While “Notes on Women Who Rock” offers a framework for how women work as a collective to “rewrite the story of pop from a feminist, decolonial perspective”, Mahon actively takes part in this work via her piece in which she “listens for” Thornton’s voice (Habell-Pallan et. al 23) (Mahon 4). One inspirational claim in the Habell-Pallan et. al piece was that we must go beyond simply asking “how [women] ‘fit’ into existing narratives” of popular music, instead seeking out “how and why they were excluded…in the first place” (Habell-Pallan et. al. 22). This inspires me because is a call to action: we are to shed light on how women musicians have openly challenged dominant culture. Mahon exemplifies this claim by repeatedly expressing that Thornton should not be reduced to a “symbol of the recording industry’s exploitation of black musicians” (Mahon 15-16). Instead, Mahon argues that Thornton embodied “unconventional black feminism” (Mahon 5). For example, Mahon describes how in her song “Hound Dog,” Thornton commands the male guitarist to “wag [his] tail”, blatantly shattering gender expectations (Mahon 8). In another compelling claim, the Habell-Pallan et. al piece asserts that the WWR archive doesn’t just look to the past, but it also centers present movements and scenes (Habell-Pallan et. al 23-24). Again, Mahon illustrates this idea in her work by not only examining Thornton’s life story through Thornton’s own lens, but concluding with a powerful example of how Thornton’s legacy is being carried on today, through the Willie Mae Rock Camp for Girls, an empowering musical mentorship program (Mahon 16). Along this vein, I have selected Bessie Smith’s “Empty Bed Blues” (1928) and Ama Lou’s “TBC” (2016) as examples of exploring both past and present in order to add two black women’s perspectives to the story of popular music. With lyrics like “my springs are getting rusty, sleeping single like I do” and “he knows how to thrill me,” Smith openly challenges the dominant patriarchal norms which condemn women who express their sexual desires. More recently, Ama Lou provides a unique black female perspective on police brutality. Through her own sound which blends “femininity within androgyny,” Ama Lou harkens back to Eric Garner’s plea, “I can’t breathe” (Gore).
DJ Selections:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mc7RQCQAtKU (Bessie Smith, "Empty Bed Blues", 1928)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ySt7LAzKz_8 (Ama Lou, "TBC", 2016)
Gore, Sydney. “Let Ama Lou Impress You With Her Powerful Words On ‘TBC.’” NYLON, 10 Oct. 2016, nylon.com/articles/ama-lou-tbc-premiere.
Maureen Mahon, “Listening for Willie Mae “Big Mama” Thornton’s Voice: The Sound of Race and Gender Transgressions in Rock and Roll,” Women and Music, Vol. 15, 2011, 1-17.
Michelle Habell-Pallán, Angelica Macklin and Sonnet Retman, “Notes on Women Who Rock: Making Scenes, Building Communities: Participatory Research, Community Engagement, and Archival Practice.” NANO (New American Notes Online) special issue, "Digital Humanities, Public Humanities." July 2014. https://nanocrit.com/issues/issue5/notes-women-who-rock-making-scenes-building- communities-participatory-research-community-engagement-and-archival-practice
No comments:
Post a Comment