music

At a time when every female singer is an actress and every actress is a vapid, vagina flashing, coke snorting, attention whore, people like me can only shake their heads. I really don’t want to talk about the recent spate of celebutante arrests. In fact, every time I see Hilton, Lohan or Richie on a media outlet I put my hands over my ears and shout out things that I care more about than how much these brats weigh and how drunk they were when their luxury SUVs got pulled over:

WORLD HUNGER AND POVERTY!
A WOMAN’S RIGHT TO CHOOSE!
GLOBAL WARMING!
AM I GOING TO RUN OUT OF TOILET PAPER BEFORE MY NEXT TRIP TO THE STORE?!!

Music. It surrounds us; it fills the air, it fills our hearts. We can rise to great heights of joy or plummet into sorrow while we listen. Musicians pour their lives out into the world for all to see. Their emotions are clear, their souls are visible; we can connect to them through this music.

Throughout history, music has been defined by so many women. We have amazing jazz vocalists, pop singers like Avril Lavigne and Jennifer Lopez, artists like Alicia Keys and many, many more who fill up our world of music now and long ago. Every day we listen to music; our world is musical itself.

But about forty years ago(correct me if I'm wrong) there came a new genre of music. Rock music. This was filled with guys. Male vocalists, guitarists, drummers... We have the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, amazing artists.

Today something wonderful happened. My friend is getting me a karaoke version of an amazing song to sing for the talent show. This song is by Evanescence, written and sung originally by Amy Lee.

First, a side note. I adore Amy Lee. She is beautiful. Her voice is amazing, four octave range, and she writes wonderful songs. She is her own, strong individual. She has her beliefs. She has had her issues. She is stronger for it. And now to the part this is REALLY supposed to be about.

My friend told me that Amy Lee has been standing up for Britney Spears. Apparently some person put a video up on youtube of how screwed up Britney has become. (Gee I wonder why she'd be screwed up, right?) They had bits about her car crash, and various other things.

Friday, I went to a Billy Talent concert with one of my friends. It was amazing. The crowd was roaring from the minute Billy Talent walked onto the stage in their hometown, they knew all the words, they cheered and screamed and jumped around like maniacs. Heck, I was jumping around and screaming too!

There are two things I want to mention, so I'll mention them in chronological order.

All the women there looked...bored. Most of them, not all, I should say. They looked like either a)they had waaay too much money on their hands or b)they'd been dragged along by their boyfriends. Some of these girls stood and halfheartedly bellowed out lyrics while their boyfriends went insane, others just sort of sat there.

When I come across blatant misogyny in mainstream articles; clichés, stereotypes and sexist jokes that are enjoyed tolerated or ignored, I often ask myself; Would this be acceptable if it was written about black people?
In most cases it wouldn’t be. It would not be acceptable for a college newspaper to publish an article about how black people who go to nightclubs are sluts. It would not be acceptable for a respectable news channel to label a news segment about a black celebrity with a racial epithet. At the same time though, just last week a recognized comedian launched into a hate tirade against the black people heckling his standup routine. How can we even consider having defeated prejudice when Mel Gibson decides to defend him?

My best friend is named Nikki. I think when, and only when, it comes to her am I part of a sisterhood. She has a guitar, and while she's not an excellent player, and she doesn't read sheet music, and she needs a new pic, she can play.

We started with a single riff, Nikki playing a single set of notes in a simple pattern, and voila. I wrote a song to it, we've found a drummer-who we won't be able to practice with for a while because she's in Belgium-and so our first song is complete. I've written others to be practiced later, and others that take different things.

So now we've got ourselves a band, which is inadvertently all girls because Janet won't let Eric anywhere near me, a song, and we're going to work on others. I even know someone who can get a hold of some friends who have a recording studio, and I also think there'll be some investing into a keyboard for me, which I will love as well as my flute.

I am...in love...with rock music. My faves? Well, personally it's U2, Billy Talent, Chili Peppers, System of A Down, Evanescance, and Metric-in that order. Then there are ones I /can/ like, such as Blue October and the wonderfulness of Green Day (old).

There are a lot more publicly loved male rock bands than female ones. I often wonder if this is partially because fewer girls are into rock, or want to make the music, or what? I want to be in a band-but I don't know anyone who can play an instrument other than the african drum, but that's not rock!

Evanescance&Metric are bands w. female singers, both of whom have gorgeus voices. But now it's time to throw a little Metric in, and their song: Poster Of A Girl, on the CD Old World: Where Are You Now? Written and played by them.

My roommate from college recently did some (very awesome) artwork for some band that she knew from High School. She felt like she should make an appearance at their CD release party, so out of the kindness of my heart (and the loneliness of my summer) I went along. Previous to last Saturday, and excluding Sonic Youth last month, I hadn’t been to a show in well over two years. My memories of “suburban subcultures” were pretty fond – small local punk shows, a generally forward-moving (and/or stagnant) political atmosphere where everybody cared and was genuinely interested in each other. There was even a slight feminist tinge to it. Even if it wasn’t apparent, you always knew that you could call people on their BS. Nobody was exclusively mean to girls, and beauty and adoration wasn’t really a goal. Despite the moderate lack of girls in bands (and the fact that I still had to be dropped off and picked up by my parents,) everything was relatively peachy.

Why do people produce music to sound like, well, sluts? Just listen to some of it and you can tell. Yes, I cannot stand how they show women but if I say that I hate that kind of music, I'd be lying. Yes I do listen to that kind of stuff BUT that doesn't allow them to produce music like that! They, in my opinion, should take women's feelings in to consideration.

Just ripping a cd of mashups that a friend from the club made me this week- crazy stuff- "Pray for Pop" is a mashup of Duran Duran, Prince, Madonna, and MC Hammer!

Got me thinking. We are all literally immersed in pop culture. As feminists, how do you handle it?

For example, there's a lot of music out there that I love, and a lot that I hate; some of it's even offensive to me. Yet, I admit, sometimes I love to dance to a song when I know I probably wouldn't like the group if I ever met them.

What goes for music goes for tv shows, movies, and books, too.

I find it interesting that I've never been very excited by "feminist" media: Mists of Avalon does little for me, Ani & her ilk can be incredible singers, but I don't own the cds and haven't seen a show since 97, etc.