GWSS Blog 1

John Bato-Borja

From our readings from last Thursday and Tuesday, I think the most interesting take away I was able to get from them was the concept of thinking of biographies as a feminist endeavor. This idea really struck me as I was making my way through Gayle Wald’s article, “Rosetta Tharpe and Feminist ‘Un-Forgetting’”. Starting at the bottom of the page labeled 158, Wald writes, “If only because it had the potential to correct suck misrepresentations, biography, it seemed to me, could serve as a powerful critique of dominant historical narratives. In this, biographies could be inherently feminist as historiographical enterprises.” This really stood out for me from the reading because I had never considered biographies to be more than just a factual recounting of an individual’s personal story and achievements from their life. However, from the lens that Wald suggests, biographies really can be feminist within the context of written history that is often written from a male perspective by correcting biased misrepresentations of female or male historical figures, properly giving credit to those who pioneered concepts and techniques for future generations, and empowering female historical figures that are often “forgotten in history. These properties, however, aren’t actually exclusive to biographies if we really think about it but are properties of any endeavor that looks back at history attempting to determine truth that goes past bias and perspectives. For this reason, the projects and programs in “Notes on Women Who Rock: Making Scenes, Building Communities: Participatory Research, Community Engagement, and Archival Practice” by our professors also fit in to the feminist description that Wald details as these projects aim to ask “how particular stories of popular music determine a performer, band, or scene’s “legendary” status or excision from the official annals of memory” and “[reshape] conventional understandings of popular music studies by initiating collective methods of participatory research, as well as community collaboration and dialogue.”

So in the vein of continuing to highlight pioneering female artists like Alice Bag and Sister Rosetta Tharpe, I wanted to highlight two female artist who were incredibly influential in their own genres. The first is Billie Holiday who is often regarded as one of the best jazz vocalists of all time and actually had a massive influence on Frank Sinatra, and who’s classic, haunting, and blues-laced cover of "All of Me” I included. The second is Aretha Franklin, the Queen of Soul herself who, like Sister Tharpe, brought a gospel-charged style to the more secular pop music of her time which was soul and R&B. I included her 1968 hit “(Sweet Sweet Baby) Since You’ve Been Gone” which is a great example of her gospel-infused voiced and piano-playing on top of an up-tempo soul beat.

Billie Holiday - All of Me (1941)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRCAA7A-Aek

Aretha Franklin - (Sweet Sweet Baby) Since You've Been Gone (1968)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-C1ql9y-mgo