Women Singer-Songwriters in Rock: A Populist Rebellion in the 1990s - Softcover

Lankford Jr., Ronald D.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0810872684 ISBN 13: 9780810872684

Publisher: Scarecrow Press, 2009

Synopsis

In Women Singer-Songwriters in Rock: A Populist Rebellion in the 1990s, Ronald D. Lankford Jr. argues that women singer-songwriters formed a substantial movement within popular music during the 1990s, making a significant social and aesthetic contribution that pushed feminism into mainstream American culture. Lankford examines in depth the work of several artists―including Alanis Morissette, PJ Harvey, Liz Phair, Courtney Love, Tori Amos, Sarah McLachlan, and Sheryl Crow―offering thorough descriptions and analyses of their music, lyrics, and album art. By looking at both the broader movement and individual performers, this book provides a comprehensive and accessible overview of the movement and its message.

Lankford introduces the singer-songwriter movement and the artists and genres that paved the way for these 1990s rockers, establishing the arch of the popular movement of women in rock as it mirrored the rise of third wave feminism and sketching the cultural and political landscape that served as a backdrop to the women's singer-songwriter movement during the 1990s. Drawing from resources in books, journals, and zines, Lankford focuses on the exploration of women's issues within the music through analyses of its lyrics and album art and examines how the often hard-edged feminist content was able to filter into mainstream popular culture. To help illustrate this, the book includes a select discography of albums and singles, including their placement and number of weeks spent on various charts. A complete bibliography and index round out this important study, which is a must for fans and scholars of music, popular culture, and women's studies.

About this title

About the Author

Ronald D. Lankford Jr. is an independent scholar and freelance writer. He is the author of Folk Music USA: The Changing Voice of Protest (2005).

From Booklist

Lankford readably examines the 1990s work of Alanis Morissette, P. J. Harvey, Liz Phair, Courtney Love (and her band, Hole), Tori Amos, Sarah McLachlan, and Sheryl Crow, and discusses selected themes in the singer-songwriter world, from the riot grrrl philosophy to the less confrontational style of performers at McLachlan’s brainchild, the Lilith Fair, which reflects her mellow tastes, for which she and it were criticized. Despite very pronounced differences in musical styles, all these women wrote and sang their own material. Lankford notes that the women singer-songwriter trend arrived roughly simultaneously with third-wave feminism, and he believes the trend shares many qualities with the ideology, which he contends was born out of the nomination of Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court. These singer-songwriters’ music, which he says constitutes populist feminism, became the soundtrack to many third wave feminists’ and non-feminists’ lives in the 1990s. Fans of the individual artists will enjoy Lankford’s detailed discussions of their music, as will anyone who wants to understand this particular aspect of 1990s pop-music culture. --June Sawyers

About this edition

• Publisher: Scarecrow Press
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 0810872684
• ISBN 13: 9780810872684
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 274