The Arts Beat
By Andrea Martell
Carole Pope was once the front for an ’80s Canadian rock band called Rough Trade and everything she did was ground-breaking.
She returned to town in October headlining for the Rock ’n Women tour at Barrymore’s, a testament to how far women in music have come in the last 10 years.
There is still a ways to go, but women in music are no longer a passing fad. This is not the “Year of the Chick.” Women have arrived in music.
Ten years ago you could listen to almost any radio station for an hour and only hear one or two female voices on the radio. Usually Madonna or Tiffany. Young girls didn’t have many choices of female musicians to emulate either in style or substance.
Nowadays, you can listen to a pop station for hours and strain your ears waiting to hear a male voice amongst the Sarahs, Shanias, Celines and Spice Girls of today.
OK, so scantily clad women screaming “girl power” has little substance, but would a song like “Bitch” by Meredith Brooks or “Any Man of Mine” by Shania Twain have even gotten played ten years ago? Would they be stars?
Sarah McLachlan’s Lilith Fair tours, the most prominant showcase of women in music, have received a lot of criticism for excluding men.
Excluding men from musical festivals isn’t going to help level the playing field, or at least theoretically it shouldn’t.
But it has. Right or wrong, Lilith Fair was the most successful tour financially in 1997.
Some would say the debate takes away from what matters, the music.
But does it?
In the end, the music will triumph for the same reason that it should be taken seriously whether the musician or artist is male or female.
Music like poetry or the written word is affected by the artist’s gender since it is a part of who they are. But when the muse speaks to the artist and creates the kind of music that causes you to believe you’re touching a mystical past as you sit in silence drinking in every word and every note as the the music fills your blood, gender doesn’t matter.
In time, as music by women becomes more acceptable, all that will matter is the haunting notes of music that you carry with you for a lifetime.
So let women rock on their own if they want to, it will just mean more good music has a chance to rise to the top.