The Bunker Revisited

"My people, all they want is a place where they can be people, a place where they can stand and be part of that place, just being natural to that place without worrying someone may be coming along to take that place away from them... The man playing it, the man singing it, he makes a place. For as long as the song is played, that's the place he's been looking for."

-Bechet

In the 1940s, Minton's Playhouse was a site where people could seek refuge from a world that waged war on their bodies every day. They did this by armoring themselves with music. This new musical militancy served as their destination out, a ticket to freedom, a place where they could invent a new language, space and time that enabled them to write their existence whole.

In 2010, Rihanna appropriated music militancy and brought it to new heights in her video "Hard" after undergoing a public deconstruction that left her fragmented following the Chris Brown scandal. It was as if she went from a pop icon to a statistic overnight. The media coverage that ensued the incident always concluded by saying "She was so strong, no one would have ever imagined this could happen to her." What is peculiar about this statement is Rihanna did not attain diva status prior to this incident, yet this contrast was being made to continually propagate this idea of weakness (a characteristic that made it easy to position her as the silent, powerless victim of domestic violence).

For this reason, it is no surprise that Rihanna (like Thelonious Monk) chose to be captured in a bunker adorned in military gear surrounded by weaponry. They were both fighting off and protecting themselves against representations that stripped them of their agency and worth. In this sense, their music gave them the opportunity to control their identity rather than having it imposed upon them.