Lockdown! at the Disco #33: The Womxn in Music Episode (Part One)

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This one goes out to all of our women and non-binary listeners – and all of our wonderful allies too. And remember, if your feminism doesn’t include transgender women then you’re not a feminist and you can’t sit with us. Okay, honey?

Let’s rock –

TRACK ONE: “Barracuda” – Heart

That was the almighty “Barracuda” by Heart – a band who, to my mind, remain one of the most under-appreciated rock bands of all time led by the incredible Wilson sisters who can not only shred guitars like total bosses but damn, their voices are also unreal.

And we’re playing that because this is Part One of our Womxn in Music episodes where we’re celebrating trailblazing women in music which means we’re showing some love to the women who paved the way for the crop – particularly at a time when it was even more difficult to prosper in the industry as a woman – but also the women who are currently leading the charge and standing their ground in an industry which continues to be difficult to navigate. Particularly if you’re a woman or non-binary person of a marginalised identity.

Now, this isn’t the history channel, honey. This episode is not supposed to be a thorough in-depth presentation about the history of women in music or the current landscape of the music industry for women, but more a celebration of the artists who give us strength, power, inspiration, motivation, and VIBES every time we listen to them.

We’re paying our respects, and this is the first of many episodes to do so. This episode will also be a little longer than usual because we’ve received such a massive response to this week’s theme that we’re kind of overwhelmed by content! Hence why we’re breaking it up into parts.

We’re also super excited this episode as we have the amazing Ella and Eve from Where Are the Girlbands joining us for an interview and a coupla scoops of ice cold bops, so stay tuned for that cos they’re such a pleasure to listen to about music.

A little content disclaimer on this episode, some of the songs featured on today’s episode may feature language or references to things that might not be appropriate for younger listeners. We’ll be avoiding directly triggering content and keeping this episode as uplifting as ever, but as a heads up we are also going to be touching upon some subjects regarding some difficult struggles that are experienced by marginalised women within music scenes and society itself. 

We’ll be keeping the balance though, people. And Lockdown! at the Disco will always be your haven throughout this current hellscape.

But let’s get into it, shall we? This next track was requested by Autumnsy on Discord who says of the artist, “I didn’t even know I’d been listening to her for as long as I have. She’s set the scene for a lot of younger artists too.” – and how Autumnsy! This is “Boys Wanna Be Her” by one of my all-time fave queer babes, Peaches:

TRACK TWO: “Boys Wanna Be Her” – Peaches
TRACK THREE: “Golden Phone” – Micachu & the Shapes

From one queer babe to the next, that was the incredible Micachy & the Shapes with “Golden Phone” from the band’s debut album Jewellery from 2009. Leading that band was musical maverick Mica Levi who has since gone her own way to enjoy some even bigger successes.

In 2013, she quite notably wrote one of the most phenomenal movie scores of the modern era with her eerie soundtrack to Jonathan Glazer’s horror sci-fi masterpiece Under the Skin. Meanwhile, in 2016 she was nominated for an academy award for her score for Pablo Larrain’s Jackie, making her only the fourth woman in history to have been nominated for such an award, and the first ever gay woman to be nominated for it.

Mica Levi dropped a surprise new album at the end of last year called Ruff Dog which is a lo-fi grunge gem of a joint that really highlights her versatility and playfulness as an artist and damn, I just love her to bits. Massive recommendations that if you haven’t already, then go and seek out any music from Micachu & the Shapes and Mica Levi, because wow wow wow wow WOW!! She’s an absolute avant-garde star star.

And now, we’re gonna pay a couple of respects to some old school women in music who have really laid down the red carpet for a lot of women to follow. First up we have perennial avant garde art folk weirdo Kate Bush – who may be a bad Tory, allegedly, maybe – but damn, she made some jams back in the day.

Moon Vampire shared that Kate Bush is her favourite trailblazing woman in music on our Discord, and told us: “I love her music and she was only 19 when she topped the UK singles Chart for four weeks with her song “Wuthering Heights”. She became the first female artist to achieve a UK number one with a self-written song which I think is so amazing and inspiring as a woman. Her genre revolves around art rock as her songs are quite avant-garde”

Indeed. This is “Hounds of Love” by Kate Bush.

TRACK FOUR: “Hounds of Love” – Kate Bush

TRACK FIVE: “What’s Love Got to Do With It” – Tina Turner

That was my girl Tina Turner with “What’s Love Got to Do With It” and that was requested by Tom on our Discord, who says: “She’s my favourite trailblazing woman in music because not only did she find the courage to break out from an abusive relationship with her husband Ike Turner, but she continued to hit the top of the charts with her blend of rock, pop, and R&B”.

I’ve long been obsessed with Tina Turner myself Tom and have always found so much strength and inspiration from her as an artist and as a woman. She’s remains such a unique performer and in terms of how she blended genres and how she remained loud and tough within a scene that was actually not all that friendly to a woman of a colour reclaiming rock n roll as her own.

It’s worth remembering here, that rock n roll and rock music in general remains an indomitable white boys club and it always has been. Which is especially frustrating when you consider that black women invented rock n roll. In the 1930s and 40’s Sister Rosetta Tharpe would strut out there with her electric guitar and wail, honey.

And every white boy with a guitar who followed was hugely influenced by her without her getting much of the credit. So to then see a black woman like Tina Turner taking rock n roll back for herself in the 70s and 80s and merging it into her own sound is incredible.

We also shouldn’t underplay the dynamics of her relationship with Ike Turner and how that impacted upon her and her career – and how she continued to fight to keep the name she built for herself and the career, too. This is sadly something that we see a lot in the music industry to this day, where abusive, narcissistic and powerful men manipulate and control talented women and often take the credit for – and the profits from – the amazing work that they’ve done.

We saw it in the lawsuit Kesha brought up against producer Dr Luke, artist Alice Glass remains outspoken about the horrendous treatment she received from her ex-partner in Crystal Castles, and more recently we’ve all become more aware of it with #FreeBritney campaign which is centered around the way her father continues to have full legal control over her personal life, career, and – ding ding ding!! – her bank account, based solely upon Britney’s mental health issues.

It’s a problem in music and one which most artists are sadly not able to talk about publicly because of contractual bindings which is super upsetting and hopefully something that changes very soon.

This is “Q.U.E.E.N. feat. Erykah Badu” by Janelle Monae and it was requested by Rowan.

TRACK SIX: “Q.U.E.E.N. feat. Erykah Badu” – Janelle Monae
TRACK SEVEN: “Don’t Cry Big Girls” – MC Lyte

That was the incredible MC Lyte with “Don’t Cry Big Girls” and she’s renowned for being one of Hip Hop’s earliest female MC’s. She’s rightly celebrated for being one of the first women in hip hop during the 80s who spoke out against misogyny and sexism within the industry and on the streets and who reflected on social ills, inequality, and gender dynamics in the rhymes of many of her songs.

MC Lyte is a foundational figure in hip hop, particularly in Brooklyn where so many huge names from the genre sprung up, and she really paved the way for important artists including Lil Kim, Biggie Smalls, Jay Z, and Mos Def. So, show some love to her because she is phenomenal.

This next track is by one of my favourite transgender artists, ANOHNI – who is the artist formerly known as Anthony Hegarty from Anthony and the Johnsons. Funnily enough, the same year that Mica Levi was nominated for an academy award for their score work on Jackie, Anohni became the first openly transgender person nominated for Original Song at the academy awards for her song “Manta Ray” from Racing Extinction.

ANOHNI has one of the most astoundingly wonderful and unique and haunting voices in music and last year she released a couple of beautiful cover songs which really brought some peace and affection to a terrible year.

This is ANOHNI covering the Gloria Gaynor’s classic anthem of resilience, “I Will Survive”.

TRACK EIGHT: “I Will Survive” – ANOHNI
TRACK NINE: “She” – Dodie

That was “She” by Dodie and many of you gave shoutouts to her on our Discord channel as a woman worth of today’s episode. Rosa, Autumnsy, Rowan, and Yaboi all shared how much they adore Dodie and take strength from her for different reasons.

Yaboi said, “Her music’s really cool but she also opened up a lot of dialogue about mental health stuff and about experiencing disassociation, so it was very comforting for a lot of us who experience the same things.”

The group also talked about how helpful it was to see Dodie talking openly about being bisexual as they navigated their own sexualities. And “She” is a really gorgeous song which celebrates the queer female gaze whilst also exploring how society still frames there being something wrong with queer lust and affection and love.

Which as we all know is a load of rubbish because love is love and be as gay as you want, honey! So songs like this which so proudly explore and present this sentiment are always so so appreciated.  

But now, I am sick of the sound of my own voice and I am going to very enthusiastically hand the mic over to Ella and Eve from Where Are the Girl Bands. My co-worker and Safe Spaces co-lead Emily very kindly helped to set up this interview, which is an absolute gem by the way.

Some introductions first, Where Are the Girl Bands can be found on Instagram @wherearethegirlbands and also on Tumblr via wherearethegirlbands.tumblr.com, and it’s a project that not only celebrates women in music but also provides discussions about how to make local music scenes more accessible for everyone.

It’s one of my favourite Instagram profiles and I’m so glad that it exists, so we put together a few questions about women in music and local music scenes for Ella and Eve and had our Emily send them over to them to answer and this is what they had to say about everything…

PLAY: “Ella & Eve interview part 1”

TRACK TEN: “Blurry” – Karman

PLAY: “Ella & Eve interview part 2”

TRACK ELEVEN: “Orange Roses” – Lazygirl

TRACK TWELVE: “Laughing” – Tilly Louise

Thanks so much for chatting with us Ella and Eve and those three tracks we played there, in order, were “Blurry” by Karman, “Orange Roses” by Lazygirl, and “Laughing” by Tilly Louise which was requested by our Emily.

And as a reminder you can find Where Are the Girl Bands on Instagram @wherearethegirlbands and on Tumblr via wherearethegirlbands.tumblr.com

And that brings us to the end of another episode, gang! Next week we’ll be continuing our celebration of women in music with part two of this series, so please continue to send in your thoughts and your song requests and your shoutouts to me about this topic via amy@comicsyouth.co.uk.

I’m also thrilled to announce that we’re currently still recruiting a young production team to help me out here with podcast production duties for Lockdown! at the Disco with the potential to expand their skills in developing other shows for Comics Youth Radio as a whole.

For more information on that please check out comicsyouth.co.uk/discoteam and also be sure to check out our current recruitment for the Class of 2021 programme we’re launching at the start of February as part of Safe Spaces. This year we’re doing poetry workshops, making issue #2 of the newspaper, putting together blogs and campaigns and a bi-monthly art zine and blog space as well as an art trail – we’re doing it all.

If you’re aged 13 – 25  and identify as LGBTQIA+, non-binary, or female and like the sounds of that then check out our website comicsyouth.co.uk/safe-spaces-2021 for more information and to get involved and join the boss community we have here and all the ace creative opportunities we provide.

Until next episode remember, everything is not cool but it can be! Stay safe, stay sassy, and my goodness, keep on supporting and celebrating women – especially your LGBTQIA+ and BAME women.

This is Sister Rosetta Tharpe with “Down By the Riverside” and this is Amy Roberts, signing off.

Byeeeeee!

TRACK THIRTEEN: “Down by the Riverside” – Sister Rosetta Tharpe