Lorna Irvine looks at a new wave of female musical talent that refuse to fit into the current 'glamour' mould.
There is a sea change coming in pop music today—an antidote to Rihanna, Beyonce, Gaga, Jessie J, Rita Ora et al. Not cookie-cutter beautiful with no stylists or record companies telling them what to wear. They are independent, smart and totally unique.
For every pouting R 'n' B diva, all cleavage, wet-look leggings and cooing facile, oxymoronic songs of 'independence' and 'doing it like a dude', there are female performers with something real to say, instruments to play and discernible charisma.
Even after all of Beyonce's claims of independence, she still simpered, “I'll cater to you.” Right on, sister! It evokes an image of Beyonce in curlers, a la Hilda Ogden, handing Jay Z his pipe and slippers, which would be hilarious, were it not so reductive. It's like feminism never happened. Don't get me started on Rihanna, returning to the man who beat her severely, one Chris Brown, or her dodgy, hyper-sexualised videos which make Madonna look coy. And it is hard to take singers like Jessie J seriously when they are writhing around in skimpy clothes on all fours, singing about empowerment. 'Forget about the price tag'...really? How much did that haircut cost, Jessie? Or your vertiginous heels? Whatever happened to ability over style and sexuality?
Don't get me wrong. I am not picking on artists who use nudity per se. PJ Harvey, Liz Phair, The Slits, Bjork, Martha Wainwright, Natasha Khan, Siouxsie and Grace Jones have all done naked shoots, but they were to satirise how women were packaged, artistic statements of intent, disturbing or just plain cheeky. None were designed to be sexual for the sake of it; all fitted within the context of their artistry. Indeed, Siouxsie's hit single Peek-A-Boo dealt with her disgust at women's portrayal in pornography in 1988: “She's sneering behind a smile / Lunge and thrust and pout and pucker/into the face of the beguiled.”
More recently, in 2000, hip hop artist and poet Sarah Jones bemoaned the Li'l Kim pornified booty-shaking paradigm in Your Revolution, an update of Gil Scott-Heron's seminal The Revolution Will Not Be Televised: “It's not about booty size or Lexus you drives/ your revolution will not happen between these thighs.”
Swedish singer Lykke Li has spoken in several interviews about how music journalists seem all too keen to pigeonhole her music, which is almost nigh on impossible as it spans so many genres with African drumming, doo-wop, rockabilly and sulky indie pop thrown into the mix—sometimes all in one song. She also feels a sense of deep resentment and frustration at the constant reference to her looks. Speaking to indie music paper Stool Pigeon in March 2011, she argued:
"It's what people choose to focus on when they talk about me. It's like 'If you're a woman you're always gonna be in the women's category, but if you're a man you can be spoken about as a great artist- a great songwriter'. I just think that's bullshit. If you go to YouTube and watch one of my videos, 90 per cent of the comments are about the way I look, or that I'm ugly or whatever...I'd like to strip away all the production and let my songs stand as they are. But everything I do is so sexually weighted; it has all these undertones that I haven't particularly chosen. So we're far from being equal, it's not an equal society...And we shouldn't be happy until it's gone. It's about allowing yourself to be complex as a woman.”
Post-Adele, there is a quiet stream of wonderful women singer-songwriters pushing through who are being judged on their skills as artists. Lianne La Havas, Emeli Sande and Laura Mvula are all attractive young ladies, but that's simply not the point—Sande sang at the Olympics opening and closing ceremonies; La Havas was nominated for the prestigious Mercury prize for debut album Is Your Love Big Enough? last year, Mvula made the top ten 'most influential breakthrough artists' list for 2013 in the BBC's Sound Of 2013 poll, and all three co-write and perform their own music and play piano or guitar. They are also incredibly intelligent, funny and likeable. None, thus far, have done the lads' mags.
Micachu, aka London-based artist Mica Levi, is a true exponent of experimentalism. Ferociously anti-image, she appears to be chewing a sweet in an unflattering photo on her website, makes gritty pop which sounds like it's been put into a blender and often performs live using Henry the Hoover, wonky hip hop samples, saws and drills. She is the true spirit of punk, feeling no need to 'do pretty' or stroke the mainstream.
All of these women are about the sounds they make, big personalities, the ideas contained within the music and the creative process itself...and they don't need to bend over, booty shake or appear in thongs in FHM to do so. Sometimes, genuine talent will out.
Oh, Beyonce, up yours!
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