Nude Awakening

Soundcheck | May 3, 2010

R&B singer Erykah Badu was recently charged with disorderly conduct after stripping naked for her new music video. Elsewhere, rockers like Flaming Lips and Matt and Kim have recently decided to bare all, and several productions at the Metropolitan Opera have featured at least partial nudity. All of this comes as the Museum of Modern Art is featuring an exhibit by the racy performance artist Marina Abramović. Today we ask, are artists out of ideas when they bare all? Or are we Americans just being prudes?

Joining us to uncover these questions are Lizzy Goodman, a music writer and author of Cat Power: A Good Woman, and James Jorden, the editor of the opera blog Parterre Box.

WNYC is funded by sponsors and member donations

Top Stories

America at 250: A View from Britain, with “The Rest Is History”

The historian-podcasters Dominic Sandbrook and Tom Holland explain why losing the thirteen colonies “annoyed” the British, but “it could have been a lot worse.”
The New Yorker Radio Hour |

NYC Rent Guidelines Board approves 2-year rent freeze, fulfilling Mamdani campaign pledge

About 1 million rent-stabilized apartments will be shielded from rent increases for the next two years after the historic vote.
Gothamist |

Are Carriage Horses a Thing of the Past?

Liam Quigley talks about the latest efforts to ban carriage horses in Central Park.
The Brian Lehrer Show |

Feds indict former Mayor Adams adviser Frank Carone in migrant housing bribery scheme

One of former Mayor Eric Adams' oldest and closest allies was arrested Wednesday on federal corruption charges, joining a growing roster of Adams aides facing prosecution.
Gothamist |
YOU ARE ONLINE