Some Independent or Otherwise Original Women in Music
(ie: there will be no pop stars listed here)
this is under construction still, please return another time and the intro and stuff will be rewritten (this was done in the middle of the night, hence my rather pointless litany about various things including high school kids and their Ani sites)
This page is going to require a little intro. So I wanted to put a page on women musicians here for some time. There seems to be some duty to do that on a website where women's history and literature and feminist activism information is given a big priority; there must be in there some kind of room for empowering female musicians. The kind that Clear Channel doesn't put on the radio. The people who are not on Mtv, the ones who don't make music so they can be in videos on an overrrated cable TV network arm of the corporate music industry that has done so much to destroy what real music is....
Ok, so the problem therein is, unlike on the literature page, I don't know how to easily find a bunch of links on independent women in music. Maybe I didn't spend enough time on this, but I did start it once (a year ago or so), and found pretty much nothing on the net in this area. Since as we know, freakin' cornflakes have their own websites (hey, if you haven't seen one yet, I made one about this once during a bout of severe insomnia. Go to the revolution against grains), anyway since we know that, obviously I missed something since somebody out there, somewhere, must have made a damn website about independent women in music. I mean, a big website, that I could refer people to here that doesn't just list five bands nobody is going to be able to hear. But if such a site is up, like I said, I didn't find it. Probably for lack of desire to search through all the commercial and fan-obsession crap that seems to overwhelm music sites (the sites I did find, that is), which just seriously annoy the hell out of me. It's like looking for a site on a poet and finding nothing but some page that has 29 links to Amazon.com on it. Most sites on poets, made by people who like the poet, don't look like that. For some reason, most sites I've seen on music, do look like that.
Anyway - so in the interest of presenting to you the millions they never made (this would be a line from an Ani song, and I'm suspecting most people who click this link will already know who Ani is, but if you don't, stick around a while), I will admit I didn't find them on the web. The other thing is, I don't have tons of money nor the ability to go shopping. Why do you care, you ask? You shouldn't; I'm just mentioning this because the lack of the physical ability (I'm sick, if you didn't spend all day looking through this website, to be brief, most of the time I'm stuck at home, can't stand up long, can't shop for food most of the time, much less anything else), this inhibits one's ability to reference a wide variety of independent music, that one never heard because she couldn't go scouring around used record shops as much as she would have liked.
I should add, I was raised (yeah some of them apples fall pretty far from the tree) to be a born-again Christian religious fanatic. It actually sort of worked, throughout the childhood years (well, sort of, I wrote "affidavits" declaring I would never get married and be a "ball and chain" to a man, every year, starting at the age of eight or so, which was not really something good Christian girls were supposed to do). This matters only in that, until I was about 17, I never liked any music more - um - "of the world" (not religious dogma) than say, Amy Grant who kind of shunned her roots and turned into a pop singer in the heathenistic "world" outside Christian bookstores, actually after I was old enough that this did not matter. Anyway - so I am a little behind just because of getting a late start. I was not one of the kids who ever heard Madonna or Prince or whoever else was popular in the 80's (not that this is necessarily a bad thing, but, you know, it's possibly relevent).
So, before ending this boring writing, one other thing: I'm also not really into the concept of being a "fan" of any human being. There's something disturbing and unnatural about this phenomenon and one day all the anthropoligists will have noted it, and saying this sort of thing will be passe. But fanaticism of any kind, is, in my not so humble opinion, never a good thing. This said, I admire the work (emphasis on work, not details of personal life), of Ani Difranco probably as much as, well, not anybody but many people, and maybe do have an obsession with her music. Ok, I definitely have one. But she's the only musician I can say this about. And frankly, most of the Ani sites on the web make me sick, since, it is really kind of bizarre to see forums devoted to somebody who's entire career represents the opposite of a pop-icon wannabe, where people are dishing their supposed dirt on her life and posting pictures of, say, the crew at the concerts.
It's really kind of funny actually. I might list some of those sites here and not tell you which ones they are, then you can kind of find them, and if you're not into that sort of thing yourself, you'll laugh and start singing "I'm no Heroine" to yourself, or something, and if you are into it, you'll be in your realm with a bunch of fellow people who all know who Goat is and the name of her cats. I made a joke to somebody once that I knew the name of Ani's dog. She goes, "Ani does not have a dog". Um, it was a joke. Hello? The internet is funny sometimes. I'd like to think Ani herself would laugh (or possibly vomit) if she saw some of the stuff her (generally new and youngest, it seems) devotees are posting on the web about her. Supposedly she never uses the internet (and since I know that obviously I'm a little weird myself, but that's in an interview or something, somewhere).
In case anybody who reads this site frequents the forum that was started as part of this site (Personal and Political Women's Issues), there was a little forum called "the little folksinger" for a while on Delphi, and yeah I was listed as being one of the people who started it. Really, it was just done for fun one day a long time ago when a woman I met in the Personal and Political Women's Issues forum started a contest with me to see who had a bigger Ani obsession (i think she won) and I said, there should be a forum about Ani on Delphi (this was before I really began to despise Delphi and stopped going there - it's a corporate demon) and she went and started one in five minutes and made me the co-moderator. We had, I think, probably five people who ever came to that place. It's closed now.
For a couple of days it was kind of interesting, since I had never really discussed Ani's music with another person who knew the titles of all of her songs (a friend of mine does, but we never really talked about Ani much). Mostly we played this game of naming songs alphabetically. The life-altering important information learned from that is that Ani doesn't have very many songs which start with "e" in it. I think. That was before "evolve" came out, though. Yes, now I sound like a junior highschool kid or something, but bear in mind when you're sick and stuck inside and can barely do anything at all, some mediocre activities that you can actually do can be interesting. At least, briefly.
Anyway, so I'm going to be quiet now, and you can check out some sites on a really small, and really select number of musicians below, who definitely do not represent all women in music.
I just happen to like apples, and I'm not afraid of snakes.
-from "Adam and Eve", Ani D.
Ani Difranco, the million they never made (and a ramble by me)
Songwriter, musicmaker, storyteller, freak.
There's no one like her. Anywhere. At all. In my opinion. Go here first; this is her label's site. She started this label, Righteous Babe Records (RBR, as it will be called on most fan sites), when she was 19. You can sometimes hear a couple of songs there, hear a great poem (that you can read here too), called "Self Evident", find a little bit of information about her and order much of her music and other nifty things. There's a new action center for activism issues too. To order stuff from RBR the old fashioned way, call them at 1-800-ON-HER-OWN. Righteous Babe's offices are in Buffalo, NY. Ani tours all over the US, Canada and various other parts of the world (or, at least Europe), and she tours pretty much all the time. Ani's a folksinger who plays guitar more like a punk rock singer, sort of. She's very hard to categorize, which is one of the best things about her music. But if any guy reads this (guys seem to be really clueless about Ani, or maybe just the guys I've met), no, she's not a "riot grrl" for god's sake. Whatever a "riot girrl" is supposed to be. I have to edit this though, as my brother, a male, is the person who introduced me to Ani's music, when he was a kid in high school. He had a copy of "Untouchable Face" obtained from his blue-haired female friend who wrote some brilliant thing once while she was tripping on acid, that my brother hung to his wall, on a brown paper bag...anyway so I listened to it. He was right in assuming I'd love her music. So some guys are not clueless after all. And it's a wonderful world. Ladeeda. Ok, end of boring story. Go on now. Be gone.
And here are some sites by Ani fans and such:
A letter Ani wrote to Ms. Magazine, allegedly (and i'm taking it as real), in 1997, is on this fan's site, and is definitely worth a read. It's actually the best thing I've seen yet about (by) Ani online, anywhere, I think. She was not happy about an article they published about her, which is understandable, if you read this. Incidentally Ms. is something that let me know there were such things as feminists on this planet, and probably the only reasons I didn't die from suicide or anorexia by the time of 18 (not that i didn't try those things too), and I have a lot of respect for Ms. Magazine. But not for capitalist bullshit, no matter where it's found. End of op ed.
Ani Difranco lyrics I like this page. The woman who runs this site simply puts the lyrics to all Ani songs (except covers) on this site, and that is all. But she has a little editorial to tell you why too, which I liked reading. Since Ani's lyrics are often quoted by people who like her music, as she's quite the prolific writer and her lyrics are often poignant and powerful, this is a site worth visiting.
Alana Davis: a little Satan hey, what do you know, I've found more sites about Ani I actually like since writing the above (about how I hate most of them), so here's something kind of funny on a fan's site. Who the hell is Alana Davis, anyway? I've never heard of this before now, but it's rather amusing. Be sure to read the whole URL for this page when you click it too.
Ani Difranco.Net has information and a forum area and all that which is found on a big fan site, but also makes a point of discussing Ani's interest in social justice issues, and has activism links too.
Glass House - don't go here unless your computer has "Flash 6" or you'll just get an annoying message telling you that you can't view this site without downloading that
On Her Own.net there are forums here, and the people in them refer to themselves as OHOers. Enough said? This is a good place to go if you care to see someone's picture they took of themselves with Heidi (a woman who works at RBR) at a show (I saw that there once) and other stuff like that (or if you want to laugh at it). A little bit on the more ridiculous end of obsession. On the other hand, when you go to a concert and people already know the lyrics to a song she hasn't recorded yet anywhere, that's most likely because they heard a bootleg of it online that was linked here, or read the lyrics from somebody on this site, or at least, that's what someone who runs it seems to think as I once read something there about how she asked people not to clap at a show when she did a song that was then not yet recorded ("Second Intermission" on Evolve now), to which the person who runs the site declared see! she is listening to us, or something like that. Heh. Okay.... So now you know where to find such people, if that interests you.
(Sorry I was going to leave personal commentary out of this and seem to have failed at that once again, oh well, sorry for anybody who reads this and gets offended, especially if you're a teenager since, generally I try not to be an obnoxious person insulting the habits of younger people, but there are some kids out there who will hopefully find other ways to spend their time, at some point, that might be more healthy. For instance, take up a cause, run a website on that, be obsessed with improving some aspect of society or the world around you - something, anything more important than whether or not Ani is pregnant, would be more of a tribute to her than posting 590897980 pictures of her on the web. Maybe try posting some pictures of people who were killed by the death penalty or are sitting on death row right now. You know, an issue that she addresses in much of her music, not to mention the interviews such fans post online regularly, as doing something like that can create so much more change in people's minds than looking at Ani's image ever will..just some thoughts.)
Stevie Nicks this is the official, commercial site on her, the Nicks Fix
Kim Gordon is a drummer in the band Sonic Youth, and Free Kitten is a smaller band of women she was part of (mostly women, anyway) for a while. Finding their music in your general corporate music store will probably prove futile, but it's around, I'm sure, still, in some independent places. I'm pretty sure Free Kitten isn't around anymore, but once long ago I searched the web to see if there was a site anybody had made about them, and there was this one, that I liked at the time (hopefully it's still up). Free Kitten's music was sort of in the alternative rock genre, if I am going to categorize it. Meow....meow....
Liz Phair has done some cool, feminist songs, although on this website she looks more like some kind of lame fashion model....but other than that, it appears to be a big, well designed fan site: Liz-Phair.com: cool, vulnerable, luscious
Rachel Sage is sort of a folksinger (i like a couple of her songs and obviously don't know much about her other than that), who has been in one of those Lilith fair tours i think, but i couldn't find any sites on her other than this commerical, official one:
Suzanne Vega was in the "alternative" area probably long before it got that name. She has many feminist lyrics. Sometime in the early 90's her song, "Luka", which addresses domestic violence, was on the radio quite a bit, as was "Tom's Diner". She has a lot more songs that have never been on mainstream radio.
Jill Sobule got on the radio a lot with the song "I Kissed a Girl" one year, but she's really got a number of songs never played on mainstream radio that you might like better than that one (or at least, just as much).
Dar Williams is a folksinger who plays guitar and writes some interesting lyrics. So here's a good site by an admirer or Dar; since this site is mentioned in the liner notes of her album The Beauty of the Rain, she must like it herself. (Yeah I read the liner notes on things; it's probably a habit of nosy people.)
Here's the official Dar Williams site:
Siouxsie Sioux was the singer for a band called Siouxsie and the Banshees, that I liked back around the high school years. This site is by an obviously very devoted fan: Siouxsie Sioux: the Voice Goddess
Tori Amos does some wonders with a piano, and is quite a musician, although her career is not really on the "independent" side of things, and she has videos on MTV. But it would be kind of insulting to all the raisin girls who are going to read this page to put no Tori links just because she's a corporate superstar. Tori has personally put a lot of effort into helping survivors of rape and abuse with founding, and helping to fund, the Rape Abuse and Incest National Network which was the first and is still the only sexual assault hotline in the United States (national, that is, there are many local ones, which RAINN connects you to). Her music, however, is not all about being a rape survivor, although many websites for survivors (some of which are linked to this site on a couple of pages) are created with a big emphasis on Tori's music.
Here are some sites about her career and music:
Sleater Kinney is sort of a punk rock band of young women who have probably, like the band below, been labeled "riot girls" a million times. To get a more accurate idea of who they are, here's a big site called Obsessed with Sleater Kinney
Bikini Kill was a popular punk rock band of young women (probably one of the bands most frequently called a riot girl band by whoever came up with that stupid label and all the people who chose to follow along with said stupidity for a few years) for a while. Maybe they still are; I don't really know. But here's a site about them by someone who likes them a lot: Bikini Kill
