Where I take a look at how women in music have been written about in the music press
The 90s/00’s music press guide to writing about women:
1. How can we make this about men?
2. How can we compare them to other women?
3. How can we make this about their looks/body?
Let’s have a look at the 23 Sept 2000 issue of NME…
The whole article is focused around their famous boyfriends, although it tries to excuse it with this knowing opener.
celebrity pop tart
Further on in the piece Nicole is asked whether her boyfriend Liam Gallagher is an alcoholic, smackhead, womaniser, what kind of lover he is, what he talks about, what their life is like, are they in love, she’s asked to give five fucking examples of Liam’s loveliness for fucks sake! Even the others are asked what they think of him, the writer is Liam G obsessed. As well as that she’s asked about her ex Robbie Williams (what she though about him saying he never loved her) whilst her sister Natalie is asked “D’you think it’s fair or a lie you’ve become known as celebrity pop tarts?”
The article goes on to give a photo collage of the All Saints women with their boyfriends. It finishes with this choice line after Nicole mentions she cooks a good Sunday roast “Well. here’s a tip for you: come the time, and you’ll be his (Liam G) dream woman; he likes two shots of JD in his Sunday roast gravy.”
Elsewhere in the mag…
A live review of teen metal band Sugar Coma which manages to
1. sexualise the 16 year old girls in the band (suggesting that’s why there’s so many men in the crowd)
2. patronise them (“give ’em time these girls could *really* rock!”)
3. Compare them to other women (Jessica apparently looks like Saffron) and then of course the ‘I’m not comparing them to Kittie… but actually I am’.
Review of Pop icon Kylie’s comeback album
The album review spends the first half not talking about the album at all. The fucking awful line “Even if you can’t name any song she’s done in the last five years, you can probably name at least a couple of her ex-boyfriends” for the record her previous 2 albums to this one were AMAZING so screw you NME.
Just to make things worse… all the above were pretty much the only times women artists were in this issue (aside from a live review of Mel C and a decent review of Leila’s brilliant album Courtesy of Choice). AND… all of the above was written by women journalists.
Final thought from the letters page. Apparently women pop stars can make male musicians loose their cred lol. It’s contagious.
Comments
Post a Comment