Empire: Fashioning Blackness

When the predominantly African American, primetime soap opera Empire premiered on FOX in 2015, the show immediately pulled viewers into its world of lush visuals, contemporary music, and dramatic storylines. An hour-long drama that focuses on the fictitious Lyon family and their music industry empire, Empire draws inspiration from the aesthetic and narrative conventions of predominantly white 1980s soap operas like Dallas and Dynasty, and the sensational plots and characters on contemporary African American cast reality television shows. Moreover, Empire’s representations of African American lives and experiences are connected to a much longer, complicated history of black representation on television