Women's music
Encyclopedia
Women's music is the music by women, for women, and about women (Garofalo 1992:242). The genre emerged as a musical expression of the second-wave feminist movement (Peraino 2001:693) as well as the labor, civil rights
Civil rights
Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from unwarranted infringement by governments and private organizations, and ensure one's ability to participate in the civil and political life of the state without discrimination or repression.Civil rights include...

, and peace movement
Peace movement
A peace movement is a social movement that seeks to achieve ideals such as the ending of a particular war , minimize inter-human violence in a particular place or type of situation, often linked to the goal of achieving world peace...

s (Mosbacher 2002). The movement was started by lesbians such as Cris Williamson
Cris Williamson
Cris Williamson is an American feminist singer-songwriter, who achieved fame as a recording artist, and who was a pioneer as a visible lesbian political activist, during a time when few who were not connected to the Lesbian community were aware of Gay and Lesbian issues...

, Meg Christian
Meg Christian
Meg Christian is an American folk singer associated with the Women's music movement.-Biography:She graduated from the University of North Carolina and moved to Washington, D.C. in 1969, where she performed in nightclubs and began writing material from an explicitly political and feminist perspective...

 and Margie Adam
Margie Adam
Margie Adam is an American musician and composer. Adam is one of the pioneers of the Women's Music movement.- Early life and education:...

, African-American women activists such as Bernice Johnson Reagon
Bernice Johnson Reagon
Bernice Johnson Reagon is a singer, composer, scholar, and social activist, who founded the a cappella ensemble Sweet Honey in the Rock in 1973.-Early life and education:...

 and her group Sweet Honey in the Rock
Sweet Honey in the Rock
Sweet Honey in the Rock is an all-woman, African-American a cappella ensemble. They are an American Grammy Award-winning troupe who express their history as women of color through song, while entertaining their audience. They have together worked from four women to the difficult five-part harmony...

, and peace activist Holly Near
Holly Near
Holly Near is an American singer-songwriter, actress, teacher, and activist for social change.-Early years:...

 (Mosbacher 2002). Women's music also refers to the wider industry of women's music that goes beyond the performing artists to include studio musicians, producers
Record producer
A record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...

, sound engineers, technician
Technician
A technician is a worker in a field of technology who is proficient in the relevant skills and techniques, with a relatively practical understanding of the theoretical principles. Experienced technicians in a specific tool domain typically have intermediate understanding of theory and expert...

s, cover artists, distributors, promoters
Promoter (entertainment)
An entertainment promoter i.e. music, wrestling, boxing etc is a person or company in the business of marketing and promoting live events such as concerts/gigs, boxing matches, sports entertainment , festivals, raves, and nightclubs.- Business model :Promoters are typically hired as independent...

, and festival organizers who are also women (Garofalo 1992:242).

History

In the late 1960s and early 1970s there were few "positive women's images within popular music" and a "lack of opportunities for female performers" (Garofalo 1992:243; Mosbacher 2002). At the time, major record labels had only signed a few women's bands including Fanny, Birtha, The Deadly Nightshade, Goldie and the Gingerbreads and the band that they evolved into, Isis (Garofalo 1992:243). The lack of inclusion of women in the mainstream made it necessary for women to create a separate space for women to create music. Lesbian and feminist separatism was then used as a "tactic which focused women's energy and would give an enormous boost to the growth and development of women's music" (Garafalo 1992:244).

Out of the separatist movement came the first distributed examples of music created specifically for lesbians or feminists. In 1972, Maxine Feldman, who had been an "out" openly gay performer since 1964, recorded the first lesbian record, "Angry Atthis," (Atthis was lover of the poet Sappho) a single with lyrics specific to her feelings and experiences as a lesbian. In 1973, Alix Dobkin
Alix Dobkin
Alix Dobkin is an American folk singer-songwriter.-Biography:Alix Dobkin was born in New York City and raised in Philadelphia and Kansas City. She graduated from Germantown High School in 1958 and the Tyler School of Art with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1962...

, flautist
Flautist
A flautist or flutist is a musician who plays an instrument in the flute family. See List of flautists.The choice of "flautist" versus "flutist" is the source of dispute among players of the instrument...

 Kay Gardner
Kay Gardner
Kay Gardner, , was a municipal politician in Toronto, Ontario.She was born in Poland and moved with her family to Canada in 1929. The family lived in Alberta and British Columbia. In 1947 she married a journalist, Ray Gardner, in London, England. In 1961 they moved to Toronto where Ray obtained a...

, and bassist Patches Attom created the group Lavender Jane, and recorded an album entitled Lavender Jane Loves Women, the very first full-length album for and by lesbians. In the same year the feminist all women band The Chicago Liberation Rock Band recorded Mountain Movin' Day. These early recordings were successful despite the lack of traditional distribution and promotion. They were sold through mail order and in a few lesbian
Lesbian
Lesbian is a term most widely used in the English language to describe sexual and romantic desire between females. The word may be used as a noun, to refer to women who identify themselves or who are characterized by others as having the primary attribute of female homosexuality, or as an...

-feminist bookstores, like Lambda Rising
Lambda Rising
Lambda Rising, an LGBT bookstore that operated from 1974 to 2010 in Washington, D.C..Founded by Deacon Maccubbin in 1974 with 250 titles, it was known for its wide selection of books, ranging from queer theory and religion to erotica, as well as DVDs, music CDs and gifts.The bookstore was...

 in Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....

, and were promoted by word of mouth (Garafalo 1992, Mosbacher 2002).

Record labels, distributors, and publications

Olivia Records
Olivia Records
Olivia Records was a collective founded in 1973 to record and market women's music. Olivia, named after the heroine of a pulp novel by Dorothy Bussy who fell in love with her headmistress at French boarding school, was the brainchild of ten lesbian-feminists living in Washington, DC who wanted to...

, the first women's music record label, was created in 1973 by a collective including artist Meg Christian. Starting with a single that was successfully sold by mail order, Olivia was able to release Meg Christian's I Know You Know and Cris Williamson's The Changer and the Changed. The Changer and the Changed was "one of the all-time best selling albums on any independent label" (Lont 1992:245) at that time, and was also the first LP
LP album
The LP, or long-playing microgroove record, is a format for phonograph records, an analog sound storage medium. Introduced by Columbia Records in 1948, it was soon adopted as a new standard by the entire record industry...

 to be entirely produced by women (Koskoff, 1989:208). "Changer" is the all-time best-selling album to come out of the women's music genre.

Several other independent labels were created by artists such as Kay Gardner
Kay Gardner
Kay Gardner, , was a municipal politician in Toronto, Ontario.She was born in Poland and moved with her family to Canada in 1929. The family lived in Alberta and British Columbia. In 1947 she married a journalist, Ray Gardner, in London, England. In 1961 they moved to Toronto where Ray obtained a...

 with the record label Wise Woman/Urana, Margie Adam
Margie Adam
Margie Adam is an American musician and composer. Adam is one of the pioneers of the Women's Music movement.- Early life and education:...

 with the record label Pleiades, Ani DiFranco with the record label Righteous Babe Records, and Holly Near
Holly Near
Holly Near is an American singer-songwriter, actress, teacher, and activist for social change.-Early years:...

 with the record label Redwood Records in 1972. Redwood records expanded the scope of women's music recordings to include women of color by recording Sweet Honey in the Rock
Sweet Honey in the Rock
Sweet Honey in the Rock is an all-woman, African-American a cappella ensemble. They are an American Grammy Award-winning troupe who express their history as women of color through song, while entertaining their audience. They have together worked from four women to the difficult five-part harmony...

, an a cappella
A cappella
A cappella music is specifically solo or group singing without instrumental sound, or a piece intended to be performed in this way. It is the opposite of cantata, which is accompanied singing. A cappella was originally intended to differentiate between Renaissance polyphony and Baroque concertato...

 group of African-American singers founded by Bernice Reagon in 1978 (Lont 1992, Koskoff 1989, Carson et al. 2004). As these record labels grew so did the music genres represented, and the ethnic and social diversity of the artists expanded. Several other labels were also formed by artists; Berkeley Women's Music Collective, Woody Simmons, and Teresa Trull were distributed by Olivia through their network.

With the growth of independent record labels and increasing demand for women's music, an organized system for distribution and promotion became necessary. Goldenrod Music was formed in 1975 to distribute for Olivia records, and later expanded distribution to include other labels. Ladyslipper, a non-profit organization
Non-profit organization
Nonprofit organization is neither a legal nor technical definition but generally refers to an organization that uses surplus revenues to achieve its goals, rather than distributing them as profit or dividends...

 formed in 1976 to promote and distribute women's music. Olivia's informal network formed WILD (Women's Independent Labels Distributors) formed in 1977 to distribute music into different regions of the United States. The organization had two purposes - to formally network and educate distributors on sales and business issues, and to bargain with Olivia while Olivia's financial pressures in turn pressured the distributors. In 1978, a national booking company, Roadwork Inc. was formed to promote women artists (Koskoff 1989, Lont 1992, Mosbacher 2002).

Between 1984-1994, "HOT WIRE: The Journal of Women's Music and Culture" was created and published in Chicago by a large group of volunteers. It was founded by Toni Armstrong Jr., Ann Morris, Michele Gautreaux, and Yvonne Zipter. The publication focused exclusively on lesbian feminist musicians, festivals, venues, and various topics pertaining to writing, theater, dance, comedy, and the arts. "HOT WIRE" came out three times/year and each 64-page issue included a soundsheet with at least four songs by lesbian and/or feminist artists. It had international distribution and a website is in the works to provide downloadable articles from all of the back issues. Former editor Toni Armstrong Jr. has continued to be involved in women's music as a performer, concert producer, and currently edits the "Long Time Friends" e-newsletter "for veterans of the women's music industry."

Women's music festivals

The first women's music festival occurred in 1973 at Sacramento State University. From 1973-1976 many other festivals were organized including the first National Women's Music Festival at Champaign-Urbana, Illinois in 1974. The Michigan Womyn's Music Festival
Michigan Womyn's Music Festival
The Michigan Womyn's Music Festival, called "the Original Womyn's Woodstock" and often referred to as MWMF or Michfest, is an international feminist music festival occurring every August since 1976 near Hart, Michigan...

 was created in 1976, and has become the largest festival in the United States (Morris 1999:28). Newer festivals include Lilith Fair
Lilith Fair
Lilith Fair was a concert tour and travelling music festival, founded by Canadian musician Sarah McLachlan, Nettwerk Music Group's Dan Fraser and Terry McBride, and New York talent agent Marty Diamond. It took place during the summers of 1997 to 1999, and was revived in the summer of 2010. It...

 which toured from 1997–1999; the Women's International Music Festival created in 2004 near Akron Ohio, the Festival sizes vary; at WIMFEST in 2004 there were 320 attendees and in 2005 they saw double that number. WIMFEST.COM returned in 2009 in Chillicothe Ohio with great success and is being planned for 2010. The Eastman School of Music’s Women in Music Festival was begun in 2005 as a celebration of the contributions of women to all aspects of music: composition, performance, teaching, scholarship, and administration. From its modest beginnings of Eastman students and faculty members performing music by women composers, the Festival has grown to include additional concerts and events throughout Rochester, NY and to host composers-in-residence, who have included Tania León (2007), Nancy Van de Vate (2008), Judith Lang Zaimont (2009), Emma Lou Diemer (2010), and Hilary Tann (2011). To date, the Women in Music Festival has presented more than 291 different works by 158 composers. Many other festivals have been created throughout the United States and Canada since the mid-1970s and vary in size from a few hundred to thousands of attendees. The newest festival is the Los Angeles Women's Music Festival
Los Angeles Women's Music Festival
The Los Angeles Women's Music Festival was a 2007 Los Angeles based summer music festival that featured exclusively female solo artists and female-led bands.-Overview:...

, which kicked off in 2007 with over 2500 attendees, and which will return in 2009.

Though the festivals are centered on music, they support many other facets of lesbian and feminist culture. Designed to provide a safe space for women's music and culture, many festivals are held on college campuses or in remote rural locations. Many festivals offer workshops on topics concerning the lesbian and feminist community, offer activities such as arts, crafts, fitness classes, and athletic events, and serve to provide opportunities for women to take advantage of resources they often cannot find in mainstream culture. Bonnie Morris describes in her book Eden Built by Eves, how festivals serve women throughout the stages of their lives. Festivals support a safe space for coming of age rituals for young women, adult romance and commitment ceremonies, the expression of alternative perspectives on motherhood, and the expression of grief and loss (Morris 1999). Currently, festivals continue to thrive in the United States and other countries.

Lilith Fair
Lilith Fair
Lilith Fair was a concert tour and travelling music festival, founded by Canadian musician Sarah McLachlan, Nettwerk Music Group's Dan Fraser and Terry McBride, and New York talent agent Marty Diamond. It took place during the summers of 1997 to 1999, and was revived in the summer of 2010. It...


Notable artists

  • Ani DiFranco
    Ani DiFranco
    Ani DiFranco is an American Grammy Award-winning singer, guitarist, poet, and songwriter. She has released more than 20 albums, and is widely considered a feminist icon.-Biography:...

  • Kittie
    Kittie
    Kittie is a Canadian heavy metal band formed in London, Ontario in 1996. A quartet of women, the group rose to success in 1999 when the track "Brackish" from their debut album Spit became a hit single...

  • Margie Adam
    Margie Adam
    Margie Adam is an American musician and composer. Adam is one of the pioneers of the Women's Music movement.- Early life and education:...

  • Jamie Anderson
    Jamie Anderson (musician)
    Jamie Anderson is an American female singer from Tucson, Arizona, best known as a performer of women's music. She is based in Ottawa, Ontario.Anderson first began touring the U.S. in 1987, and released her debut album in 1989. She was voted Favorite New Performer by Hot Wire in 1990 and 1991, and...

  • Joan Baez
    Joan Baez
    Joan Chandos Baez is an American folk singer, songwriter, musician and a prominent activist in the fields of human rights, peace and environmental justice....

  • Meg Christian
    Meg Christian
    Meg Christian is an American folk singer associated with the Women's music movement.-Biography:She graduated from the University of North Carolina and moved to Washington, D.C. in 1969, where she performed in nightclubs and began writing material from an explicitly political and feminist perspective...

  • Alix Dobkin
    Alix Dobkin
    Alix Dobkin is an American folk singer-songwriter.-Biography:Alix Dobkin was born in New York City and raised in Philadelphia and Kansas City. She graduated from Germantown High School in 1958 and the Tyler School of Art with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1962...

  • Melissa Etheridge
    Melissa Etheridge
    Melissa Lou Etheridge is an American rock singer-songwriter and musician.Etheridge is known for her mixture of confessional lyrics, pop-based folk-rock, and raspy, smoky vocals...

  • Ferron
    Ferron
    Ferron, born Debby Foisy on , is a Canadian folk singer/songwriter and poet. In addition to being one of Canada's most famous folk musicians, she is one of the most influential writers and performers of women's music, and an important influence on later musicians such as Ani DiFranco, Mary Gauthier...

  • Tret Fure
    Tret Fure
    Tret Fure is an American singer-songwriter, prominent in the women's music scene.Fure started her career as a backing vocalist on rock albums by Spencer Davis and Little Feat, and released her self-titled solo debut album in 1973 on MCA Records...

  • Kay Gardner
    Kay Gardner (composer)
    Kay Gardner was a musician, composer, author, and musical producer involved in using music for creative and healing purposes. Her compositions include works for chamber orchestra, symphony orchestra, choir, flute, voice and piano...

  • Ronnie Gilbert
    Ronnie Gilbert
    Ronnie Gilbert is an American folk-singer. She is one of the original members of the Weavers with Pete Seeger, Lee Hays, and Fred Hellerman.-Career:...

  • Barbara Higbie
    Barbara Higbie
    Barbara Higbie is a Grammy nominated, Bammy award winning pianist, composer, violinist, singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. She has played on over 65 CD's including 3 tunes on the recent Carlos Santana CD. A longtime Windham Hill recording artist, she has also recorded for Olivia/Second...

  • Indigo Girls
    Indigo Girls
    The Indigo Girls are an American folk rock music duo, consisting of Amy Ray and Emily Saliers. They met in elementary school and began performing together as high school students in Decatur, Georgia, part of the Atlanta metropolitan area...

  • International Sweethearts of Rhythm
    International Sweethearts of Rhythm
    The International Sweethearts of Rhythm was the first integrated all women's band in the United States. During the 1940s the band featured some of the best female musicians of the day...

  • Kinnie Starr
    Kinnie Starr
    Alida Kinnie Starr Pierre is a Canadian singer-songwriter from Calgary, Alberta. Her music, which blends hip hop and alternative rock, has been described as "hip hop aggro groove". Her songs have been included on the soundtracks for the TV series The L Word and the movie Thirteen...

  • Phoebe Laub
    Phoebe Laub
    Phoebe Snow was an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist, best known for her chart-topping 1975 hit "Poetry Man"....

  • Laura Love
  • June Millington
    June Millington
    June Millington is a Philippine-American guitarist, who along with her sister bassist Jean Millington, drummer Alice de Buhr, and keyboardist Nickey Barclay founded Fanny, which was signed with Warner Brothers' Reprise Records in 1969 and released five albums by 1974, including Fanny, Charity...

  • Holly Near
    Holly Near
    Holly Near is an American singer-songwriter, actress, teacher, and activist for social change.-Early years:...

  • Odetta
    Odetta
    Odetta Holmes, known as Odetta, was an American singer, actress, guitarist, songwriter, and a human rights activist, often referred to as "The Voice of the Civil Rights Movement". Her musical repertoire consisted largely of American folk music, blues, jazz, and spirituals...

  • Bonnie Raitt
    Bonnie Raitt
    Bonnie Lynn Raitt is an American blues singer-songwriter and a renowned slide guitar player. During the 1970s, Raitt released a series of acclaimed roots-influenced albums which incorporated elements of blues, rock, folk and country, but she is perhaps best known for her more commercially...

  • Bernice Johnson Reagon
    Bernice Johnson Reagon
    Bernice Johnson Reagon is a singer, composer, scholar, and social activist, who founded the a cappella ensemble Sweet Honey in the Rock in 1973.-Early life and education:...

  • Peggy Seeger
    Peggy Seeger
    Margaret "Peggy" Seeger is an American folksinger. She is also well known in Britain, where she lived for more than 30 years with her husband, singer and songwriter Ewan MacColl.- The first American period :...

  • Linda Shear
    Linda Shear
    Linda Shear is a singer/songwriter and piano player. On May 13, 1972 she performed in the first out Lesbian concert in the U.S. at the University of Illinois, Chicago Circle Campus. She was accompanied by percussionist Ella Szekeley...

  • Sweet Honey in the Rock
    Sweet Honey in the Rock
    Sweet Honey in the Rock is an all-woman, African-American a cappella ensemble. They are an American Grammy Award-winning troupe who express their history as women of color through song, while entertaining their audience. They have together worked from four women to the difficult five-part harmony...

  • Linda Tillery
    Linda Tillery
    Linda Tillery is an American singer and percussionist from San Francisco.-History:Tillery first came to prominence as the lead singer in San Francisco group The Loading Zone in 1968-69...

  • Teresa Trull
    Teresa Trull
    Teresa Trull is an American female singer from Durham, North Carolina.Trull sang in churches as a child, and played in rock & roll groups in the early 1970s on the East Coast. Her debut album, The Ways a Woman Can Be, in 1977, and has recorded two albums with Barbara Higbie...

  • Cris Williamson
    Cris Williamson
    Cris Williamson is an American feminist singer-songwriter, who achieved fame as a recording artist, and who was a pioneer as a visible lesbian political activist, during a time when few who were not connected to the Lesbian community were aware of Gay and Lesbian issues...

  • Tairrie B
    Tairrie B
    Tairrie B is an American singer. She was originally a rapper, but later became an alternative metal singer....

    /My Ruin
    My Ruin
    My Ruin are a Los Angeles-based hard rock/stoner metal band fronted by Tairrie B , they have been going through various line-up changes since 1999. They have a dedicated fanbase, most notably in the UK...

     Talks about how women are perceived in the entertainment industry (tv, music, magazines etc.)in songs such as terror, beauty fiend,made to measure and weight less
  • Phranc
    Phranc
    Phranc is an American singer-songwriter whose career has spanned several decades.-Biography:She began her performing career in the late 1970s and early 1980s punk scene in Los Angeles...

  • Flying Lesbians See Wikipedia article in German

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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