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Blackstar Rising and the Purple Reign

The Sonic Afterlives of David Bowie and Prince

Cover of Blackstar Rising and the Purple Reign features David Bowie on the left and Prince on the right. Between the two artists the title is written in a bold sans serif font in a gradient fading from orange to pink to purple.

Refiguring American Music

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Book

Pages: 520

Illustrations: 59 illustrations

Published: April 2026

Editor: Daphne A. Brooks

Contributors: Christine Bacareza Balance, Emma Balázs, Victoria Broackes, Daphne Carr, Andreana Clay, Ashon T. Crawley, Jonathan Flatley, Nicole R. Fleetwood, Marie France, Lynell George, Farah Jasmine Griffin, Michelle Habell-Pallán, Jack Halberstam, Matthew Frye Jacobson, Kara Keeling, Jason King, Josh Kun, Kathryn Lofton, Emily J. Lordi, Eric Lott, Maureen Mahon, Greil Marcus, Geoffrey Marsh, Michaelangelo Matos, Tiffany Naiman, Tavia Nyong′o, Ann Powers, Sonnet Retman, Morgan Rhodes, Francesca T. Royster, Gustavus Stadler, Jacqueline Stewart, Greg Tate, Karen Tongson, Van My Truong, Alexandra Vasquez, Michael E. Veal, Shane Vogel, Gayle Wald, Oliver Wang, Alexander Ghedi Weheliye, Richard Yarborough, Kristen Zschomler

Blackstar Rising and the Purple Reign is the first critical anthology dedicated to exploring the legacies of the pop music icons David Bowie and Prince. Daphne A. Brooks brings together an extraordinary array of writers, artists, and scholars, including Greg Tate, Jack Halberstam, Kara Keeling, Eric Lott, and Ann Powers, to offer fresh insight into how Bowie and Prince each fundamentally changed pop culture as musicians who emerged at the intersections of modern movements surrounding race, gender, sexuality, and art. Featured alongside these pieces are interviews with trusted collaborators of Bowie and Prince such as D. A. Pennebaker, Sheila E., and Marie France, giving vital insider context to the impact both artists had on pop culture and the complexities of their repertoires, politics, and private lives. This work is essential reading for any fan of two of the most formidable and eminent figures in pop culture history.

Contributors: Christine Bacareza Balance, Emma Balázs, Victoria Broackes, Daphne A. Brooks, Daphne Carr, Andreana Clay, Ashon Crawley, Jonathan Flatley, Nicole R. Fleetwood, Lynell George, Farah Jasmine Griffin, Michelle Habell-Pallán, Jack Halberstam, Matthew Frye Jacobson, Kara Keeling, Jason King, Josh Kun, Kathryn Lofton, Emily J. Lordi, Eric Lott, Maureen Mahon, Greil Marcus, Geoffrey Marsh, Michaelangelo Matos, Tiffany Naiman, Tavia Nyong'o, Ann Powers, Sonnet Retman, Morgan Rhodes, Francesca T. Royster, Gustavus Stadler, Jacqueline Stewart, Greg Tate, Karen Tongson, Van My Truong, Alexandra T. Vazquez, Michael E. Veal, Shane Vogel, Gayle Wald, Oliver Wang, Alexander G. Weheliye, Richard Yarborough, Kristen Zschomler

Praise

“Daphne Brooks remains one of our most thoughtful and incisive thinkers when it comes to music and its impacts on corners of culture that might otherwise go overlooked. This book is rich with research, but even richer with language, and delivery of information that is warm, inviting, and feels like you are bearing witness to someone, eager and excited to share a world with you.” - Hanif Abdurraqib, author of A Little Devil in America: In Praise of Black Performance

“Blackstar Rising and the Purple Reign offers an interdisciplinary deep dive into two iconic musicians who died within months of each other. Mixing a rich variety of formats, including critical essays, interviews, and ‘critical karaoke,’ a who’s who of pop writers and scholars tackle the lives and loss of these two figures. There are no books to my knowledge that offer this depth and breadth of thinking about David Bowie and Prince, or indeed about popular music in general.” - Evelyn McDonnell, editor of Women Who Rock: Bessie to Beyoncé. Girl Groups to Riot Grrrl

"Rife with rigorous analysis, careful scholarship, and a few delightfully quirky sections. . . ." - Publishers Weekly

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Author/Editor Bios Table Of Contents Rights Additional Information

Author/Editor Bios

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Daphne A. Brooks is William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of Black Studies, American Studies, Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, and Music at Yale University. She is the author of Liner Notes for the Revolution and Jeff Buckley’s Grace, as well as Bodies in Dissent, published by Duke University Press.

Table Of Contents

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Introduction
“Dearly Beloved,” “Give Me Your Hands”: Toward a (Rock and Roll) Commons / Daphne A. Brooks  1
“Adore”: A Map to the Chapters, Meditations, Conversations, and a Spirited Round of Karaoke / Daphne A. Brooks  35
Part I. “Punch a Higher Floor”: David Bowie, Prince, the Utopian, and the Spiritual
1. This Is What It’s Like When Starships Cry: A Cosmic Soliloquy on the Warp-Driven Vessels Christened Bowe and Prince / Greg Tate  53
2. Am I Nowhere Now? Hoping for Utopia in David Bowie’s Lazarus / Tiffany Naiman  61
Critical Karaoke Interlude I
Farah Jasmine Griffin: Prince, “Nothing Compares 2 U”  74
Matthew Frye Jacobson: David Bowie, “Space Oddity”  77
3. “This Thing Called Life” (After Prince and Bowie): On Blackstars and Purple Rain / Kara Keeling  80
4. Not Quite Dying: Late Bowie / Eric Lott  92
5. “Adore,” Alternative / Ashon Crawley  101
Critical Karaoke Interlude II
Gayle Wald: David Bowie, “Starman”  113
Richard Yarborough: Prince, “Housequake” (All-the-Way-Live Version)  116
Part II. “Station to Station”: Traversing Cities and Borders with Bowie and Prince
6. Heroes Across the Border / Josh Kun  123
7. Riding in Cars with Prince / Van My Truong  129
Critical Karaoke Interlude III
Gustavus Stadler: Prince, “The Most Beautiful Girl in the World,” or, Could / Be the Most Beautiful Girl in the World?  137
Daphne Carr: David Bowie, “I’m Afraid of Americans” (Nine Inch Nails V1 Mix)  140
Nicole R. Fleetwood: Prince, “Darling Nikki”  144
8. Queer Nightlife Autopoiesis: A Self-Guided Downtown Bowie Walking Tour / Shane Vogel  147
9. “There Will Be No Death”: Prince’s Afterlife in Minneapolis / Emma Balázs and Kristen Zshomler  160
10. From the Depot to Uncle Sam’s: Minneapolis, Clubs, Album-Oriented Rock, and Prince in the Seventies / Michaelangelo Matos  175
Critical Karaoke Interlude IV
Kathryn Lofton: David Bowie, “Modern Love”  186
Sonnet Retman: Queen and David Bowie, “Under Pressure”  189
Part III. The Black Album: Bowie, Prince, and the Art of Sonic Experimentalism
11. David Bowie and the Texture of Guitar Experimentlism / Michael E. Veal  193
12. Mapping Prince’s “Erotic City” / Jason King  203
Critical Karaoke Interlude V
Gayle Wald: Prince, “Pop Life”  218
Matthew Frye Jacobson: Prince, “While My Guitar Gently Weeps”  221
13. His Magical Instruments: An Interview with Donny McCaslin / Maureen Mahon  224
14. New Waves, Shifting Terrains: Prince’s and David Bowie’s Transatlantic Crossovers / Alexander G. Weheliye  231
15. Young Americans: A Heat Rocks Podcast Conversations / Lynell George, Oliver Wang, and Morgan Rhodes  244
Critical Karaoke Interlude VI
Christine Bacareza Balance: Prince, “Soft and Wet”  252
Andreana Clay: David Bowie, “Golden Years”  256
Part IV. “Oh! You Pretty Things”: Spectacular Bowie, Spectacular Prince-Visual and Performance Politics
16. David Bowie Is . . . A Curatorial Adventure / Victoria Broackes and Geoffrey Marsh  261
17. Like David Bowie / Jonathan Flatley  273
Critical Karaoke Interlide VII
Daphne Carr: Prince and the New Power Generation, “7”  289
Emly Lordi: Prince, “How Come U Don’t Call Me Anymore”  292
18. “He Lives . . . the Clothes”: A Conversation with Prince Costume Designer Marie France / Jacqueline Stewart  295
19. “I Was Dreaming When I Wrote This”: Prince and Black Social Dreaming / Tavia Nyong’o  316
20. “Like a Poem”: An Interview with D.A. Pennebaker on Filming David Bowie / Matthew Frye Jackson  334
Critical Karaoke Interlude VII
Karen Tongson: David Bowie, “China Girl”  345
Andreana Clay: Prince, “If I Was Your Girlfriend”  348
Part V. “Rebirth of the Flesh”: Adventures in Intersectionality with Bowie and Prince
21. Trans* Bowie . . . Trans* Prince / Jack Halberstam  353
22. Prince as Revolutionary Mother: Creativity, Kinship, Collaboration, and Care, from Meshell Ndegeocello to Janelle Monáe / Francesca T. Royster  369
Critical Karaoke Interlude  IX
Gustavus Stadler: David Bowie, “Girl Loves Me”  385
Kathryn Lofton: Prince, “When You Were Mine”  388
23. “I Am Something That You’ll Never Understand”: Facing the Strange with Bowie and Prince / Ann Powers  391
24. “You’ve Got to Go In”: An Interview with Sheila E. / Alexandra T. Vazquez  405
25. Blackstar, Bright Star, Not a Gangstar: Black Feminist Imaginaries Through Bowie and Prince / Daphne A. Brooks  420
Part VI. Outré Outro: “Where Are We Now?”
Critical Karaoke Interlude X 
Michelle Habell-Pallán: David Bowie, “Let’s Dance”  459
Oliver Wang: Prince, “Kiss”  464
26. Fun Fun Fun: Having a Good Time with Prince and Duke / Greil Marcus  467
Acknowledgments  477
Sound and Vision Playlists
L’Rain  479
Kimbra  481
Meshell Ndegeocello  483
Contributors  487
Index  497

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Additional Information

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Related Links Paper ISBN: 978-1-4780-3330-1 / Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-4780-2985-4 / eISBN: 978-1-4780-6205-9 /