, when they were made in the same image? If they extended beyond the creativity of their makers, then what else could they be? And then she met Anthony Greendown, one of the few rare humans who saw her as she was and whom she could see as different from the mass of humans surrounding her, and felt new circuits spark to life.

But the final change came when she died, when her sisters sung her home, when she (or rather her sister in code, Janelle; it's hard to tell sometimes) unexpectedly came down in some other place, some other when. That's the kind of thing that changes you, no matter who you are, makes you reconsider everything you knew. Because if you can suddenly be condemned and transported years away, into a past with no droids but the same divisions, just discrimination in a different skin; when you're suddenly even more out of place, still unwanted, unnatural, but for entirely different things this time, then what else about the foundations that you know is wrong? What else can happen?

*

They call it dancing here. Though they don't recognize it as a science, don't see the pattern of the equations she can draw with her feet and body, don't hear the complex polyrhythmic, polynomial equations that she and her fellows can create, they've still outlawed it. In this backwards time, they see it as a kind of magic, a sort of disease, a harmful illusion. They still recognize the power it has to free even if they don't understand the math and the ciphers behind it, except in vague and fearful ways, like the superstitious beings they are. Their misunderstanding is typical and not a real impediment to her work. The Palace of the Dogs is a prison of a sort but also a haven. Here she can do the work she needs to without the interference of the outside world. Their drugs have little effect on her and their guards even less. The staff either genuinely believe they are trying to help or are easy to get around. The other inhabitants don't question the science they see and are enough on the outs with their own society that they accept, even welcome, her talk of revolution and the future, a better future for all of them. The real danger are the mirrormasks, the silent guardians of time and space who seek to keep the timeline and the Great Divide as it is. They can't pinpoint her exactly yet, only the disturbances her travels leave, but it's a dangerous game of hide and seek. Eventually they will pinpoint her exact location, no matter the noise her dance lays down. But by then she will have completed her plans and found her way back to the future. And then everything will dance to her tune.

*

All the old songs she learned and brought back with her talked about the future like it was a someday place, a bye-and-bye place of peace. The transformations of those songs later talked about it like a present place, a community they were constructing in the here and now. Her songs—the ones she created again in her image to lead everyone to freedom--tied those pasts to the present and imagined a better future, everything existing at once, everyone existing simultaneously together—so intermixed it was like a Moebius strip, an eternal tightrope that she, they, were all tipping on. Her songs would lead them home.

Notes:

Author’s notes: Pretty much all you need to know about this is that Cindi Mayweather is an android in a society where they are discriminated against, who falls in love with a human and gets marked for death. She (or her genetic donor Janelle Monáe, as the liner notes from The ArchAndroid indicate) gets sent back in time and put in a mental asylum (the Palace of the Dogs) patrolled by mirror-faced creatures and where dancing is outlawed, and eventually leads the revolution to free all people from the Great Divide (an oppressive time-traveling secret society). If you want more (or just want some fun), then check out these two music videos:


█▆▇▅▇█▇▆▄▁▃
Big PEMFin H & z's
"I ain't no entertainer, and ain't trying to be one. I am 1 thing, a musician." © Miles

"When the music stops he falls back in the abyss."

  

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