Music gender traitor

The following is coloured, of course, by my own musical tastes and latent Canadian patriotism.

I was nodding along to this until she mentioned post-rock as an example of "dude music." Because Sophie Trudeau is definitely the noodlingest member of Godspeed You! Black Emperor/Silver Mt. Zion (as well she should be; as far as I can tell, she's the most musically talented one in the band) and on a macro level, their music reverses the polarity of chick singer/male musicians.

I also don't like the implication that dudely music is an exploration of form over content (i.e., wanking on guitar and singing about nothing important), while lady music is the reverse. I don't like wank for the sake of wank, but one of the things I love about post-rock is that it's really both. The lyrics are absolutely all about the oppressed, while the music is unpredictable and multifaceted.

Anecdotal evidence:

This is not "music that has nothing to offer people who are disenfranchised or oppressed, because it either is totally uninterested in their disenfranchisement/oppression, or actively profits from it," and, video-aside, if you listen to it rather than watch the video, the three female musicians are the ones in the foreground. Also, they're doing something interesting, unlike most, uh, socially conscious music.*

Anyway, I think the phenomenon Silvana talks about is definitely a real thing. It's just that one's taste in music is so highly subjective (at least when we're talking about popular music) that it's nearly impossible to map onto politics. Even if "he has a shit-ton of records, but none are by women" is a pretty good indication that a dude has Issues With Women.

(For the record, I snerked at the mention of Pavement, because for utterly personal reasons, Pavement will always read as a dudely band for me. Also, I have a slight preference for female voices over male, which widens to a huge preference when it comes to, say, opera.)

All this is to ask: Am I the only 30-something feminist who doesn't see what the big deal about Sleater-Kinney is?


* Not that I always need something interesting going on in my music. I'm fine with breathtakingly poetic lyrics and music that just sounds good, or vice versa. But when it's both, I do get really excited. When it's neither, no amount of political solidarity will keep me from mocking it.

Music gender traitor

The following is coloured, of course, by my own musical tastes and latent Canadian patriotism.

I was nodding along to this until she mentioned post-rock as an example of "dude music." Because Sophie Trudeau is definitely the noodlingest member of Godspeed You! Black Emperor/Silver Mt. Zion (as well she should be; as far as I can tell, she's the most musically talented one in the band) and on a macro level, their music reverses the polarity of chick singer/male musicians.

I also don't like the implication that dudely music is an exploration of form over content (i.e., wanking on guitar and singing about nothing important), while lady music is the reverse. I don't like wank for the sake of wank, but one of the things I love about post-rock is that it's really both. The lyrics are absolutely all about the oppressed, while the music is unpredictable and multifaceted.

Anecdotal evidence:

This is not "music that has nothing to offer people who are disenfranchised or oppressed, because it either is totally uninterested in their disenfranchisement/oppression, or actively profits from it," and, video-aside, if you listen to it rather than watch the video, the three female musicians are the ones in the foreground. Also, they're doing something interesting, unlike most, uh, socially conscious music.*

Anyway, I think the phenomenon Silvana talks about is definitely a real thing. It's just that one's taste in music is so highly subjective (at least when we're talking about popular music) that it's nearly impossible to map onto politics. Even if "he has a shit-ton of records, but none are by women" is a pretty good indication that a dude has Issues With Women.

(For the record, I snerked at the mention of Pavement, because for utterly personal reasons, Pavement will always read as a dudely band for me. Also, I have a slight preference for female voices over male, which widens to a huge preference when it comes to, say, opera.)

All this is to ask: Am I the only 30-something feminist who doesn't see what the big deal about Sleater-Kinney is?


* Not that I always need something interesting going on in my music. I'm fine with breathtakingly poetic lyrics and music that just sounds good, or vice versa. But when it's both, I do get really excited. When it's neither, no amount of political solidarity will keep me from mocking it.