The fairer sex.
Published by Natasha October 20th, 2006 in Music, Books.In the middle of the stage where I stand as the bass player of Sonic Youth, the music comes at me from all directions. The most heightened state of being female is watching people watch you … Loud dissonance and blurred melody create their own ambiguity — are we really that violent? — a context that allows me to be anonymous. For my purposes, being obsessed with boys playing guitars, being as ordinary as possible, being a girl bass player is ideal, because the swirl of Sonic Youth music makes me forget about being a girl. I like being in a weak position and making it strong.
-Kim Gordon, 1987, Village Voice.
I recently became slightly depressed about the state of women listeners in the world of “difficult,” noisy, experimental music; certain kinds of avant-garde, experimental music — even though it was created as a subversive reaction to traditional masculine notions of musicality — cultivated a community of almost entirely masculine listeners by its very merits as something “outsider” or “peripheral.” But as a woman — and an obsessive music listener — I’ve come to resent the inclusiveness of the “boy’s only” world of experimental, “difficult” music. I mean, how many online music forums have a 50:50 gender ratio of serious, commited music listeners? Most of the time, if female listeners get any shout outs, it’s male posters who say something along the lines of, “My girlfriend listens to Iron & Wine/The Shins/James Blunt and it’s totally bollocks. I guess women don’t like to be challenged.” Ok, that’s exaggerating, but I’ve come to resent both the macho cliches perpetuated by the male listeners of the genre (i.e. assumptions that women don’t like/care about something so “nerdy” or “obsessive” — um, we do) and the ocassional laziness of some female listeners (i.e. why were there only a handful of women at that Wolf Eyes show last spring?).
I guess all of this was put into motion at Judith Peraino’s lecture on Monday (although it’s been something that’s been simmering in my head for years now), although it’s clear that Peraino is the exception to the rule. Maybe it’s tough for female music listeners to break into the world of “difficult” music because men just assume that we won’t get it. It’s condescending really, and I resent it.
But because the “difficult” “noisy” music is already marginal, experimental, and counter-culture by it’s very definition, any accusation that these male fans are being “sexist” must be automatically dismissed because of their own outsider status, that they wouldn’t dare marginalize a group of people because they’re marginal themselves! So somehow, their passive-aggressive, latent sexism goes by unnoticed. I mean, it’s easy to say a Limp Bizkit fan is sexist, right? It seems obvious. But this is trickier to pinpoint and harder to understand, this kind of uneven playing field for women as “good” listeners of “tough” music. It’s really, really frustrating: it’s hard for “superior” fans to take you seriously, and it’s hard to find experimental, thoughtful music made by women attractive to women fans.
But it’s there. In droves. Amazing, if you just put the effort into it, really, and ignore any and all message boards and online forums that talk about how “hot” Kim Gordon is instead of, you know, the music. So. Irrelevant. When was the last time you saw any thread on ILM weigh the pros and cons of Devendra Banhart’s beard? Yet, the amount of garbage discussing Joanna Newsom’s good looks is pervasive, even on so-called “anti-macho” boards …
So. A quick roundup of some books and records released in honor of women’s contribution to experimental or underground music…
This particular genre of music seems to be dominated by men and it’s great to see such an impressive and inspiring output by women. Tracks culled from 47 different female musicians in a 3 disc series. I covet this! This is what their website says:
The WOMEN TAKE BACK THE NOISE compilation, 3 years in the making, showcases a collection of 47 women artists worldwide who experiment with sound in various ways, ranging from ambient-organic to quirky-glitch-beat to harsh or extreme noise, as well as categories yet to be defined…
WOMEN TAKE BACK THE NOISE was also the title of two different performances by BIG CITY ORCHESTRAE from 1992. Both performances featured projects were put together by female members of the orchestrae, which showcased various noise mediums ranging from vocal and melodic to combustable and cacophonus.
This book, which was a lovely and thoughtful present for my birthday this year (’tis a song from the 1990 SY album Goo; it goes without saying that there’s a chapter devoted to Kim Gordon), covers everything from the big guns like Patti Smith, PJ Harvey, and Sleater-Kinney to personal favorites the Slits, Erase Errata, and even Peaches. It’s not incredibly in-depth (the women get a few pages each) but it’s a great, ambitious idea, creating a coherent narrative and thread throughout these women through the past couple decades. I also like how she takes major bands like SY and rethinks them in terms of gender and sexuality, like in her chapter on Kim Gordon, the “quintessential indie rock woman.”
Gordon’s extensive lyrical contributions certainly can’t be slotted into one category, but much of them animate Sonic Youth’s work with meaningful portraits of female protagonists who do more than decorate the edges. Like Sonic Youth’s musical fluidity, Gordon’s characters are interchangable; listeners of both genders can absorb female perspectives and portraits without feeling “alienated” by their subject matter, a common complaint about more obvious girl-issue rock.
The back reads:
Cinderella’s Big Score celebrates the contributions of punk’s oft-overlooked female artists, explores the latent — and not so latent — sexism of indie rock (so often thought of as the hallowed ground of progressive movements), and tells the story of how these women created spaces for themselves in a limited or exclusionary environment. The indie music world is littered with females who have not only withstood the racket of punk’s intolerance, but have twisted our societal notions of femininity into knots.
And, like a true music obsessive, the book has an amazing discography at the back. So much music to buy…
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