FEATURE: The New Power Generation: A Need to Push Towards a Music Matriarchy

FEATURE:

 

 

The New Power Generation

PHOTO CREDIT: August de Richelieu/Pexels

A Need to Push Towards a Music Matriarchy

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NOT something that could happen instantly…

PHOTO CREDIT: LinkedIn Sales Navigator/Pexels

it seems that there needs to be a radical change in the music industry. It is divided and distinct in two different ways. On one side is the output and the best music around. I would say objectively that the best albums from the past few years at least have mostly been from women. The biggest and most inspiring tours of this year have been from women. Most of the new acts tipped this year to succeed were women. Something that is being mirrored in new features coming out at the moment – for those names to watch out for next year. Also, think about some of the very best broadcasters, D.J.s, label bosses, journalists and those right throughout the industry and I feel most of the power and influence is from women. People might challenge that though, when you do the figures and do the research, modern music is ruled by women. This is most definitely true when you think about music itself. The absolutely brilliant material we have received this year. On the other side is those who hold power. Still, from boardrooms to executive positions, right through to bodies in professional studios and those deciding festival bills and making big decisions in the industry, most are still men. One can tiptoe around the word. I think the music industry is patriarchal. Society is patriarchal. There are few sections and areas where that is not true. It is a sad fact that we hope will be tackled and reversed in our lifetimes. Even if a landmark EU agreement set a quota that women account for 40% of those on coporate boards, I ownder wehtehr this has transitioned to music and whether, in spite of those steps, it is quite enough. A patriarchy is essentially relating to or denoting a system of society or government controlled by men. Nobody can deny that music is even, equal or has any consciousness of parity and progress. Those making most of the move towards progress and recognition are the women being affected.

IN THIS PHOTO: Mitski released one of this year’s best albums with The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We/PHOTO CREDIT: Ebru Yildiz

One might say it is not good having a patriarchy or a matriarchy. If a system is dominated by men or women alone then that does not lead to balance, discussion and togetherness. I would agree to in principle. My point relating to music is that, literally since music was invested, it has been controlled and guided by men! Even if there was not the same dominance of women decades ago – mostly down to an industry built on sexism and misogyny unwilling to create opportunity and equality for women -, that has radically shifted. In lieu of a coalition of way of ensuring that there is true gender equality regarding power and influence, there is a definite case to be made to suggest that a music patriarchy would lead to incredible change and evolution. As things stand, yes, there are small movements towards equality across many areas. Some are still seriously lagging – getting women into professional studios; festival headliners act. -, though we can see small shoots of potential. I don’t think that things will be addressed right across the board and ‘solved’ for decades. Again, whether it is campaigning for change, speaking out against discrimination and highlighting the ongoing sexism in music, it is mostly women doing the work. I do feel genuinely that an industry led by women would not only be decades overdue and deserved. It would also lead to much more rapid change! Not using this power to close men out or attack anyone, instead, you would see growth and prosperity that has never been there. It is amazing to see how casual those in power across all creative industries – and society at large – are when it comes to this power dynamic and the insanely slow pace that change is occurring.

PHOTO CREDIT: Andrea Piacquadio/Pexels

Power should be in the hands of those most deserving. The best person for the job. In an industry where women are towering, this is not being reflected and rewarded. Rather than the music industry being a meritocracy, it does seem to still be built around an ingrained and natural bias that has always been there. It may be pie in the sky, a fantasy or a desire without consideration of practicalities. I genuinely think that the industry has changed drastically in recent years where we are at the point women’s creative output outranks that or men. Not that it is a competition! Though, for an industry that is still a patriarchy, why should this be when so much of the very best music and work being done is from women?! I guess there is a challenge overhauling something so huge quickly. You only need to look at something as basic as radio playlists to see how natural it is for stations to stack their playlists with male artists, in spite of the embarrassment of riches from women. It is this casual and unconcerned sexism and bias that is not being addressed. I do feel, if more of the industry power were in the hands of women, then that this would lead to greater balance. It is also assumed that the best we can do is balance. Why would it be weird if more women headlined festivals than men?! If more women were on playlists compared to male artists?! It is this feeling that fifty-fifty is a big effort and almost impossible. As I say, listen to the music that has come out these past few years. Celebrations like Women in Music Awards 2023 highlights incredible and influential women who are making a huge difference.

PHOTO CREDIT: Sound On/Pexels

I think that next year is going to be one of small improvements and steps forwards. Things like festival bills will get less male-heavy. Radio playlists might get close to balance too. There is still a big wave of sexual assaults and attacks against women. Imbalance and discrimination throughout the industry that is either not being challenged by men in power and the industry as a whole, or it is mainly women speaking out. I can feel natural flow towards something largely patriarchal to an industry that is moving closer to blending and balance. Still, in terms of decisions and change-making, there is still that disproportionate gender imbalance. In the sense that men have more power and impact. Many might challenge my views or say that it is misguided or overly-ambitious. Many might say that things do not need to change or that, if things are not broken, then why fix them?! You only need to read reports of discrimination, misogyny and gender imbalance to see that more needs to be done. Even with more women in positions of power through music, there are still barriers and too many hurdles imposed that mean things are not going to change quickly enough. It has been a truly terrific year for music. I just feel, the more and more we know about continued and slowly-reducing imbalance, the more there needs to be a major shift and reassessment. Like all creative industries, a move towards matriarchy would obviously lead to greater parity through music. Inspiring and incredible women are already out there doing amazing work. The industry has too many cracks for it to be left like it is. Rather than there being this revolution, it is clear that embracing more female voices and ensuring there are more women in positions of power will vastly benefit the industry. That said, I can’t find any argument against…

PHOTO CREDIT: Christina Morillo/Pexels

A music matriarchy.

FEATURE: Spotlight: Current Affairs

FEATURE:

 

 

Spotlight

PHOTO CREDIT: Matthew Arthur Williams

Current Affairs

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NOW in a new year…

there are lots of new artists coming through people have their eye on. In a sea of competition, it can be hard to decide which are worth sticking with. One band that everyone needs to be aware of are Current Affairs. Even if their name might not stand out too much, then their music certainly does! Comprised of stalwarts of the music scene, Joan Sweeney, Gemma Fleet, Andrew Milk and Sebastian Ymai, everyone needs to check out this amazing band. They are getting a lot of buzz and salutes from the music press. Ones that will definitely make a mark through this year. I am going to get to some interviews. First, The Guardian proclaimed Current Affairs as one to watch last year:

"Post-punk and new-wave blending outfit Current Affairs is an assemblage of veteran musicians: Glaswegian frontwoman Joan Sweeney (formerly of bands Aggi Doom and the Royal We); bassist Gemma Fleet (the Wharves, Order of the Toad, Dancer); drummer Andrew Milk (Shopping, Pink Pound); and on guitar Sebastian Ymai (Comidillo Tapes, Pissy, and Anxiety). With diverse roots – Ymai is from Chile and now based in Berlin, while Fleet and Milk are from London – it’s Glasgow, with its celebrated, longstanding DIY music scene, that the stalwart alt-rockers have claimed as their own musical nucleus.

A version of the band first emerged in 2019, releasing the EP Object and Subject, but it was only after Ymai launched Spite House, an initiative created to highlight female-led and queer music, that today’s iteration of Current Affairs was born. Ymai was driven to launch the project in response to the masculine vibe that proliferated in Glasgow’s gritty live scene at the time. “The motto was: ‘Everyone’s welcome, but don’t get it twisted’,” Sweeney said in an interview with Loverboy magazine. “I think that sums it up quite well.”

Their forthcoming debut album, Off the Tongue, promises an unpredictable, 10-song ride, beset with sudden lane changes and hairpin turns. “Current Affairs is where I can burn the world down one minute and then push for brighter things the next,” says Sweeney. “It’s not always bad to rage, cry or be a Pollyanna.” Perhaps there’s wisdom in this whiplash”.

I am going to come to a review for their must-hear new album, Off the Tongue. It follows 2019’s Object & Subject. Whether you class them as Post-Punk or categorise them in another genre, it is clear that Current Affairs are having an impact on the Glasgow DIY scene. What they have put into the world so far is really distinct and amazing. With so much attention on London artists, it is good to shine a Spotlight elsewhere. Snack Mag in July. In the four or so years since they released their early material, they have developed as a real force and district voice. Such a tight-knit and stunning band that will make big steps this year:

“Since releasing their first collection of tracks in 2019, Current Affairs have leaned into gothic new wave undertones that colour their raucous post-punk. After a Covid-enforced break, working together through the Spitehouse Collective – a Glasgow project promoting LGBTQ+ and female music-makers – they are getting ready to release their debut LP, Off the Tongue, and embark on a UK tour.

SNACK caught up with Joan Sweeney (vocals, keyboard), Andrew Milk (drums), and Gemma Fleet (bass) to chat about their restless new album, Glasgow’s DIY music scene, and what it means to be post-punk.

Since you were working on Off the Tongue for quite a long time, how did you ensure that the music still felt fresh and raw and spontaneous?

Joan: I think one of the things that was interesting about doing it this time was that little snippets were getting sent around, like little phone recordings and things, and then nothing was really fully done until we could practise together again. Then, when we could practise together again, we had a couple of weeks to get things together properly, go and record them and then it was done! So maybe that’s why: it all just came together at the last minute.

Andrew: Yeah, I think the sound that you get is probably us still feeling quite new to the songs ourselves when we were recording them. Because usually you’d have maybe a year of playing stuff live to really get down to what you want it to sound like on record. And part of the spontaneity might be the fact that we couldn’t go out and play them live.

I’m interested in the role that location plays in your music. Do you feel that Glasgow or Berlin or any particular place has had an influence on you as a band?

Gemma: Glasgow is really accommodating for making music. For me, it just seems like people are up for doing it which is a novelty! Getting a practice space isn’t a really hard thing, it doesn’t cost millions of pounds like it does in London. And there’s a real passionate commitment to music, so people are going out and doing it in their week. Whereas everyone has to work so much just to simply live in London, that’s quite hard to do.

Joan: There’s always connections [with Glasgow and Berlin]. But there’s also connections here with DIY circuits around the world. We put on gigs, other bands in Glasgow put on gigs, we put on people from abroad, and they put us on abroad. It’s always been more about finding like-minded people from wherever they are, rather than right on your doorstep.

You’re often described as a post-punk band. And that’s a label which you hear all the time these days about lots of different kinds of bands. Do you feel that it’s overused? Do you feel it’s an apt description of what you’re trying to do with your music?

Joan: We’ll all probably have slightly different opinions on this. I’ve always thought about post-punk as basically just being ‘after the first wave of punk’. So to me, it’s when people are going a little bit deeper into their influences, or getting a bit better at their instruments. But it’s still got the punk ethic of ‘just give it a go’. So I don’t mind it. And a lot of my favourite bands would probably come under that umbrella, even though they don’t necessarily sound like each other.

Gemma: I think genres are so broad but sometimes they’re helpful for people, because we’re absolutely bombarded with music everywhere. And it’s sort of annoying as a musician, but if people can say ‘it’s post-punk, for fans of…’ then you sort of have a bit of idea whether you might like it, and probably helpful when you’re trying to navigate the absolute tonne of music available in the world!

Andrew: I don’t feel like it’s necessarily an overused term, I think it’s used accurately. There is just that breadth and that amount of bands that would fit under it. I mean, that’s why post-punk as a genre is never-endingly inspirational and brilliant to dive into, because it is everything post… punk!”.

Before getting to a review for Off the Tongue, The Skinny chatted with Current Affairs. As they prepared to tour the U.K., they were discussed the tracks off of a sophomore album that stands alongside the best of last year. Dividing their time between Glasgow and Berlin, this scintillating quartet are accruing a wave of new fans. Their music is that which needs to be heard:

“Current Affairs' new album Off The Tongue is, as they put it, "the kind of music you can shriek and dance around your bedroom to". The Glasgow-and-Berlin-based four-piece fuse dark, gothic sounds with new-wave pop sensibilities and plenty of post-punk edge – the result is 10 tracks that will have you out of your seat shouting about the injustice of it all one minute, and bobbing your head back and forth the next.

With Off The Tongue out now and a UK tour kicking off in Glasgow this weekend, the band – Joan Sweeney, Sebastian Ymai, Gemma Fleet and Andrew Milk – talk us through the album track-by-track.

Introducing Off The Tongue

"Off The Tongue took a long time to get itself out there and at the same time seemed to happen pretty urgently for us. We started writing the album during lockdown, writing and sharing parts over voice memos, but it didn’t fully come together until we could. Over a couple of practices and few days recording with Ross McGowan at Chime, that was when they took their shape, made sense and got exciting. In fact, most of the band hadn’t even heard the final vocal melodies until recording; Ymai and Gemma were so shocked they burst out laughing. I think there’s a life to the album because of that, that we didn’t tend to labour on the elements too much. Not to say we’re flippant though, we care very much.

"The sound of the album switches and changes a bit, but overall we want it to be the kind of music you can shriek and dance around your bedroom to. Our influences come through naturally from the music we listen to and learned our instruments from (which isn’t always exactly the same as each other) and I think that’s what makes it our own rather than sounding like a cover band, although it is admittedly retro. For me [Joan], writing the album was a chance to flesh out my feelings, give them purpose and find them some community. Different songs had different intents, but across them all is a wanting to build something more in a new way. If we’re witnessing the end of our present conditions, then there could be hope in that for people who think like we do. And if you do, we’ve got you!”.

PHOTO CREDIT: Catriona Clegg

I will finish with a review for Off the Tongue. The Quietus gave their impressions of a remarkable album that I would recommend to everyone. Even if I only discovered Current Affairs last year, I am committed to seeing where they head next. One of our bets rising bands. Make sure you follow this band on social media. Check out their music. A fascinating group whose music really sticks in the mind:

“After years of releasing singles and EPs and making tweaks to their line-up, Current Affairs are solidifying around their debut full-length. Off the Tongue is a scrappy slice of post-punk from beginning to end. Energy is the watchword, with scraping guitar and yawping vocals, anchored by strong, rubber band snapping bass lines throughout the album.

Despite starting off with red herring sci-fi electronics, Off the Tongue makes a quick shift to guitars whose sound borrows heavily from the late 80s. While it’s tempting to conclude that this is a guitar band, it’s singer Joan Sweeney’s vocals that feel like the main catalyst – they are equal turns sharp, defiant, encouraging, and like they might start some fires along the way.

This brash aesthetic comes through loud and clear on ‘Casual Radicals’; even with one of the spikier guitar lines on the album, Sweeney’s vocals still lead the charge, channeling a tone similar to Siouxsie Sioux on lower-fi recordings. The attitude in her vocals conveys a real feeling of power that can also be heard in ‘Regardless’, where a subdued but insistent rhythm provides a tense background to her pointed delivery. “Take your time / but don’t waste mine” she sings – and it’s easy to imagine her target as an ex-lover or a prolific naysayer – before the synths bubble up behind an excited chorus.

Even though there is that feeling of power emanating through the songs, it doesn’t stop a bit of sass or fun from peeking their way through. Current Affairs have found a way to fuse a low-key positivity into their songs without it ever becoming cloying.

The height of this joyous, high energy abandon is ‘Get Wrecked’. Its stomping verses extolling the value of starting from scratch careen into a guitar-driven chorus where Sweeney demands “Turn your wits about!” The frantic pace is kept up on a taunting outro where the guitar and keyboards pull focus from each other like they’re trading insults.

Album closer ‘Her Own Private Multiverse’ is the most muted song on the album, with ringing guitars and a more earnest, less boisterous vocal from Sweeney. Even then, she’s still coaxing and assuring: “you’re an original / a stellar individual”. There’s more of a cool detachment than some of the frenzy or rallying cries of the rest of Off the Tongue, but the album closes out with the feeling that band are firmly in your corner”.

I am excited by all of the artists who are emerging and releasing some truly amazing music. I feel that Current Affairs are going to have a very busy year. If they are not on your radar then do make sure that you follow them. Following the release of Off the Tongue, Current Affairs are a band on…

MANY people’s lips.

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Follow Current Affairs

Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/currentaffa1rs

Twitter:

https://twitter.com/currentaffa1rs

Bandcamp:

https://currentaffairs.bandcamp.com/

Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/artist/3b90N1caVIdfs8yLVJ7eX1?si=pxkqalxERTSml-15vOkJkg

YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/@ToughLoveRecordings

Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/currentaffa1rs/

FEATURE: They Told Me I Was Going to Lose the Fight… Kate Bush’s Wuthering Heights at Forty-Six: The Battle to Release an Iconic Debut Single

FEATURE:

 

 

They Told Me I Was Going to Lose the Fight…

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1978/PHOTO CREDIT: Gered Mankowitz

Kate Bush’s Wuthering Heights at Forty-Six: The Battle to Release an Iconic Debut Single

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ON 20th January, 1978…

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1978 for the Wuthering Heights single cover shoot (Bush was unhappy with the selected image so another one was chosen, delaying the single release by a couple of months)/PHOTO CREDIT: Gered Mankowitz

a debut single was released that changed music. It introduced the world to the phenomenal Kate Bush. Even so, many knew about Wuthering Heights before it was released in 1978. It was leaked and played before the official release, so there was some awareness of this beguiling and unique song. I have written about Wuthering Heights a lot. Here, I want to discuss the battle with EMI to get it released as her debut single – one of the most important releases of her entire career. EMI's Bob Mercer wanted to release the more conventional James and the Cold Gun. Kate Bush did not feel the same. A song never released as a single, she knew that she had a more fascinating and impactful song that would be a much better introduction. I will look at the track and its background, in addition to the reason Wuthering Heights made some people reassess and more deeply examine the novel it was inspired by. The only novel from Emily Brontë, it was first published in 1847. Brontë was also born on 30th July. Bush was born in 1958; Brontë in 1818. Bush clearly felt this natural connection to the author. Someone whose life and writing somehow resonated and was similar to hers. Before going into the song and this struggle she had with EMI to get Wuthering Heights released as her debut single, let’s find out more about her magnificent and spinetingling number one debut:

“Song written by Kate Bush, released as her debut single in January 1978. She wrote the song after seeing the last ten minutes of the 1967 BBC mini-series based on the book ‘Wuthering Heights’, written by Emily Brontë. Reportedly, she wrote the song within the space of just a few hours late at night. The actual date of writing is estimated to be March 5, 1977.

Lyrically, “Wuthering Heights” uses several quotations from Catherine Earnshaw, most notably in the chorus – “Let me in! I’m so cold!” – as well as in the verses, with Catherine’s confession to her servant of “bad dreams in the night.” It is sung from Catherine’s point of view, as she pleads at Heathcliff’s window to be allowed in. This romantic scene takes a sinister turn if one has read Chapter 3 of the original book, as Catherine is in fact a ghost, calling lovingly to Heathcliff from beyond the grave. Catherine’s “icy” ghost grabs the hand of the Narrator, Mr Lockwood, through the bedroom window, asking him to let her in, so she can be forgiven by her lover Heathcliff, and freed from her own personal purgatory.

The song was recorded with Andrew Powell producing. According to him, the vocal performance was done in one take, “a complete perfomance” with no overdubs. “There was no compiling,” engineer Kelly said. “We started the mix at around midnight and Kate was there the whole time, encouraging us… we got on with the job and finished at about five or six that morning.” The guitar solo that fades away with the track in the outro was recorded by Edinburgh musician Ian Bairnson, a session guitarist.

Originally, record company EMI’s Bob Mercer had chosen another track, James And The Cold Gun as the lead single, but Kate Bush was determined that ‘Wuthering Heights’ would be her first release.  She won out eventually in a surprising show of determination for a young musician against a major record company, and this would not be the only time she took a stand against them to control her career.

The release date for the single was initially scheduled to be 4 November 1977. However, Bush was unhappy with the picture being used for the single’s cover and insisted it be replaced. Some copies of the single had already been sent out to radio stations, but EMI relented and put back the single’s launch until the New Year. Ultimately, this proved to be a wise choice, as the earlier release would have had to compete with Wings’ latest release, ‘Mull of Kintyre’, which became the biggest-selling single in UK history up to this point in December 1977.

‘Wuthering Heights’ was finally released on 20 January 1978, was immediately playlisted by Capital Radio and entered their chart at no. 39 on 27 January. It crept into the national Top 50 in week ending 11 February at No.42. The following week it rose to No.27 and Bush made her first appearance on Top of the Pops (“It was like watching myself die”, recalls Bush), The song was finally added to Radio One’s playlist the following week and became one of the most played records on radio. When the song reached number 1, it was the first UK number 1 written and performed by a female artist”.

Imagine a still-teenage artist so determined to get a particular song released as a debut single. It is natural and lazy that a record label would push for a Pop-sounding and more radio-friendly song for the debut. Thinking more about chart positions and sales, their insistent would have backfired. James and the Cold Gun would likely not have gone to number one. I would have been interested in a music video, though the song is not as nuanced and standout as Wuthering Heights. Instead, following this magical discovery of the novel (via  T.V. mini-series) and the way she composed the song, coupled with the vocal being recorded in a single take, Bush would have felt like it was destined for a single release! Something that could not be kept on the album alone. Maybe it would have been a single eventually though, if fortunes had been different were another song released as the debut, maybe there would not have been commercial demand for Wuthering Heights. As some see it, Bush was so determined that Wuthering Heights was being dismissed as a debut single, tempers flared and she cried. This is something that did not happen. What is clear that things were getting tense and there was almost something more explosive about to take place. Whilst in a meeting with the label and others to discuss the single and her career, a man popped his head around the door saying he loved Wuthering Heights and it should be the single. That was perfectly timed and shut down the debate! EMI backtracked and said Bush isn’t a singles artist so it wouldn’t matter. They were more worried about the album. That sounds like pouting, as they seemed pretty clear of James and the Cold Gun being the debut single. When the second single was planned, Bush won another fight – where The Man with the Child in His Eyes was favoured and won over EMI’s choice.

Even if Bush knew which song should be her debut single, there were mixed blessings when it got to number one and was successful. She had to perform the song numerous times. After a disastrous and miserable debut appearance on Top of the Pops (as a solo artist, Bush was not allowed to play with her band and had to use the studio musicians/backing; something she hated, and a big reason she did fewer Top of the Pops appearances after), it was a rocky start to her T.V. live career. Bush’s debut T.V. appearance was in Germany on 9th February, 1978. She would find herself performing on T.V. around Europe. There were interviews further afield. It was a bright and extraordinary young artist really hitting the ground running! I will come back to the fight with EMI and why it was a huge moment when Bush won and was proved right. First, an article from 2020 discussed female hysteria, melodrama, and racial complexity within Wuthering Heights. There are some interesting observations:

“There’s a delicious aspect of utter ridiculousness to the song, a melodrama as self-aware as it is sincere. I wonder if that multiplicity is what draws so many people in, while of course still scaring a few away. It mirrors Emily Brontë’s novel in this way—a book that shocked critics upon its publication, even though she wrote under a male pseudonym out of fear that audiences would judge her harshly for being female. With its unique plot structure, severe setting and tone, and unscrupulous characters, Wuthering Heights was a literary anomaly for its time.

Bush and Brontë, in their respective moments of creation, were attempting to produce and disseminate their art through apparatuses dominated by men—the publishing industry for Brontë and the music industry for Bush. Brontë was unable to lay claim to her work publicly and never saw the greater impact her book would have on the literary world, as she passed away only a year after its release. Friend and teacher Constantin Héger once described Brontë as such:

She should have been a man—a great navigator. Her powerful reason would have deduced new spheres of discovery from the knowledge of the old; and her strong imperious will would never have been daunted by opposition or difficulty, never have given way but with life.

Despite her sharp intellect and expansive knowledge, Brontë’s gender posed a fundamental barrier to achievement and acclaim. Fast forward over a century, and Bush fought an uphill battle against male recording executives to preserve her artistic vision as a young female musician, finding vindication in the way her audience overwhelmingly embraced the effusive and gleeful strangeness of her music.     

I first read the novel Wuthering Heights as a teenager, assuming that I would love it due to its status as a literary classic and all the adoring reviews I had heard over the years. Instead, the deeper I trod, the more confused and repelled I felt. I had never encountered anything quite like this book and the selfish, abrasive,  malevolent characters who populated it. Some of my reaction resulted from the fact that up until that moment, I had mostly read books with at least one likeable character, retaining a solid moral center even when the universe around them was cruel or unfair. But in Brontë’s etched-out world of bleak moors and shuddering winds, characters consume the cruelty they experience and spit it back out at their loved ones and the most vulnerable people around them.

The women of Wuthering Heights are neither deified nor meant to serve as moral cautionary tales, unlike the heroines of many literary works published at the time. They take up substantial space in their caustic, expansive splendor, never close to being perfect, but always compelling in their strengths and faults. In inhabiting the narrative voice of Catherine Earnshaw—the flighty, arrogant, and tragic female protagonist of Wuthering Heights—Bush gives a platform to the remarkable heights of passion that define this character, whose internal monologue is never explored in the novel.

The Cathy that Bush brings to life in her music is possibly even more demanding and incandescent than in the source material. Interestingly enough, at the point in the narrative that the song relates to, Cathy is already dead, now a ghost tormenting her former lover. But rather than silencing her, death emboldens Cathy—in it, she gains a measure of agency and clarity of thought not present in the anguished confusion of the last years of her life. No longer bound by human constraints on behavior, both in the novel and the song she fully reveals the naked longing and emotion that she had once kept controlled in her pursuit of wealth and higher social status. After all, what use is rationality to a ghost?

Bush and Brontë both evoke women overcome with hysterical emotion, laying claim to that hysteria for their own artistic works and wrenching it from the hands of creators and critics who would use the notion to denigrate and doubt women’s abilities. I wonder if, for the both of them, there was a measure of freedom in respectively creating and identifying with the character of Cathy—a woman who is openly selfish and demanding, who refuses to suppress her desires or bend to the wills of the men around her. For these female creators who must have necessarily felt a pressure to be on their best behavior in order to navigate the patriarchal structures in their lives, I imagine there to be a kind of joy in inhabiting the character of Cathy, unmitigated passions and selfish desires and all”.

The more one reads articles and interpretations of Wuthering Heights and Kate Bush translating the novel into a song, the more one wonders why EMI were ever reluctant to release it as a single! As it turns forty-six on 20th January, we can look back all these years and how the song has taken on a life of its own. The Brontë Society objected to Wuthering Heights when it was released as a single. In years since, Bush’s single and video have been used in classrooms. More people discovering the novel because of Kate Bush. Another huge reason why Kate Bush’s fight with EMI was significant. This article looks deeply at Bush’s radical reinterpretation a classic source material. Something few artists today would imagine doing – which begs questions about modern inspiration and lyrical content:

“But as Bush borrowed from the dialogue, she made a crucial transposition in the point of view. When she sings, “You had a temper, like my jealousy / too hot too greedy,” the my refers to Cathy and the you to Heathcliff, the novel’s brooding protagonist/antagonist/antihero/villain (depending on your point of view). But the novel itself never inhabits Cathy’s consciousness: she is seen and heard, her rages and threats vividly reported, but everything we know about her comes from either Nelly Dean, a longtime housekeeper for the Earnshaw and Linton families, or through Lockwood, a hapless visitor to the Yorkshire moorlands and the principle first-person narrator of the novel (most of the novel consists of Nelly’s quoted speech to Lockwood, who is eager to hear the complete history of the inhabitants of Wuthering Heights and its neighboring property, Thrushcross Grange). Although the novel spans decades and multiple generations of Earnshaws and Lintons, Kate Bush’s shift into Cathy’s point of view centers the song entirely on Cathy and Heathcliff—which is fittingly how Cathy, in the novel, views the world. She and Heathcliff share one soul, she claims; everyone else, including her husband Edgar, is little more than scenery.

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1978/PHOTO CREDIT: Gered Mankowitz

With this choice, Bush gives voice to a female character who—though an electric presence in the novel—is denied the agency of self-narrating, or even of being narrated through a close third person. Nelly may be presented to us by Lockwood as a simple, transparently objective narrator, but the novel is littered with moments where Nelly complicates the lives of those around her by revealing or concealing what she knows. Bush’s musical interpretation of the novel makes visible the questions that surround point of view: who does the telling? What is their agenda? Who can we really trust?

By opening up these questions, the song situates itself in the tradition of other so-called “parallel texts” that respond to or reinvent earlier, often canonical works of literature: think Jean Rhys’s Wide Sargasso Sea and Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre, or Kamel Daoud’s The Meursault Investigation and Albert Camus’s The Stranger. In each pairing of “parallel” and “source” text, the later work privileges characters narrated about, but never before narrated from within.

Like the novels by Rhys and Daoud, Bush’s song demonstrates how art can respond to art, and points to the ways in which crucial reevaluations of past works take place not only in scholarly articles but in one artist grappling with the erasures and silences of an earlier age. Rhys and Daoud both insist on a voice for a silenced, maligned, or dismissed colonial subject. Their aim is not to create a work that merely amends (or acts as a footnote to) the earlier text, but to produce a narrative that calls into question the primacy, and even the authority, of the earlier text”.

I often muse about Kate Bush’s career and how it would have changed and gone on a different course if a song other than Wuthering Heights was released as her debut single. James and the Cold Gun would have gone top twenty. Bush might have been able to get Wuthering Heights out as the second single. Would it have got to number one in 1979 or later in 1978?! Things would have been drastically altered. Some artists in the 1970s would not have had opportunity to decide which of their songs would be released as singles. Whilst clearly talented, a teenage Kate Bush might have been expected to trust EMI and go with their single choice. The fact Bush and her KT Bush Band performed James and the Cold Gun at pubs and venues around London shortly before she headed into the studio would have given them a sense that song was particularly important to her. That it would be a single she’d bond with. Not discounting James and the Cold Gun, Wuthering Heights was a rare and almost divine moment of synchronicity and inspiration too good to leave. That urgency needed to be realised. Perhaps the Top of the Pops debut dampened some of Bush’s enthusiasm for the song. She took it around the world. It was part of the encore for 1979’s The Tour of Life. It is also a track that is one of the most-streamed on Spotify. I think back to the stress Bush would have felt thinking Wuthering Heights would not win the fight for her debut single. When it did and it went to number one, few could ever doubt Kate Bush again! The determined and brilliant Kate (whose birth name is Catherine; the same as Wuthering Heights’ Catherine Earnshaw) stood firm. Not letting anyone deny the power of Wuthering Heights, she declared “It’s me…

I’M Cathy”.

FEATURE: A Long Time Coming… New Drink Spiking Laws and the Safety of Women at Live Music Events

FEATURE:

 

 

A Long Time Coming…

PHOTO CREDIT: MART PRODUCTION/Pexels

New Drink Spiking Laws and the Safety of Women at Live Music Events

_________

IT seems unbelievable…

PHOTO CREDIT: cottonbro studio/Pexels

that it has taken to now for laws on drink spiking to change. To make it a criminal offence. It will have a big impact on society as a whole, though there is also that sense of greater safety in music. Crimes connected with drink spiking – such as rape and sexual assault – are obviously illegal, though there has been this leniency and ignorance regarding the laws around drink spiking. The damage it can do physically and psychological. How someone can have their drink spiked and get into great danger. It is shocking that we live in a world where something like drink spiking was seen as relatively minor until now. I want to talk about it in terms of the music industry and women’s safety. Obviously men do get their drinks spiked and are impacted. It is mostly women who are affected. Drink spiking is not only a huge problem and danger at nightclubs where D.J.s might play. It is also something that one will see at music festivals and gigs. I am going to come onto that. Here, from Sky News are the plans to modernise laws around drink spiking:

“Plans to modernise spiking laws will be set out in the coming days.

Ministers have come under pressure to make needle and drink spiking a specific offence, with campaigners and opposition parties calling for tougher action.

The Home Office has said it will amend the Criminal Justice Bill and update the Offences Against The Person Act 1861 to make clear that spiking is illegal.

Spiking is when someone puts drugs into another person's drink or directly into their body without their knowledge or consent.

Officials said there would also be separate statutory guidance that will provide a "clear" and "unequivocal" definition of spiking.

This is expected to take the form of an update to the guidance issued under Section 182 of the Licensing Act 2003.

She told Sky News it was important to train door staff to spot the difference between someone who is drunk and a person who may have been spiked.

Ms Read-Pitt said: "Apparently, they [security] carried me outside the club and said 'we need some help, they're in a bad way', and she [staff member] said 'leave them in the gutter, that would teach them a lesson'."

The boss of a company providing spiking test kits to some bars in Shrewsbury, Vince Dovey, said the "vast majority" had come back negative, "but people do feel safer" knowing they are available.

He said the trial scheme had only been going a few weeks and it was too soon to spot any trends on spiking cases.

Home Secretary James Cleverly said: "The public should be under no illusion - spiking is a serious offence and I urge anyone who suspects they have been a victim of this to contact the police now."

The Home Office said the changes would form part of a wider package of measures to protect women and tackle spiking.

Mr Cleverly added: "This government has already gone further than ever before to protect the public from harm, and ensuring that women and girls can live their lives free from fear is one of my top priorities as home secretary."

Spiking is currently covered by several different areas of legislation but there is no single dedicated offence under which to prosecute perpetrators.

Nearly 5,000 cases of needle and drink spiking incidents were reported to police in England and Wales in the 12 months to September 2022, according to National Police Chiefs' Council figures.

Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper said action was "long overdue".

PHOTO CREDIT: reni/Pexels

It is bad enough that it has taken until 2023 for laws around drink spiking to be reviewed and updated. A man responsible for the safety of women, Home Secretary James Cleverly – with one of the most ironic surnames ever! – felt fit to make a joke about spiking his own wife. It rightly was met with outrage and disgust. It shows that there is not only misogyny in the music industry and wider society. Many of our MPs are also clearly unconcerned when it comes to women’s safety and rights. The BBC explained more:

“Home Secretary James Cleverly has apologised for making an "ironic joke" about spiking his wife's drink at a Downing Street reception.

He reportedly said the ideal spouse was "someone who is always mildly sedated so she can never realise there are better men out there".

According to the Sunday Mirror, he also mentioned Rohypnol - a so-called "date rape" drug.

Senior Labour party figures have described the comments as "appalling".

Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper said spiking - putting alcohol or drugs in someone's drink or body without their consent - was a "disturbing and serious crime which is having a devastating impact on young women's lives".

"It is truly unbelievable that the home secretary made such appalling jokes on the very same day the government announced a new policy on spiking," she added.

And charity Women's Aid said political leaders were relied upon to "take action to end violence against women and girls, and the misogyny that underpins it".

"It is vital that spiking survivors see ministers treating the subject seriously and not downplaying the reality so many women face," it said on X.

Another women's rights organisation, the Fawcett Society, called on Mr Cleverly to resign, asking: "How can we trust him to seriously address violence against women and girls?"

In a statement, it said: "It's sickening that the senior minister in charge of keeping women safe thinks that something as terrifying as drugging women is a laughing matter”.

PHOTO CREDIT: Nadin Sh/Pexels

In terms of the music industry, it can be really difficult policing and monitoring drink spiking. At festivals especially, there are thousands of people around that means it is nearly impossible to check everyone. It is important that, despite changes in laws, as much money as possible is provided to venues and festivals that means staff can be trained to detect the signs of drink spiking. There are signs that they can look out for and act accordingly. This article lists a couple of methods to help when it comes to drink spiking and reducing the risk:

“How can we help ourselves?

Detection Kits: Drink Detective kits have now become wildly available so that if your attendees feel at risk and believe they have had their drinks spiked, they are able to test their drink at the time. The Undercover Colours is real time test, which works within 30 seconds so that guests are able test for Xanax, Valium and Flunitrazepam which are the most common drugs used to spike drinks.  These tests however do come at a cost. It is the events managers decision to decide, how to integrate the cost into the music festival. One way of doing is selling them along side the drinks cost, or alternative a convert method is to include the kits in with the ticket price, so that they can be given out freely at the event. For more information on Detective Kits: Click Here.

KnoNap: The KnoNap is a more discreet testing method which is being developed. The napkin will change colour if drugs are found present in a drink. This is a subtle way for attendees to check their drinks if they are being watched by the perpetrator. By supplying the KnoNap as an alternative to the cocktail napkin you are automatically making your attendees feel safer at your festival. Use this link to find out more.”.

PHOTO CREDIT: Getty Images/iStockphoto

There are things venues and festivals do but can increase. Searches of those entering to ensure there is nothing on their person that can be used to spike a drink. People can boycott venues that are not doing enough, though that can seriously damage the live music sector. I think greater resources and training is a best first step. At a wider and deeper level, the dangers and real seriousness of drink spiking needs to be taught across schools and colleges. Campaigns run that mean those attending live music know the statistics and how to detect if someone has had their drink spiked. I will end by discussing why there is still a big issue with drink spiking in music. There are statistics that highlight a very bleak situation. For those who want to know more about drink spiking and its symptoms, here is some important information:

“What are date rape drugs?

The most common date rape drug used according to the NHS is alcohol , however Rohypnol (Roofie) and Gamma Hydroxybutyrate (GHB) are also common, acting as an extremely strong sedative. Other recreational drugs such as Ecstasy, LSD, and Ketamine are sometimes used to spike drinks. With the risk of effects such as nausea to heart failure.

How can I/ we spot the symptoms of spiking?

Loss of balance

Visual impairment

Confusion

Nausea

Vomiting

Unconsciousness’

What are we told to do in the situation of spiking?

Tell a bar manager, bouncer or member of staff

Stay with them and keep talking to them

Call an ambulance if their condition deteriorates

Don’t let them go home alone

Don’t let them leave the venue with someone you don’t know or trust

If possible, prevent them from drinking more alcohol, as this could lead to serious problems”.”.

Do we really need to get tougher when it comes to enforcing laws around drink spiking?! In short, yes. Not only are reported cases very high. The number of reported incidents that lead to prosecution are dropping. Maybe it is becoming harder to find evidence to prosecute. The reality is that women being drugged and assaulted is seen as less important than other crimes. Maybe a lack of resources and training needs to happen until we see figures change, yet I feel there is this existing misogyny that means drink spiking is seen as minor. Many thinking it is a woman’s fault if she does not watch her drink and is not ‘careful’. In October, The Guardian reported on a worrying trend when it comes to drink spiking and how many lead to criminal charges:

“Drug-spiking incidents reported to the police have increased five-fold in five years, yet the proportion leading to a criminal charge is falling, freedom of information (FoI) requests show.

Almost 20,000 reports of spiking were received in the past five years by 39 police forces that responded to FoI requests sent out by Channel 4 for a documentary.

Yet the proportion of the reports that were investigated and resulted in a criminal charge dropped from 1 in 25 in 2018 to 1 in 400 in 2022. Channel 4 found just 54 cases where a suspect had been arrested and referred to the Crown Prosecution Service.

The documentary, part of the Untold series, is calling for a change in the law to make spiking a criminal offence, rather than having to use other pieces of legislation, such as the Sexual Offences Act or Offences Against The Person Act.

Barrister Charlotte Proudman, who is interviewed in the show, said: “At the moment the law is not a deterrent because there’s no specific criminal offence for spiking, so it’s not recognised as a crime in and of itself in its own right.

“In terms of sending out a key strong message that spiking is a crime that will not be tolerated, and to use the law as a deterrent, there is nothing in the statute box that makes that crystal clear.”

She said this would be analogous to other specific crimes enshrined in law, for example, female genital mutilation or forced marriage. 

She told the Guardian: “It’s not common but it’s becoming more common. Part of that is the recognition that the laws we live under, some have been made centuries ago. The Offences Against The Person Act used in some spiking cases goes back to the 1800s and it’s Victorian legislation. It’s about making sure the law is up to date with the modern times we live in”.

Obviously, as there are so many venues and festivals that serve alcohol, drink spiking is a huge risk. Given the noise and chaos that happens at live music events, it can be easier for those who want to drug women to do so. At its most minor, drink spiking can lead to minor physical harm to a woman. At worst, it can lead to rape and lifelong psychological devastation. It is an extremely serious issue that hopefully will be addressed and focused on more now that new laws are being proposed. It takes me back to that remark (‘joke’) by James Cleverly. Someone almost poking fun at women having their drinks spiked. It is sickening that these attitudes exist in our highest office! They are also mirrored elsewhere. I don’t think drink spiking is considered to be a serious problem. So many women who attend live music have either witnessed someone having their drink spiked or been a victim of it. Realising the severity of drink spiking needs to be a big priority now. Ensuring that there is not better education and awareness; there need to be more prosecutions and convictions. Drink spiking most definitely is…

NO laughing matter!

FEATURE: Saluting the Queens: Loreen

FEATURE:

 

 

Saluting the Queens

PHOTO CREDIT: Azazel for Rolling Stone UK

Loreen

_________

IN a future part of this run…

PHOTO CREDIT: Azazel for Rolling Stone UK

I am going to include a great British D.J. I am celebrating and highlighting terrific women D.J. - so it will be timely including her. That will come in a week or so. Today, I want to include an inspiring artist that some might not know about. This feature is about the Swedish artist Loreen. Lorine Zineb Nora Talhaoui has represented her nation twice at the Eurovision Song Contest. She won it in 2012 and this year. For this year’s contest she performed the song, Tattoo. She is the second performer (after Johnny Logan), and the first and only woman, to have won the competition twice. Even though I am not a big Eurovision fan, I understand the importance and significance of her double win. Also, as an artist who has come out as bisexual, she is an icon and hugely important figure in the L.G.B.T.Q.I.A.+ community. A queen of the industry who has this distinct legacy already. I am going to come to some interviews with her from earlier this year. You can follow Loreen on Instagram. There will be those who want to see a third studio album from Loreen. Her second album, Ride, came out in 2017. An artist who is giving voice and strength to so many people, I felt compelled to include her for my Saluting the Queens feature. The Moroccan-Swedish icon is harnessing the power and importance of her Arab heritage. Representign Arabic women in music and around the world, Loreen is this extraordinary cultural figure! I am going to start with an interview from The Guardian. She spoke about human rights, finding purpose, and her life in Sweden:

“On that: she was born Lorine Zineb Nora Talhaoui in Stockholm and both her parents were first-generation immigrants from Morocco. Her mother arrived in Sweden at 14 with nothing, fleeing an arranged marriage. She met a man and had Loreen, the eldest of six, when she was 16. Loreen hares off briefly to tell me about her great-grandmother: “Her husband got killed in the war, she was beautiful, she was also very young. The family wanted her to remarry. She didn’t want this. So she dressed up as a man, took her two children and fled to Algeria.” At this point Loreen is using her hair to mimic a litham, the face covering of the nomadic men of north Africa. “She raised her children, still dressed up as a man. I have a picture of her with a gold tooth. The women in my family fought really hard to get me to where I’m at.

PHOTO CREDIT: Corinne Cumming 2023/Charli Ljung

Back to Stockholm, 1989: her mother now has six children and is still only 22, and Loreen’s parents split up. “I had to grow up pretty fast,” she says, “because we had to help each other out. We didn’t have any family in Sweden. There are so many things I didn’t understand because I was raised by a child myself. Still, today, I won’t know: is Christmas the 24th or the 23rd?” It was a hard scrabble and the family was very poor. There were upsides, though: “The beautiful thing when you’re raised by a young person is that it’s hard to be judgmental because nobody’s taught you how, you know? ‘That’s wrong’ or ‘that’s right’.”

When Loreen was 13, her mother married again: “He came in with this very weird energy. You’re raised by a single mother, this is a very powerful, determined woman. And then this big, soft, Swedish Santa Claus arrives. My mother was all about surviving. My stepfather was more like, ‘Maybe we should just calm down a little bit. Relax, enjoy the small moments, this connection, here. Everything doesn’t have to be a struggle.’ I think he taught us how to show love.” That was really not the direction I was expecting, from “very weird energy”.

IN THIS PHOTO: The moment that Loreen won the Eurovision Song Contest in Liverpool earlier this year/PHOTO CREDIT: Dominic Lipinski/Getty Images

One sibling is an artist, another a surgeon, another works in marketing, another has his own business. She makes a pretty indisputable points about migrants and refugees, grounded in first-hand experience. “You want to have a purpose as a person, you want to feel like you matter. You don’t want to sit around and not do anything. When we have our immigrants coming in to Sweden, we just make them sit there and wait. Let them have a purpose. Let them be a part of this society. This is really important. Otherwise there’s segregation. How do you build up a confidence, where people think, ‘I earned this. I did this’?”

Singing, in the bathroom and in church, was the only way Loreen found any moments to herself as a child. In the melee of five siblings, “it was a sanctuary, something I had for myself.” So when she took her voice to Swedish Idol in 2004, “it was so painful”, she remembers. “Somewhere I knew it was necessary, I guess – I didn’t even know how a microphone worked … I didn’t know what it was like to be judged, singing was so private. But that shock, what came out of it, I realised I needed to understand all of this. As a woman, you have to know your stuff. Otherwise people will come along and say, ‘Darling, we’ll fix this for you, you don’t have to worry.’ I want to be in control.” She’s still very much the self-taught maverick and doesn’t understand why people do vocal arpeggios before they go on stage. “If you were going boxing, you wouldn’t exercise for a couple of hours before,” she says. “Your body would say, ‘Come on, give me a break.’”

In 2005, she released her first single, The Snake, and presented a show on Swedish TV. “I wasn’t that good, I honestly sucked at it.” She then spent a number of years as a segment producer and director for reality TV shows before entering Melodifestivalen in 2011, a song contest almost as old as Eurovision, which determines Sweden’s entry. It does this quite effectively – they have now won seven times, to make them, jointly with Ireland, the contest’s most successful country. “I was shitless scared. But I did it, because I knew it was necessary. If you look at my performance [in Melodifestivalen], I was hiding. This is the subconscious mind: the big dress, the body language, people were like, ‘That’s very artistic’, which it was, but I was hiding. The moment I feel fear, I have to go in. Because I don’t want fear to control my life.”

To return to the politics of Eurovision, one thing it’s been incredibly good at is establishing international norms around LGBTQ+ visibility: from Paul Oscar, the first openly gay contestant in 1997, to Dana International, the first trans performer, who won in 1998, to Krista Siegfrids kissing her female backing singer on stage in 2013, there has long been a very clear message that nobody was going to hide to spare the feelings of bigots. Turkey, according to its broadcaster, no longer enters Eurovision because of its gay and transgender contestants. And while the Hungarian broadcaster hasn’t said as much openly, Hungary has been absent since 2020, which is coincidentally when Viktor Orbán intensified his open persecution of the LGBTQ+ community, instituting a ban on LGBTQ+ content in schools or kids’ TV the following year. Loreen came out as bisexual in 2017, although “the reason why people know about that”, she says, “is because a newspaper asked me a question, and I answered, ‘Love is where you find it.’ The journalist said, ‘So, you’re bisexual?’ And I said, ‘I guess I am, because love is where you find it. Love is love. It has not much to do with this [gestures towards to her pudenda] so much as this [clasps heart].’ She thinks she might subconsciously have been drawn to Eurovision because of the “acceptance, because I love the values of Eurovision. I love the fact that it doesn’t matter what background you have – as long as you come with love and respect, you’re allowed to be there”.

Let’s move onto a recent interview from Rolling Stone UK. They highlighted and saluted a wonderful and inspiring artist who comes from a family of warriors. Strong and powerful women who no doubt helped to shape and move her. It is a fascinating interview to read. Loreen is definitely an incredible strong artist and voice who is speaking to fans and giving them strength too:

“There is such a strong sense of purpose that ripples through everything Loreen does. When she competed in Azerbaijan back in 2012, a country marred by its questionable human rights record, she was the only entrant to meet local human rights activists. She told reporters: “Human rights are violated in Azerbaijan every day. One should not be silent about such things.” An Azerbaijan government spokesman responded critically, calling for the contest to not “be politicised”, and demanded the EBU (European Broadcasting Union) prevent such meetings. But Swedish diplomats stayed firmly on her side. They replied that the EBU, the Swedish broadcaster SVT and Loreen had not acted against the competition’s rules.

PHOTO CREDIT: Azazel for Rolling Stone UK

“What I experienced in Liverpool, I didn’t experience in Azerbaijan,” she explains. “The vibe was completely different. Azerbaijan was tense. The dictator [Ilham Aliyev, who’s been in power since 2003] was so annoyed by me [laughs].” She’s absolutely loving looking back and remembering how she upset the higher powers of the 2012 host country. Her whole delegation was put on an effective house arrest. “My security said, ‘We think you should stay in the hotel’, because [Aliyev] was very annoyed by me doing all these things. Me and my producer, we celebrated. All of us in the delegation just said, ‘Is he annoyed? Cheers!’” as she mimics clinking glasses. 

Loreen is publicly bisexual, coming out in a TV interview in 2017. Eurovision and the LGBTQ+ community have strong ties, too. Previous LGBTQ+ contestants and winners such as trans star Dana International, drag queen Conchita Wurst and Duncan Laurence have all found success in the competition. She loves her queer fans dearly, too. The ‘Euphoria’ singer told TV host Renée Nyberg at the time: “Many people are so focused on sex, on sexuality. Love is so much more. I usually say ‘Love is where you find it’”. When asked to clarify whether this meant she identifies as bisexual, Loreen said she “quite simply” was.

PHOTO CREDIT: Azazel for Rolling Stone UK

Unsurprisingly, she has LGBTQ+ fans messaging her all the time. “I absolutely love that. Queer or not queer, I don’t see that, I just see us as people with certain attributes. That’s why I say these are my people. We have the same mindset. The thing is, if somebody asked me, ‘What is freedom, what is feeling free?’, that is just doing exactly what you feel like, expressing yourself exactly the way you want to express yourself. Clothe yourself the way you want to clothe yourself, talk the way you want to talk. Don’t care about what other people think. This is true freedom.”

She goes on passionately: “This community, we know what freedom is about and what that feels like. If you compare it to another community where there are rules and regulations… where someone says, you need to talk like this and be like this, that’s a f**king jail! I cannot do that. For me, when somebody says, ‘You are weird’ to me, that’s [them saying] that I’m free.”

There’s the underlying influence of strong women in abundance in her family, too. This sense of fight from within feels destined to have left a dramatic mark on Loreen’s trajectory before she was even born. Her parents are both Moroccan and moved to Sweden in their teens. While Loreen was born in Sweden, her Moroccan heritage is extremely important to her. It’s taken a while to appreciate her rich cultural history in its fullness, but it opens up the chance for the most incredible part of our interview.

“The women from my mother’s mother’s side, these are real warriors. Historically, the women from my tribe, they’re called Berber.” She explains that this word comes from ‘Barbarian’, and adds: “They were called Barbarians by the Egyptians because they were so aggressive. The women were so aggressive. Isn’t that interesting?” She smiles: “The women from my tribe, they weren’t so interested in monogamy, but being in a relationship. Historically, they went out to the village in search of a man. ‘You’re coming with me,’ right? They did whatever they wanted to do. Then they said, ‘Ta ta,’ and they raised their children by themselves. This whole concept of husband and wife was never a concept. They used these women in war, because they were like, ‘Ahhhhhh!’”

It’s not just the women in her family who provide inspiration, but “all women within the industry that stand their ground”, she tells me. “You can tell when women are standing their ground and not buying into that whole concept of what a woman’s supposed to be. I’m not saying that women aren’t supposed to be sexy. Grace Jones, for instance, she owns her sexuality. She can run around naked. She’s still doing it! There are so many, not even just in the industry. All women [inspire me] because they’re taking positions for the next generation, they’re balancing things up. It’s necessary and it’s inevitable. It’s going to happen. The shift is going to happen, and men will take a step back. The thing is, they’re longing for it, because they’re messing things up…”.

 PHOTO CREDIT: Charli Ljung

I am going to end with an interview from Gay Times. The interview was published before Loreen won the Eurovision Song Contest for Sweden. She also discussed how the L.G.B.T.Q.I.A.+ community welcomed her after coming out as bisexual. Her story will no doubt resonate with fans of all genres. Not only an incredible artist who created Eurovision history, Loreen is a strong and influential woman who has a huge fanbase. Someone who, hopefully, will release some new music very soon (Is It Love came out recently, suggesting a new album might arrive). Who knows. Maybe a third Eurovision win in the future! Someone who is determined to make a mark and inspire fans around the world:

“Was Tattoo written for Eurovision or did it become that later?

It was a normal song because they hadn’t popped the question yet. Although I sensed that I was going to do something with this song. Not only me, but all of us in a way, but I didn’t know how. Then, [Eurovision producers] said, ‘Would you be interested to be in the competition?’ I’m like, ‘No! No, no, no.’ That was what happened, that was the instant reaction. You think you know what your path is going to be, but you don’t. You ask yourself, ‘Universe, what is going on? There is this match. Am I supposed to present it here?’ There’s a lot of questions going on. But, my navigation was that, whenever I said ‘No, we should do something else with this song’, the energy went low around me. Even in me. Whenever I said ‘maybe there’s a chance’ you could feel this high energy within and outside of yourself. That’s how I navigate it, ‘Maybe this is my path. Could it be that I’m going to do this again? Is it possible?’ Now look, I’m sitting here with you.

PHOTO CREDIT: Charli Ljung

I have to touch upon Euphoria because, like many other queer people, it is one of my favourite Eurovision entries ever. Why do you think LGBTQ+ people connect to it so much?

Wow. That is a good question. I think it’s because, like myself, we’re not afraid to feel because it’s a very cinematic, dramatic song. It does the work. It’s about existing. When you sing out loud like that, it’s like standing on top of a mountain. It’s also a feeling of freedom. It has a purpose. It does things to people, whether you will admit it or not. But in this community, we know this and we want this. We want to feel and we know it has a healing process because we let go of things. Sometimes, we limit ourselves. We do that and we don’t want that. We want the full spectrum. That is maybe one of the reasons why because it represents something within ourselves. I think all of us have it, but in this community we’re not afraid to feel it. This is my community. It is not a community. This is my space. This was the community that accepted me for who I am. I have been a seeker trying to find my home. ‘Where is my space?’ I came into this community and they were like, ‘Do you know what? We’re digging you. We like you just the way you are. We appreciate you. We know what you’re going through.’ Can you imagine? This is my home. It is ours”.

I am going to end there. A modern music queen whose past and heritage is unique and fascinating, her legacy and importance extends beyond Eurovision and the record she has set. Loreen is definitely empowering. You only need to read interviews and hear her speak to detect that passion and meaning. There are so many reasons why Loreen…

DESERVES a salute.

FEATURE: New Verse, Chorus, and Coda: Greater Visibility and Respect for the Trans Community – and How the Music Industry Can Help

FEATURE:

 

 

New Verse, Chorus, and Coda

IN THIS PHOTO: Munroe Bergdorf is an English transgender model and activist. She appeared in the video for ANOHNI’s track, It Must Change/PHOTO CREDIT: Jordan Rossi for Rolling Stone UK

Greater Visibility and Respect for the Trans Community – and How the Music Industry Can Help

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THIS year…

PHOTO CREDIT: Lisett Kruusimäe/Pexels

has been one of the most extreme and horrifying one for division and ignorance. In terms of specific groups of people being attacked and abused. Take aside the genocide happening in Gaza, think about how there has been an escalation of extremism and racism. It is notable that there is still so much ignorance and hatred still aimed at trans people. The L.G.B.T.Q.I.A.+ community have always had to face discrimination and abuse. This year, it is still very much alive. On social media, I am seeing so much ignorance aimed at the trans community. One would think that the appalling murder of Brianna Ghey would prompt greater awareness and respect for trans people. Regardless of such a horrific and senseless act, you still see so much bile and harassment against trans people. I follow people like Katy Montgomerie, who is a trans-identifying woman – and the fact she has to field wave of abuse and ignorance from people. A community still very much vilified and seen as inferior and immoral. It is angering to see. Next year needs to be one where trans people do not have to face abuse and attack from so many people. High-profile transphobes like J.K. Rowling, Sharon Davies and Graham Linehan spend so much of their day attacking trans people. How trans women are men. How trans people are the sex they were assigned at birth. It is incredibly stupid and ignorant. But, when you consider how many trans people will read these posts, they will feel alienated and alone. There are quite a few celebrated and loved trans artists in music. That said, I feel there are many more coming through who might feel fearful about revealing the fact. Identifying as trans in an industry where there is not a great deal of representation (compared to other members of the L.G.B.T.Q.I.A.+ community, there are not a huge number of trans artists) is quite challenging.

IN THIS PHOTO: ANOHNI/PHOTO CREDIT: ANOHNI with Nomi Ruiz/Rebis Music

I will come to how the music industry can be more embracing and open regarding trans artists and why more artists need to speak out against transphobia and a community who are literally being murdered for being themselves. I want to start with an interview from Rolling Stone. Recently, for International Transgender Day of Visibility (which happened on 31st March), they interviewed Munroe Bergdorf. She is an English model and activist. She has walked several catwalks for brands including Gypsy Sport at both London and NYC Fashion Weeks. Bergdorf was the first transgender model in the U.K. for L'Oréal but was dropped within weeks after a racial row. In February 2018, she was appointed as an LGBT adviser to the Labour Party, but resigned the following month. Bergdorf appeared in the Channel 4 documentary What Makes a Woman, which aired in May 2018.

PHOTO CREDIT: Jordan Rossi for Rolling Stone UK

An activist and important voice for trans rights, Munroe Bergdorf answered questions from some well-known names about her work. How, given the debasement of trans people by sections of the media and society, changes can be made. How greater awareness can be raised:

“Now more than ever, trans people are under attack, whether with their identity being ‘debated’ in the media or by extreme right-wing groups actively working hard to remove their right to live their life authentically and peacefully.

The UK Census 2021 revealed that only around 48,000 people (0.01% of the population) identified as trans men with the same number identifying as a trans women. The trans community is a small minority, and yet it is one that is grossly and disproportionately targeted by people with openly prejudiced views. And the generational divide is evident: 91% of baby boomers identify as straight, compared to only 71% of Gen Z. One thing is certain: the future is undoubtedly progressive and inclusive when it comes to sexual and gender diversity.

One of the UK’s most outspoken champions of trans rights, Munroe Bergdorf’s unapologetic and outspoken attitude to justice has seen her attract her fair share of enemies. Reassuringly, for every negative voice on social media or in the press, there is a growing number of allies prepared to stand beside a community that is under extreme threat, both from within society and through government policy. Here, Munroe takes questions from some of the biggest names in film, TV, politics, publishing, music, radio and beyond to commemorate International Transgender Day of Visibility, tackling issues as diverse as how to be a trans ally to the joys of embracing your authentic identity.

PHOTO CREDIT: Jordan Rossi for Rolling Stone UK

NICOLA COUGHLAN: We’ve basically seen in media over the last couple of years, the erasure of trans people and this sort of idea that trans people have been around for only like 10, 15 years. And its sort of a ‘new thing’, when we know that’s not the truth. What I’d like to know is, do you have a trans figure from history who is someone that has been really inspiring to you, or that you feel like the world needs to know about?

There are so many incredible trans people that have contributed towards society and history. And so much of it has been buried. From religion to law making to just bigotry in the same way that what we’re seeing now, it’s really been a tough road for our community. And I think that often our contributions are downplayed or erased or overlooked. But the amazing thing about being in this industry, especially the fashion industry, is that I’m really living out the dreams of my ancestors. And that’s such an incredible honor that I don’t take lightly. And hopefully I’m also pushing the envelope further so that what I don’t achieve, those that come after me will be able to achieve it because I pushed it that further as well. So, I like to think of it as baton passing.

There are so many other transwomen that have come before me in the fashion industry, such as April Ashley, Caroline Crossley, Tracey Africa, Octavia St. Laurent. All of these women really inspired me. Especially at the beginning of my transition, because they had such big dreams, and it encouraged me to dream big as well and to go for what I wanted to achieve. And I wouldn’t have gone for it if I hadn’t have seen them. If I hadn’t seen Octavia in Paris Is Burning, if I hadn’t learned about April Ashley’s life and everything that she was put through. Same with Caroline Crossley.

We all owe them so much. All of these incredible women are such unsung heroes. They just haven’t had the recognition that they deserve. They really walked so we can run. We wouldn’t be seeing all of these conversations happen if it hadn’t have been for their stories and their resilience.

PHOTO CREDIT: Jordan Rossi for Rolling Stone UK

NICOLA COUGHLAN: We get to hear so much about the struggles of trans people and the amount of adversity you face unduly in society. But I would love to hear about your joy, something about the trans experience that you think is superhuman and brilliant and that people don’t get to see.

The joy of being trans is that you have access to a community that is so strong. And not just strong because of what we need to deal with in society, but strong enough to do the exploration of self in order to be happy. And I just think it’s an incredible feat to ask yourself questions about what do you really want? Who are you really? Rather than what do I need to do to fit in? How can I make people see me, rather than how can I see myself? And anyone that makes the decision to transition… Because being trans isn’t a decision, but the decision to transition… Anyone that is strong enough to make that decision and to explore that act of love for themselves, I’ve got so much respect for. That is the most incredible thing, regardless of whether or not it’s about being trans or making a difficult decision for yourself and exploring something that is a tough truth.

That’s why I wrote my book, Transitional, because I wanted people to understand that all of these tough decisions that we make for ourselves, that they are transitions in themselves because it’s taking the non-easy option. It’s asking yourself the tough questions. It’s confronting and healing from what you’ve been through in order to get to the place that you want to go.

PHOTO CREDIT: Jordan Rossi for Rolling Stone UK

EDWARD ENNINFUL: What advice would you have for people who want to turn the tide on this attitude?

That really starts with educating yourself on what is actually going on. And it isn’t about concern for women-only spaces, and the violence that is happening to women and girls worldwide, because it isn’t coming from the trans community. It’s coming from cisgender men, mainly. So, there’s deflection happening.

We also need to be aware that transphobia within the conservative space is very en-vogue, in terms of trying to prove who is more hardline. A lot of the policies are discriminatory. They aren’t really about making life better. It’s about how can we stop this? How can we change this? How can we push back on change rather than how can we fix society? A lot of it’s about voting and the impending elections on both sides of the Atlantic.

There’s literally a list that is longer than my body of reasons why we are seeing what is happening. And I think that it’s really about understanding the nuances and just continuously staying abreast of what’s going on, because it’s until the elections are over, it’s going to be a snowball. Unfortunately, I don’t think that it is got as bad as it’s going to get. And that in itself is a call to arms because we are going to need support. We’re going to need allies. We’re going to need people speaking up on our own behalf. We’re a very small percentage of the population and we can’t do it alone. 

TOM RASMUSSEN: Beyond visibility, what gives you hope?

We have seen this all play out before, in terms of how gay men were treated in the 1980s and where gay men are right now. I think that we’ve got a lot to look forward to. And we’re going to look back at this time in history, and a lot of people are going to really struggle to answer why they thought it was okay for a cross-section of society to have their human rights stripped away, to be banned from public spaces. Just in the same way that they look back and understand the segregation was wrong, that Jim Crow was wrong. They’re arguing for the same things.

This needs to be a turning point. This can’t just be something that’s erased from the history books. This is a pivotal moment in history. It’s going to be a fight, especially with the election coming up. But I just think that our community has never been more visible. We have never been able to communicate like we do now. We have more resources than before. And although this moment in time is tough, I don’t think it’s going to be this way forever. We’ve got a fight on our hands, but I really think that we’re going to win”.

There are some terrific and influential trans artists such as Kim Petras and Ethel Cain. Of course, in interviews and through their music, they can discuss trans rights and use their platform. I wonder how much acceptance and flexibility there is from the industry as a whole. It is only in recent years where there has been greater visibility and exposure of L.G.B.T.Q.I.A.+ artists. More artists coming out as queer. There are a lot of Pop queens and kings who identify as queer or bisexual. In terms of there being a similar explosion and celebration of non-binary and trans artists, is there still too much ignorance and not enough awareness for this to happen? I feel that, whilst there are some awesome trans artists, there is perhaps not the same level of engagement and spotlight from the media. This interview from Rolling Stone with Munroe Bergdorf should inspire spotlighting of trans artists. In a year that has seen unabated hatred and attack of the trans community, I do think it is essential that trans artists coming through are supported and feel like they are heard, seen and understood. Maybe, given what is happening in the media and online, this might not be instantly possible or smooth. There are some trans role models in music but, the more the industry celebrates trans artists and there is more celebration and highlighting on the L.G.B.T.Q.I.A.+ community as a whole, the more that will affect and resonate with trans people around the world.

Trans people who want to see idols and people like them in the mainstream. I wrote a feature a while ago where I stated how there are virtually no artists today influenced by and channelling Steely Dan. I came up with a theoretical album with titles and song ideas in the mould of The Dan. Mixing deep and important subjects with the sort of incredible compositions Steely Dan are known for…where is that in modern music?! My wider point is that few artists are really challenging political and social issues that need addressing. More are reacting to climate change and its impact, but what about the terrorism and genocide in Gaza?! Queer and bisexual artists celebrating their love and freedom. There are not many non-trans artists discussing the rights of trans people and their importance. There are magnificent and powerful queer artists writing amazing anthems. In 2021, this article was published by an American journalist that observed trans awareness was increasing through the country. That there was more celebration than ever. The writer observed the lack of trans anthems and asked whether it matters. He noted how few societal anthems change the world. How, if we are seeing trans people visibility and highlighted, why write songs about them?! Joseph P. O’Brien is a trans person, so he was coming from a position of understanding and personal relevance. He said that, whilst there were very few trans anthems, the most important thing was that trans people and their rights are talked about.

Tying things back to Munroe Bergdorf, who appeared in the video for It Must Change, ANOHNI talked to The Guardian about her experiences as a trans woman. How, in her words, Britain is among the most misogynistic nations on Earth. We have these amazing artists speaking about realities that need to change. The music industry at large needs to join trans artists and attempt to affect change and progress:

“A lot of people don’t feel much safer in Britain,” she says, shortly. “This anti-trans nightmare is being birthed in the UK. The UK is one of the birthplaces of loathing gender variance. It’s one of the most misogynist, woman-hating countries in the world. It was since I was a child, because I remember how it affected my mum, how it affected my sister, how it’s affected my family, how it affected me.”

Anohni launched Hopelessness with the single 4 Degrees, an angry indictment of climate inaction released to coincide with the 2015 UN climate conference in Paris. Yet she sought to avoid didacticism on My Back … and its measured engagement with hot-button topics comes off as a reaction to the “us v them” mudslinging of contemporary discourse. Anohni finds this kind of binary thinking of little use. “I was raised to believe in light v darkness, yin v yang, male v female,” she says. “It’s this hideous infantilised [idea]. It’s stripped of its own empirical reality.”

She hopes, instead, that the ecological themes of My Back … will offer a road map out of conflict. “We’re connected to life on Earth; all those creatures of the world are our family,” she says. “And we have to account to our family right now. An aspect of this record is to give people one version of a blueprint for how to talk to oneself through some of these painful truths that we’re all immersed in.” That’s the bigger project, she adds: “It’s a gift to know a little bit more about what life on life’s terms is really about, because that gets me a bit closer to nature. It gets me a bit closer to the tree that falls in the forest, the fox with a broken leg stumbling through a coalfield”.

There is TransForm Music in Wales. This is a space for transgender and non-binary artists in Wales. This 2019 article explored how there is great respect for and visibility of queer artists. Trans artists are still being left behind. Is the industry doing enough to create a platform and highlight their music?! I would disagree with the assumption that trans anthems are not necessary. Definitely in the U.K., with so much anti-trans sentiment and abuse out there, positive anthems and songs that highlights trans people’s experience is vital. Non-trans artists need to speak too. The music industry, mobilised and unified, could make a difference. I disagree with those who say music cannot change worlds and make a difference. Whilst it may never reverse ignorance around trans rights, there is the possibility to both raise trans artists in music, make it is a scene that has more visibility, together with there being the possibility of attitudes being reversed or at least challenged more. Trans people have to face such abuse and stupidity from others. I feel music has an important role. At its strongest when it is more diverse and inclusive. More songs should come from non-trans artists. In my hypothetical Steely Dan-inspired album I envisaged a song, Katy’s Switch, there was this dialogue between an online transphobe and a trans person. Wordplay and stinging criticism, it would be a way to highlight transphobia but do so in a musical setting that was digestible, accessible and inspiring. It should not be the case that, after a year when trans rights have been in the news and the community face so much prejudice, the industry can do more. We all hope that next year is one where…

THIS finally happens.

FEATURE: Our Queen’s Speech: In Reaction to Kate Bush’s Christmas Message

FEATURE:

 

 

Our Queen’s Speech

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush received the Editors Award at the Evening Standard Theatre Awards at the Palladium, London, on 30th November, 2014/PHOTO CREDIT: Alan Davidson/Rex/Shutterstock

In Reaction to Kate Bush’s Christmas Message

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AS is typical of Kate Bush…

IMAGE CREDIT: Kate Bush

her Christmas message was very much about other people. Rather than talk about the music or necessarily reflect on a successful year where she reissued albums and more people discovered her work, like our former Queen, our music Queen looked at the state of the world. A heartfelt and emotional reflection of what is happening in Gaza. The atrocities and savage genocide that is on the news every day. The planet burning and in real trouble. Like all of her messages, there is also hope and that warmth. Thanks to Kate Bush News for sharing her post, as I was asleep when it was put on Bush’s official website. I woke up to it this morning. Longer and more reactive than any of her previous messages, Bush very much showing her disgust at what we all are having to process right now:

“I hope you’re all looking forward to Christmas – just around the corner now. I wasn’t much looking forward to it, but in the last few days, I really am.

I was very excited to see the positive feedback about the reissues and the redesign of the website. It’s been a lot of work, but when you see such lovely comments, it all makes it worthwhile. It really does. Thank you so much.

What a year it’s been. I’d always hoped that the human race would become more spiritual, gentle creatures as we moved into the future but it has proved to be the absolute antithesis.
The world is at war while the planet burns…. What is going on?

I‘m among a group of friends who don’t watch the news any more. It now seems to be a global trend. Of course we want to stay informed but sometimes elements of the visual reporting feel horrifically voyeuristic.

I’ve tried to write this piece three times so far, looking for something positive to focus on, but that’s been hard to find.

I stand in awe of running water. Especially hot, running water. It is a miracle. You turn on the tap and hot, clean water gushes out of the tap. A miracle! Yes, but then I think about the people caught in the many wars that are raging right now and at the very heart of these are the children caught up in the wars. They don’t always have clean water and they really need a miracle. Christmas is a time for little children: a time of wonder and the promise of magic… looking towards a new year, to a future.

It makes me feel so lucky that we can celebrate Christmas in the way we do, but also so sad. The effect of war on all people is massive, but on children…

It’s so incredibly important that charities like War Child, UNICEF and the NSPCC are there to support and help children. Their incredible work might be more important than it’s ever been when the modern world seems to make few concessions for children at the hands of evil created by adults.

I hope you all have a really wonderful Christmas, with the promise of magic, and let’s all pray for a year ahead that brings us some opportunities to talk about happy things.

Best wishes,

Kate”.

There is a lot to take from that message. Bush has always been a big supporter of charities. Donating so much money and her time to various charities, it is no surprise that she would share the name of War Child, UNICEF and NSPCC – charities that can provide support and aid to children. The start and end of the message – the bookends – are positive and talk about her work. That opening, “I was very excited to see the positive feedback about the reissues and the redesign of the website. It’s been a lot of work, but when you see such lovely comments, it all makes it worthwhile. It really does. Thank you so much”, is a thanks to her fans and all the changes that have happened. I think her website being redesigned and relaunched has made her music more accessible. It looks tremendous! Thinking about the fans and the wonderful reception they have provided her. These reissues are quite a big deal too. You can check them out here. I was initially down on them and thought that they were a bit of a cash-in. Actually, considering they are helping to promote independent record stores and Bush is always thinking about her fans, it is less about cashing in and more about ensuring that new fans can access her previous albums, albeit with a new twist. Bush has designed the vinyl so that each album has its own colour scheme and look. Together with the website, we now have this incredible archive and resource!

 IN THIS PHOTO: Palestinians inspect a house after it was hit by an Israeli bombardment on Rafah/PHOTO CREDIT: Fatima Shbair/AP (via NPR)

Bush stated in her message how she does not watch the news anymore. It is always going to be heartbreaking. Seemingly no end in sight when it comes to the conflict and destruction in Gaza. This section struck me: “What a year it’s been. I’d always hoped that the human race would become more spiritual, gentle creatures as we moved into the future but it has proved to be the absolute antithesis. The world is at war while the planet burns…. What is going on?”. Bush has always been connected to the planet and the importance of peace and consideration. Someone in touch with the natural world and people, it must be especially devastating for her. As I will write later, this sense of dismay at the human race, I feel, will impact what we see from Kate Bush in 2024. Bush tried to write her message a few times and found few positives to state. The past few years have seemingly been a wave of bad news and division. From COVID-19 of 2020 and 2021, through to the Russia-Ukraine conflict last year, 2023 seems like the worse! Of course, last year was when Bush’s Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) topped the chart and she had this new wave of success. Bush’s Christmas message was very much centred at children. Those in Gaza who are being murdered. Those who are being wiped up in the name of insanity. Genocide and unfiltered violence. With few artists making big statements and using their platforms to talk about it, huge credit to Kate Bush for doing so! Whilst she does not necessarily condemn Israel and point fingers, her heart is very much with those affected. Though you know how angry Bush is with those responsible for the killing!

PHOTO CREDIT: Alfo Medeiros/Pexels

Kate Bush is not someone who takes something essential as water and heat for granted. In spite of her success, she knows how lucky and incredible it is that we in privilege countries have running water and safety: “Yes, but then I think about the people caught in the many wars that are raging right now and at the very heart of these are the children caught up in the wars. They don’t always have clean water and they really need a miracle. Christmas is a time for little children: a time of wonder and the promise of magic… looking towards a new year, to a future”. Thinking about children that are being displaced and suffering right now. Bush then sharing names of charities; how important it is that we donate to them: “It’s so incredibly important that charities like War Child, UNICEF and the NSPCC are there to support and help children. Their incredible work might be more important than it’s ever been when the modern world seems to make few concessions for children at the hands of evil created by adults”. Using this message to think of others and ensure that we do everything we can to put others first. I think many of us tomorrow, when we would normally celebrate and consume food without pause, will take time to think of those who are not as lucky as us. It is quite sobering to think about!

PHOTO CREDIT: Jeswin Thomas/Pexels

The end does give some nice sign-off and hope: “I hope you all have a really wonderful Christmas, with the promise of magic, and let’s all pray for a year ahead that brings us some opportunities to talk about happy things”. Different to her messages from the past few years, this is a more serious and less work-reflective one from what we have seen. Our Queen has spoken. And, with it, so many comments have been posted to Kate Bush News on Instagram when they shared the post. We have a lot to absorb reading Kate Bush’s words. There is also a lot to look ahead to. I think Bush will push more and more to raise money for charities. Whether she will auction off more rarities and her music to raise funds or organises an event of some sort, this will be firm on her mind. I wonder why we have not had a Band Aid-style fundraising concert or single this year. Maybe it would be seen as too political and divisive?! How, at a time when we all need to end the horror and do something, has there not been something unified and huge from the music industry?! I have a feeling Kate Bush will do something. Help to organise people together and get some money raised. She no doubt donates her own money to charities too, but she will go further in 2024. Even though it was not the right moment for Bush to talk about new music and possible developments in 2024, you get the feeling that something will come from her.

 PHOTO CREDIT: Markus Spiske/Pexels

No doubt, when she said how she’s praying for happier things in 2024, that means there will be more engagement with fans. I think this is a moment when Bush will release a new album. Ignoring the news and no doubt anxious thinking about what is happening with the planet and in war-torn nations, she would have funnelled a lot of this anxiety into writing and recording. There are big anniversaries happening in 2024. The Sensual World turns thirty-five. The Tour of Life is forty-five. Before the Dawn is ten. I have written about those in a separate feature. Whereas there will not be reissues and more retrospection from Bush, no doubt there will be a slew of magazine celebrations, books, articles and even podcasts. It would be insensitive to ask for new music at a time when Bush is putting others first and using her Christmas message to show her upset and dismay at what is happening around us. Even so, she knows that 2024 needs to be a year for positivity, togetherness, and greater humanity and love. This will provoke something inside of Bush. She knows how much her fans appreciate and respect her, so it would be surprising if no new music or good news from Bush arrived next year! It is wonderful to hear from Bush, as her Christmas messages are always so heartfelt and considered. The time she took to craft 2023’s just shows that. Whilst quite sombre, there is also that element of hope for a brighter future. Her words will stick long in the mind! As we go into Christmas and spend time relaxing, we also must hold in our thoughts those whose day will be very different to ours. We also must come together and wish for…

PHOTO CREDIT: Kate Bush

A happier and more peaceful year ahead.

FEATURE: A COMPLEX Debate: Does Rap Still Have an Issue with Sexism and Platforming Women?

FEATURE:

 

 

A COMPLEX Debate

IN THIS PHOTO: London-born Rap legend Estelle

Does Rap Still Have an Issue with Sexism and Platforming Women?

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RATHER than undermine something beautiful…

IN THIS PHOTO: Little Simz/PHOTO CREDIT: Jackie Nickerson for DOCUMENT

and celebratory, there was an interesting takeaway from COMPLEX’s recent feature ranking the best fifty British rappers ever. It was shared a week ago. The results highlighted some incredible British Rap talent. One alarming aspect of the top fifty was the lack of women. In all, only six women were included! Estelle came in forty-third:

“Only four Black or mixed-race British women have ever won a Grammy: Estelle Swaray (2009) follows Sade (1986) and Corinne Bailey Ray (2008) and precedes Ella Mai (2019). The success that the Hammersmith rapper/singer created cannot be understated, particularly in America but also especially when we consider just how difficult it is for Black British women to make a mark in British music (let alone the US), something Esetlle has been rightfully and politely vocal about during her career. Starting out behind the counter at the iconic Carnaby St record store Deal Real, the budding rhymer initially featured on records by Skitz and Blak Twang before attracting her own audience with 2004’s utterly endearing “1980” from debut album The 18th. She quickly courted the attention of then-unknowns Kanye West (who she met outside a Roscoe’s in LA) and John Legend, signing to Legend’s Home School label three years later. In 2008, Estelle dropped Shine, an album that still stands up tall today. Soulful and joyful, it may have featured Sean Paul, Swizz Beats, Mark Ronson and Kanye, but Estelle’s compelling storytelling was far from overshadowed; her talent truly shone through. Her achievements now include a Grammy, a Silver Clef award, MOBOs, BRIT and Mercury Prize nominations, a Top 10 UK album (Shine) and No. 1 UK single (“American Boy”), as well as a Top 40 Billboard album (Shine) and Top 10 Billboard single (“American Boy”). To reiterate: this isn’t easy for anyone to do, but especially for Black British women who are historically underpromoted, poorly marketed and ignored by mainstream media. It’s worth noting here that Estelle’s campaign at Atlantic Records UK was driven by Black and POC women. She has since released three further albums, including 2018’s reggae-based dedication to her parents, Lovers Rock, and hosts The Estelle Show every weekday on Apple Music. —Hattie Collins”.

NoLay was in thirty-eight; So Solid Crew were in thirty-fifth. A mostly male collective that featured Lisa Maffia, they appeared one place behind Ms. Dynamite. Without doubt one of thew pioneers and queens of British Rap, it was good to see her included:

“Where barring is concerned, Niomi Mclean-Daley—aka Ms. Dynamite—has always been in her own lane, becoming one of the few mic-wielding stalwarts revered across a plethora of genres. From the earlier days of pirate radio sets and her residency at FWD>>, where the then-unlabelled dubstep and grime was the order of the night, she merged reggae influences for something far more hard-hitting. Delivering technical verses that always slapped when it came to UK garage (“Envy” will continue to destroy any UK dance for years to come), her own Sticky-produced debut, “Booo!”, a now-dependable club classic, gave Ms. Dynamite the platform to push forth a new strain of Black female empowerment, still felt today. Winning the Mercury Music Prize in 2002 for her debut album, A Little Deeper—while notably on more of an R&B tip, it landed her two BRIT Awards (including British Female Solo Artist) and three MOBOs. Despite largely stepping back from the limelight after the birth of her son and second LP, Judgment Days, in 2005, collabs with Magnetic Man, Katy B, DJ Fresh and her 2011 single with Labrinth, “Neva Soft”, have always demonstrated the talents in abundance. Having made her live show a family affair over the years, Ms. Dynamite is still a regular on the circuit, landing headline festival spots (as well as an MBE for services to music in 2018) and showering down corporate industry parties; big up YouTube and their Legacy Party, which celebrated 50 years of hip-hop with a standout performance from Ms. Dynamite this year. —Chantelle Fiddy”.

Only two women appeared in the top twenty-five! This seems fuck*ng insane! Taking that twenty-fifth place spot is the phenomenal Lady Leshurr. She is an undeniable Rap great who has inspired so many other women to come through:

“Born and raised in Birmingam, Lady Leshurr secures her position among rap royalty through her distinctive fusion of articulate, rapid-fire flows and impeccable wordplay. Throughout the late-00s and early 2010s, her dedicated fanbase was built off the back of her unwavering work-rate; her unadulterated authenticity took centre stage in 2011 on the Friggin L mixtape, while her remix of Chris Brown’s “Look At Me Now” saw her display her cheeky humour and bright singing voice, and boy did she give Busta a run for his money with her own fast-paced verse. The rapper, singer and songwriter solidified her name in London’s buzzing music scene early on by bringing her magic to every live show and radio set she could, consistently dropping projects and collecting video freestyles on platforms like SBTV (see: F64s) like shiny Pokémon cards. Lady Leshurr’s 2015-launched freestyle series, Queen’s Speech, took her name international and showed the potential to be unlocked in UK music’s relationship with social media—something we often see now on TikTok but was a rare thing back then. Lady Leshurr’s 10,000 hours were instrumental in not only breaking down barriers within a male-dominated scene but also helping to establish the building blocks between 0121 and London. Miss O’Garro deserves all her flowers. —Hyperfrank”.

The top ten featured one female rapper. Little Simz was named our tenth-best rapper. That is a well deserved honour. When you consider twelve percentage of the rappers in the COMPLEX feature are women, that raises questions about the genre. I think that a U.S. equivalent might reveal more women in the pack. Missy Elliott, Cardi B, Megan Thee Stallion and quite a few contemporaries could mean that there’d be less of a divide (I’d predict they’d select maybe twelve to fifteen women). Even if a U.S. version of that feature was less male-dominated, it still shows that Rap and Hip-Hop both make it harder for women to get noticed and raised like the men. It also mean there are those not being as celebrated and spotlighted as they should. COMPLEX had their view and rightly championed some Rap greats. Even if it is subjective, one wonders how many other features in the U.K. about the top rappers would include more women. One feels that there would be similar issues. Rap is a mighty genre where some of the greatest music ever has emerged from, there is always this discussion around misogyny and exclusion. Are women as embraced as they should be?1 Things have markedly improved from very dark and toxic days we have seen. Even so, I wonder if Rap and Hip-Hop is an environment women naturally look to as attractive and inclusive. Think about Pop and how women dominate there. This recent feature names the fifteen best female rappers ever. There is the new and established talent out there. Women who have changed the game and opened doors.

This 2018 feature observed how the patriarchal nature of Hip-Hop and music in general saw (and sees still) women in Rap being pitted against one another. Compared rather than commended and appreciate in their own right. Something I still think is happening in 2023, yes:

“It could all be so simple, but we’d rather make it hard. In the 45 years that hip-hop has been around, the lack of representation of women in the industry has become a circular conversation, pointing out the gross misogynistic behavior that was there since birth amongst other things; yet whenever a woman enters the ring, she can only stand alone — at least that’s what the field’s competitive nature has led everyone to believe.

Women empowerment and hip-hop are two concepts that many have been trying to marry for as long as the genre has stood and it seems like they can’t coexist all the way — as of yet. In a sea flooded with prominent male hip-hop figures who have sustained longevity in an ever-changing business, women in hip-hop who are on that same level are few and far between, almost always leaving room for only one to hold that title over a certain period of time. Why is that? The answer is pretty obvious: the hip-hop industry has diversity issues and similar to what many female professionals face in the workplace environment, women often deal with sexist behavior that is a direct reflection of the man’s need to always be in power.

In 2018 alone, listeners are witnessing a new era of female rappers coming to the forefront. Tierra Whack, Saweetie, Rico Nasty, Kash Doll, Maliibu Miitch are just a few of the newcomers making waves this year, but the one making the biggest splash of all is Cardi B. Over the past year, the Bronx native has earned Grammy nominations and quadrupled her fan base thanks to her music and larger-than-life personality. The industry hasn’t seen a female rapper reach this kind of commercial success since Nicki Minaj entered the scene about 10 years ago. Has Nicki met her match or is hip-hop making room for more women to rap”.

That COMPLEX feature I opened with, appropriately, does raise a complex debate. They are not saying there is a lack of women in Rap. They feel that most of the top fifty best British rappers are men. That is problematic in its own right. America might not be as regressive as the U.K. regarding highlighting female MCs and making the genre more accessible and less sexist. I do think any feature that ranks the best rappers and includes so few women – only two in the top twenty-five remember! – does hint at issues in Rap that have not really moved on and been eradicated.

If things are moving on slowly each year in terms of inclusiveness and recognition of women in Rap, struggles and discrepancies being highlighted five years ago are largely true today. Is the apparent lack of visibility and recognition of British Rap queens down to continued patriarchy and the assumption that the genre is a man’s territory?! That the best and most important rappers are men?! The Guardian published a feature in 2018 that explained that female MCs are not being heard and given their dues:

“Yet it’s worth talking about women MCs, because the commercial gap between male and female artists is a chasm. In the same way that rising gender equality in the workplace overall doesn’t negate the fact that fewer than 5% of Britain’s top companies have a female CEO, or that so few of the BBC’s top earners are women, so it’s true that while there a huge number of female MCs out there, almost none are breaking through to the top tier of the music industry. Apart from Nicki Minaj, who is undoubtedly a global superstar and the exception to the rule (although even her last album only charted at 22 in the UK) it’s been a long time since a female MC broke the Top 10 or played near the head of the bill at a UK festival.

For Little Simz, the muted reaction to Stillness left her faced with a question she had always tried to avoid: would things have been different if she were a man? “She did everything perfectly,” says Caroline SM, the founder of the UK rap collective New Gen and an A&R at XL Recordings. “I think she was just ahead of her time. Four years ago, grime, rap, whatever it is, was not getting a look-in at all – men or women. It’s taken so long even to get to this point. Our scene is so slow.”

It’s true that many of the British men who are currently on top, artists such as Giggs and Skepta, have been releasing music for well over a decade. But even among relatively new artists like Stormzy, J Hus, Nines and Section Boyz, it seems as if the path to success has been fairly straightforward.

Lady Leshurr has asked similar questions about her own career and says that one of the reasons male artists do better is that they look out for each other. “In grime, there’s a circle of people that all support each other and, guess what, they’re all male: Stormzy, Skepta, Wretch 32. They’re people that will always support another person’s music. When you look at the females, there’s not really that collective of people who will show love. If more female rappers in the UK were more supportive of each other it would be completely different.”

She says the picture is further complicated by race. “In my opinion [the issues are about] gender but it’s also the colour of your skin. It can be harder if you’re a dark-skinned girl trying to make it in this industry because it’s always been hard.”

Leshurr has found that while in some ways the situation for women has improved, the double-standard about physical appearance, and skin colour in particular, has gotten worse. “For men it doesn’t really matter what you look like. Ed Sheeran, for example; I’m not saying he’s ugly, but you’d never think he’d be the biggest pop star in the world. Whereas for women, it’s still based on image, and men will always think about what the female looks like before they hear what she’s gonna say. It’s always going to be ‘She’s ugly’ or ‘Look at her hair’. Whereas guys can just put a hoodie and a snapback on and record something and everyone will be like ‘Yeah they’re sick’.”

IN THIS PHOTO: Lady Leshurr/PHOTO CREDIT: Alec McLeish for FADER

Both Leshurr and Caroline SM believe that these problems are particular to the scene in the UK at the moment, and that the recent success of male artists will eventually open the door for female MCs too. But discrepancy in fortunes between men and women stretches back a lot further than that. Ms Dynamite, probably Britain’s most famous female MC, managed to combine critical acclaim with chart success on her debut record A Little Deeper, which went on to win the Mercury prize in 2002. She was unable to turn that initial success into a sustained career as an album artist – her second record didn’t chart in the top 40 and eventually she went back to her first calling: singing verses on club tracks. Seven years later another female MC, Speech Debelle, won the Mercury prize, but she was even less able to build a career from the exposure. She’s now working behind the scenes, as a music relations manager for Arts Council England.

“Somebody needs to change the formula. The way people approach music,” says Angel Haze, an artist from Detroit. A few years ago, Haze was the belle of the music press: an incredible MCing talent with a horrendous story, overcoming sexual abuse and life in a religious cult. She was interviewed by everyone, reliving her awful childhood experiences over and over again. Then she released her debut album, Dirty Gold, which charted at 196 in the UK.

“You don’t get the recognition based on what your music sounds like, it’s all about the hype around you, who said what about you. But it’s this reality TV generation, everyone has a 30-second attention span and on to the new shit, and only the craziest of people survive.” What’s strange is that it’s a cycle that no one can seem to get out of, artists and press playing their dutiful roles, unable to stop history repeating itself. Just last year, Young MA had a Billboard Top 20 hit with her track OOOUUU. The record, a brilliantly blue ode to cunnilingus, was one of the most open celebrations of same-sex relationships in mainstream hip-hop. Talking to the Fader in August last year, she said that the song’s success motivated her to do more. “Let’s keep it moving now. Let’s keep giving ’em this fire and let’s not stop this,” she said. But one year on, she has released an EP to little fanfare. It charted at No 166 in the US and another hit has not emerged.

It would perhaps look foolish now to suggest that this could all be about to change, considering how often that prediction has been made in the past and been proven to be wrong. Yet everyone I speak to seems to believe the first superstar female MC of the 2010s is just around the corner. There’s Ray BLK, who won the BBC’s Sound of 2017 poll and combines R&B singing with MCing. Cardi B, who found fame on the American reality show Love & Hip-Hop, but whose brazen personality and track Bodak Yellow have meant that, unlike every other person on that show, she is now being taken seriously as a star.

“I feel like there was a glass ceiling before, but this new generation of people coming out are changing things,” says BLK. “We can more easily connect with our fanbase – things are spreading a lot further because of that.” Among this new wave, though, there is one name that everyone is saying is going to be the person to finally shatter the ceiling: Stefflon Don. “We haven’t seen someone like her before. Not in my lifetime. Not in the UK,” says Caroline SM. “We really haven’t seen someone like that. She’s a gangster. Boys are scared of her and she’s sexy. She came through on the Section Boyz remix, she rolls with rappers. She’s one of a kind”.

I hope that attitudes soon change! That radio stations include more female rappers. That the problems of misogyny and sexism that have always existed becomes negligible. That the modern queens are given their rights and space. That women are not pitted against one another. The COMPLEX feature did not include many ‘contemporary’ female rappers compared to the men. Little Simz, Estelle and Lady Leshurr. So half of the six. Hopefully things will change in years to come and we see a less divisive genre. It is strange that there is not this recognition happening, considering how women are redefining Hip-Hop and Rap. Medium explored this for a feature in 2021:

“The biggest way women have tried flipping the script on hip hop is with their bodies and their sexuality. This idea has been very controversial in today’s media as more women follow in this direction. Many feel that it is still distasteful and just plays into the sexualization and objectification that was happening before. Various people find this even more demeaning, while others argue that it is sexually liberating. It’s seen as empowering because these women are doing it to themselves rather than letting others force them into it. It’s a step in the right direction — women are getting more of a say in their content and how it should be portrayed. “…Women artists have been able to define themselves within the constructs of male domination, eschewing the tendency to play an accommodating role to men” (Balaji, 8). Especially in today’s music, women have made it a priority to speak sexually about themselves as a means of not allowing men to do it for them. When that happens, there’s typically a degree of objectification that occurs, resulting in women not being taken seriously. When men are in control of what women do and treat them like trophies, it perpetuates the idea of violence towards women. On the other hand, when women do it, they reclaim that power that men once had. “Similarly, Kistler and Lee (2010) discovered that male college undergraduates who viewed highly sexual hip-hop music videos expressed greater objectification of women, sexual permissiveness, and stereotypical gender attitudes than male participants who viewed less sexual hip-hop videos” (Aubrey et. al, 364). This being said, it can be discouraging and seem like a bad way to empower others as this could promote violence towards women, especially women of color. Our society has to realize that women can’t be accountable for what men feel when seeing imagery that is sexual.

While this can appear as if it is a setback, many new-wave feminists see it as an opportunity for empowerment. Ever since the release of “WAP” by Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion, this topic has been widely debated as the music video and lyrics are based upon self-sexualization. It makes many women around the world proud of themselves and their bodies, and even gives a sense of confidence. “Today’s contemporary hip hop from women paves a space for these women, instead, to become the representative, as they have been increasingly able to compete and succeed with the men in the same genre” (Kim). Although black women have a rich history of being sexualized and objectified, artists are making their own definition of being a confident woman. Artists like Cardi B, among others, want to create a more equal playing field between men and women in the industry by making their mark. They are letting everyone know that they are important and deserve the same respect as their male counterparts. So, although it may seem as if it is a hindrance towards equality, it’s breaking new boundaries and questioning society’s ideal woman.

Women have also shown their dominance by telling their stories and letting others know what it’s like from their perspective. As musicians, making music and telling a story are the most obvious ways of making change. This idea was first executed by Roxanne Shanté when she released the track “Roxanne’s Revenge.” This song is a very important contribution to hip-hop feminism, because it questions what had never been questioned before. Her song is in response to “Roxanne, Roxanne” by UTFO. It is inspiring, because she heard the song and how demeaning it was, and created her own spin on it. This song launched the start of her career and became just as popular as the original. What was most impressive about her is that she dared to question male artists at least twice her age”.

The COMPLEX feature sparked something in me. Wonderful to see some great British rappers ranked and highlighted! Shaming and sorry that there were six women among the fifty. It does emphasis the fact that, regardless of the innovation and talent from female MCs and Rap queens, there is still less airplay and opportunities for them. Fewer festival bill slots. Less in the way of commercial acclaim. That may be less true in the U.S. It does seem like the British Rap scene has more work to do. Some may say that it is all down to quality. If women are not included in the list then they are not good enough. That is patently not true! There are so many out there who have either been overlooked, are ‘honourable mentions’, or have not been deemed ‘worthy’ enough. With the waves coming through the past few years, the balance will start to shift more noticeably. The future of music is female. I think that there are genres that are disconnected and deaf to that. Maybe history and the fact there is so much work that needs to be done in Rap means we will not see things change for a long time. In any case, greats like Little Simz are breaking barriers and clearing the way for their sisters coming up and through. Even if features like COMPLEX’s seem to paint British Rap’s best as male-heavy, there are amazing women who should be named and given their propers! Let’s hope that this rather one-sided view of a terrific genre is shifted…

AS soon as possible.

FEATURE: You Are That Somebody: Remembering the Pioneering and Extraordinary Aaliyah at Forty-Five

FEATURE:

 

 

You Are That Somebody

Remembering the Pioneering and Extraordinary Aaliyah at Forty-Five

_________

BORN on 16th January, 1979…

IN THIS PHOTO: Aaliyah modelling for Tommy Hilfiger in 1997/PHOTO CREDIT: Alex Berliner/BEI/Shutterstock

the Princess of R&B, Aaliyah, sadly left us in 2001. Her eponymous and final album came out a mere matter of weeks before her death at the age of twenty-two. Born Aaliyah Dana Haughton, the New York artist has inspired so many others since she died. A true star and queen during her lifetime, the impact of her loss was huge. The music industry has not seen anyone like her. So many artists owe a debut to her. There have been plans for a long time to release a posthumous album, Unstoppable. How wise it would be I am not sure! Like so many posthumous albums, it is unreleased vocals and half-finished songs with modern artists on them. I think that it would be a mistake releasing a posthumous album that is going to be underwhelming. Leaving us with such an individual and strong album, there would be this tarnish and sense of disrespect if Unstoppable sees the light of day! I think that Aaliyah would hate to have her material out in the world without her blessing. In 2021, there were a lot of articles written about Aaliyah and her impact. Not only to mark twenty years since her death. It was also a look back twenty years since her remarkable eponymous album came out. Ahead of what would have been her forty-fifth anniversary, I am going to compile a playlist of Aaliyah’s best work, in addition to a selection of songs from artists influenced by her. I will end with a review of the magnificent Aaliyah album – one of the best and most influential R&B albums ever. I want to start with The Independent and their 2021 feature. They looked back at Aaliyah’s career and legacy twenty years after we lost her:

“Aaliyah’s passing was felt across generations, though her legacy has an almost otherworldly quality to it. For older fans, her death felt senseless, and the artist became iconised as a trailblazer whose life and career were cut short. For younger fans like me, she was shrouded in mystery, continuing to scoop awards and dominate the R&B charts well into the early 2000s, with “In Loving Memory” tributes tacked on to her posthumously released music videos. She remains widely referenced across hip-hop and R&B, with name-checks in songs by Jay-Z, Noname, Lil Wayne, Kendrick Lamar and J Cole, even though it can feel like her legacy is less widely celebrated than it should be. As Gen-Z YouTuber Julia Boateng asked in a recent video: “Why doesn’t the industry talk about Aaliyah?”

And yet her legacy is a towering one. “Aaliyah is the blueprint,” says R&B singer Paloma Ford, of how the star’s career was something that artists would attempt to emulate for years after her death. Ford is among the countless number of singers – including Beyoncé, Rihanna and James Blake – who credit Aaliyah with having a formative influence on their work. “She’s still unmatched… The way she approached her records with her soft voice and confident lyrics is a major influence on my artistry.”

That delicate vocal is one of the standout aspects of Aaliyah’s short but influential career. The princess of R&B had already had an impressive career that spanned the entirety of the 1990s by the age of 22, having made her debut at 10 on a televised talent show called Star Search. She then made her debut in 1994 with Age Ain’t Nothing But a Number, produced by her mentor R Kelly. But it was the follow-up album two years later, One In a Million, signed to Atlantic, that truly marked Aaliyah out as a star with a unique take on R&B. It had a bold, expansive vision, with tracks effortlessly bouncing from trip-hop to sensual slow jams to jungle beats – proof, if any was needed, that producers Timbaland and Missy Elliott were a dynamite team.

When Aaliyah arrived five years later, again produced by Timbaland, it was an era of new jack swing rhythm, gangsta rap cool and belting soul ballads. But the album combined all of these elements and blasted it into the future. The title track’s soulful vocals were underpinned by a warped, metallic, avant-garde production that would not hit the mainstream for years to come. Tara Joshi, co-host of the pop culture podcast Twenty Twenty, says: “No one else was really making music like that at that time. It aligns her with Janet Jackson – there’s this real sensuality, and a channelling of old and new in this really interesting way.”

Joshi says that it was around this period that Aaliyah began to take more creative gambles – echoing her nickname “baby girl”, her 1998 single Are You That Somebody, heavily features a cooing baby sample from an obscure compilation of sound effects. It might not seem exactly groundbreaking in 2021, but in the mid-Nineties, even as hip-hop was splicing old records in new and inventive ways, this more avant-garde style of found sound was relatively unusual. Here, Aaliyah and Timbaland were intentionally sneaking something weird and provocative into a mainstream pop package. And these risks were always contrasted against Aaliyah’s effortless, pared back, low-register vocals, which stood out amid a sea of vocal runs, as popularised by the likes of Mariah Carey, Christina Aguilera and Alicia Keys.

Kathy Iandoli, author of the forthcoming biography Baby Girl: Better Known as Aaliyah, says that by the time the singer came to her magnum opus, she was also more assertive in the writing and production process. It was echoed by the strikingly self-assured cover image of the singer in a glittering gold halterneck top, rather than hiding behind her signature sunglasses. “With her debut, she was hiding in this very big shadow of R Kelly’s, where her identity on the project was dictated by his own twisted idea of what her image and sound should be,” she says. “With the second album, we saw her inching into her own person, thanks to Timbaland and Missy kind of guiding her in this direction where they threw caution to the wind… But by her eponymous third project, we saw Aaliyah in her full form.

“Her voice had changed a bit since she was now an adult… and she was still very willing to take more risks,” Iandoli continues. “By her final project, it had been five years since she released an album, so there was so much room to grow, to analyse the R&B landscape that she herself helped change in ’96, and then to figure out where she both fit and stood out.”

Sonically, the change was evident – as Aaliyah worked creeping classical samples on “We Need a Resolution”, wild rock electric guitars on “What If”, and other sounds that were atypical for the genre. Even at her most poppy, “More Than a Woman” includes smooth and sweet self-harmonisation amid dark, minor-key strings – it’s enchanting, has a dangerous, addictive quality, and could slot easily alongside a Shakira, Nelly Furtado or Beyoncé track from the middle of the decade. Belting no more, Aaliyah’s voice dances above tinkling piano keys on “It’s Whatever” – with an angelic ease, says Joshi, that’s comparable to anything contemporary by Solange.

“On self-titled, there are things there that Solange will take later on – like the use of self-harmonisation on ‘More Than a Woman’,” agrees Joshi. At the time, however, Aaliyah’s production was truly out on its own. “I think the sonics of it are a little bit strange, and a bit ethereal almost. There’s a futurism that undercuts it all… and this album comes a couple of years before that sound becomes the pop mainstream. Timbaland and Missy both stepped into the mainstream in the early 2000s, but that’s all after this album. So it did shape what happens next, in a huge way… She was the moment. I know that’s a cheesy thing to say, but I think it’s true.”

In the years following, beat-driven R&B became the standard, with artists like Destiny’s Child, Amerie, Ashanti and Cassie picking up the baton. After setting a standard for a more stoic R&B singer, you could also hear the influence of Aaliyah’s pared-back vocal phrasing in artists like Rihanna and Ciara. Drake also cited her vocal sensitivity as his biggest influence, and he even sports an Aaliyah tattoo: "She conveyed these amazing emotions but never got too sappy,” he has said”.

Vanity Fair spotlighted Aaliyah and her legacy in a 2021 interview. They spoke with music journalist Kathy Iandoli. She is the author of Baby Girl: Better Known as Aaliyah. Iandoli also discussed the long-held secrets she uncovered and the narrative about the much-missed Aaliyah that she wants to flip:

“This is a book by an Aaliyah fan, for the Aaliyah fans,” writes music journalist Kathy Iandoli in Baby Girl: Better Known As Aaliyah (Atria). Even 20 years after the singer’s death in a plane crash, Aaliyah has continued to impact music, fashion, and culture. But in a time of reexamination, Iandoli saw an opportunity to “really hold a magnifying glass to the narrative and show who she was: an incredible talent, an incredible singer and songwriter, and a survivor,” says the writer, referring to Aaliyah’s secret marriage, at 15, to R. Kelly, who is now facing trials for, among other charges, widespread sex-related crimes. “She was always so gentle and delicate and angelic,” Iandoli says, “but that woman was made of steel.”

Vanity Fair: What made you decide to tell her story?

Kathy Iandoli: As a journalist, I’ve been writing for over 20 years now, and the thing that I always keep at the front of my mind is, I remember being that young girl who would watch MTV and BET and VH1, and just the fandom that brought me to journalism. It wasn’t J school; it was being a fan of the artists and the music. The first book I did was with Prodigy of Mobb Deep. The next one I did was God Save the Queens, about women in hip-hop. When I finished God Save the Queens, [I was] thinking, What was another moment, or who was another artist, that shaped me—because all the women in hip-hop shaped me, hip-hop shaped me, but Aaliyah was one of the artists who made me who I am today.

Over the last two decades, the conversation that’s surrounded Aaliyah has been so disjointed. We’re now getting the most negative parts of the highlight reel, and I wanted to not only flip the narrative but really hold a magnifying glass to the narrative and show who she was.

IN THIS PHOTO: Aaliyah, photographed in the mid-’90s, from Baby Girl/PHOTO CREDIT: Eddie Otchere

Was there anything about her story that you wanted to dispel that you learned?

Oh, 100%. I think the way that Aaliyah was written into that part of the narrative was kind of this teenager with raging hormones. There was never any talk of how she was groomed or tricked. There was never any talk of how she was a victim of the circumstance that so many young girls have fallen victim to, but also how the music industry and the media creates this environment where you had boy band members who are 27 years old singing love songs to 13-year-olds in the audience. There’s an overall lack of protection of young Black girls. It’s how all the articles and the media presented the whole situation like it was Aaliyah’s dirty little secret and not R. Kelly’s. When you take all that information into account and then you read all the legal documents, and you really get a full picture of what happened, including how Aaliyah was blackballed after it and R. Kelly wasn’t, it just changes the entire narrative from [how you understood it as] a young fan reading in Vibe magazine about this marriage certificate between the Pied Piper of R&B and the Princess of R&B. We had no idea.

Were there any other aspects of her story that you learned that stood out to you?

She was an opera singer. Before she would warm up in the studio, she did opera runs. [I learned about] the original version of “Try Again,” which was just so weird. It was about being what you want to be, pursuing your dreams. Instead of “try again,” it was like, “you could be a fireman.” I learned about that, some of the fun little fan tidbits: One of her cousins was in Boot Camp Clik, and that’s how she got on that remix [for “Night Riders”]. And a lot of never-before-heard stories about the plane crash, which I think will also give us a little bit more closure.

I think that she and her collaborators, like Missy, Timbaland, Static, they created a sound that wasn’t built for that decade. You can play that music now and it’s still relevant because what they were doing was so futuristic; it was eons ahead of what was going on. So I think sonically, there’s that. There is the whole allure, this mystique where you’re not able to access her music without actually burning it, and I think a lot of these kids, especially Gen Z, they’re not used to being told no. So keeping that in mind, they will go the extra mile to discover her because of that curiosity, because of that mystique. It brings on this curiosity for this new fan base. The other thing is, she passed away so young. Fans are discovering her while other fans have grown up with her. And then her fashion sense. Kudos to her eye but also Derek [Lee]. Everything Aaliyah wore then is still relevant now. Again, she was just years ahead of herself”.

That final album, 2001’s Aaliyah, is iconic. It is a landmark! A moment that changed the music landscape. One that so many people love. I am going to wrap up soon. I want to quote the entire Pitchfork review of Aaliyah. They looked back on the album in 2019. One that is even stronger and more important considering the artists it has inspired since its release:

“Whether you believe in the afterlife or not, it’s easy enough to picture Aaliyah in heaven. The video for “Rock The Boat,” the 2001 single that would be her last, looks as if it were beamed down from one of the mythical seven heavens: gently lapping water, the flare of a bright sun, women dressed in all white. She seems peaceful, softer than in previous clips. In August, after wrapping her scenes in the Bahamas, Aaliyah boarded a flight home. The Cessna twin-engine crashed moments after takeoff, killing the singer and eight others. She was 22. In life, Aaliyah was often described by friends and collaborators as angelic; in her death, that image persists.

Just weeks earlier, she had released her third album, Aaliyah, a well-received collection of songs that mapped her personal growth during the five years since her second full-length, 1996’s One In A Million. During that hiatus, she’d taken an interest in acting, starring in a couple of films and lining up others, including two upcoming Matrix movies. But in between being on set during the day and in the studio at night, Aaliyah also had a lot to reckon with. In 1995, she’d ended a professional and allegedly predatory sexual relationship with R. Kelly, who’d produced her 1994 platinum-selling debut Age Ain’t Nothing But A Number. Today, especially following testimony aired in Lifetime’s “Surviving R. Kelly,” Aaliyah is understood to have been a survivor of his predation, but at the time, many people blamed her for the secret relationship and the falsification of her age on a clandestine marriage certificate.

Internally, there was a concern that her career would flounder, that she would not be able to match Kelly’s production and songwriting elsewhere. But with members of the Supafriends—Timbaland, Missy Elliott, and, eventually, the late Static Major—by her side, Aaliyah easily eclipsed her work with Kelly. “Tim and I were new producers," Missy told Rolling Stone in 2001. "From day one, she had that much faith in our music that she treated us like we already sold a million records, when we hadn't sold anything yet. She really helped make us what we are today.” The gamble paid off. Where Age Ain’t Nothing But A Number was defined by Kelly’s rote new jack swing and carried by her vocal depth, One In A Million was clever, fun, and forward-thinking. A couple of years later, “Are You That Somebody,” a single made for the Dr. Dolittle soundtrack, changed everything: Aaliyah wasn’t just sweet and sly; she revealed herself as endearingly weird and aspirationally cool—over a bizarre drum pattern and the sample of a baby’s coo, at that.

Aaliyah took that many steps further. By the time she began working on the album in 1998, she had developed an interest in both the experimental and traditional, and her collaborators on the album—the Supafriends as well as producers signed to her family’s Blackground record label—were up to the task. She veers wildly, but cohesively, between the futuristic, triple-time experimentation of singles like “We Need A Resolution” and “More Than A Woman” and the throwback soul of “Never No More” and “I Care 4 U.” It was Aaliyah’s voice that strung it all together. Her falsetto had earned an edge, and her multi-part harmonies, arranged ingeniously, added grace and texture. Even Timbaland’s grating, awkward raps and ad-libs are softened.

This time, Aaliyah had added Static, who’d cut his teeth working with Ginuwine and in the R&B group Playa, as a writer. The result was something that diverged from the pop language du jour, yet somehow remained in conversation with it. Though Aaliyah hadn’t yet become a writer, she was inordinately good at picking songs, absorbing them, and interpreting through her bright, wispy soprano. The album’s singles—“We Need A Resolution,” “More Than A Woman,” “Rock The Boat,”—are among her best, boldly off-kilter, imaginative, and alternately mellow and razor-edged. But the deep cuts are just as solid. “Never No More” is an emotional song about enduring and then rejecting abuse at the hands of a partner, “U Got Nerve” and “I Refuse” are formed around a similar suspicion and self-assurance. Her primary currency was an effortless cool matched only then by Janet Jackson and, all these years later, by Rihanna.

In reviews and profiles from the time, Aaliyah is praised, at the expense of some of her peers, for eschewing the “candy-coated” sound and style of the charts; actually, she was simply pre-empting the trends many of her peers would eventually try on. The glossy girl- and boy-band era was at its peak at the turn of the century, and before pop acts would attempt to replace that sheen with cool, calling on “urban” producers like Timbaland and The Neptunes, Aaliyah modeled the perfect balance of pop, R&B, and hip-hop. Months before Britney Spears made headlines for performing with a snake at the MTV VMA awards in 2001, Aaliyah had done it in the video for “We Need A Resolution.” Her personal style, creative direction, and choreography were legendarily inventive. She made comfort look luxe as the original little shirt, big pants girl, and tore through dark-and-mysterious years before Keanu Reeves made leather trench coats trendy (in the early years, her omnipresent sunglasses and then side-swooped hair prompted widespread rumors of a lazy eye). By the time of Aaliyah, she’d reinvented herself yet again, this time brighter and more streamlined. Her dancing, unlike that of many of her peers, was fluid and interpretative, designed to communicate more than to be imitated by fans in bedrooms and basements around the world. Her image was like her music: risky and adventurous, with a fondness for just the right amount of cheek.

Nearly 20 years after her death, she persists as a moodboardable influence, finding lasting presence not purely of nostalgia but as aesthetic inspiration for a generation that came to age in her absence. Searching Aaliyah’s name on Tumblr brings up thousands and thousands of images—watermarked red carpet photos, GIFs and photo sets ripped from music videos, and the occasional ode of fandom. One photo, of what appears to be a performance look, appears to be a direct inspiration for Solange’s current tour wardrobe: a triangle bikini top with straps crisscrossed across the torso and a pair of flowing, loose-fitting pants.

But Aaliyah has been a reference for Solange, and others, elsewhere, too: The multiple-part harmonies that have become the younger Knowles’s signature were in fact once the signature of Aaliyah, most in focus on, Aaliyah. On what would have been Aaliyah’s 36th birthday, Frank Ocean shared his own take of the Isley Brothers’ “At Your Best,” which she’d first covered more than 20 years earlier, in 1994. She’d updated it with a spare, solemn almost-whisper, and Ocean’s version, which was eventually given a proper release on Endless, draws equally from Aaliyah’s falsetto as from the Isley Brothers’ original. There are traces of her influence elsewhere, too; the layered harmonies and gentle melodies of Beyoncé’s “I Miss You,” co-written by Ocean, could easily have been recorded first, albeit with more restraint and whimsy, by Aaliyah. Understandably, among the most common refrains about the singer was that she was ahead of her time.

And yet, paradoxically to its significance, the legacy of Aaliyah is now diminished by its absence from streaming services. After her death, Blackground Records, run by her uncle and cousin, faced some operational and legal issues. The label’s domain name has lapsed, and a final release promised by an associated publishing company has not materialized. There have been a couple of false starts—a posthumous album helmed, and then abandoned, by Drake and 40; an unsanctioned greatest hits release; the sale of her catalog to a publishing company—but most of Aaliyah’s catalog has remained unavailable to stream or download. Age Ain’t Nothing But A Number, the album written and produced by her abuser, is the only accessible release. For many artists, this could mean being written out of history, forgotten to more convenient nostalgia. For Aaliyah, it means something rarer—a legacy defined not by industry profiteers and hologram start-ups but by friends, fans, and kindred artists”.

I think that there should be new documentaries made about Aaliyah. One of the most important artists of her generation, even though she was with us twenty-two years, the impact she made in that short time is huge! A clear source of influence for so many artists today (including Beyoncé), the relevance of her music will be felt for generations more. I remembering hearing news of Aaliyah’s death on 25th August, 2001. It was an immense tragedy! Less than a few weeks after that, the terrorist attacks in the U.S. happened. It was a very weird time. So much changed in the music world after Aaliyah’s premature death in a plane crash. There was new interest in her previous work. With the Aaliyah album new out, it was quite bittersweet. Hearing this amazing work from a singular artist. Also, this knowledge that what could have been and what we would never hear again. I think things should be left as they are. No posthumous albums or anything that would dishonour her or damage her wonderful legacy. On 16th January, the world will remember Aaliyah on what would have been her forty-fifth birthday. I don’t think there has been anyone like her since. A queen and diva whose debut album, Age Ain’t Nothing But a Number, was released in 1994, she achieved so much in a short career. Such a wonderful warm human whose music touched so many lives, it is clear the genius and legacy of Aaliyah will…

BE felt forever.

FEATURE: The Marvelous Rachel Brosnahan: Incredible Women in Film and a Huge Talent with a Directing Future

FEATURE:

 

 

The Marvelous Rachel Brosnahan

IN THIS PHOTO: Rachel Brosnahan preparing for the 2023 Met Gala/PHOTO CREDIT: The Emma Experience (via Town & Country) 

Incredible Women in Film and a Huge Talent with a Directing Future

_________

I think that…

PHOTO CREDIT: Dana Scruggs/The New York Times/Redux (via Vanity Fair)

there is going to be a lot of focus on the film industry next year. After a difficult year where there have been strikes, disputes and disruption, there will be a new burst of activity and success. Whereas we yearn for a day when we should not divide directors and actors in terms of gender when we talk about accomplishment, there is no doubt this year has been one where incredible women have created some of the very best films. From Selina Song’s Past Lives to Greta Gerwig’s Barbie, there have been some captivating films by female filmmakers. There are wonderful rising filmmakers to look out for. I think that there is still disparity and inequality in the film industry. In terms of the pay gap being wide and not challenged the way it should be. Not enough support from the industry. Wonderful actresses not getting the same dues as their male counterparts. Elle published a recent article that talked about the bleak realities of disparity behind the camera – and the women who are fighting for equality, change and recognition:

“Barbie made progress look so painless. In Greta Gerwig’s $1.4 billion-dollar-grossing worldwide blockbuster, the Barbies of Barbie Land operated under the blissful belief that sexism didn’t exist. The presidency, the Supreme Court, Nobel Prize winners, construction workers, doctors—all female. This was a fantasy sold by a toy company, of course, but an eerily convincing one. And its magic seemed to translate directly to our world when, in July 2023, Gerwig celebrated the biggest debut in box office history for a female-directed film, after years of well-publicized industry initiatives on behalf of the post–#MeToo, post–Time’s Up, post–#OscarsSoMale era. Gerwig’s extraordinary success seemed the sort of bellwether women behind the camera in Hollywood had long awaited.

“I cried, because I feel like a new precedent has been set,” says director, writer, and producer Emma Seligman (Bottoms; Shiva Baby). “Even if I know there’s so much conversation around what that means.”

“What that means” remains the sticking point. Barbie’s utopia provided an uncanny blueprint for the state of Hollywood today, wherein rose-colored lenses obscure a harsher truth. “Just a few high-profile cases can skew our perceptions of reality,” says Martha M. Lauzen, PhD, a professor at San Diego State University and founder and executive director of the Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film. And the reality is indeed darker than Barbie’s success might suggest. “We don’t want to think that we have seen such minimal progress in a quarter of a century,” Lauzen adds. “But the numbers tell the story. The numbers don’t lie.”

IN THIS PHOTO: Emma Seligman/PHOTO CREDIT: Hunter Abrams for Vanity Fair

Every year, USC’s Annenberg Inclusion Initiative, a think tank led by researcher Stacy L. Smith, PhD, analyzes the 100 highest-earning fictional films. In 2022, 9 percent of the top films were directed by women, an increase of exactly 1 percent from the number of female directors in 2008—14 years earlier. In 2019, the advocacy group WIF estimated that even if the number of female directors increased by 25 percent every five years (and to be clear, that’s unlikely to happen), we’d have to wait until 2072 to reach parity.

Even in the wider world of television, women’s employment behind the scenes is far from representative. According to Lauzen’s research, in the 2021–22 broadcast and streaming season, 92 percent of the TV programs sampled featured zero female directors of photography; 79 percent had no female directors; 71 percent had no female creators; and 65 percent had no female writers. “Given the countless industry panels gender parity has received one would expect greater movement,” Lauzen says. “One of the things that has been so remarkable is the relative stability of most of the numbers.” Those numbers have held firm even as entertainment execs, advocacy associations, and awards shows have basked in the good press garnered by films like Patty Jenkins’s 2017 Wonder Woman or the Oscar wins of Kathryn Bigelow, Chloé Zhao, and Jane Campion. As Smith puts it, “This is why, unless you rely on the data, it’s just a lot of talk, talk, talk.”

IN THIS PHOTO: Greta Gerwig/PHOTO CREDIT: Ellen Fedors for Rolling Stone

Over the past six years, Hollywood’s publicity machine has made the case for cautious optimism. The #MeToo movement, first popularized in 2017, rooted out bad men in power, and the hope was that women would rise to replace them. And per Lauzen’s research, the number of women employed in behind-the-scenes roles on top-grossing films did increase by 6 percent between 2017 and 2022. The same metric jumped 10 percent across streaming TV programs and 4 percent across broadcast.

“It happens every 10 or 12 years: Some very ‘female’ movie has this giant moment,” says writer, executive producer, and showrunner Rachel Shukert (The Baby-Sitters Club; GLOW), citing the commotion following both Barbie and 2011’s Bridesmaids—ironically, a film directed by a man. “It’s like a swinging door—someone pushes it wide open, and it starts to close. It’s like, ‘Can you run through before it closes?’”

Bisha K. Ali considers herself one of the lucky few to have sprinted through such an opening. The British-Pakistani writer and showrunner left her career in UK television behind for L.A. in 2018. Within a year, she’d clinched the head writer role on the Disney+ series Ms. Marvel. Looking back, she’s convinced she might never have won such an opportunity had she not entered Hollywood during a “golden, shiny time where there was so much money, so many shows…and there [were] risks being taken,” making “allowance for people like me”.

I am going to write more about Hollywood’s gender divide and how there is little progress from those in power. It is a similar situation in music. I know that this is me stepping outside of music but, as I have a lot of respect and admiration for an actor and producer who I feel is going to be a director to watch next year, I am spending some time with Rachel Brosnahan. Rather than look more widely at the women in Hollywood who are going to affect change through the industry – which I shall do at a later date -, there is one incredible talent who I feel is primed to have a long and varied career as a director. As founder of Scrap Paper Pictures, Brosnahan takes projects from women at the ‘scrap paper’ stage; developing them though to production and release. It is a way that she can help foster and support original and ambitious women in the industry who may not otherwise have this bespoke and supportive hand. Someone everyone should follow, most might know her from The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. Playing the eponymous character, the series (created by Amy Sherman-Palladino) followed Rachel Brosnahan playing a housewife, ‘Midge’, in New York who embarks on a career in comedy. We follow her professional and personal life through the late-1950s and early-1960s. It ended this year after its fifth season. The ending and resolution is magnificent and, without spoiling anything, you do get something hopeful and positive – the character is going to go to better things. A phenomenal series that is much missed and one of the best in years, to me it was Brosnahan’s mix of talents and emotions that made Mrs. Maisel such a compelling and rounded character!

I know there were plans and rumours that she would direct. There were projects that people thought she was attached to. As a producer and actor, she has a busy schedule coming up. Brosnahan is based in New York. Somewhere I dream of working and living, she has inspired me to go beyond music journalism and think more deeply about film. Whilst it is unlikely a project I am working on will ever make its way to Scrap Paper Pictures -as a male screenwriter, it would not get past the first hurdle -, I do recognise that Brosnahan is a phenomenal director in the making. One of the most versatile and accomplished actress, I am looking forward to seeing what her year ahead holds. Currently filming The Amateur, there will be more T.V. and theatre world in 2024. I do think that there are projects that Rachel Brosnahan would add her distinct vision and voice to. There as-yet-untapped female directors like Margot Robbie who have this passion and wonderful talent on screen that you can see being mirrored behind the camera. I love Brosnahan’s work, so I would be really excited to see the potential films she helms. I will continue this thread and wrap things up soon. I want to bring in a couple of interviews from this year where Rachel Brosnahan spoke about The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel and the series coming to an end. In May, Brosnahan spoke with Variety about the finale and a late scene in the final episode where Midge performs this stunning improvised stand-up routine that gets her noticed (and drops jaws):

“What was it like saying that final “Tits Up”?

Oh, man, hard. Alex and I couldn’t even look at each other that day. We shot that scene on the last day. We came in for rehearsal early in the morning, and we literally couldn’t look at each other. I was looking at Alex’s forehead and she was looking at my chin or something. We just blocked it out for the crew, and tried to save it for when we had to shoot that final piece together.

It was emotional for everyone. But it was really special because we got to close out the chapter together with almost every part of the family, and almost everyone who had been there on the show over multiple seasons. We had to land the plane together, have our big feelings together and say goodbye to this thing that has changed all our lives. It was the perfect way to end.

It really cracks the audience’s hearts open, because as you’re performing that final four minutes, we’re also seeing the growth, and memories from the series rush back. When did Amy and Dan tell you that this would be how things end? 

IN THIS PHOTO: Rachel Brosnahan (Miriam ‘Midge’ Maisel) in The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel series finale episode, Four Minutes/PHOTO CREDIT: Philippe Antonello/Prime Video

They didn’t really. We got the script for the final episode probably the day before the table read. The script showed up in our inboxes, and we read it and all kind of texted each other like, “Holy shit, they did it!” And what a gift to all of us.

Then, one of the greatest gifts that Amy gave to me was to let me choose what the last moment we shot would be. So, the very last shot we did was of Midge on the couch when Gordon Ford says, “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.” Now, I’m gonna cry. It was very emotional.

How did that moment evolve from script to set? Because yes, it is already kind of perfect, but then you have to be in the moment and hear those words come from Gordon’s mouth.

There was no acting necessary. I looked out into the audience and Marin is crying, Caroline [Aaron, as Midge’s ex-mother-in-law Shirley] is crying, and Alex is crying — I couldn’t even look at Alex. Reid was such an amazing partner for that moment — shout out to him — because he was also a part of a show that went seven seasons, “Veep.” He knows what it’s like to close out a chapter this big. He was so generous that entire week, but especially that day, and especially in that moment.

IN THIS PHOTO: Rachel Brosnahan with Reid Scott (Gordon Ford) in The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel series finale episode, Four Minutes/PHOTO CREDIT: Philippe Antonello/Prime Video

How did performing that four minutes stack up against all the other incredible standup runs you’ve had to do on that show? Was it high-anxiety, or did you feel very settled into it?

I felt settled into it in a way that I really wasn’t expecting, because it kept changing. Amy wanted it, rightfully, to be the perfect final set for Midge to go out on, so she was tweaking and tweaking it until about 48 hours before we shot it. So, I sat there with the script, feeling very intimidated about learning this volume of material with 48 hours to go. But I’ve always felt immensely supported by this cast and crew — and I realize what a rare gift that is — but I have never felt more a part of a team in that moment, in the hours that we spent shooting that scene.

I couldn’t help but reflect on one of the first sets that I ever shot, where I was so petrified, heading into this show, having no experience in comedy, not really knowing anything about the world and being surrounded by giants like Alex, Tony, Marin and Michael, who have so much experience. I remember turning to Alex during one of the earliest sets in the first season, and going, “Please don’t let me suck.” Like if you see something, say something; like, please, any advice at all, I’ll take it. And she looked at me and said, “I can’t help you. Take up your space, and ask for what you need. And bring this character into the world. Nobody knows who she is but you.”

I just was so struck by how far we’ve come, and so grateful for how far I’ve come from those earliest sets to the very end. It was really special, and just a wild experience”.

PHOTO CREDIT: Philippe Antonello/Prime Video

I am going to round things up soon. Rachel Brosnahan spoke with Vanity Fair about the finale of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, an emotional farewell, and working alongside Alex Borstein (who played Susie in the series). The more interviews I read from Brosnahan and the more I rewatch the entire series, the more she seems like someone who will both direct and also screen write. In recent years, actors like Olivia Wilde have directed and been involved with fascinating and memorable projects. I feel that Rachel Brosnahan will have a long career behind the camera:

“What surprised you about the script for the series finale?

I was surprised by how she ends up on the [The Gordon Ford Show]. But it feels so in keeping with how she stumbled onto the stage at the Gaslight in the first episode and unleashed on a hostage audience. She makes a joke about holding the Gordon Ford Show audience hostage in the finale, but she’s different now. She’s wiser and sharper and more mature and knows completely how to get what she wants.

Her act has come a long way too. How long did you get to rehearse that four minutes of material?

Oh, there was no rehearsal before the day. I probably got the final version of that set about 48 hours before we shot it. And immediately panicked that I wasn’t going to be able to learn this volume of material in such a short period of time. It was intimidating, but it’s so beautifully written and it really flows.

IN THIS PHOTO: Rachel Brosnahan and Michael Zegen (Joel Maisel) in Season 5 of The  Marvelous Mrs. Maisel/PHOTO CREDIT: Philippe Antonello/Prime Video

You’ve been playing Midge for six years. Do you feel more comfortable doing stand-up than you did when you started?

A little bit, but one of the gifts of working on this show has been that they never allowed any of us to get comfortable. Every time you think you have a grasp on who your character is or the technical elements of playing them, like doing standup, they throw you for a loop. The final set was, I think, the longest one I’ve ever done with very little time to learn it. And a lot of the folks who were sitting in the audience that night had never seen me do stand-up before the show—Kevin [Pollak] and Caroline [Aaron]. It had been a long time since Michael Zegen had seen it. Tony [Shalhoub] has only been there one time in season two. So it was very intimidating to look out at our Maisel family. But also I felt so wrapped in support and loved—it was a really special day.

Have you heard from any real-life comedians in response to your performance as a stand-up?

There’s definitely been support from the community, which I appreciate. That was the most terrifying part of stepping into Midge’s shoes: [the idea of] becoming an embarrassment to the comedians I’ve looked up to for so long. Carol Burnett and Ali Wong were so kind. . . .I watched Baby Cobra maybe a hundred times when I was preparing for the show. Chelsea Handler, Sarah Silverman have been so kind. I’ve had the privilege of meeting a few of the women I have looked up to. Either I have not been an embarrassment or they’re brilliant liars [laughs]. Hard to say”.

I wanted to start by looking once more at a disparity through Hollywood. There is still a massive issue regarding pay. In terms of recognition of women behind the scenes and opportunities, there is also another problem that is evident. One that is not really being matched by men in the industry. Rather than force aspirations on a producer and actress like Rachel Brosnahan, it is definitely something already in her sights. Maybe a project has arrived at her desk that she is attaching herself to! It is important to celebrate incredible female directors in the film industry. Whilst we should be at a point where we do not need to say, ‘women in film’ and divide genders – as it seems like they are being singled out and not seen naturally alongside men -, it is also paramount that incredible female directors are spotlighted. Even though so many tremendous films are directed by women, it is maybe not being reflected in award opportunities, pay, and the same sort of focus as male directors. I have incredible respect for amazing women throughout Hollywood. One of my absolute favourite actresses is Rachel Brosnahan. With Scrap Paper Pictures, she is also help inspire and mould other women coming through. The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel was a huge part of her life. When it ended this year, it was as emotional for the fans as it was for the cast and crew! A new year means new film and T.V. roles. I can see her directing Indie films and blockbusters alike. A charming New York story set in the 1980s perhaps? So many projects that you can imagine her bringing to the big screen. It will be exciting thinking about Rachel Brosnahan and…

THE next step.

FEATURE: The 4K Treatment: Why Restoring and Upgrading Kate Bush’s Videos Would Be Timely

FEATURE:

 

 

The 4K Treatment

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in the video for 1980’s Army Dreamers/PHOTO CREDIT: John Carder Bush 

Why Restoring and Upgrading Kate Bush’s Videos Would Be Timely

_________

I think that…

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in the video for Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God)/PHOTO CREDIT: John Carder Bush

the way Kate Bush has bene reissuing albums and keen on looking back means that there is still a window of opportunity for her to consider upgrading her music videos. Maybe it is not possible for all of her interviews and live performances to be cleaned up or upgraded to 4K. At present, there are no Kate Bush videos that have officially been given the 4K treatment. If you look at her official website, there are some music videos that are HD. The quality doesn’t look too and, but none have been taken from the original video source. Also, I can’t see any of those HD versions on her YouTube channel. I have heard interviews where Kate Bush has said how she would be open to seeing her music videos on a DVD. She has always loved videos and is very much drawn to the cinematic. I do wonder what is holding things back. There has been no statement from here where she has refused to touch her videos. The fact that there are HD versions of a selection of singles to coincide with the reissue of her studio albums means that it is important to her that they look sharp and appeal to people. As her music is now reaching young fans who will see her videos and this might be their first port of call, there is definitely an opportunity to do some 4K versions. Definitely Hounds of Love’s Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God), Hounds of Love and Cloudbusting would look tremendous in 4K. They are popular tracks and the videos would have that extra sharpness and gravity. I also think that a few early videos such as Army Dreamers (Never for Ever, 1980) and Wow (Lionheart, 1978) would very much suit 4K. It might not be instantly possible for all of the music videos to be 4K.

Artists have committed to 4K. It is not the first port of call for most new videos – as it costs more than standard videos/film -, but it is something that happens when albums celebrate anniversaries or there is a certain call for them. In the case of someone like Madonna, her legendary and unique videos definitely look glorious in 4K. It gives them an extra boost and means that they are restored and preserved. It adds to the oriignal and I think will mean it is more likely people will discover and play the videos years from now. Whilst it is happening with legacy artists, it is not occurring as much as I would imagine. Maybe there is not a huge difference between HD and 4K to the naked eye. There are so many music videos where the original is not great quality. Even an HD version would add something to it. I feel that Kate Bush is an artist whose videos are always original and different. Some look pretty good in terms of their quality, though there are quite a few that need to get that upgrade. One would feel Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) should be first in line for 4K. A selection of, say, ten videos in a new 4K collection would be embraced by fans established and new. Kate Bush has the final say with all of this. She is not going to release a DVD of Before the Dawn for particular reasons. She has not said anything about keeping her music videos as they are.

The love Kate Bush has for her videos and work in general is evident. She has reissued her albums and is pretty open to retrospection. That has not always been the case. A lot has changed regarding Kate Bush’s mindset and appreciation of her older work. I would hope that, alongside other projects, there is commitment to sharpening some of her classic videos. Of course, there is that greater need for new material and something fresh from Kate Bush. Even so, as the audio for her albums has been remastered and attention has gone into that side of things, the visual has been largely overlooked. Aside from HD versions of a handful of singles, how about some of her biggest videos? Her YouTube channel does not have new uploads or anything that is an improvement on the original. For many people, seeing one of Kate Bush’s videos was eye-opening and highly memorable. I don’t think that it is the case that people are finding her through streaming. There are many who go to YouTube. Because of that, giving some of her videos a lick of paint would be sensible. With distinct storylines, scenes and visuals, a Kate Bush video is a thing of wonder. So many people would love to see videos for her singles…

FULLY to life.

FEATURE: The Digital Mixtape: The Oscars’ Original Score and Original Song Nominees

FEATURE:

 

 

The Digital Mixtape

IN THIS PHOTO: Halle is nominated alongside Phylicia Pearl Mpasi for Original Song for Keep It Movin’ from The Color Purple/PHOTO CREDIT: Getty Images for IMDb

The Oscars’ Original Score and Original Song Nominees

_________

I might not be able to include…

IN THIS PHOTO: Dua Lipa’s Dance the Night featured in Barbie and has been nominated in the Original Song category/PHOTO CREDIT: Getty Images

every song and piece of music that has just been shortlisted for the Oscars next year. Other categories are going to be revealed closer to the ceremony date (10th March). They have announced the nominees for the Original Score and Original Song categories. I wanted to put together a playlist featuring those wonderful songs scores. Before I get to the playlist. Pitchfork reported on the runner and riders in two important and hotly-contested Oscar categories:

“The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has unveiled the shortlists for several categories at the 2024 Academy Awards. Vying for nominations for Best Original Song are Dua Lipa and Billie Eilish for Barbie songs, as well as Olivia Rodrigo for “Can’t Catch Me Now,” Sharon Van Etten for “Quiet Eyes,” Jarvis Cocker for Asteroid City’s “Dear Alien (Who Art in Heaven),” and more.

Composers on the Best Original Score shortlist include Mica Levi, Mark Ronson, Ludwig Göransson, Joe Hisaishi, John Williams, the late Robbie Robertson, and Daniel Pemberton, among others. Find the full shortlists for Best Original Score and Best Original Song below. All of the nominees will be revealed on January 23.

The Oscars shortlists have some overlap with the 2024 Golden Globe Awards nominations. The Barbie songs “Dance the Night,” “What Was I Made For?,” and “I’m Just Ken” are nominated at the Golden Globes, as is Lenny Kravitz’s Rustin track “Road to Freedom.” And all six Original Score nominees at the Golden Globes are on the Oscars shortlist.

The 2023 Academy Award for Best Original Score went to Volker Bertelmann (aka Hauschka) for his work on All Quiet on the Western Front. And the Oscar for Best Original Song went to “Naatu Naatu” creators M.M. Keeravani and Chandrabose, who beat out Lady Gaga, Rihanna, David Byrne, and others.

In 2022, Billie Eilish and her brother, Finneas, won Best Original Song at the Academy Awards for “No Time to Die.” The musicians also played the James Bond song at the ceremony.

Music (Original Score)

Anthony Willis - Saltburn
Daniel Pemberton - Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
Jerskin Fendrix - Poor Things
Joe Hisaishi - The Boy and the Heron
John Williams - Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny
Jon Batiste - American Symphony
Kris Bowers - The Color Purple
Laura Karpman - American Fiction
Ludwig Göransson - Oppenheimer
Mark Ronson & Andrew Wyatt - Barbie
Mark Orton - The Holdovers
Mica Levi - The Zone of Interest
Michael Giacchino - Society of the Snow
Robbie Robertson - Killers of the Flower Moon
Thomas Newman - Elemental

Music (Original Song)

Asteroid City Cast - Dear Alien (Who Art in Heaven) (Asteroid City)
Becky G - The Fire Inside (Flamin’ Hot)
Billie Eilish - What Was I Made For? (Barbie)
Dua Lipa - Dance the Night (Barbie)
Eve Hewson & Oren Kinlan - High Life (Flora and Son)
Fantasia - Superpower (I) (The Color Purple)
Halle & Phylicia Pearl Mpasi - Keep It Movin’ (The Color Purple)
Jon Batiste - It Never Went Away (American Symphony)
Joseph Gordon-Levitt & Eve Hewson - Meet in the Middle (Flora and Son)
Lenny Kravitz - Road to Freedom (Rustin)
Metro Boomin, A$AP Rocky & Roisee - Am I Dreaming (Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse)
Olivia Rodrigo - Can’t Catch Me Now (The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes)
Osage Tribal Singers - Wahzhazhe (A Song for My People) (Killers of the Flower Moon)
Ryan Gosling - I’m Just Ken (Barbie)
Sharon Van Etten - Quiet Eyes (Past Lives)”.

I have a particular interest when it comes to music in films. From songs that arrive at crucial moments that are original and might not necessarily have been included on an artist’s album – those they will be on the film’s soundtrack -, to these magnificent, rich and diverse scores that have a different more extensive role in a film, it is wonderful to see the nominees line up against one another! The composers and artists above are all really strong. They have added something unique and stunning to cinema. Whereas most will take more interest in the major categories at next year’s Oscars (Academy Awards), I think Original Score and Original Song are categories that we…

SHOULD highlight and respect.

FEATURE: Rough Diamonds: Is It Right for Men in Music to Judge and 'Call Out' Objectification of Women in Music Videos?

FEATURE:

 

 

Rough Diamonds

IN THIS PHOTO: Sydney Sweeney/PHOTO CREDIT: Armani Beauty via Allure

Is It Right for Men in Music to Judge and ‘Call Out’ Objectification of Women in Music Videos?

_________

IT is a complex issue…

IN THIS PHOTO: The Rolling Stones’ Ronnie Wood, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards/PHOTO CREDIT: Mark Seliger

that might not have a definitive answer. What I am referring to is women appearing in music videos and whether there is a fine line being exploitation and self-expression. I am going to get to the case of The Rolling Stones’ Angry and their use of actor Sydney Sweeney. Look back through the decades at some of the most empowering, sexy and memorable videos. Whether it is a female artist or actress in the video, there have been debated as to whether a lot of the more provocative content is women being exploited by a label or an artist. Being put into the video to exploit sexuality and get it more views. There is also the other side, where women are being expressive and confident with their sexuality. I think that it was the case, years ago, where there was more of the industry pushing sex and women’s bodies. It still happens today, yet music videos are less sexualised than they were before. Fewer examples of the very racy and bold videos with women at the front. If a label or director is needlessly making a female artist be provocative and dress in very little for a video then that needs to be called out. I think it was Kylie Minogue who recently said, in regards to the fact she is still very sexy in her videos, she refused to ‘dress her age’ or confirm with what is expected. An inspiring artist who is very assured in her skin. She calls the shot and is not being exploited by anyone. Despite the fact there are some artists who feel that they need to flaunt their figures and sex appeal, it is maybe less common than it has been. A new wave of very powerful women who are taking control of their narrative and image. From Dua Lipa to Megan Thee Stallion, we have these amazing and empowering women who are true to themselves. Not being told what to do (or not to do).

Maybe it is more complex when it comes to male artists and their use of actresses/women in videos. Definitely in past years, there have been so many incidents of women being used as tools. Simply designed to grab attention and get attention. Over-sexualised and used in this very grubby way, have The Rolling Stones done that with Sydney Sweeney?! The acclaimed actress is someone who is very confident and proud of her sexuality. In many of her roles, she is comfortable being naked and filming sex scenes. In the video for Angry, she can be seen in a convertible. She is having fun and looks great! From The Rolling Stones’ new album, Hackney Diamonds, as it a case of these music icons being ditty diamonds?! An ageing band perhaps misjudging things when it comes to representation of women in their videos. Maybe looking back to the 1960s and 1970s and how they might have sold their music or viewed women?! It seems that Damon Albarn – who has had some wrong or misjudged views about certain women in the music industry (Taylor Swift for example) - feels that the legendary band were using Sydney Sweeney in a somewhat overly-sexual and scuzzy way. NME reported on it:

“Sydney Sweeney has addressed claims that she was “objectified” in the music video for The Rolling Stones‘ single ‘Angry’.

Damon Albarn had called out the Stones for their “nonsense” involvement with Hackney, which he said they had never contributed to, as well as making Sweeney seem objectified in the video.

“I listened to their new song and watched this horrible music video showing them at different stages of their lives on billboards,” he told French magazine Les Inrockuptibles. And this young woman objectified. What the hell is this? There’s something completely disconnected.”

PHOTO CREDIT: James Marcus Haney

Now, Sweeney has had her own say on the situation. “I felt hot,” the Euphoria star told Glamour. “I picked my own outfit out of racks and racks of clothes. I felt so good in it.”

Sweeney added that she considers expressing her sexuality a form of empowerment. “One of the questions I get is, ‘Are you a feminist?’” she explained. “I find empowerment through embracing the body that I have. That’s sexy and strong, and I don’t think there’s anything wrong with it.”

Ultimately, she found the experience of being in a Stones video “cool and iconic”.

“I felt so good. All the moves, everything I was doing was all freestyle,” she added. “I mean, who else gets to roll around on the top of a convertible driving down Sunset Boulevard with police escorts?”.

IN THIS PHOTO: Damon Albarn/PHOTO CREDIT: Hugo Lima

It is admirable I guess that Damon Albarn might challenge bad practice. A band maybe using a popular actress and exploiting her sexuality so that they can make their video relevant, cool, watchable and memorable. It would be easy to see it as quite seedy out of touch with the modern times. Any man in music who tackles sexism, discrimination, exploitation or anything like that should be applauded. Is that what was happening with The Rolling Stones?! I think it can be difficult to distinguish between a group/label with poor morals when it comes to women being used in music videos and an actress/female artists taking control and being expressive. The fact that Sydney Sweeney has said how she felt comfortable and had a good time shows that she was not intended to be objectified. Not too dissimilar to a scene she might shoot for a film, perhaps that gulf between an older male band and a young woman is causing this issue and confrontation from Damon Albarn. The feeling The Rolling Stones are being leering and dirty. It is important that women are not made to feel like they should be objectified in videos. That they are respected and feel safe and secure. It seems like Sydney Sweeney was okay with everything and has no complaint. There are articles that debate whether women are empowered or objectified in videos. A 2019 article found that so many Rap and Pop lyrics contain degrading, derogatory and objectifying lyrics. This article discussed how female dancers in videos have been exploited. Black women have often being exploited and overly-sexualised in videos. This 2021 article argues that point.

There have not been many pieces written over the past couple of years about sexualisation and exploitation in music videos. That would suggest that the issue has gone away. I don’t think that it has. There are a lot of tremendous Pop and Hip-Hop queens who are injecting plenty of passion and power. Deciding how much of themselves they want to reveal. Realising that it is quite right they should be free to choose how they wear and what they do in their videos. There will be further debate around women in music videos and whether there is exploitation having. Damon Albarn will start new conversation. I think that The Rolling Stones might not have had too much say about the direction and casting. The video is directed by Francois Rousselet. Sydney Sweeney is having a blast throughout the video! There is not too much imagination or anything really to distinguish it. They could have used a talent like Sweeney in a more meaningful and innovative way. In that sense, I think she has been narrowly defined and used more as a rebel and wild child figure than a deeper actor. One has to ask whether artists like Damon Albarn can say whether another artists is exploiting women in their videos. One can look back to Albarn’s band Blur and a video like 1995’s Country House (which, to be fair, is bawdy, gross and a horrible sign of its times). It is important that we discuss women in music videos and whether they are being overly-sexualised and represented in a very questionable and seedy way. The Rolling Stones’ video with Sydney Sweeney is not great to be fair - though I don’t feel it a case of them objectifying her. It is crucial that we talk about these things, because it is important that women are not used and debased in videos. Especially Black women, who are still misrepresented and exploited. When it comes to The Rolling Stones’ video for Hackney Diamonds’ lead single, there is not a lot to…

GET angry about.

FEATURE: New Take, Clean Slate: The Ongoing Issue with Hollywood’s Gender Pay Gap

FEATURE:

 

 

New Take, Clean Slate

IN THIS PHOTO: Taraji P. Henson/PHOTO CREDIT: Adrienne Raquel for ELLE

The Ongoing Issue with Hollywood’s Gender Pay Gap

_________

RIGHT across society…

PHOTO CREDIT: Ali Pazani/Pexels

there are huge problems regarding pay disparity. It is not only the arts where women are paid less than men. If you think about an industry like film, although big earners like Margot Robbie are helping make headway and inspiring women coming through, she is in a minority. When it comes to the big earners in Hollywood, the vast majority are still men. There is that gulf where women are not valued as much. If they have similar billing and do the same work, they are not getting the same pay as their male counterparts. Actresses have spoken out about this for years now. I shall come to some reports and features from last year and this where Hollywood’s gender pay gap is very much alive. Before that, Taraji P. Henson recently spoke about her negative experiences. How she is putting in a tonne of work but is not getting the same pay as male colleagues. Undervalued by Hollywood. NME reported the news:

“Actress Taraji P. Henson recently got emotional when talking about the pay disparity she has faced during her time in Hollywood.

While speaking on Sirius XM to promote her new film, The Color Purple, Henson was asked by host Gayle King if the rumours of her considering quitting acting were true. Immediately, Henson got teary-eyed and said: “I’m just tired of working so hard, being gracious at what I do and getting paid a fraction of the cost.”

“I’m tired of hearing my sisters say the same thing over and over. You get tired. I hear people go, ‘You work a lot.’ Well, I have to. The math ain’t math-ing. When you start working a lot, you have a team. Big bills come with what we do. We don’t do this alone. It’s a whole team behind us. They have to get paid.”

“When you hear someone go, ‘Such and such made $10million,’ that didn’t make it to their account,” Henson explained. “Off the top, Uncle Sam is getting per cent. Now have $5million. Your team is getting 30 per cent of what you gross, not after what Uncle Sam took. Now do the math. I’m only human.”

She carried on: “Every time I do something and break another glass ceiling, when it’s time to renegotiate I’m at the bottom again like I never did what I just did, and I’m tired. I’m tired. It wears on you. What does that mean? What is that telling me?”

At this point, Taraji P. Henson began sobbing, pointing to her younger co-star Danielle Brooks: “If I can’t fight for them coming up behind me then what the fuck am I doing?”

“Twenty-plus years in the game and I hear the same thing and I see what you do for another production but when it’s time to go to bat for us they don’t have enough money. And I’m just supposed to smile and grin and bear it. Enough is enough! That’s why I have other [brands] because this industry, if you let it, it will steal your soul. I refuse to let that happen.”

This isn’t the first time that Taraji P. Henson has brought up the issue of pay disparity. In 2021, Henson shared that she was “gutted” when she took home just $40,000 for her role in The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button. That was far less than what she had asked for, which she said “at that time of my career, was fair to the ticket sales that I would contribute to this big film”.

In 2019, she revealed to Variety that she had asked for half a million dollars for her role in the film, and that she was only offered $100,000. “I was just asking for half a million – that’s all. That’s it. When I was doing ‘Benjamin Button,’ I wasn’t worth a million yet. My audience was still getting to know me. We thought we were asking for what was fair for me, at the time,” she said to Variety”.

IN THIS PHOTO: Jennifer Lawrence/PHOTO CREDIT: Getty Images

In 2022, one of Hollywood’s finest actors, Jennifer Lawrence, revealed how it doesn’t matter how much she does – she does not get the same pay as the men. It does seem, in the year or so since, things have not really improved. Not long after a strike in Hollywood where actors and writers were fearful of changes in the industry caused by streaming and its effect on residuals, as well as other new technologies like AI and digital recreation, women in Hollywood are still not getting paid what they are owed:

“The Oscar-winning actress slammed Hollywood’s persistent gender pay gap in a new interview with Vogue, telling the magazine that while actors are often “overpaid,” the discrepancy still stings.

“It doesn’t matter how much I do,” she said. “I’m still not going to get paid as much as that guy, because of my vagina?”

Lawrence, 32, earned $5 million less than Leonardo DiCaprio for Netflix’s star-studded dystopian film “Don’t Look Up,” which was released in December 2021, Vanity Fair reported.

“I’m extremely fortunate and happy with my deal,” Lawrence told Vanity Fair shortly before the movie’s release. “But in other situations, what I have seen — and I’m sure other women in the workforce have seen as well — is that it’s extremely uncomfortable to inquire about equal pay. And if you do question something that appears unequal, you’re told it’s not gender disparity, but they can’t tell you what exactly it is.”

On average, women earn about $1.1 million less than their male co-stars, according to 2017 research from three professors: Sofia Izquierdo Sanchez of the University of Huddersfield, Maria Navarro Paniagua of Lancaster University, and John S Heywood of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

For actors over 50, that gap is even wider: Older actresses earned almost $4 million less than male actors. Other studies have noted that women of color are significantly underpaid compared to white women”.

It is clear that something needs to change. There is not a great amount of male allyship that would help affect change quicker. A unity from brothers and sisters in Hollywood would lead to bigger change quicker. Alongside gender pay disparity comes ageism. Something that still impacts women. An industry where women over forty are not seen as vital or essential. Not something that afflicts their male counterparts. This article shows examples of women in Hollywood speaking about their experiences of pay inequality and ageism.

IN THIS PHOTO: Jessica Chastain

For Equal Pay Day 2023 (in November), Stylist looked at the ongoing issue in Hollywood where women are not getting paid what they are owed. It is time for a fresh take and new slate. Where there is commitment to righting this imbalance. You wonder how an industry that relies on its incredible women can justify paying them comparatively small amounts when compared to male actors:

“For Black women, equal pay isn’t expected to be a reality until the year 2119. Pay gaps also exist for Hispanic women, Indigenous women and Asian women.

It’s just not good enough. In recent years, celebrities including Jennifer Lawrence, Michelle Williams and Jessica Chastain have spoken up about how they are tackling the pay gap that exists in their own industry. Hollywood has long exploited its female stars, paying them less than their male counterparts. But these women, and several others like them, are calling Time’s Up on that, and are doing so through speeches at awards shows, in essays, during interviews and on their social media platforms.

These celebrities may be suffering from a pay gap in an industry where they are already earning eyewatering sums of money, and they would be the first to admit that their pay gap is neither the most egregious nor the most pressing in the world. But what each of the women in this story is doing is flagging the existence of the gender wage gape and forcing people to confront the reality of unequal pay.

As Williams put it at the Emmys in 2019: “So the next time a woman – and especially a woman of colour, because she stands to make 52 cents on the dollar compared to her white, male counterpart – tells you what she needs to do in order to do her job, listen to her. Believe her.

“Because one day she might stand in front of you and say thank you for allowing her to succeed because of her workplace environment and not in spite of it.”

IN THIS PHOTO: Sienna Miller

Sienna Miller

The actor told the Guardian that she was forced to turn down a role in a Broadway play because it wasn’t willing to offer her pay parity with her male co-star. Instead, producers of the play wanted to pay her less than half what he would be paid.

“The decision to turn down this particular role was difficult and lonely,” Miller said. “I was forced to choose between making a concession on my self-worth and dignity and a role that I was in love with.”

Jessica Chastain

Oscar-nominated actor Jessica Chastain has been one of the most vocal and outspoken critics of the gender pay gap. In response to Lawrence’s viral essay, Chastain told Variety: “There’s no excuse. There’s no reason why [an actor such as Lawrence] should be doing a film with other actors and get paid less than her male co-stars. It’s completely unfair. It’s not right. It’s been happening for years and years and years. I think it’s brave to talk about it. I think everyone should talk about it.”

She also advocated on behalf of her longtime co-star Octavia Spencer so that she could receive equal pay. “It was the easiest thing to do,” Chastain told Whimn, of helping Spencer. “It was her vulnerability in sharing with me where she was in terms of her salary [that led to that]. For the longest time, women have felt like we have to keep things secret. We’ve been raised to think that it’s not proper to talk about money or salary, and there’s something shameful about that.”

“I think that is absolutely part of the problem. We should feel confident to put ourselves up for promotion, and put ourselves up for a raise, no matter what the industry… I think we have to acknowledge that when we are vulnerable enough to speak to each other whether it’s wage inequality whether it’s abuse that women are suffering in the workplace, we will protect each other and support each other”.

As we bid farewell to this year, we can see that the pay gap around the world is not closing. That is especially true and evident in Hollywood. How can we really justify such a gulf?! If there have been small moves towards equality, it is not happening fast enough. Not enough men in the industry showing support and campaigning for rights for women. Taraji P. Henson’s recent, powerful and very emotional words about the way she is undervalued and disrespected should reignite calls for an industry-wide review and re-evaluate about pay. The fact that so many of this year’s finest moments have been created by women – and yet they are not being paid as much as the men. It is not only actors too. Amazing women behind the camera too. It is shocking that many women might leave the industry or not enter it at all if they don’t feel they will ever be on a level playing field. That is horrible to consider! I know this is not a music feature but, as someone who is keen on film and wants to see equality there, it was important to cover this. Let us hope 2024 is a year for resolutions. Commitment needs to come from Hollywood. We cannot keep hearing from women who are telling about their experiences of being underpaid. The gender pay gap needs to close completely. Recognising and compensation women needs to be a big priority…

FOR next year.

FEATURE: Spotlight: Lael Neale

FEATURE:

 

 

Spotlight

PHOTO CREDIT: Alexandra Cabral

Lael Neale

_________

AN artist I was recently introduced to…

PHOTO CREDIT: Raina Selene

via Lauren Laverne on BBC Radio 6 Music, the wonderful Lael Neale is someone who I predict very big things from. Her 2023 album, Star Eaters Delight, is one that I would recommend everyone listen to. The Virginia-born artist’s third studio album marks her out as a very distinct and magnificent talent. I am going to come to some interviews with her soon. Before that, here is some biography regarding the simply amazing Lael Neale:

“Lael Neale still has a flip phone and there were no screens involved in the creation of her new record Star Eaters Delight.

The album is her second for Sub Pop and reveals an expansion of her sonic collaboration with producer and accompanist Guy Blakeslee.

In April of 2020, in the wake of transformations both personal and global, Lael moved from Los Angeles back to her family’s farm in rural Virginia. Looking at the world from a distance and getting in tune with her own rhythms, she wrote and recorded steadily for two dreamlike years, driven by a need to make order out of chaos. Forged in isolation, Star Eaters Delight is a vehicle for returning, not just to civilization, but to celebration.

She says, “Acquainted with Night (recorded in 2019, and released in 2021), was a focusing inward amidst the loud and bright Los Angeles surrounding me. It was an attempt to create spaciousness and quiet reverie within. When I moved back to the farm, I found that the unbroken silences compelled me to break them with sound. This album is more external. It is a reaching back out to the world, wanting to feel connected, to wake up, to come together again.”

Album opener and lead single “I Am The River” melts the ice with a dynamic explosion of minimalist transcendental pop clearly descended from the Velvets branch of modern music’s family tree.

“Lael is always telling me to play fewer notes,” says Blakeslee, whose spare yet cinematic  arrangements create an ambient space in which Neale’s clear and unaffected voice can explore familiar themes in an unexpected way. Subtle but potent references to Shakespeare, Emerson and the Bible (which she hasn’t read) swirl together with deeply personal musings and touches of wry humor, always more optimistic than cynical.

"I like to use archetypal language because I want to get a rise out of people. I want to trigger a response. A single archetypal word carries more weight and punch than an ordinary word. Jesus means more to us than Joe,”  she notes.

Album centerpiece “In Verona” is a sprawling gospel dirge in which the narrator-as-newscaster chants hypnotic incantations to lament a society plagued by divisions and hypocrisies,  reimagining the Montagues and Capulets without mentioning them by name and cautioning the listener to “cast no stone.”

Lael continues, “The past few years have seen more mud slinging & finger pointing than I’ve witnessed in my life. When I found myself getting drawn into the fray, this phrase became a mantra helping me seek higher ground and a broader perspective.”

“Faster Than The Medicine” gallops across a misty imagined English countryside, frenetically propelled by the drum machine built into Neale’s signature Omnichord, while the bittersweet “Must Be Tears” invokes Nico with its pulsing Mellotron strings.

While this is a record about polarities- country vs. city, humanity vs. technology, solitude vs. relationship - the deeper intention is to heal; to come to terms with our differences and put the broken pieces back together again. Lael’s affinity with the Transcendentalists has to do with her quest to hold onto sovereignty over her own mind. In a time when our devices are constantly flooding us with information, opinions and propaganda, Lael is intentional about what she takes in - hence the flip phone and the cassette recorder.

She claims to be a minimalist “not because I don’t like things, but because I value freedom more”.

Let’s get to a few chats with Lael Neale. In April, The Guardian spoke with an artist who channels Hollywood’s darker side. Maybe still new to some in the U.K., I think that many more people will get to know Neale as we progress through this year. She is an extraordinary artist:

“Neale’s upbringing could not have been further from this kind of brazen bluster and the ostentatiousness so endemic to her adopted home of LA. The singer-songwriter and occasional watercolourist grew up on a farm in deepest rural Virginia, where her Grateful Dead-loving dad raised grass-fed beef cattle and her mother introduced her to the music of the Cure and Beastie Boys. Although no one in Neale’s family performed professionally, there was – and still is – a barn on the farm that moonlighted as a music room.

“It’s where dad would get stoned with his friends and play,” says Neale. “But it’s pretty grimy. It’s also where he works on his tractors and there’s a lot of tools around, so it has this greasy tractor smell ... “

Moving back to Virginia during the pandemic, Neale helped out with the chickens and recorded her third album, Star Eaters Delight. It’s a unique, boldly weird proposition, and one that proudly carries the faint hint of tractor grease. Half of it comes on like cult 70s folk artist Karen Dalton hanging out with the Velvet Underground and Suicide, while the rest offers somewhat more modern balladry, placing her more in the world of Angel Olsen and Cat Power.

PHOTO CREDIT: Alexandra Cabral

Although its lyrics circle round death, holy water, purity and prayer, the fuzzy, hypnotic, eight-minute In Verona was written after Neale saw the critically unacclaimed 2010 film Letters to Juliet, a Romeo and Juliet-inspired romcom starring Amanda Seyfried. Shakespeare it was not. “I watched about 15 minutes of it and I could feel my brain atrophy – it was so terrible,” remembers Neale of seeing it with her mother during lockdown. Despite its relentless banality, it somehow still sparked Neale’s creativity. “So I left, but then I felt bad because we were gonna do this nice mother-daughter thing, and I was like: ‘I’m out of here!’ Then I started writing the song.”

In Verona’s self-directed video was in part inspired by Baz Luhrmann’s take on the story, 1996’s Romeo + Juliet, a pivotal part of Neale’s sonic and visual education. “I saw it when I was in my early teens, and I was just listening to things like the Beatles at that time. That introduced me to Radiohead,” she remembers. “There’s this amazing alchemy that happens when music goes perfectly with film – it’s the same with Harold and Maude and that Cat Stevens soundtrack.”

Some of the footage came from when Neale and her boyfriend were living in a past-its-prime 1920s hotel turned apartment building. “It was a really unique place, just a couple of blocks away from the Walk of Fame, and it was incredibly cheap; full of musicians and artists and strange older people who’d been there for ever,” says Neale. “It was actually the hotel that the Black Dahlia lived in.” Would we be right to suggest that such a historical Hollywood landmark was possibly haunted? “Definitely,” confirms Neale. “We Palo Santo-ed the room [by burning the plant] to clear the energy – not to be too Californian – and then a couple of weeks into our stay there we found out that the last guy there nodded out in the window and fell and died”.

Aquarium Drunkard caught up with Lael Neale to talk about Star Eaters Delight. Not only is that one of the best album titles of this year. The album itself is one of the best of the year. I should say 2023, as we are technically in 2024 now – and it is force of habit! Anyway, the fact that the album was recorded to tape gives is a sound that ensures the songs lodge in the head:

“But this restraint is also a form of resistance, as in: Neale is fighting against something. Maybe modernity, with all of its hollow digital worship—Star Eater’s Delight, like her previous for Sub Pop, was recorded on cassette, and tape hiss acts like a third band member here. She sings of flowers, rivers, seas, and trees; holy water, perfect deaths; bells of time, patience, and the speed of medicine. Carried by words and rhythm, she’s barreling towards something just beyond the horizon.

Before embarking on her first European tour, Neale called in from a tour stop in Baltimore to talk about hiss aesthetics, finding her voice, and how Ralph Waldo Emerson and Jane Eyre seeped into her timeless minimalism. | a levy

AD: All the songs [on the record] sound like the first take in a good way, you know?

Lael Neale: Cool.

AD: Have you always been that way or is that something you had to find through time? Because I know for some musicians that’s their philosophy: “I’m not going to do it any more than that.” And others can get bogged down in the perfectionism.

Lael Neale: I spent a lot of years doing the “right” way of recording, where you just sit there and try a bunch of things. I started officially recording probably when I was like 20 [years old] or something. And I was doing it with these older session guys, and I must have done 20 to 40 takes. They spliced together each of the lines—like the words, or half of a word. So that was how it started. And by the end of it, I was like, “Oh my God, this sounds dead like a robot. Robotic dead.” From that extreme, it kept moving toward this final philosophy. It has become a philosophy because I’ll never do [the prior way of recording] again. What’s important to me about recordings is that they feel as present and as alive as possible. That’s why we record on tape cassette.

And honestly, it took years of looking for a producer to help me record things until Guy came along and was like, “I’m just going to give you my tape machine, set it all up, teach you how to press record, and I think that that will solve your problem.” So he was the first [producer] after many, many different tries with people who are amazing, who I think are great producers and everything, but he was the first one to make me see that this was possible.

The previous album [Acquainted With Night] we did on tape machine [too]. Both of us were shocked when Sub Pop wanted to put it out because it is so hissy. This one’s hissy, Star Eater’s Delight, but that first one…I listen now and I’m like, “Oh my God!” That’s so cool that they let us put it out as it was. I think that’s a huge reason people don’t do it this way, because it’s so lo fi that it’s almost like our ears aren’t accustomed to it.

AD: Did you have any sort of overarching idea for this record when you were starting it?

Lael Neale: When I sit down to write in a concentrated period of time, the songs all are of a piece, but I’m not really intending that. And I would say that Guy has a better sense of the overarching tone and the theme or thesis statement of it all in terms of sound. I’m way more intuitive. I really don’t think about about it too much and that’s what’s cool about working with Guy. As I was writing those songs, we were playing them together so they became what they are very organically. I don’t think he had to do too much thinking about it either.

AD: Neil Young said, “when you think, you stink.”

Lael Neale: I love that! That’s great.

AD: There does feel like there’s a theme to these songs. I was just struck by your lyrics. They have so many images in them, bringing images to my mind when I’m listening. Was there anything that you were watching or reading when you were writing these songs that you think fell into the songs?

Lael Neale: At the time, I was reading this biography of Ralph Waldo Emerson called Mind On Fire [by Robert D. Richardson, Jr] . [I don’t usually have] an attention span for biographies, but I love Emerson so much, and this biography was incredible. Definitely looking back at the book now, I see that I underlined a lot of things that ended up cropping up in the songs a little bit. I definitely write songs based on what I’m reading at the time. I’m always reading bits and pieces of poetry and stuff. But something like [the song] “In Verona” was really surprising to me. That just kind of flowed out in the way that it was. I don’t know where that comes from, but I’m sure I was influenced by a number of things I was taking in. And going on really long walks. I was living on my family’s farm and there’s a rhythm to walking and words just kind of flow in that way. That’s how some of the songs feel. They’re moving in that kind of rhythmic way. I was [also] watching a lot of period pieces, which is maybe where [the song] “Faster Than The Medicine” comes from”.

Before round this off, there is one more interview that I want to come to. Under the Radar spent some time with Lael Neale to discuss the extraordinary Star Eaters Delight. This is an album and artist that needs to be in your life. A talent that everyone should follow through this year. I have passed through the album a few times and am always struck by its sheer quality and originality:

“If Lael Neale’s second album, 2021’s Acquainted with Night, was an attempt to find space and calm whilst surrounded by the neon and noise of Los Angeles, then her follow-up, Star Eaters Delight, is about reaching out from isolation and looking to reconnect with the world. As COVID restrictions began to impact travel, Neale moved back to her family’s farm in rural Virginia. “It genuinely is in the middle of nowhere,” she explains, “even the driveway is about two miles long, and it’s an hour from the nearest big town. After living in L.A. for so long, I began missing people and a sense of community. So this record certainly comes from a more agitated state.” Neale is quick to point out that this isn’t a “pandemic record,” although clearly, it did have an influence. “I was definitely feeling frustrated at being constrained, so I guess there’s that tension going on.”

She wrote and recorded steadily over a two-year period, working with her longtime musical collaborator Guy Blakeslee. It was Blakeslee who had been crucial to Neale when forging her own minimalist approach to recording and production. “Guy just gets it,” she says, “he’s the first person I’ve worked with who was sensitive enough to know how to create space around the songs.” Indeed the low-key production style of her recent work is in marked contrast to her 2015 debut album, I’ll Be Your Man, which had more of an on-trend acoustic singer/songwriter vibe with a subtle Lana Del Rey undercurrent. “It’s not that I disliked the way that album sounded,” Neale reflects, “it just sounded a bit too similar to other things that were around at the time. I didn’t feel it was really representative of my own true voice.” It took Neale a while to find that voice but when she first heard an Omnichord it was the lightbulb moment in terms of making the stylistic shift that’s apparent on her second and third albums.

Explaining her approach to Star Eaters Delight she continues, “Minimalism can be a hard thing to maintain as there’s always a tendency when you make something new, that it needs to be a little bit ‘more,’ and although this album is, I was still mindful of being able to give the songs space and create something that you can drop into that isn’t overburdened with noise.”

PHOTO CREDIT: Alexandra Cabral

Neale’s poetic lyrics touch on the mythical and the spiritual, she references Shakespeare, Emerson, and the Bible (which she hasn’t read) and she agrees that the stunning “In Verona” is the centrepiece of the album. “It has themes that all the other songs revolve around. I use archetypal language because I feel it resonates, I also kind of like the fact that people can still get upset when you reference Jesus. I’m not religious myself but quoting something he may have said—‘cast no stone’ was such an important line for me, something I kept returning to when I saw the divisions, arguments, and judgements being made throughout the pandemic.”

When we discuss spirituality, it’s not of the traditional religious variety but Neale’s work is clearly influenced by her love of nature. “That’s something my parents taught me, that nature was a space where you could commune with something greater than yourself.”

Creating space for herself also involves how she engages with technology. “I do use technology of course, but I intentionally don’t have a smart phone, I deliberately created a barrier. Without getting too sci-fi we are all becoming so permanently fused with technology you wonder what’s coming next? A computer in our head perhaps?” Neale laughs. “But I want to preserve my humanity and exist in more of a state of wonder and mystery, which technology can often take away. I do feel like we are already seeing the pendulum swinging, there’s certainly a push back and a desire to live life more simply again”.

If you have not discovered the wonders of Lael Neale, then make sure that you follow her on social media. The U.S. songwriter put out Star Eaters Delight earlier in the year. It was one of 2023’s best. I am going to wrap up there. I am looking forward to seeing where she heads next. Her music is like nothing else out there. This an artist that everybody…

NEEDS in their life.

___________

Follow Lael Neale

PHOTO CREDIT: Alexandra Cabral

Official:

https://laelneale.com/

Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/laelneale

Twitter:

https://twitter.com/laelnealemusic

Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/artist/7mi56yFiPlaLW2PtsZnoWF?si=vROEkAS-RyGq2vazaiZ26g

YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/@laelneale

FEATURE: Director’s Cut: Part 2: Would Further Revisionism and Reappraisal Be a Step Too Far When We Crave New Kate Bush Music?

FEATURE:

 

 

Director’s Cut: Part 2

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in a promotional image for 2011’s Director’s Cut/PHOTO CREDIT: John Carder Bush

Would Further Revisionism and Reappraisal Be a Step Too Far When We Crave New Kate Bush Music?

_________

A review has just been published…

concerning Kate Bush’s reissues. There are these new editions of her studio albums where Bush has created a special design and cover for each of them. It is a way of ensuring that her music is kept out there and picked up by new fans. Many have asked whether there was any worth reissuing albums when there is a need and real yearning for new music. I think that there is room for both. Among the reissued albums is 2011’s Director’s Cut. This was a rare occasion of Bush reworking previous songs. Not happy with some of the takes from 1989’s The Sensual World and The Red Shoes, hearing these tracks in a new light – and with Kate Bush’s voice deeper -, it was an interesting project. Many consider The Red Shoes and Director’s Cut to be too of her weaker albums. I really like both. Director’s Cut was a chance for Bush to address niggles. Maybe the production sound not quite right on the originals. Giving these songs room to breathe, I do like that Director’s Cut exists. There are songs on other albums I think would favour a Director’s Cut: Part 2 (or maybe titling it something else!). Before I get there, UNCUT discussed the new releases of The Red Shoes and Director’s Cut:

“Coincidentally, these latest reissues also coincide with the 30th anniversary of The Red Shoes. It’s still an unloved outlier in Bush’s canon, but also an admirably ambitious move into mature adult-pop terrain and certainly more of an exotic oddity than its patchy reputation suggests. Overstuffed with guest players from Prince to Eric Clapton, Nigel Kennedy to Jeff Beck, Bush’s seventh was a lushly produced, sprawling epic that drew inspiration both from the magical 1948 Powell & Pressburger ballet film of the same name and the macabre Hans Christian Andersen story that inspired it.

Bush even directed a 45-minute film to accompany the album, The Line, The Cross And The Curve, a promo-video collection framed within a fanciful fairy tale co-starring Miranda Richardson and Lindsay Kemp. Many of the songs obliquely addressed a turbulent period for the singer, including the death of her mother Hannah, the end of her long relationship with bass player and sound engineer Del Palmer, and her new marriage to guitarist Dan McIntosh. Both Palmer and McIntosh play on the album.

The Red Shoes arrived in November 1993 to respectable chart success but unusually muted reviews for an artist accustomed to being routinely branded a genius. The shift towards uncharacteristically straight pop-rock arrangements, embraced by Bush for a planned live tour that never happened, and the clinical, digital-heavy production were key criticisms. For some, the album was an uneasy mix of muddled literary folly and musically bland compromise, stepping off the page into the sensible world.

It seems Bush herself concurred with these negative takes. Indeed, she later remixed and re-recorded the bulk of The Red Shoes in warmer, less cluttered, emphatically analogue arrangements on her 2011 album Director’s Cut. In interviews, the singer claimed she was “trying too hard” with the original’s “edgy” digital audioscapes. Winningly, she also dismissed her accompanying film as “a load of old bollocks”.

Played back to back today, The Red Shoes and Director’s Cut make for an interesting dialogue. Indeed, Bush’s improvements have not all aged gracefully. The original album’s lead single “Rubberband Girl”, a hymn to resilience that bounds along on a chugging locomotive rhythm, is not quite vintage Kate but still a pretty solid effort. In stark contrast, the rootsy 2011 remake is a mullet-haired, saloon-bar blues-rocker, easily one of Bush’s worst ever decisions.

In fairness, most tracks are transformed for the better. Like the tearful heartbreak ballad “And So Is Love”, a shimmering Talk Talk-ish confection in its original form, the wounded cry of a 35-year-old woman waking up to the cruel transience of love and life. Pitched at a lower register, the updated version is luminously lovely but less emotionally raw, a world-weary rumination on midlife melancholy as much as romantic desolation.

Another notable upgrade is “Moments Of Pleasure”, Bush’s wistful piano-led tribute to loved ones who died during the album’s gestation, including her mother Hannah, her former guitarist Alan “Smurph” Murphy and The Red Shoes director Michael Powell. Couched in Michael Kamen‘s cinematic string arrangements, the original borders on syrupy melodrama while the pared-down remake is hushed, spare and fragile. “The Red Shoes” itself, and the raunchy “Song Of Solomon” (“don’t want your bullshit, just want your sexuality”) also benefit from more experimental takes, shaking off their tasteful Peter Gabriel-isms to embrace ambient drones, percussive twangs and melismatic warbles.

Director’s Cut is not a track-by-track remix of The Red Shoes, ignoring some key original compositions altogether. Assembled remotely via transatlantic tape-swapping, Bush’s Prince collaboration “Why Should I Love You” hardly qualifies as a career peak for either artist. Even so, The Purple One’s surging, warm-blooded contributions on backing vocals, keyboards and guitar still provide an irresistible serotonin rush. As an added Stella Street bonus, comedian Lenny Henry is part of the background chorus here.

Bush also declined to remake “Eat The Music”, an effusive exercise in Afro-pop fusion full of sexually suggestive food imagery, which features the singer’s brother Paddy on backing vocals and his Malagasy musician friend Justin Vali on the zither-like vahil and boxy, guitar-like kabosy. Some critics derided this as a reductive detour into Graceland territory, but it remains the most unashamedly sunny, joyous song on The Red Shoes.

Director’s Cut also features a handful of reworked tracks from Bush’s 1989 album The Sensual World. Of these, the most fruitful is the title track, now called “Flower Of The Mountain”, which restores the direct lyrical borrowings from Ulysses that James Joyce‘s estate previously blocked. But an ambient remake of “This Woman’s Work” is wholly superfluous, softening the original’s heart-piercing piano treatment into a twinkly John Lewis Christmas advert. Kate Bush may be the last true born-again indie maverick in British pop, but her best work, like her worst, has always straddled the fuzzy border between eccentric genius and overripe indulgence”.

There are entire albums that Kate Bush never performed live. So many tracks from Never for Ever, The Dreaming and The Sensual World have not been played live. There is a case to suggest that some of the tracks from these albums would benefit from new perspective. I do think that Bush was not entirely happy with her first few albums (The Kick Inside, Lionheart and Never for Ever). Though would she want to go that far back and revisit these tracks?! She did re-record the vocal for Wuthering Heights for 1986’s The Whole Story. When there is still so limited a view of her music in terms of which songs are played on radio and the ones people know, I fear there are so many people who do not know about albums like Lionheart and The Dreaming. The Red Shoes and The Sensual World were brought back into the studio as Bush was not happy with various aspects. Maybe some of these new versions divided people, yet it as important that she did this. I am going to end with a playlist of songs from original albums that I think would make a good addition to a twelve-track Director’s Cut: Part 2. I do feel that there is a fear of over-indulgence and making good original songs poor. Even so, as many might not have heard the oriignal versions, there is cause to remake them and put them back out there. Artists are not immune to revisiting their previous work. Whether it is someone like Taylor Swift doing it so that she can put her stamp on work she did not feel she had much control and say over, or Kate Bush looking back and wanting to update the sound of The Sensual World and The Red Shoes, then it is up to them.

It is curious what UNCUT said about The Red Shoes and Director’s Cut. Which songs from the former are reworked well on the latter and which are not. It is hard to take material that might have been loved or not the first time and get everyone on board with the new versions. I like Director’s Cut, as it cleared the path for Bush to work on new music. That album also came out in 2011: the majestic 50 Words for Snow. Bush has done a bit of retrospection the past few years. If it was a way of her clearing the decks and getting new music started then fans would welcome it. Maybe Bush would want to add a new dimension to Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God). So covered and played, and so long after its 1985 release, she might provide a fresh take. In any case, there is an argument to say that a new Director’s Cut could broth introduce Kate Bush’s work to new fans. It will also provide new dimensions to songs she recorded a long time. Maybe ones that have been overlooked. As  say, there are a few songs that I think could definitely get new life and lease with a re-recording. Rather than it being from two albums, I am taking from her first seven albums, excluding The Sensual World and The Red Shoes. Maybe you will agree; maybe you feel that only new work should come through. Regardless, the below tracks are ones I feel could work wonderfully on a sequel to…

THE excellent Director’s Cut.

FEATURE: To Wash Away Your Crown… Madison Beer’s King of Everything and Men in the Industry Controlling Women

FEATURE:

 

 

To Wash Away Your Crown…

IN THIS PHOTO: Madison Beer/PHOTO CREDIT: Forbes

Madison Beer’s King of Everything and Men in the Industry Controlling Women

_________

PERHAPS an appropriate thing…

PHOTO CREDIT: Elizaveta Dushechkina/Pexels

to write about as we look at next year. We are a day away from it being a new year. In terms of things that need to be prioritised in the music industry is how women are treated. I am thinking about young artists and the way those with power will try and control them. The misogyny that goes hand in hand with that. It is a story as old as time unfortunately. So many young women – it does affect male artists but is much more prevalent with women – are subjected to abuse of power. Madison Beer is a major U.S. artist whose latest album, Silence Between Songs, came out earlier in the year. She released her debut album, Life Support, in 2021. The twenty-four-year-old has had an experience like a lot of young women in the industry. The way those higher up exert power and control. Behaviour that at best is insulting and scary. At worst, it is abusive and criminal! In an interview with NME, Beer discussed her experiences of this:

“Madison Beer has said her song ‘King Of Everything’ is about her relationship with men who have “abused their power”.

The pop singer spoke to NME about her album ‘Silence Between Songs‘, which was released in September this year. In particular, she gave the backstory to ‘King Of Everything’, which includes lyrics such as “Look what you’ve done / Taken advantage of people so young / Ridin’ the high road on everyone’s lows”.

“There’s a few topics, honestly, within that song,” she said. “There’s the direct relationship I’ve had with a few people – many people – who are those men in positions of power that I feel have maybe abused their power or not been great with it… I don’t quite know how to say it.

“You know, [there are] things I’ve seen and been through where now I’m older, I’m like, ‘That’s crazy.’”

Beer also said the song was about “growing up around so many successful businessmen and big celebrities and billionaire managers and seeing how, like, truly lonely a lot of those people were.”

She added ‘King Of Everything’ reflected “how you could have all the success and money and whatever in the world, but if you’re a miserable person, you’re gonna be miserable no matter what.

“It was pretty eye-opening to me and something I always recognised,” she continued. “So yeah, in the least harsh way possible, we wrote ‘King Of Everything’ [about all of that].”

Beer has spoken up about misogyny in the music industry before; last year, she praised Billie Eilish for her bravery in writing songs addressing the struggles of being in the industry.

“I think the topics [Billie] touches on in her music are so prolific,” Beer said. “She speaks about things that a lot of other artists don’t and are maybe afraid to, which is valid because we’ve all been conditioned to be afraid of speaking about certain things”.

There are women coming out speaking about the things they are facing. Whether it is assault or abuse, discrimination or finding they are being made to stay quiet. Madison Beer mentions Billie Eilish and how she has written about it. It can be hard for women to come forward and discuss that toxic side of the industry. Where you are this young artist that is subjected to awful behaviour and misogyny. Madison Beer, whilst she did not give specific examples, has clearly been the recipient of that blatant abuse of trust. That she can look back at it now and confront it is amazing. Her story and recollections will resonate with many women throughout music. It is obviously still happens. Not all young women will be impacted, though it is clear that there are many who do not want to speak out through fear of reprisal and commercial loss. It is obvious that next year needs to be one where the industry needs to tackle its worse aspects. From the high number of sexual abuse cases reported through to the ongoing imbalance and sexism, there is a lot to challenge and overturn. It will not be a quick process. It is important that women in the industry feel safe and secure. It is driving a lot of women out of music. Rarely tackled by many other men in the industry, that desire and necessity to protect women and ensure that they do not have to face what the likes of Madison Beer have gone through is paramount. Misogyny is something that has been rampant through the industry though the decades. Things have slowly improved, though so many women are impacted. Whether it is a label boss or producer that is abusive or controlling or a successful rising group is accused of being an industry plant, why is this sort of thing still so prevalent in this day and age?! It is a major concern that definitely needs to be eradicated.

IN THIS PHOTO: Hester Chambers and Rhian Teasdale of Wet Leg/PHOTO CREDIT: Elizabeth Weinberg for The New York Times

In November, Far Out Magazine wrote how misogyny is destroying the music industry. If women coming into music see what is happening and realise what so many of their peers have to deal with then that is really dangerous. How many are we going to lose because they would rather not have to go through that?! Something that is heartbreaking to consider:

“Pinpointing the different sources of insidious misogyny in the music industry would be enough to fill a book. In fact, many artists, journalists, and authors have actually put pen to paper to expose this exact issue. Contemporary artists, although the freedom to express and experiment musically is less likely to face trolling commentary (unless it’s the internet, in which case there absolutely will be trolls), are still susceptible to the enduring sexism that the industry refuses to loosen the reigns on.

Wet Leg and Björk, for instance, have had to deal with more than enough backlash. The former have been accused of emerging as an “industry plant” since day one because the idea that an all-women band becoming quickly successful just isn’t fathomable, is it? Haim, too, cannot escape the succession of media and internet opinions and let’s not even get started on Taylor Swift.

Let’s face the truth: women in music often face unjust labels, unequal opportunities, and a lack of recognition for their achievements compared to male musicians. Despite substantial progress in recent times, a persistent gender imbalance has disadvantaged our talented female artists for decades. From Joni Mitchell and Joan Baez to Etta James, Aretha Franklin, PJ Harvey, and many more — when will publications feature a more diverse lineup on their covers when celebrating the greatest musicians in history?”.

PHOTO CREDIT: Alex Green/Pexels

I have written about it quite a bit through this year. When there are various cases of misogyny that are reported. Features that discuss the continuing issue. Madison Beer’s words add to that. She is an amazing artist that should not have to speak about this. Men controlling her and the sort of behaviour that is reprehensible! One hopes that there was nothing as serious as sexual assault or abuse. You do worry that there are still so many men in music that feel this is okay. That they can act appallingly around young women. There are women fighting against this and sharing their stories. There needs to be more activation and commitment from the industry at large. More men speaking out and ensuring that there is this unified attack against misogyny through the industry. Without this sort of support, it is women having to battle against something that is solely created by men. Why should they have to do this alone?! They have their sisters in support, yet it is incumbent on men to lend their support. 2024 should be a year of improvement and sanitisation. Where lingering discrimination and gender imbalance is properly addressed and overturned. It is easy enough to do. There doesn’t seem to be the willing and commitment from those who have power and sway. One of the most crucial priorities for next year should be women’s safety. Showing them respect. That there are no cases of women having to talk about being controlled and feeling unsafe or unheard. It is clear that things cannot continue…

THE way things are.

FEATURE: An Embarrassment of Riches: Will the Music Industry React? The IWD FEST 2024: Putting Female Talent First

FEATURE:

 

 

An Embarrassment of Riches: Will the Music Industry React?

The IWD FEST 2024: Putting Female Talent First

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THANKS goes to…

IN THIS PHOTO: Miki Berenyi/PHOTO CREDIT: Sarah Lee/The Guardian

Cris Bowden of the Speakeasy Fanzine for making me aware of the IWD FEST. Taking place on 9th March at Bucks Student Union, High Wycombe, it is a showcase of some amazing female artists. Presented by Speakeasy and Loud Women, you can get your ticket here. It is one of the guaranteed festivals where women are not only appearing right throughout the bill. You also get female headline slots – not something that happens much at festivals in the U.K. Below is all the information you need to know about the IWD FEST:

“On Saturday 09 March 2024, the day after International Women’s Day, Speakeasy and LOUD WOMEN have joined together to bring you a day of indie goodness showcasing talented bands/artists with women at their heart: The IWD Fest. Based on statistical evidence, women dominate the music scene; they outnumber men as musical artists and they consistently top the charts, but this data doesn’t seem to translate to the main stage – fewer than 20% of headline acts at UK festivals in 2023 were female-fronted.

The IWD Fest is not only a fantastic showcase for talented artists, but it shall also serve to generate well-needed funds and publicity for SAASSBMK (Sexual Assault and Abuse Support Service Buckinghamshire & Milton Keynes - www.saassbmk.org.uk). SAASSBMK are a women-led charitable incorporated organisation serving those in Buckinghamshire and Milton Keynes whose lives have been affected by rape, sexual assault, and abuse. Their primary aim is to provide support, information, advice, and guidance to victims and survivors, empowering and enabling them to work with the trauma and suffering caused to them and their loved ones by sexual assault and abuse, including non-recent and childhood sexual abuse. All profit generated from this show will be donated to the charity.

Lineup

Formed in the late ‘80s, The Popguns are a magnificent indie band from Brighton. The band, perhaps most well known for their 1989 top 20 hit ‘Waiting for the Winter’, continue to release fantastic music, as demonstrated by their latest EP, 2023's Popism.

Post-punkers Desperate Journalist have been releasing wonderful, melodramatic, and haunting cinematic sounds since their debut LP in 2014, blending elements of likes of The Cure, Savages, and Joy Division. Always receiving rave reviews for their live performances, Desperate Journalist recently completed a successful tour supporting Britpop pioneers Suede.

Formerly of Lush and currently in both Piroshka and her own eponymous trio, Miki Berenyi will be joining us in conversation, discussing her recent autobiography and her time in the music industry.

Da Googie is the solo project of My Bloody Valentine bassist Debbie Googe, who will be performing tunes from this exciting and experimental new project.

ARXX characterize themselves as “if Taylor Swift had only listened to Nirvana.” We think this description perfectly describes their special sound.

Fraulein are a Northern Irish/Dutch duo who intertwine their early nineties grunge and PJ Harvey influences to create a thunderous racket. Having recently toured with The Mysterines and English Teacher, wider success is just around the corner for these two.

Charley Stone with the Actual Band join the bill with a deep CV. Charley was in ‘90s bands Gay Dad, Salad, and Sleeper, among numerous other projects including Desperate Journalist, who she will also be playing with today. Charley is an extraordinary entertainer and with her mesmeric guitar skills and beautiful voice, she is sure to delight and enthrall.

Nadia Sheikh is back at Bucks Student Union after her brilliant solo acoustic show at Speakeasy Volume One. This time around, however, she returns with a full band, new music, and rides in off a successful tour of Spain.

Hurtling’s sound is drowned in glorious guitar tones and noisy bass lines all underpinned by driving drums. Taking inspiration from bands such as The Breeders, Throwing Muses, and Sebadoh, Hurtling use those ingredients to cook up their own unique sonic recipe.

Laura Jayne is a singer-songwriter from the north-east of England. Laura has a stunning voice that sits on top of indie rock instrumentation, with plenty of pop thrown in for good measure.

I, Doris are feminist post-punk delivered with a fun DIY attitude and heaps of humour - a fantastic and entertaining live band that leaves an indelible mark on your memory.

Former Echobelly, Curve, and Nightnurse guitarist Debbie Smith will keep the party going with a DJ set of classic tunes to close out the festivities”.

There is a broad and brilliant line-up there. The objectives are all wise and worthy. The fact that there is so little representation of women in those headline slots is staggering! When women dominate music and are without a doubt available and ready, why are there so many excuses?! That feeling that women are a risk and gamble. It is almost like festivals are phoning it in a lot of the time with their choices. I have written about this a bit recently. It is worth keeping it in mind. I am not sure how next year’s festivals will line up in terms of their headliners. You feel we have reached a stage where there can be no excuses. Nothing that would make any sense anyway. After another triumphant years for music where women ruled, there now needs to be this reckoning. All this talent translating into festival opportunities. Headline slots too. Other countries can make female artists headliners. It seems to be something that afflicts U.K. festivals. This assumption that there are very few options available. Why would that be the case here and yet other festivals book female headliners?! It is all very angering and baffling. I can only imagine what it feels like for women throughout music who are being overlooked and insulted like this! The IWD FEST is a vital thing that shows that festivals can have amazing and varied female headliners.

PHOTO CREDIT: Wendy Wei/Pexels

It is not hard to find and book the talent! With the likes of The F-List providing a directory of amazing female talent, there are options. I also think that if organisers think of all the best albums and songs from the past year, there is another batch of names. I am going to wrap up soon. Before that, earlier in the year, God Is in the TV reacted to the state of affairs regarding headliners. After Glastonbury said that a ‘pipeline’ issue accounted for no female headliners, it seems like the industry also needs to take some responsibility:

“Nadia Khan an artist manager tweeted: “Glasto could quite easily give a headline slot away to an under-represented artist group to be part of the necessary change in the industry.”

Suddi Raval tweeted “Emily Eavis says the issue is that there’s a “pipeline” problem why they have an all-white male-only line up to headline the Pyramid stage. WTF. Just ask any black women. That’ll solve your pipeline problem.”

Lisa Pinky Ward tweeted: “I love you Glastonbury but nothing says it’s nearly #IWD2023 like announcing 3 male headliners on the Pyramid. Fancy committing to all women on the Other Stage or Park Stage? Emily Eavis eyeballing you here. It’s 2023…”

“The music industry needs to invest in more female musicians to create future headliners” explained Eavis. “We’re trying our best so the pipeline needs to be developed. This starts way back with the record companies, radio. I can shout as loud as I like but we need to get everyone on board.” Some said we are “trying” isn’t the best excuse and pointed out that 52% of the 54 names on the first lineup announcement were male. But to be fair to Emily Eavis she has long been an advocate of more balanced bills,  she said was “entirely focused on balancing our bill. It’s not just about gender, it’s about every aspect of diversity.”

Diversity of bills is also important. Glastonbury made an important statement when it chose Jay Z to headline the festival in 2008. This year, 46% of its initial 54 names feature unrepresented racial groups: including Wizkid who will headline the Other stage on Friday, Gabriels who is likely to be a highlight of the early evening on Friday, and Loyle Carner who tops the bill on West Holts on the Saturday.  “We’re probably one of the only big shows that’s really focused on this” she claimed.

Glastonbury isn’t alone. Other festivals including Download, Kendall Calling, Reading and Leeds, and a raft of others, have male-dominated and largely white, headline bills this year.

According to the BBC, a study of the UK’s biggest music festivals found that 149 headline acts – or 74.5% – are male solo acts or all-male bands. Meanwhile, 24 headliners – or 12% – are bands featuring a mix of male and female musicians, with just one headline act identifying as non-binary.

In 2021, The Isle Of Wight Festival’s initial line-up was reported to be 73% male, while TRNSMT’s was 61% male. Kendal Calling also announced an initial line-up with 79% male performers.

Overall, Glastonbury appears to be moving in the right direction. Further down the bill, this year’s lineup features Christine and the Queens, Fever Ray, Shygirl, Adwaith, Kelis, Lana Del Rey, and Blondie, and girl band Flo. Glastonbury has always championed new music. It has also taken risks in the past, Pulp replaced The Stone Roses as a headliner 1995 and stole the show in and Stormzy headlined in 2019, when he wasn’t the biggest act the world. But is the festival at the point where it’s such a huge global event that it can’t gamble on the headliner? But would it be a gamble anyway when some of the world’s biggest artists are women?

Certainly, narrowly billed, nostalgia and lad-heavy fests could learn a lot from the festival’s intentions and how it showcases new artists on its introducing stage and the diverse spread of genres that are showcased every year across the festival. But the fact that Eavis didn’t feel that any of the female artists on the bill were as “bankable” as Guns N Roses to headline, who let’s face it peaked in the late 80s and early 90s, reflects the fact that she didn’t see any of the female acts on the bill as much as a draw, not just for those attending but for the global audience at home as much, as a nostalgic reformed rock band.

Glastonbury sells out well in advance so it wouldn’t have made much difference to ticket sales, as some festival goers don’t go to Glastonbury just for the headliners but for the experience and the many stages and tents, and maybe the chance to glimpse some of the biggest acts in the world.

But she also made a good point in one that these imbalances in festival bills reflect deeper issues of gender disparity in music, the workplace, and society, with the gender pay gap. Plus the issues with a broken pipeline for developing the next generation of headliners in this country.

Vick Bain, who set up The F-List – an online directory of female musicians available to play at festivals – says the issue spans the entire music ecosystem; from inequality in education to barriers in the music business. “There’s still a lot of sexism, and that can be overt or covert, and a lot of stereotyping, which is restrictive to women,” she says. “Women in music education will be encouraged to go into music teaching, rather than performing, or will be rewarded to be singers rather than instrumentalists.”

“Then, women are far less likely to be picked up by an A&R, far less likely to be invested in, far less likely to get a manager or an agent, and all of these things mean you’re less likely to be chosen to play on festival stages.”

A report by Bain published in 2019 revealed that female acts and songwriters counted for just 14% of those signed to 106 British music publishers and that women made up under 20% of those signed to 219 British record labels. It goes back to the number of female artists who are signed, booked and that appear on radio playlists.  There are deep issues around sexism, misogyny, and racism, we have seen over recent years the stories of music industry abuse of power, highlighted by the #Metoo and on a smaller level the backlash towards new female acts like the Last Dinner Party, Panic Shack, and Picture Parlour, who have been tarred with “industry plant” and trolled online, even upon their first release.  It’s not always a welcoming industry for young women or people from minority groups.

Matt Griffiths of Youth Music reacting to the story explained “This, yet again, highlights the systemic issue regarding lack of representation in the music industry. Emily Eavis is right about the pipeline problem and that more needs to be done. But until we all address & ACT on the root causes, we’ll keep seeing festival line-ups like this.”

Standon Calling were one of the first and only major UK music festival to reach the Keychange pledge last year, and this year have gone further in ensuring that have an even split across all their headline slots as well. Last year Self Esteem was headlining the all-female night on the second stage, and had become the first artist in the festival’s 17-year history to go from headlining the second stage to headlining the main stage the following year.

Currently, 55% of the lineup are artists identifying as female or non-binary, an improvement from 30% in 2018.

“I definitely agree with the argument as, at present, there’s a much smaller pool of female headliners, and the number of festivals they’re able to play is affected by exclusivity clauses with other events. The focus on lack of female headliners is warranted but it’s due lack of supply, and we often find it’s the independent festivals who are taking the risk by elevating these artists to headline level.” Standon calling booker and manager Rob Lee explains that there’s a culture of being risk averse from many festival Booker’s, perhaps fearful of not being able to make it work financially, that it’s an issue that’s reflected not just in headliners but lower down the bill, where there is still an imbalance and this is part of the “pipeline” for festival headliners too.

“If there’s a lack of 50/50 gender balance lower down on festival line-ups (i.e. not the headliners), it’s putting up a barrier for developing female talent as they’re not being given the same opportunities to develop as male acts. We’ve found that by booking a gender-balanced lineup, we’re able to support more female and non-binary artists at an earlier stage and give them the opportunities to develop into headliners of the future.” He continues.

“There is definitely an overall feeling that lineups need to be more diverse. It seems as though that is consciously happening, just perhaps not as quickly as it needs to be.” explains Dan Garber of Tape Music Management “ However live (music) is in a period right now where I think people are playing it safe, booking sure thing ticket sellers. Obviously, if lineups have not been diverse enough before, then this can be a tricky time to push this through. Personally, I don’t think that’s any excuse, the talent and the audience is there.”

I think we can all agree that there are ALWAYS amazing female artists in this country – maybe they just need more of a chance? More of a platform? More of an even playing field, when they are often faced with sexism or overlooked for male bands who bookers claim have a so-called more “bankable name”. We can only hope that Keychange makes an incremental difference and that, as festival bills become more balanced and diverse lower down, the pool of female artists for bookers to pick from becomes even greater. To make sure there IS a pipeline for new music and new female artists and bands we need  safeguards, investment, support from the industry and government and bravery from festivals to make change happen”.

I think all of that information above makes it clear that changes can and should be made. That the IWD FEST is so important. Kudos to Speakeasy and Loud Women. It is one of a few opportunities that female artists/female-fronted artists get to on bills and headlining. I understand we should not distinguish artists by gender and divide that way. As I have said before, it is relevant doing so in cases like this. The fact is that women are not being respected. They are putting out the best music but are still not getting headline slots. This celebration of women via the IWD FEST is a lesson to festivals as to…

HOW it should be done.

FEATURE: Spotlight: Lucy Tun

FEATURE:

 

 

Spotlight

Lucy Tun

_________

AN artist quite new to me…

who I know is going to be doing incredible things next year is Lucy Tun. I am going to come to some interviews with this amazing artist. Before that, here is some biography about someone that everyone needs to check out. One of those artists who will definitely make an impression in 2024:

“There aren’t many artists who cite Björk, anime, death metal and Ru Paul’s Drag Race as their core influences. But then, Lucy Tun isn’t like most artists. Having burst onto the scene under the alias LCYTN back in 2018 with her self-released debut EP, Good Nights Bad Stories – written, produced, mixed and mastered entirely solo – the British Burmese musician followed it up with the addictive bedroom pop single “Ride”, which has almost half a million streams on Spotify. Now 23, Lucy (a proud Aquarius) has spent the pandemic further honing her sound, returning this summer to release much-anticipated new music under her real name.

Impressively, Lucy has built up a cult following in her native Myanmar. Past releases have topped national charts and in 2019 she performed to over 60,000 people at the famously high-octane New Year’s Eve countdown show in Yangon. She’s in demand at home in London too, with support from industry heavyweights on BBC Introducing and Radio 1. On top of being an accomplished singer, songwriter and producer, Lucy is a skilled DJ with monthly radio shows on Foundation FM and Balamii; not to mention the fact that she was the first-ever artist to livestream a set from London’s Facebook Studios. Pre-lockdown, she even hosted a regular club night, LCYTN & Friends. And the fashion world can’t get enough of her either — Gucci called on her to DJ the launch of their Jackie 1961 bag, Fred Perry highlighted her as a talent to watch and i-D featured her in their Summer 2021 issue.

With a creative output as diverse as her influences, Lucy is as comfortable among the glitter of radio-friendly pop and R&B as she is exploring a more electronic underworld: her music shimmers with impish, hyperactive energy undercut with potent basslines. She isn’t afraid to get introspective either, exploring themes like heartbreak, the complexities of growing up, womanhood and mental escapism. Her genre-defying song catalogue keeps listeners on their toes, weaving lofi 808-smattered production with the joyous familiarity of mainstream 00s pop. You simply can’t keep her in a box”.

I will come to some 2023 interview very soon. It is worth heading back to last year. With there being this early excitement and buzz around her, it is interesting hearing from Tun and how she feels the music landscape has changed when it comes to exposure for Asian women. It is clear that there have been some real changes and steps. NOTION spoke with an artist who has undergone change and a coming of age process:

“In 2018, Lucy Tun — then known through her tracks as LCYTN — had promised her parents that she would hit pause on her music passion to focus on her Economics degree. Only on a family trip to Burma, where her bilingual lyrics had attracted a fast-growing fan base, did her parents find out that she had not in fact abandoned her music dream. Far from it, fans were recognising her from billboard ads and approaching her in public.

A plot twist like a main character identity reveal would usually be the makings of a third act conflict, but for Lucy Tun it was just the beginning. This year, with two EPs around the corner and a full album scheduled for 2022, she’s reintroducing herself without the moniker. There’s power in a name, and I’m curious about the reasons behind the rebrand. “I have a clear objective now. I don’t want to feel limited in my identity as an artist,” she explains. “Becoming more known and more visible has been a big personal change, and I’m still taking it all in. I’m naturally quite a sensitive and anxious person, so sometimes the feeling of having eyes on you will make you a little selfconscious and less experimental.” Her visibility in the public eye has recalibrated her vision of success, too. “I guess it’s all about finding that sweet spot between wanting to give my fans something to enjoy and wanting to create something new for myself.”

PHOTO CREDIT: Nicole Ngai

Lucy’s Burmese identity is in many ways the driving force behind her pursuit of creative freedom. Burma, or Myanmar, is a Southeast Asian country where free speech and digital media censorship are ongoing matters of contention. “I was aware that the creative scenes in Myanmar and the UK were completely different, but making music in both places has opened my eyes to the value of expression,” Lucy says. “I always saw myself to be moving against the tide and moving against stereotypes, starting with my parents’ wariness of non-traditional career paths — which I’m sure many children of first-generation diaspora parents will relate to. Now I have a better appreciation of their perspective.”

Then there’s the internet, which Lucy cites as her muse. “I guess it’s weird to say that the internet is a subculture now, but it definitely was a subculture when I discovered YouTube back in 2007. Gaming culture, Nintendo specifically, was a bonding activity growing up. I had internet friends who were also creatives. Actually, one of them joined me on my first EP and that is kind of how it all started for me. I learned to produce online, I learned to DJ on digital before vinyl, so the internet is probably one of my greatest inspirations.”

PHOTO CREDIT: Nicole Ngai

Now, Lucy sees a golden era for Asian women in music and recalls how the music scene has shifted since her childhood. “The first time I saw Asians killing it in mainstream music was in the rise of J-pop and K-pop. When I was younger there wasn’t really any conversation about Asians in music. Now we have Peggy Gou, Yaeji, Rina Sawayama, Olivia Rodrigo. I’m proud to be representing Southeast Asia in particular.”

Her upcoming work will visit the themes of womanhood, introspection, taking risks and coming of age, delving deeper than her first EP— 2018’s Good Nights Bad Stories — the songwriting on which Lucy looks back critically. “The lyrics weren’t necessarily my best work. I was a first year uni student, and my focus was on having fun and creating new experiences — I never wanted to delve too deep,” she explains. But DJing has given her an edge as a songwriter. “I knew when I started music that I wanted to diversify my sound, so I spent seven or eight months learning how to DJ. From behind the decks there is some comfort in invisibility. It’s therapeutic.” It’s also a learning experience that has nurtured a greater appreciation for style and production. “Growing up, I just listened to whatever was immediate to me. DJing opened doors to a side of music I hadn’t imagined — there are songs without lyrics, songs without any inherent meaning, songs that are just pure serotonin. Then there’s the fact that it’s not your own music. It’s comforting and humbling at the same time.”

She dreams of future collaborations with artists like Pharrell and Kevin Parker (aka Tame Impala), and I can almost hear it already. “Pharrell has such a great philosophy of success — you have to try and fail to succeed,” Lucy tells me. “I’ve always been inspired by him. He has N.E.R.D., The Neptunes, his own solo art, and so many unexpected collaborations in music and business. Tame Impala is also fascinating to me. The fact that he is a solo artist but he’s often mistaken for a band, that’s the kind of range I aspire to achieve.”

For now, Lucy seeks fluency — from her thoughts to her lyrics, from LCYTN to Lucy Tun, from English to Burmese, and interestingly, from music to fashion. “I feel like any strong songwriter is also an amazing communicator, not just with words, but with telling visual stories too. I have always been interested in fashion and sometimes I make my own clothes. Yes, I knit and crochet, it’s my latest Gen Z personality trait!” she laughs. “It’s summer now, but when it gets colder you’ll see me in an obnoxiously colourful crochet hat or something…”

“I feel most at ease when it’s just me in my room, just making whatever I feel like, dressed up in something mismatched and colourful and wacky. My friends will lovingly give me the side-eye for it, but like Pharrell said — no success without failure”.

PHOTO CREDIT: Joel Barney and Oscar Ferguson

Released last month, the Unreal E.P. is one of Lucy Tun’s finest releases. Seven incredible and distinct songs from an artist who is absolutely essential listening. I think that we are going to hear a lot of great things from Lucy Tun next year. It is exciting to hear such a remarkable artist take strides. In September, NME featured an original and thrilling Electronic voice from London’s underground:

“After finishing a degree in economics and Burmese during the pandemic, and fighting through the same sense of loss and disconnection that we all experienced, Tun returned in 2021 with a new project under her own name. Her music as Lucy Tun reflects these personal changes and a desire to embrace being in the limelight.

Debut EP ‘Unreal’ (due November 10), is simultaneously a personal statement from Tun, but also her most collaborative work yet. The recent TikTok hit ‘Kulture Klub’, written with producer J. Ar. J, is a pop smash dripping with charisma and snapping 808s, while thrilling new single ‘Rabbit Hole’ saw her working with older brother Daniel, who gives the track an indie leaning.

“While I was playing the riff, I was thinking of ‘90s stuff like Garbage,” Daniel tells NME on the video shoot for the song in north London. “I think it definitely sounds a bit like a Garbage song.

“…you should check out Garbage, Lucy!” he adds, laughing.

She responds: “I thought you were telling me my song sounds fucking garbage!”

PHOTO CREDIT: Joel Barney and Oscar Ferguson

How does your work as a DJ and producer intersect with your pop music and singing? Do you see them as working hand-in-hand?

“It feels like two different mediums to express my love of music. I love a lot of different types of music, and I think most people don’t really stick to a [single] genre of music anymore. Everyone loves everything, because it’s accessible. My plan is to be able to express myself in all these different ways and not limit myself to just one thing.”

‘Kulture Klub’ went viral on TikTok earlier this year. How do you interact with the platform?

“I’ve never thought about, ‘How can I market my song?’ while I’m writing. I feel like that’s what I speak about with every artist nowadays though, and it’s a blessing and a curse. It was all done retrospectively though. I was not thinking about any of that when I wrote ‘Kulture Klub.

“TikTok is a new thing, but the idea of marketing yourself has always been there. I think about Camden High Street, and people giving out their mixtapes or USBs every day. How different is that to posting a TikTok every day? The essence is still there. If I were to give any words of comfort or assurance to artists who are struggling with it, it’s that you know what to do, because this is something that artists have always been doing – it’s just got a different name. TikTok can be like what MTV was.”

Does the release of ‘Unreal’ feel like the start of a new chapter for you?

“I’m already on the next thing. It’s already there. I’ve been waiting for this for a long time, to actually get the train going. There’s a lot more coming after this, and it won’t be a huge long break. It’s about me stepping into the light and stepping into the limelight. I went into this new project wanting all of that. I want people to know me and see themselves in me and my music”.

I am going to finish with an interview from UCLA Radio from earlier in the month. It is another interesting interview where we get new insights and layers to Lucy Tun. I love how she is influenced by Björk and how an album like Post (1995) resonates. I think that we are going to see this artist take to festival stages next year. There is a lot of love around her. Music that really connects with the listener:

“Chloe Gonzales:  Congratulations on your new EP, Unreal ! How does it feel to have it out finally? How long was it in the works for?

Lucy Tun: A really long time. The first song was made almost two or three years ago. So it’s been quite a long and spread out process of getting it together. It feels really good to have that out and in the world, but I needed two weeks after it was out to just vegetate, and ruminate, and marinate, and take it in. Yeah, I feel super happy that it’s out.

Ethan Kung: You also just recently had your release party, and it looked like a lot of fun. How’d that feel?

Lucy: Oh my god, it was amazing. It was my first headline-ish show. I actually didn’t perform live a lot this year because I was focusing on putting music out, and I wanted to save a live performance for when there was a big moment. It felt really good. It was chaotic at times, it was so busy. I have so many funny stories from that night, and it was also the first time that I actually got to meet new and old fans, because I haven’t done a lot of shows. I think the craziest thing that night was when someone told me that they drove two and a half hours to be at the show, and they got stuck in traffic because a car broke down in the middle of the road.

PHOTO CREDIT: Joel Barney and Oscar Ferguson

Ethan: Across your EP’s seven tracks, there’s a really wide range of influences, from the hip-hop beat on a song like “Kulture Klub” to the really chugging 90’s guitar work on “Rabbit Hole”. Is there a particular style on any of these songs that you can see yourself going further into in your future work?

Lucy: I really like that question. A lot of these songs are made at different points in my life. It was a time of personal growth. I was in uni and I was studying a completely different degree that isn’t music; I was actually studying an economics degree. So I was meeting a lot of different people – London is a very multicultural hub of melting cultures – and I was joining a lot of different music scenes as well. Each song was made in a time when I was in a different musical or cultural scene. So for me, this EP is a celebration of all of that growth, but as it’s my first EP, I just wanted to really lay everything out flat and be like, “this is everything that I’ve been exploring”. I wanted to see what stuck and what didn’t stick.

That’s definitely been my entire year, just seeing how people react to songs that I’ve made. I am very self conscious about my art. Do you know that Kanye West documentary [jeen-yuhs] where he’s playing his music to people, and they’re like ‘get out of my office’? I was almost the antithesis of that – I was very self conscious of playing my music. So to have it out in the world and seeing how people have reacted, I think I’ve learnt a lot from it. There’s definitely some parts of each song that I really want to package together for the next project. I want to be a lot more focused, a lot more direct.

Chloe: In another interview we saw that Björk, for example, was a musical influence – we were wondering if you had any inspiration from her regarding your aesthetic.

Lucy: I actually drew a lot of inspiration from Post. I don’t know if you listened to her podcast [Bjork: Sonic Symbolism]

Chloe & Ethan: Yes!

Ethan: It’s so good.

Lucy: Yeah! So I was inspired by her in the beginning because when I finished the songs I had around 50 that were all in the running of being in the EP.

Chloe: 50?? That’s crazy.

Lucy: Yeah and I was like, “how am I gonna whittle this down?” I would go to my local pub and sit there with my hoodie on at 3pm.

Chloe: Ooo so mysterious *laughs*

Lucy: *laughs* All the people at the pub were probably like, “oh my God, she’s here again.”

I was really trying to think about the EP as a body of work together, and in Björk’s podcast she talks about each album and breaks it down – she uses 5 to 20 words in each podcast to describe the feeling of her albums, and I was really inspired to do that with my EP. If I didn’t do that, then I wouldn’t have been as inspired to also make those kinds of visuals [for the EP]. I also think that she has so many questions – like when I think about her I just see her as someone that’s always asking questions about everything, always curious, and always wants to learn and experiment more and not really be boxed in.

Ethan: Something very iconic about Post is that all the songs are really distinct and draw from a lot of inspirations, but they come together to be very cohesive, which is something shared by your EP.

Lucy: I think that Post feels quite industrial as well. And London, I don’t know if you guys have been to London, but it’s an ever changing place. It’s so densely packed and some areas are like a concrete jungle. I think that living in London, being British has also inspired a lot of the sounds, genres, and themes of the EP, which has a slightly industrial sound as well”.

PHOTO CREDIT: Patrick Gunning

There is one more interview I want to take from. DORK included Lucy Tun in their Hype List for 2024. A songwriter whose larger-than-life music and huge talent caught their eye, they are tipping her for big things next year:

“I feel like each single has its own journey and personality. Even sonically and genre-wise, they sound not too similar. I got inspired by how each song had its own feeling and each character in Marvel has its own personality and story,” she continues expanding on the film analogy. “When a really good story is told, whether you’re a musical artist or an artist or a writer or producer, telling a good story is the main thing, if you’re able to expand that story enough so people can find all these details and take that for themselves then that’s a really good piece of art. The details are important, and world-building is important. That takes time. The main thing for me was coming to terms with the fact that good things take time. There isn’t really a rush to put something out. I’ve taken my time to build as much as I can with the songs I have now.” 

The songs themselves feature the kind of wide-eyed ecstasy and endless possibilities of dreaming that characterises her best work, like on previous banger singles like ‘Kulture Klub’. You can hear the genre-mashing sounds of guitar-led rock track ‘Rabbit Hole’ or the disco swoosh of electro turbo banger ‘Diary’. It’s intoxicating stuff. 

PHOTO CREDIT: Patrick Gunning

As well as being a visionary artist in her own right, Lucy is also part of the loose collective of artists that form the Loud LDN scene focusing on high energy, D&B-driven pop but with an experimental and refreshingly forward-thinking outlook. “It’s a crazy time,” exclaims Lucy. “It feels amazing to be coming up with people at the same time that I know and I’m friends with. It’s all happening at the same time.” Lucy also stresses how hardworking and self-nurturing these artists are in spirit and work ethic, with people like Caity Baser, Charlotte Plank, Issey Cross, and Venbee truly infiltrating the mainstream. A new generation of artists thriving in a new musical ecosystem. “For some of these artists, people will see them and think they have a huge team behind them, but it’s literally just them. The do-it-yourself energy is so high amongst all of these artists coming up at the same time. When you think about how music was consumed 25 years ago, it’s a completely different market. The entry barriers for making an album, recording it, producing a CD or vinyl, getting it in shops and having people buy it or stream it is completely different now. A track can literally be done in your bedroom on your phone. That’s so crazy. I feel really excited to make art like that as well alongside my friends.” 

Going forward, Lucy wants to continue to mesh genres and sounds and warp them to fit her own singular vision. “My idea was if I set the parameters so wide, then can anyone put me in a box?” she asks. “I wanted to put everything out there and get everything off my chest with ‘Unreal’.” So, what’s next, then? “There’s a lot of music, she smiles. “This year was the beginning, and next year is going to be much more honed in. I want to do storytelling on a larger scale and make something more conceptual. That’s something that I’m working towards at the moment. This project is testing out the waters, but the next project after that is going to be much more polished.”)”.

Go and follow Lucy Tun, as she is going to have a very successful 2024. I love the music she is releasing. She is going to inspire other artists coming through that is for sure. Unreal is one of the strongest and most interesting E.P.s of the year. A tremendous thing that everyone needs to hear. In Lucy Tun, we have a wonderful artist…

WHO is here for the long run.

_________

Follow Lucy Tun

PHOTO CREDIT: Patrick Gunning

Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/lcytn/

YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/@LCYTN

TikTok:

https://www.tiktok.com/@lucytun

Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/artist/6OtMoXdFTNYbPwyx1M6Yk6

FEATURE: Drag Queens: Diva: Feminism and Fierceness from Pop to Hip-Hop, and Redefining and Contextualizing Incredible and Empowering Women

FEATURE:

 

 

Drag Queens

IN THIS PHOTO: Cardi B/PHOTO CREDIT: Getty Images

Diva: Feminism and Fierceness from Pop to Hip-Hop, and Redefining and Contextualizing Incredible and Empowering Women

_________

IF you search for the terms…

IN THIS PHOTO: Dua Lipa attending the Variety Power of Women Los Angeles, November 2023/PHOTO CREDIT: Kayla Oaddams/WireImage

‘music divas’, you might get results that use words like ‘tricky’ and ‘difficult’. I think that this is a term that is still mis-defined and used as a negative. There are a couple of definition of diva – the latter of which is more often applied to women in music. It either relates to a famous singer or, as many seem to use the word, “a self-important person who is temperamental and difficult to please (typically used of a woman)”. Even today, when queens of Pop, Hip-Hop and beyond are owning music and inspiring so many people, they are still called a diva! Used in a judgmental and sexist way. It is not just their influence and individuality that we hear in the music. Artists dressing in a way that is true to them. The music industry often has their own idea of how women should dress and be marketed. Strong women like Dua Lipa realise how important it is women are made to feel comfortable and express themselves how they wish. It seems to be, even in 2023, that is a woman speaks out or tries to call anyone or anything out, then they are seen as a diva. I am going to come to an important book that relates to the music industry and that word, ‘diva’. If some ask if a diva is synonymous with her fashion and particular look, it can also apply to the vocal and persona. I will come more to that. Running at the V&A at the moment is an exhibition that spotlights the diva. You can buy a ticket here. Below are some more details:

“The Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) in London opened its DIVA exhibition to the public on 24 June 2023. DIVA celebrates the extraordinary power and creativity of iconic performers from the genres of opera, pop music, film and more.

The immersive exhibition features costumes from a galaxy of stars. This includes five key looks worn by Rihanna, and Whitney Houston’s 1994 Marc Bouwer floor-length black and gold dress worn to receive her three Grammys for The Bodyguard soundtrack, as well as Billie Eilish’s Stella McCartney Glastonbury outfit from 2019. There is also a lilac Versace deconstructed suit worn by Lil Nas X during a red-carpet appearance in 2021.

In addition, the exhibition shows objects drawn from the V&A collection and loans from across the world. These span the mediums of fashion, photography, design and costumes, as well as music and live performance.

Through its theatrical staging and scenography, a planetarium-style architectural takeover by BAFTA-winning video designer Tal Rosner, and a sonic headset experience by tonwelt, a leading full-service provider of interactive visitor guiding systems, DIVA honours the creativity, ambition, and tenacity of some of the most celebrated divas, from opera goddesses and silent movie stars to icons of the big screen and today’s global stars.

IN THIS PHOTO: Diva Constellations for Act Three of DIVA at the V&A London/IMAGE CREDIT: Tal Rosner

What do we mean by diva?

Curator Kate Bailey speaks about the process of curating the exhibition, exploring and redefining the role of the ‘Diva’, and also examining how the term has been subverted or embraced over time across opera, stage, popular music, and film.

‘Diva’ was a Latin term meaning ‘goddess’. It became part of everyday parlance in the 19th century, initially describing the very best opera singers of the period.

“The exhibition doesn’t provide a single definition of a ‘diva’,” she tells blooloop. “It celebrates how the term has a myriad of meanings. It considers how it has been redefined, subverted and reclaimed across time and genre. We trace the story of the diva from 19th-century opera to a celebration of the diva in music today. This exhibition celebrates how the diva finds their voice and fights for equality and freedoms using their platform and agency to make a difference in society.”

DIVA covers two levels beneath the V&A’s dome. It charts the inception and historical context as well as the evolution of the diva through posters, paintings, bespoke costumes and ephemera comprising around 250 glittering artefacts”.

IN THIS PHOTO: Beyoncé/PHOTO CREDIT: Mason Poole/Parkwood Entertainment/Getty Images (via Teen Vogue)

I do think that the use of the word diva has drastically shifted from that goddess and fierce woman to something nastier and more derogatory. In 2020, the Welsh National Opera wrote about how that word has been repurposed and appropriated by the media. Used to almost shame and undermine women. I do think that we need to shift that narrative and realise that, at times, a diva can be demanding and controversial. More importantly, it is about iconic fashion, incredible talent and this freedom of self-expression that should be embraced – and not subjected to misogyny and sexism:

“Today, in red-top tabloid terms, if a woman is referred to as a ‘diva’ it usually means she’s difficult, temperamental and demanding. Why and when has the word diva, or its associated term ‘prima donna’, become such derogatory and sexist descriptions of women? Both words can be sourced to the world of opera in 18th and 19th century Italy. In a period of huge inequality between men and women in society, at least on the stage of opera houses, the female voice and talent was revered and celebrated quite as much as the top tenors of the day.

“It is no surprise that words that originally highlighted women of talent and success mutated into an unflattering and disparaging description with its roots in sexism. Even today, the media reflects everyday sexism in its descriptions of women in the public eye. Female politicians or entertainers are patronised and criticised for being bossy and difficult ‘divas’ rather than just ambitious and assertive like their male counterparts. So, let’s reclaim diva and prima donna for their true and operatic meanings: in praise of women of sheer talent, star presence, ability and success in their chosen field. Beyoncé is the perfect diva of popular music: strong, brilliant, and supremely successful. Just as Renée Fleming, Anna Netrebko, Joyce DiDonato, Cecilia Bartoli, Angela Gheorghiu, Mary Elizabeth Williams, Rebecca Evans and so many others, are our true divas of today. Brava prima donna!”.

Women judged on how they dress also relates to sexual shaming. That is another thing that is applied to the music diva. Being slut-shamed. If they are not virtuous and covered up then they are subjected to attack and misogyny. The most awful comments and judgements. I have been thinking about the music diva. An incredible new book, Diva: Feminism and Fierceness from Pop to Hip-Hop, is edited by Dr. Kirsty Fairclough, Dr. Benjamin Halligan, Dr. Shara Rambarran and Dr. Nicole Hodges Persley. You can grab a copy here. It is a book that is vital and very important. Something we should all think about. How that word is applied. What the modern diva is. Here are some details:

“The diva – a central figure in the landscape of contemporary popular culture: gossip-generating, scandal-courting, paparazzi-stalked. And yet the diva is at the epicentre of creative endeavours that resonate with contemporary feminist ideas, kick back against diminished social expectations, boldly call-out casual sexism and industry misogyny and, in terms of hip-hop, explores intersectional oppressions and unapologetically celebrates non-white cultural heritages. Diva beats and grooves echo across culture and politics in the West: from the borough to the White House, from arena concerts to nightclubs, from social media to social activism, from #MeToo to Black Lives Matter.

Diva: Feminism and Fierceness from Pop to Hip-Hop addresses the diva phenomenon and its origins: its identity politics and LGBTQ+ components; its creativity and interventions in areas of popular culture (music, and beyond); its saints and sinners and controversies old and new; and its oppositions to, and recuperations by, the establishment; and its shifts from third to fourth waves of feminism.

This co-edited collection brings together an international array of writers – from new voices to established names. The collection scopes the rise to power of the diva (looking to Mariah Carey, Whitney Houston, Dolly Parton, Grace Jones, and Aaliyah), then turns to contemporary diva figures and their work (with Beyoncé, Amuro Namie, Janelle Monáe, Cardi B, Megan Thee Stallion, Shakira, Jennifer Lopez, and Nicki Minaj), and concludes by considering the presence of the diva in wider cultures, in terms of gallery curation, theatre productions, and stand-up comedy”.

 IN THIS PHOTO: Prof. Kirsty Fairclough is one of the editors of Diva: Feminism and Fierceness from Pop to Hip-Hop/PHOTO CREDIT: Greater Mancunians

The book is useful in a number of ways. There is still that un-nuanced association with the word. That idea that the diva is controlling and somehow horrible. It is sexist and misogynistic, as there are men throughout the industry who are as bad or worse and are not called a diva or called out at all. It is this word that was once celebratory and a high compliment. Though the centuries and decades, it has transformed and twisted into something one-dimensional and offensive. This woman who is maybe to be avoided. In fact, the word takes on new meaning. It isa broader term that something wholly negative. As Diva: Feminism and Fierceness from Pop to Hip-Hop outlines, Hip-Hop queens today are so influential and empowering. Often seen as diva-like and difficult, they are these cultural figures impacting music, politics, society and art. There are some more villainous examples of divas but, when you look at the legends and the new wave emerging, they are at the “epicentre of creative endeavours that resonate with contemporary feminist ideas”. Go and buy the book and find out more. For me, I have always balked at the idea of a diva and how people perceive it. That dismissive and insulting word that is applied to women who are bold, confident and commanding. Not fitting into ideals or conforming to sexist ideas, there is box (and an exhibition at the V&A) that looks at the way women are kicking back at those who demean and limit them. Fighting against those special expectation. Letting their voices influence fellow women and so many corners of their industry. e really need the diva. Someone who causes trouble and says what needs to be said. Rather than see the diva as an off-putting and negative figure, these strong and inspiring women should be…

CELEBRATED and respected.