Lockdown! at the Disco #34: The Womxn in Music Episode (Part Two)
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Okay, ladies, non-binary folk, and assorted allies – are we ready for round two of celebrating womxn in music?
Okay, honey. Get ready, we’re gonna go back in. We’re gonna go go go…
TRACK ONE: “Pin” – Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Hiya love! That was “Pin” by Yeah Yeah Yeahs – fronted by the awesome art-punk weirdo Karen O and this is episode #34 of Comics Youth Radio presents Lockdown! at the Disco. I am your host Amy Roberts, beaming in from the ungodly streets of Fairfield and Kensington, and today’s episode is part two of our celebration of women in music.
Like last time, we’re here to blast our fave tunes by wxmen and non-binary musicians from past and present who have smashed barriers, fought for their rightful place within the industry, and left massive influential statements with their work. And as ever, we want to pay particular celebration to women who identify as LGBTQIA+ and to women from the BAME community.
We’re also going to be chatting about women in music and going a little more in depth about some of the artists that we’re playing today and why they’re on the playlist.
As a heads up, we recommend today’s episode be listened to by young people aged 13+. This episode will at times be delving into issues of bodily and sexual autonomy and may not be suitable for younger listeners so parental discretion is advised. Like last week, we’ll also be doing our absolute best to avoid issues and language of a triggering nature though we are discussing some of the barriers faced by marginalised women in society and within the music industry. As a final disclaimer, a couple of songs on today’s playlist do also feature some mature language and themes.
This is obviously a one-off whilst we discuss some deeper subject matter, and our next few episodes should hopefully be more suitable for younger listeners.
Today’s episode has been put together with the awesome help of lthe very talented ocal music writer Megan Walder who has been making some really cool pieces of work for our Safe Spaces Trail here at Comics Youth.
Megan has picked a few songs for today’s episode which you’ll be throughout the show. And this is her first request – which was also requested by Rosa. Of this band, Megan says, “Lead singer Fee Booth is a powerhouse. As a part of the LGBTQIA+ community, she is unapologetically herself. They were the support for the first gig I ever reviewed and I’ve seen them bloom ever since.”
This is “Coke” by Bloxx:
TRACK TWO: “Coke” – Bloxx
TRACK THREE: “Black Dog” – Arlo Parks
That was “Black Dog” by Arlo Parks, and it was also picked by Megan who says that the song is, “A tale of depression that has infiltrated the mainstream. I’m so excited for her debut album and for her gig at the Arts Club in Liverpool, whenever it can happen.”
I think loads of us are currently sitting on gig tickets that were meant to take place last year which are just like hanging in rescheduling limbo at the moment. I have about three left which haven’t been cancelled at this point and which keep getting moved back and back. I think De La Soul have given us about five different rescheduled dates at this point, bless them. We live in hope that the vaccine gets distributed properly by this government and that live music makes a comeback at some point in 2021.
But back to Arlo Parks anyways – Katie Heyes, who is a big part of our Safe Spaces crew, also suggested Arlo Parks to us on Twitter as one of her favourite trailblazing women in music at the moment.
Arlo’s debut album, the beautifully titled Collapsed in Sunbeams was released at the end of last week and it’s gorgeous. Exactly what 2021 ordered to be honest. Galdem published a really wonderful interview with Arlo Parks ahead of the album’s release last week too which I highly recommend you all read – we’ll pop a link in the show notes for yers so you can find it easy – where she talks about her vast cultural influences which include everyone from King Krule to Bright Eyes and My Chemical Romance to Frank Ocean.
She also talks about her love of poetry – citing black feminist and lesbian trailblazers like Pat Parker, Adrienne Rich, and Audre Lorde alongside the beat masters like Ginsberg and Burroughs as art she loved as a teenager which, quote, “felt really human” and “focused on small details”.
As a bisexual black woman, Arlo provides some fresh representation for queer people of colour, which she told Galdem is important because in terms of such representation for her growing up, QUOTE “There wasn’t really a wide range, especially in alternative music. So it’s amazing to be that for other people.”
One person who doesn’t get nearly enough kudos or celebration for providing this kind of representation within alternative is Skin from Skunk Anansie. On top of being a queer black woman in alternative music – and openly and proudly so – she’s also by far got one of the most commanding voices in musical history.
That’s not hyperbole, it is not exaggeration. Skunk Anansie were a heavy alternative band in the 90s exploring a great deal of issues within their music regarding youth culture, identity, sexuality, and even social issues like addiction. But because of that, I feel that Skin’s talent was just written off because she was a queer black woman making heavy music and that just didn’t fit the role that society tends to want black women to fit into – to be palatable, to be marketable.
Skin didn’t care about any of that. She would charge out there in the most outrageous, beautiful outfits and celebrate herself and her talent and refuse to be ignored and refuse to make herself smaller or more easier for the mainstream to digest.
She remains a one-of-a-kind rock star talent and my goodness, just listen to this voice will yer? There are few voices in music which can stack up to this.
This is the ridiculously named “Charlie Big Potato” by Skunk Anansie. Play it loud…
TRACK FOUR: “Charlie Big Potato” – Skunk Anansie
TRACK FIVE: “16 Psyche” – Chelsea Wolfe
That was my goth wife Chelsea Wolfe with “16 Psyche” from her ridiculously good 2017 album Hiss Spun. Wolfe is one of those witchy women – but like, a good one? Not like Lana De Rey – who is just so talented and who just emanates this incredible ethereal power.
Hiss Spun is much heavier than her usual sound – which is usually quite dark and brooding still but very delicate and thoughtful and atmospheric. She’s a phenomenal songwriter and performer and if you like you’re music a little dark like that, then definitely explore her back catalogue. You’ll be probably be dyeing your hair black by the end of it.
Now, we’re gonna delve back in to celebrating some women in hip hop who have really made massive public statements and occasionally been a little controversial for it too – because you know what folk are like. They don’t like women with opinions – and society especially doesn’t show enough respect for black women with opinions.
This next band I’m gonna play are one of the most influential mainstream hip hop acts of all time and they’re Salt-N-Pepa. Now, what I love about them is that they loved to explore gender dynamics – and were particularly outspoken against double standards and everyday casual sexism and microaggressions in music and within the music scene of the 90s.
But they were also a band who weren’t afraid to explore their sexuality in a very open way and to engage with what that meant as three black women in the public eye. Their approach to openly talking about sex – particularly at a time when the AIDs crisis was at its peak and yet legitimate education was still scarce regarding it – was revolutionary for music that was getting played on mainstream radio.
Salt-N-Pepa had the attitude that not talking about sex was dangerous. Not only in terms of personal health and wellbeing, but on a societal level too. They encouraged conversation and education in order to empower people and to create safer consensual environments for sexuality to be explored within.
This song I’m gonna play here is a phenomenal anthem about sexual and boldily autonomy which challenges ideas regarding double standards within society but also the idea – which we ran a whole campaign about in Safe Spaces last year – that your body and what you do with it is nobody’s business.
So long as you you’re not hurting yourself or anyone else, then your body is yours, honey. Keep your dialogues open, have conversations, discuss consent, and stay safe. This is “None of Your Business” by Salt-N-Pepa and the language gets a little fruity, so err – content disclaimer on this one, but it’s a pure belter.
TRACK SIX: “None of Your Business” – Salt N Pepa
TRACK SEVEN: “Paper Planes” – MIA
That was “Paper Planes” by MIA, another phenomenal woman who is mostly known for being an MC, but all-in-all MIA is first and foremost an activist who uses her music as a platform with which to explore social, political, and philosophical issues.
“Paper Planes” is by far her most well known and beloved track, but she’s got so many better tunes worth digging into as well. But I’m playing that one because it’s still so groundbreaking to me that MIA managed to make an anti-capitalist anthem about the dangers of colonization and the hell that immigrants are unnecessarily forced into such a massive mainstream hit.
Granted, the true meaning of the song was likely lost on a lot of people who probably just loved it for its beats and flow and jagged production style. But over the years since it was released in the early 00s, people did gradually wake up to what Paper Planes actually means and how it continues to relate to how difficult it remains for immigrants to get their papers and their rights to live in a place. And it continues to be a massive fight for immigrants – possibly even worse now than it was back then, which is harrowing.
The song is renowned for how it uses gunshot sound effects as part of its core chorus beat, but it’s also been controversial for it. Speaking to The Daily Beast, MIA stated that she added these in because it’s something she herself is familiar with and stated, QUOTE:
“If you’re an immigrant you left somewhere and most of the time you fled a war. Gun sounds are a part of our culture as an everyday thing. If you’ve been exposed to gunfights and violence and bombs and war then I can use those sounds backing my thoughts, ya know? Look, I’ve been shot at so I’m quite comfortable with gunshot sounds. If you have a problem with it, go and talk to the people who were shooting at me.”
And there’s actually a really terrific documentary about M.I.A that you can watch on Netflix at the moment called Matangi/Maya/M.I.A which I hugely recommend.
Next up we have a band requested by Rosa who says that the first time she heard any of their music she was like, “Whoa, are girls allowed to do this?”
HECK YES! This is Deeply Unlovable by The Empty Page.
TRACK EIGHT: “Deeply Unlovable” – The Empty Page
TRACK NINE: “Mr 10pm Bedtime” – GIRLI vs The Tuts
That was “Mr 10pm Bedtime” by GIRLI vs The Tuts and it was another amazing pick by Megan who says about it:
“Mr 10pm Bedtime is a battle between some of my favourite womxn in the music industry. GIRLI is an advocate of being whoever you want to be, using her TikTok to share amazing womxn and their achievements in a cis-gender male dominated world.
“The Tuts are a three piece who came to my attention through their Solidarity Not Silence activism campaign and legal defence fund. Along with Petrol Girls, they have poured their profits into fighting a legal battle after being accused of deformation of character when outing a man’s treatment of women within a small musical community.
They have sidelined their career progression to ensure that the world becomes that bit safer for the marginalised voices who come after them.”
Thanks for that, Megan. We touched upon this last episode too, that there is still a lot of work to be done within the music industry concerning issues like this. It happens within grassroots, DIY music communities – like the one that Petrol Girls and The Tuts came out of – and it also happens much higher up to within mainstream music.
And the main messaging that always comes out of this is Believe women. And we’ll add on to that to say, Believe marginalised people. Because the way in which women are often ignored or not believed or are brushed aside when they raises complaints or accusations against men concerning their conduct and behaviour and treatment of women, is something that fits in across the board with how every marginalised person is spoken over and not taken seriously or has their own accusations and complaints just swatted away.
It’s something that we can even see within something like Black Lives Matter – that’s a campaign that was forced to spring up and to maintain life and to get louder and bigger each time because black voices weren’t being listened to and weren’t being taken seriously when complaints and accusations were raised. Even when there was cold, hard evidence that could prove that these accusations were legit.
So, a reminder: Believe women, believe non-binary people, believe marginalised communities. And support them. Look out for one another and raise concerns about behaviour as and when you become aware of it.
We have to all work together to make communities safer and more inclusive.
Now, I’m off my soap box for another day. This next artist is someone that Megan describes as ‘an up and coming artist who will bloom in the next few years” and says that this track is QUOTE “all about perspective and attempting to find your place.”
This is “If I Were You” by Claud.
TRACK TEN: “If I Were You” – Claud
TRACK ELEVEN: “Password Change” – Olivia Dean
That was the well dreamy “Password Change” by Olivia Dean which is the last of Megan’s picks for today’s episode. She says of the song, “Password Change is about an argument the narrator has with her partner. She struggles to find her place in terms of where his priorities are and their journey of learning one another’s love languages, all hidden in the guise of a metaphor.”
And that brings us to the end of another episode! This is our reminder that we’re currently recruiting for this year’s Safe Spaces gang – where you can do all sorts of creative work, get published, and learn new skills within an inclusive and supportive marginalised community! This year we’re gonna be running media campaigns, making issue #2 of our newspaper, working on a bi-monthly zine, developing an art trail. You can find out more info about that by checking out our website comicsyouth.co.uk/safe-spaces-2021.
Crucially, we’re also giving Lockdown! at the Disco a bit of shiny ol’glow up with your help. We’re recruiting a young production team to help me out with podcast production here on the show. So if you’re aged 13 – 25 and would like some experience with any part of the podcast production process – from curating playlists, writing scripts, providing researching for fun nuggets of trivia, or even just recording your own segments for episode – then come get involved!
You can find out more information about that checking out our website comicsyouth.co.uk/discoteam. No experience is necessary cos yours truly will be providing pep talks and training and mentorship the whole way.
Our next episode is a super exciting one and it marks the start of a series of real awesome ones celebrating LGBTQIA+ History Month. We have some extra special treats in store for that, but we’re starting with an episode exploring LGBTQIA+ history in music.
If there’s a particular LGBTQIA+ artist you want to hear for that episode who you think contributed in major way to the community and to music then get in touch with me to tell me about them amy@comicsyouth.co.uk, or if you’re on our Safe Spaces Discord then you can pop your request into the radio subchannel on there.
But until then, remember: Everything is not cool, but it can be. Stay safe, stay sassy, and my goodness stay cool, kool thing! And let’s continue our attempts at trying to liberate us girls from white male corporate oppression.
This is “Kool Thing” by Sonic Youth and this is Amy Roberts, singing along and signing off…
Byeeeeeeee!!
TRACK TWELVE: “Kool Thing” – Sonic Youth