Arca Puts His Own Spin On Queer Sound

Alejandro Ghersi is the incredible face behind Arca. His music transcends all levels and sounds in the music industry. His sounds showcase his queer identity, which shows both the beauty and the pain.

Ghersi grew up in Venezuela first playing with the idea of making music. When he was young he made music with the name Nuuro, as an indie pop artist. As a result, he became popular in Venezuela. Originally when he had not come out as gay under the name Nuuro for his own safety, he used ungendered words to protect his identity. As this project progressed he was gendering words. After this, he cut the project and moved to New York to go to school at NYU. There was a lot that he had to hide according to his interview with The Guardian, he said.

As a kid, I spent a lot of my mental energy hiding who I was and attempting to fit in,” he says of his childhood in Venezuela, a country where, as he puts it “if I dressed the way I do here I’d be in physical danger”. “And as an adult, I spend a lot of energy in my work making sure that I celebrate the things I was once hiding.

When he moved to New York, he came out as gay and started composing the concept of Arca that would be released in 2012.

Arca’s work usually has an industrial sound with mixtures of electronic influences pairing with queer pop culture references. His songs include unpredictable bass patterns with crying synth sounds. He has worked with renowned and underground artists such as Bjork, Kanye West, Jessa Kanda, Napo, and Babyfather.

Lately, his work has been a lot more personal. In this album Piel, he has unleashed his angelic voice once again to produce a whole new level. His vocal cords bring out almost an opera sound with him speaking in his native language. This video that he put out for this latest project you can see Ghersi walking around in a dark area dressed in a tan corset among open-eyed people who you could assume are playing dead. He is also making physical contact with unidentified bodies.

Arca places messages within his music that expresses how he has been treated about the way he presents himself in daily life and at shows. One clip that he sampled in his work was from the movie The Cement Garden described the double standard behind men being able to showcase any traces of feminine style or behavior.

The sample is of the character in the movie Julie saying:

Girls can wear jeans and cut their hair short, wear shirts and boots because it’s OK to be a boy, but for a boy to look like a girl is degrading, because you think that being a girl is degrading. But secretly you’d love to know what it’s like, wouldn’t you? What it feels like for a girl?

You can hear more of Arca’s work from listening to this project.

Buffalo Platform Sneakers Making a Comeback

As someone would have said at some point WHAT ARE THOSE. Buffalo sneakers were all of the rages in the 90s and are making a comeback today. But where do these shoes originate?

Platform shoes were present in both Ancient Japan and Greece. In Japan, the shoes became popular in the Heian Period. During this period they were called “getas”. These shoes had flat boards with wooden stilts under them to allow for more height on the shoe. In Japanese culture, they were used to avoid sinking their feet into the mud when farming rice. As time progressed the shoes were repurposed into another place in Japanese culture. Women started wearing them to prevent their kimonos from touching or dragging on the ground. Platform shoes are still common in Japan and are still used in rural areas where flooding exists. In Ancient Greece, platform shoes had a less crucial reasoning behind using platform shoes. They created platform sandals called Cothurnus. The purpose of the sandals was to make actors appear taller so they can be seen from farther and more high up distances.

Going back to more modern times, platform shoes came into Western culture again in the 1930s. The person responsible for the blossoming of these shoes is Moshe (Morris) Kimel. She first designed a platform shoe for an actress in the 1930s named Marlene Dietrich. Later Kimel opened a shoe factory in Los Angeles after needing to flee Berlin as a Jewish woman during World War II.

Later on, platform shoes started to show up at the disco and club scene. Males at this time were encouraged to wear platforms. Many celebrities and famous musicians also followed this trend and wore platforms. Musicians from the funk, punk, rock n roll, disco, and pop scene all wore these shoes. Artists such as George Clinton, Elton John, David Bowie and Stevie Nicks all wore platform shoes.

During the time of the 90s, platform shoes seemed to be trending the most. The Spice Girls were considered by many to be the reason behind the revival of the trend. When people thought of platforms in this age there was a strong connection to feminism and girl power. Platform sneakers and shoes also blasted off even more in the rave and club scene. Ravers were known for developing bright, multicolored, large platforms and platform sneakers.

Platform sneakers were the biggest, most modern trend to come from the 90s platform era. One of the most popular brands that are still around today is Buffalo boots and sneakers. The company does not mainly produce these shoes, but they are still accessible through the website or select stores. The company is very specific about where the shoes are sold, and only two American companies are able to access these shoes via shipping. The sneakers become popular 

 

One company that was probably the most popular were Buffalo sneakers. The company is still around today but only puts out platforms in certain countries and environments. Buffalo platform sneakers make their way into American stores every few years or seasons but have not been made into an American staple just yet.

Looking at today platforms seem to be making a comeback. Balenciaga just came out with a pair of four-inch platform crocs. The Balenciaga platform sneakers are also trending allowing for other rare brands to create platform sneakers again.