Dj Sprinkles aka Terre Thaemlitz is an award winning multi-media producer, … Read Full Bio ↴Dj Sprinkles aka Terre Thaemlitz is an award winning multi-media producer, writer, public speaker, educator, audio remixer, DJ and owner of the Comatonse Recordings record label. Her work critically combines themes of identity politics - including gender, sexuality, class, linguistics, ethnicity and race - with an ongoing critique of the socio-economics of commercial media production. This diversity of themes is matched by Thaemlitz’ wide range of production styles, which include electroacoustic computer music, club oriented deep house, digital jazz, ambient, and computer composed neo-expressionist piano solos. Accordingly, her audio projects have found release on an eclectic variety of record labels ranging from the Deleuze-influenced label Mille Plateaux, to Yellow Magic Orchestra founder Haruomi Hosono’s Daisyworld Discs, to Bill Laswell’s Subharmonic Records, to Universal Music Germany’s Classical Division, to the UK dance label Disorient, and so on. Graphic design, photography, illustration, text and video also play an important part in Thaemlitz’ projects. Her writings on music and culture have been published internationally in a number of books, academic journals and magazines. As a speaker and educator on issues of non-essentialist transgender identity and pansexual Queer sexuality, Thaemlitz has participated in panel discussions throughout Europe and Japan, as well as held numerous cross-cultural sensitivity workshops at Tokyo’s Uplink Factory, near her current residence in Kawasaki, Japan.

ball ' r
DJ Sprinkles Lyrics

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When Madonna came out with her hit "
Vogue" you knew it was over.
She had taken a very specifically queer, transgendered,
Latino and African-American phenomenon and
Totally erased that context with her lyrics, "
It makes no difference if you′re black or white,
If you're a boy or a girl." Madonna was taking in tons of money,
While the Queen who actually taught her how to vogue

Sat before me in the club, strung out, depressed and broke.
So if anybody requested "
Vogue" or any other Madonna track, I told them, "
No, this is a Madonna-free zone!
And as long as I′m DJ-ing,
You will not be allowed to vogue to the decontextualized, reified,

Corporatized, liberalized, neutralized, asexualized,
Re-genderized pop reflection of this dance floor's reality!"

Overall Meaning

The above lyrics are from the song "ball'r (madonna-free zone)" by DJ Sprinkles. The lyrics describe her frustration and disappointment with Madonna's hit song "Vogue" and its impact on the LGBTQIA+ community. In the lyrics, DJ Sprinkles suggests that Madonna took a specific cultural phenomenon, which was historically rooted in queer, transgendered, Latino and African-American communities, and erased its context by claiming that identity or race does not matter when it comes to dancing or voguing.

DJ Sprinkles then goes on to describe her encounter with the "Queen who actually taught her how to vogue" but who was now "strung out, depressed and broke". The Queen in this context refers to a drag ball performer and voguer who was instrumental in the development of voguing. DJ Sprinkles implies that Madonna's commercialization of the culture and its appropriation led to the Queen's marginalization and exploitation, while Madonna profited vastly.

DJ Sprinkles takes a strong, political stance through her lyrics by declaring that her DJ booth is a Madonna-free zone. She argues that as long as she is DJ-ing, she will not decontextualize, re-genderize, corporatize or liberalize the authentic culture that voguing represents. In doing so, she is taking responsibility for creating a safe and respectful space for the community and affirming the importance of valuing a culture's roots and history.

Line by Line Meaning

When Madonna came out with her hit "Vogue" you knew it was over.
As soon as Madonna released her song "Vogue" back in the day, it usurped the very essence of the queer, transgender, Latino, and African-American culture, which it represented.

She had taken a very specifically queer, transgendered, Latino and African-American phenomenon and Totally erased that context with her lyrics, "It makes no difference if you're black or white, If you're a boy or a girl."
Madonna, through her lyrics in the song "Vogue", stripped off and denied the iconic Queer, Trans, Latino and African-American essence of the dance form. She tried to create a sanitized and commercially viable version of the dance form, especially with lyrics like "It makes no difference if you're black or white, If you're a boy or a girl."

Madonna was taking in tons of money,
The song Vogue became a massive commercial success, accumulating immense profits for Madonna.

While the Queen who actually taught her how to vogue Sat before me in the club, strung out, depressed and broke.
Ironically, the Queen who had taught Madonna to vogue, was now struggling with drugs and poverty, while Madonna reaped benefits from her distorted and commercialized version of the dance form.

So if anybody requested "Vogue" or any other Madonna track, I told them, "No, this is a Madonna-free zone! And as long as I'm DJ-ing, You will not be allowed to vogue to the decontextualized, reified, Corporatized, liberalized, neutralized, asexualized, Re-genderized pop reflection of this dance floor's reality!"
The DJ asserts that there will be no Madonna tracks played and any attempt to play or dance to sanitized and capitalist versions of Vogue will not be allowed. The DJ wants to play the original version of Vogue and uphold the social and cultural status that the dance form represents, which includes its intersectional political and historical contexts.

Contributed by Audrey M. Suggest a correction in the comments below.

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