ABSTRACT
This chapter analyses the nexus of automobiles and popular music in constructing images of femininity, masculinity, and various LGBTQ identities. It begins with the premise that cars, as objects of desire, devotion, and obsession, have often been linked through song with women (e.g., Chuck Berry’s “Maybellene” or Mack Rice and Wilson Pickett’s “Mustang Sally”) or anthropomorphized as female personas. The chapter turns to female challenges to such stereotypical hypermasculine identifications with car songs (e.g., Joni Mitchell, Shania Twain, and Tracy Chapman, among others) and elaborates on new literatures of gendered “feeling” for cars. Finally, this chapter explores the intersection of automobile culture and music in relation to LGBTQ identities, which are typically overlooked in discussions of stereotypically masculine, heteronormative automotive culture. Yet, several car companies have overtly targeted gay and lesbian consumers (such as Subaru’s “Gone Camping” television and radio campaign from the mid-1990s) and some artists, such as Frank Ocean and Queen, have focused on unfamiliar and non-heteronormative narratives and feelings for cars in lyrics and videos in order to further queer discourses. Through the combined lens of popular music songs and car advertising campaigns and their soundtracks, the chapter illuminates and highlights recent challenges to and contestations of the stereotypical image of the car as a heteronormative machine.
