This book originally came out in 2014. The author defines YinPop as ‘music with a female vocalist in the indie/alternative rock tradition, tending to be some combination of noisy, melodic, dangerous or otherworldly’. There’s a brief introduction that discovers some of the artists that may fall under this label.
The rest of the book covers 10 bands - give or take, some chapters also cover side projects so the chapter on Siouxsie and the Banshees covers The Creatures as well. The 10 bands are Siouxsie + The Banshees (incl The Creatures), Altered Images, Cocteau Twins, Shop Assistants (incl The Fizzbombs and The Motorcycle Boy), The Flatmates, The Primitives (Paul Court from the band also provides an introduction), The Darling Buds, The Heart Throbs, Voice of the Beehive and Shampoo.
Each chapter gives an extensive history of the band followed by a discography, information of any music videos/important TV appearances or press stories, chart placings, concert setlists and lists of songs that particular band covered and anyone who covered them. There’s also a chapter listing rarites to look out for and a list of further reading.
It’s an interesting book and even in this age of wikipedia and fansites, it’s still nice to have all the information in one place for each band and it’s certainly extensive and as far as I know, accurate. Unfortunately I do think it comes across as a little dry, there isn’t really any new information about the bands and only a few quotes and no photo section at all (the lack of photos I’d probably put down to some sort of copyright issue but it’s still a shame especially as I think it would be great to at least see some of the artwork for the records etc.) Although some of the bands have been written about elsewhere (such as Siouxsie and the Banshees) most of them haven’t really had much in-depth coverage and it’s great to see them get more than a passing mention. I’d love it if this was the 1st in a series of books especially as some of the other artists the author namechecks are well worth reading about (such as Strawberry Switchblade or Lydia Lunch).
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN MARCH 2016
Thursday 31 March 2016
Friday 25 March 2016
BOOK REVIEW. THE FIRST COLLECTION OF CRITICISM BY A LIVING FEMALE ROCK CRITIC BY JESSICA HOPPER
This book is a compilation of pieces by Jessica Hopper covering the period from 2003 to 2014 (the book came out in 2015) from a variety of American publications from SPIN and Punk Planet through to Village Voice and Chicago Reader.
It’s split into different sections and covers reviews of albums from Miley Cyrus through to St Vincent and Cat Power and events such as Coachella and the Vans Warped tour. It also has articles on subjects ranging from the Suicide Girls to deconstructing Lana Del Rey and an interview with Jim DeRogatis discussing the R. Kelly case. Most of the articles are brief - to be honest, a lot of them were about artists I’m not that interested in but there was enough to keep me interested especially as I thought JH was a really good writer, smart and incisive and entertaining.
For example, a discussion on emo turns into a wider debate about the role of women in music and how female fans/critics respond to the way women are often portrayed in music. - “Us girls deserve more than one song. We deserve more than one pledge of solidarity. We deserve better songs that any boy will ever write about us.”
At the start of the book, she admits the title is not entirely accurate but it is true that there are comparitively few books by female music critics. Hopefully this book goes some way to redressing that + as she says -
“The title of this book is about planting a flag; it is for those whose dreams (and manuscripts) languished due to lack of formal precedence, support and permission. This title is not meant to erase our history but rather to help mark the path.
This book is dedicated to those that came before, those that should have been first, and all the ones that will come after.”
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN MARCH 2016
It’s split into different sections and covers reviews of albums from Miley Cyrus through to St Vincent and Cat Power and events such as Coachella and the Vans Warped tour. It also has articles on subjects ranging from the Suicide Girls to deconstructing Lana Del Rey and an interview with Jim DeRogatis discussing the R. Kelly case. Most of the articles are brief - to be honest, a lot of them were about artists I’m not that interested in but there was enough to keep me interested especially as I thought JH was a really good writer, smart and incisive and entertaining.
For example, a discussion on emo turns into a wider debate about the role of women in music and how female fans/critics respond to the way women are often portrayed in music. - “Us girls deserve more than one song. We deserve more than one pledge of solidarity. We deserve better songs that any boy will ever write about us.”
At the start of the book, she admits the title is not entirely accurate but it is true that there are comparitively few books by female music critics. Hopefully this book goes some way to redressing that + as she says -
“The title of this book is about planting a flag; it is for those whose dreams (and manuscripts) languished due to lack of formal precedence, support and permission. This title is not meant to erase our history but rather to help mark the path.
This book is dedicated to those that came before, those that should have been first, and all the ones that will come after.”
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN MARCH 2016
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