HERE COMES EVERYONE POST: Playlist of the Week - Lovely Ladies

Today is the hundredth international women’s day, and to celebrate I have complied a list of excellent female musician’s who have contributed a great deal to music and the arts. These women and their work may not have been as groundbreaking or vital as the likes of Mo Mowlam or Marie Curie, but they have contributed to our popular culture, and heightened the female voice within music and society. Here are some landmark female acts, and their landmark tracks (or alternatively my favourite tracks by them).

1. Bjork – “Wanderlust”
God I love Bjork. She is just so quirky, mad, adventurous and different. I love it that her music and the way she presents herself scares people. We all need to be taken out of our comfort zone otherwise we stagnate, and Bjork does this so well, confronting audiences with the confusing depths of female creativity. “Wanderlust” is a bizarrely beautiful sonic escapade, with an equally curious and adventurous video.
2. Madonna – “Express Yourself”
Many old fashioned feminists hate Madonna, thinking she is harmful to ‘the cause’. With a few questionable enterprises aside (I’m thinking of her Sex book here), Madonna has done so much for feminism, such as opening up female sexuality to a huge audience, and providing women with a role model that was as punchy, powerful and arrogant as any man. “Express Yourself” is one of my fav Madonna tracks, and has a great message for women – ‘don’t go for second best’, do not settle, go for a good man or no man.
3. Marina and the Diamonds – “Are You Satisfied”
Ah, Marina. I love her for her quirky pop, her intelligence, and for her open allegiance with feminism. Lyrically her work spreads a very positive, modern, proactive attitude towards women, without any preaching and little anger. “Are You Satisfied” is a great track, questioning the still prolific attitude many women have - that all you need to be happy is a simple job, husband, kids and a mortgage. A fate worse than death if you ask me.
4. Salt-N-Pepa – “Push It”
This is such a bitchin’ track, and a great example of women making fantastic strides in a hugely male dominated culture. “Push It” was the best selling rap single of 1987, but was still aligned with feminism, and of women taking control with sex, quite, quite literally.
5. Janelle Monae – “Come Alive (War of the Roses)”
Janelle Monae doesn’t have an overt feminist message per se, but she is a very independent, talent musician and singer, who has fantastic ideas, knows her own mind, and makes sure she has creative control over the music she produces. She also typically performs in a high-buttoned androgynous suit – a miraculous amount of female modesty in the current R&B landscape.
6. Lily Allen – “The Fear”
Lily Allen’s work has in my mind been of questionable feminist intent at times, but for the most part she has held the feminist corner and fought the good fight. “The Fear” is my favourite of Allen’s tracks, as it very dryly and sarcastically questions the worryingly facile attitudes of many young women in the 21 centaury.
7. Kate Bush – “Wuthering Heights”
With “Wuthering Heights”, Kate Bush became the first female UK artist to reach number one in the charts with a self-penned song. Its pretty appalling that it took until 1977 for a British woman to achieve such a feat. It is a cracking song though – bizarre and different, and based on a book which was itself rife with lashings of pre-feminism courtesy of Emily Bronte.
8. Hole – “Celebrity Skin”
Courtney Love may be a questionable feminist icon, given that she is often a complete mess, and much of her career has been formed from the success of her husband, dearly departed Kurt. Hole however, were a pretty bloody good grunge band, with a solid, 3rd wave feminist approach and numerous girl members. This song questions female celebrity culture, with the lyric ‘beautiful garbage' being a particularly astute observation.
9. Spice Girls – “Wannabe”
Yes, I concede, as adults we all know the Spice Girls churned out some god-awful shit, but within context they were incredibly important. They made music that appealed to young girls, but it also had a good message behind it. The Spice Girls promoted independence, individuality and self-worth through their songs, and I remember thinking when I was a little girl listening to their music that I could do anything I wanted, and that friends, family and most importantly myself was just as important as any boyfriend. “Wannabe” started this pre-teen revolution, and has definite validity.
10. Bikini Kill - “Rebel Girl”
Bikini Kill’s feminist credentials are obvious – being at the forefront of both the Riot Grrrl and 3rd wave of feminism movement. Bikini kill actually wrote some pretty bloody excellent songs, “Rebel Girl” being my favourite. This song, and the group’s music generally, is lo-fi, punchy, grungy punk at its purest and best. The female vocals work really well, and the track’s lyrics gave us the famous line ‘Rebel girl - you are queen of my world’. Awesome.
11. Alanis Morissette – “You Oughta Know”
Alanis Morissette is a fantastic woman, and a personal inspiration for me from a young age. I have always admired her anger, her passion and her integrity. A lot of men don’t like her, possibly because she sings of the ugly home truths that some men simply cannot deal with. “You Oughta Know” is the perfect example of this, vehemently chastising an ex over broken promises and a dead relationship. She expresses the angst, anger, hatred, disappointment, betrayal and confusion that so many women feel in and out of relationships lyrically and sonically in this infamous song. 

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