Five Cent Sound Fall 2020

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CONTENTS: Christian Punk Bands: The Runt of the Litter by Scotty Herrera // page 8 Change, Growth, and Ever Evolving Art: A Conversation with Isaac Dunbar by Hanna Marchesseault // page 14 Who Sampled Who? by Aidan O’Flaherty // page 22 The Arca Aproach (or Lack Thereof) by Ale Cuellar // page 36 The Dark Side of the K-Pop Industry by Maggie Lu // page 36 The Downfall of the Boyband by Allison Giust // page 40 Not Ready to Make Nice: How Country Music Limits Alternative Opinion by Joy Freeman // page 48

Poach an Egg: Life Lessons with Phoebe Bridgers by Mollie Sullivan // page 54 Reimagining the Rap Game: Why Do We Keep Letting This Happen? by Dani Ducharme // page 66 The Riot Grrrl Revival by Samantha Silveira // page 74 Pop of the Past: The Re-Emergence of Sounds in 2020 by Claire Moriarty // page 84

// page 88 Out of Sight, Out of Mind: R*pe Culture in the Music Industry by Hayden Scoplitte // page 94 Artistic Freedom in Limbo: Psychedelia and Artistic Truth by Paulina Subia // page 98 High on Music: The Sounds of Psychedelia by Lauren Surbey // page 104 Max Davis: Scratching The Surface by Ashley Onnembo // page 108 Fall 2020 Playlist // page 114

art by Natasha Arnowitz

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I grew up in the Catholic Church. I was baptized at birth, and I have received four out of the seven sacraments. My most recent was the sacrament Christ and stands in solidarity with the beliefs of the church. I did not choose whether this was the path I wanted to pursue, rather my mother chose it for me. I was raised in a strict, conservative household and participated in a Christian youth theatre organization. As I grew up, I wanted to break out of the boundaries that were set for me, and it was then that I found punk music. I experimented with sex, drugs, and alcohol: the holy trinity of punk. These actions eventually got me kicked out from my Christian theatre organization and pushed me further from Christ. As I continued to explore myself, I fell deeper and deeper into the rabbit hole that is punk and counterculture. opposed or at variance with societal norms. That is what, I felt, connected me so heavily with my vices and punk music.

I recently discovered the existence of Christian punk bands and began to wonder if it could even constitute counterculture . For me, punk was an escape from the normalcy of the religious lifestyle that I was raised upon. So, how could a band social norms that were rebuked by the origins of the genre consider themselves punk? I decided to explore their music and, as may be expected, many of the bands sounded as if they were doing Kidz Bop covers of punk songs. Weak lyrics about praising the Lord and how He will never leave you bombarded song after song until I reached the point where I could not play victim to these “punk� bands anymore. It was almost as if they were mocking what counterculture was at its core. Bands such as Bikini Kill and the whole Riot grrrl movement stood for feminism and made statements to empower women. But what is the purpose of these bands? Is this music just another forum for them to spread the word of God? If so, darling, they are in the wrong place.

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Punk and counterculture were nurtured in America in response to the ever-pervading hippie climate of the 1960s, while still furthering the political unrest and opposition that the movement stemmed from. The concept of punk as a genre was continued in the UK during the 1970s. Bands focused on subjects such as angst, sex, being outcasted, and failure — all concepts that religion condemns or does not even take into consideration. In religious environments, everyone is expected to be holy.

Being gay, having premarital sex, and doing drugs could all be considered mortal sins that declare that you lose your chance to go to heaven and have actively chosen to send yourself to hell through your actions. Punk allowed for people to recognize their faults and their personal experiences and not feel guilt. It connected a group of people who standards and religion.

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Christian punk was created to challenge the ideas of the non-religious world and its authority. Many of these bands were formed and performed through Charles Smith’s Calvary Chapel in Orange County, California. Punk naturally resides in the concept of subculture and questioning authority; Christian question the authority of the sinful world, which in the genre because they are “counterculture” to the sinful world that surrounds them. Even with this belief, they do not revolutionize the sound of the genre at all, but simply apply the is a movement that was created to worship God, as well as to derail the success of secular punk music. Their goal was to be the counterculture response to the counterculture genre. They wanted demographic. By promoting anti-conformity, these Christian punk bands wanted potential listeners to understand that they could still listen to punk without partaking or supporting the sinful actions of the genre.

If punk music stemmed from counterculture to stray away from the normalities of daily life— embodying a darker tone in the lyrics and sound— could we truly consider religious punk music counterculture to the actual genre of punk itself?

Or does religious music just not have a place in the genre at all? One can explore bands from Altar Boys (1982-1992), Hawk Nelson (2000-present), transition of punk throughout the decades and compare some of their repositories and lyrics to that from traditional punk bands. In a traditional punk song, such as Sex Pistol’s “God Save the Queen,” there are political statements that are being expressed to help shape the public opinion of the person in power. The lyrics, “God save the queen/ The fascist regime/ They made you a moron” and “God save the queen/ She’s not a human being and there’s no future and England’s dreaming” are an example of what punk and counterculture are at 11

their core: statements against the power, against the norms, against the societal standards everyone follows just because they are the standards that song “J C H C,” they scream, “Living for Christ is We don’t need drugs or booze/ Christian punks we won’t lose.” They continue by stating, “We all Satan spew, with the word of Jesus Christ.” So possibly if you were to generically categorize the elements of punk as “satanic” and Christian punk as “Jesus Christ/ God,” then Christian punk could very much be considered counterculture to the genre, at least in this song and based on this particular criteria. However, punk is not just about actions which the church considers sinful.

It is about saying and feeling what the majority does not want you to do. Christian punk claims their music does this by refuting the actions and ideas promoted in normal punk songs. However, they only endorse God. They do not make any other statements against authority unless it is tied into worshipping God. Therefore, Christian punk is not to be considered counterculture to the counterculture of punk. This conclusion may invalidate a whole sub-genre of music. Religious punk music is the equivalent of going to the art show and getting a participation medal. It is also almost like a forgery of a glance and have similar characteristics, but at its core, it is a fraud. Where religious punk rock fails is mainly in its lyrical substance. What are religion in the world? To make sure everyone knows that Satan, drugs and alcohol, and other sins are bad? They already do that in church services. How is that going against the grain?

Religious punk fails because it makes no new statements about religion. It just reiterates what

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of packaging. Traditional punk music includes statements against those in power and questions against societal norms are raised. Religious punk feels like something a Christian person can listen to simply for the joy of it “being edgy” and “loud” while the music doesn’t say anything new. Punk directly correlates to counterculture as it was so of the time of its creation, and it continues to juxtapose the modern trends of today. Christian “punk” simply cannot be considered punk as it is a vessel for religious ideas, not to make any counterculture statements against punk or society itself.

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photos by Lissyelle Laricchia and edits by Aidan Marceron

My senior year of high school was a confusing time for me. I was applying to college, losing friends, gaining new ones and spending too much time on people who didn’t deserve it. I was newly 18-years-old and dealing with what it meant to be an adult when I really didn’t feel like one.

That same year, someone else in my high school was starting a journey of their own. A freshman with notebooks of questions nobody on sleepy Cape Cod seemed to want to answer, Isaac Dunbar started to put his music out into the world, looking for those answers elsewhere. After hearing Dunbar’s music in the fall of 2017, I reached out to my school’s newspaper advisor to see if she would let me write an article about him. She said yes, and so did Dunbar. we quietly talked about his music, what inspired him to create, and where he sees himself in the future. Three years have passed since that article was published in BHS Insight . Dunbar now has two EPs released, an assortment of singles, 65,000 Instagram followers, and a little over 577,000 monthly listeners on Spotify.

To say that life has changed would be an understatement, and I sat down with him over Zoom — in our respective childhood bedrooms — at the end of September to discuss how these interesting turns of his art today.

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Dunbar: I had just released a song on Soundcloud.

I think I was 14 or 15, and it was right when I was freaking out, and just making music in my bedroom still with my little MacBook and Apple earbuds. I because we were setting up studio sessions for my going to Brooklyn and experiencing all of that music, that artist experience. I was a little baby. I remember just going back and forth with managers, and my mom freaking out because she didn’t know what I was doing with these random 40-year-old music industry men.

D: To be honest, I haven’t seen a young person do as much. Her impact with my generation is crazy.

She has created a very vivid scene for Gen-Z and I haven’t seen anyone do that. If I didn’t discover her, I wouldn’t be where I am today. I wouldn’t

D: I think that the growth is quite transparent, especially since you can put it into words so easily. When I wrote Balloons Don’t Float Here, I was between the ages of 13 and 15, so that 17

period of time I was asking so many questions, and nobody would answer them for me. Going from that to Isaacs Insects, I mean, I came out as a gay man. I discovered that part of myself and learned to love it. I feel like that was something that subconsciously held me back when writing BDFH. I think when I accepted that part of myself, the questions I had prior to this came to me. I mean, I’m way more rooted and grounded in who I am than before, and I think that’s where that sense of

D: Thank you. I mean, I stopped going to school kind of when I started touring and started doing online. The mere fact of me not being in school — if I was still in school I would never have come out. I would be hating myself. I would not have written the music I did for Isaacs Insects without that.

but it was also terrifying. It was so scary because I had family members who were not happy about it.

I lost some friends, but I think my vulnerability is my biggest strength. It’s what makes me who I am, and how I get my music out and how I draw people in.

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my fans one in the same, but on the other hand I want to cater to new listeners. You know, people who just found me on a Spotify playlist, and make myself accessible and understandable to those people. The music that I’m writing for my next EP, I feel like I’m really working that balance well and I’m so stoked for it.

D: I mean songwriting wise, with BDFH, it was buried with a lot of metaphors, and a lot of cloudiness. I feel like that was cool at the time, but I wasn’t really sending a message and that’s how I feel about that music personally. As I grew, I realized if I really want to be “Isaac Dunbar” or whoever that is, I really need to send a message. Even as of late, focusing on songwriting and getting lyrics correctly and really having a solid message is really important to me, so I feel like I’ve improved songwriting-wise a lot. The music in Isaac’s Insects is a tad more digestible than BDFH. I feel like in the early stages of my career, I need to create a solid message.

fun to play live and that’s really fun for people to sing live. Ever since the tour, I’ve found myself making music that’s more fun, as simple as that. For my personal life, on tour I saw so many

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straight people. It was the best time of my life and I miss it so much. It was transformative.

Something clicked in my brain and I became so chill. It calmed so many of my anxieties, and I think that’s because I saw the bigger picture of life and I saw that everyone else is just living their own life. I think it made me a more well rounded person — at least I hope.

I’ve ever written. I actually wrote it in December in LA before the country was insane. I approached the current political climate in a way that is kind of unbiased. I view everything from an outside perspective. We’re called the United States, but we’re not. In the song I just address the division to escape it in a way. Something I believe very we’re seeing so many twitter wars going on, people unfriending others because of their political views. Especially with the election, it’s a whole mess and I just address all of it from an outside perspective. To get people out of a box, and to see the bigger picture. I mean, me as a person, I believe if you aren’t harming anybody you get to be whoever you want to be and you should support people who want to be whoever they want to be.

D: The way that the song started in the studio was me hearing the lines, “I’ll miss America but we have to go, I’ll miss America, I’ll miss America,” and then we put it on the backburner. Then the Black Lives Matter movement started gaining momentum again in June and my label came to me to say that they felt that song had a really good message, and they think that I should put it out. So, the timing was just really coincidental.

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this EP. I want to make this able to relate to everybody.

I feel like with Isaac’s Insects I got to let loose a lot of personal, niche things, but that can’t be relatable to every person. The whole concept of this EP, is in essence, that these songs are pages of my diary, but they’re not just exclusive to me. They’re all a part of the human condition. My mantra lately is that my vulnerability is my biggest strength. I want to take my vulnerability, and translate it in a way that can be digested and hit home for everybody. I’m really excited to release it.

anymore, like I said then. I honestly hope to marry some cool, art school photographer now.

More seriously, though, I think that I want to have a fashion line. I want to design clothes. I want to direct music videos for other artists, and creative direct artists and help develop their brands.

Oh, I also want to have a doberman dog.

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photo by Ben Deeming art by Natasha Arnowitz design by Deanna Costa 22

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“Spinning Yarn with Borrowed Cotton: Lessons for Fandom from Sampling,” University of Central Florida Professor before accessible recording technology. Blues, for example, was born out of generations of passing down

keep the tradition alive but also a way to progress and change the style. media professor Siva Vaidhyanathan stated, “In the blues tradition, what is original is the ‘value-added’ aspect of a work, usually delivered through performance.” Even the same performer cannot play a song the same way twice. Notably, despite the tradition of “value-adding” in blues, this primarily occurred in the same cultural context. So, who has the right to sample?

The history of music copyright infringement displays a thread of discrimination against minorities, especially reuse someone else’s work, it’s interpreted as theft one court literally admonished a musician for sampling

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without payment, ‘Thou shalt not steal.’ Yet when the Rolling Stones or Eric Clapton copy blues sounds or when Moby samples blues recordings, it’s seen as an homage.”

An interesting example is seen when comparing “La Bamba” by Ritchie Valens, released in 1959, and “Twist and Shout” by The Beatles, released in 1963. Both share the same chord progression and have a similar melody and tempo. Remarkably, The Beatles’ song is a cover of The Isley Brothers’ original that came out a year earlier. The Isley Brothers’ release was written by Bert Berns and Phil Medley two years before that and was inspired by Valens.

Dave Rybaczewski, a self-proclaimed Beatles historian, remarked, “Peaking at number 2 for four weeks on the US Billboard charts, it out-charted the Isley’s rendition (peaking at number 17) by leaps and bounds. As of April of 1964, ‘Twist And Shout’ became, and will always be known as, a Beatles song.”

Ritchie, then the Isley Brothers sampled Berns and Medley, and then The Beatles sampled the Isley Brothers.

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sample, that’s exactly what happened.

There are three common ways samples are analyzed in which occurs when an artist’s recording is similar enough to the perceived sample. The second, “fragmental familiarity,” suggests that an audio recording was used too much and without permission. Lastly, “De Minimis” asserts the sample was not distinguishable enough or incorporated enough for a ruling of copyright infringement.

Notably, music is extremely subjective. When considering feels farfetched to put any weight on “substantial familiarity.” However, in 2015, Robin Thicke and Pharell Williams — not T.I. — were found guilty of copyright infringement for copying the “feel” of Marvin Gaye’s “Got To Give It Up” in their hit song “Blurred Lines.”

This ruling, similar to “substantial familiarity”, was extremely controversial. Williams, the producer, did not use the audio, chords, key, or melody of “Got To Give It Up.” Despite Thicke admitting inspiration

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has little to do with They each hail from separate eras and serve former is an anthemic feminist rallying cry, and the latter is ostensibly synonymous with coitus and clubbing. Yet,

in the same hour but also do so while representing Boston’s Black radio scene and providing a bit of education along the way.

The “Secret Spot” bills itself as “Boston’s home for R&B, soul, and slow jams.” While technically correct, its slogan fails to capture the breadth of the Each evening’s playlist is meticulously curated and hosted by . A 1994 graduate of Emerson College and current Operations Manager at WERS, Simpson grew up listening to (and eventually became a studenthost of) “The Crosswinds,” the station’s slow jam show, and 88.9 28

@ Night, which featured hardcore rap, R&B, and house music.

“There was a time when we maintained those urban shows as a complete block, where we had Rockers with the reggae, which led into 88.9 @ Night,” said Simpson. “By the time I came back and assumed my position as a professional @ Night was all rap, hiphop and hardcore rap — there was no more R&B.” R&B, Simpson soon discovered, was exclusive to a new show made by alumnus Jasmine Solano: “The Secret Spot.” The show was originally targeting a female audience — the name

itself being an allusion to the clitoris — but has since expanded to include soul and slow jams after the station consolidated its evening lineup. The new format initially lost listeners, but quickly improved after the show fell into Simpson’s hands.

came and went and left their mark on what music was being played, it occurred to me that if we really want to have an impact within the community — within the target demo — then maybe we shouldn't just be a niche,” said Simpson. “And so, it just represents a great slice of the overall

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Black experience, in terms of R&B and soul. It touches almost every era of R&B and soul, all in four hours [and] commercial free.”

Whereas most shows would typically capitalize on playing the more notable artists of the moment, Simpson chooses songs purely on their merit. This allows for renowned , to play alongside smaller, .

While the choice is, in part, to elevate the voices of smaller artists, it’s also due to his voracious appetite for music that’s new to him.

“The good soul music… where the performance is so strong, it hits you, no matter what the theme is. And [in] looking for that, I found that it's really all over the world, every corner.

It may have originated here with African Americans, but it has permeated the whole globe,” said Simpson. “And that's what good music is anyway: a song that talks about universal themes and things that we all understand, no matter our ethnicity or where we come from.”

Another universal component the show thrives on is the illusory nature of radio. While the station’s day and earlyevening shows are live, The Secret Spot’s 10 PM – 2 AM time slot traditionally resulted 30

in Simpson, who usually hosted weekends, recording both days back-to-back on Fridays. While convenient for getting out and enjoying an evening, it didn’t always allow for hosts to discuss whatever news that day brought.

if you're hearing about it, and neither am I.’” For a show advertised as the sonic equivalent of an orgy and nightcap, a closer inspection of tracks reveals there’s far more to the music than the grooves and beats that draw listeners in in the songs

Within a matter of days, the show went from having a variety of student hosts to Simpson becoming the the same program he once revitalized was once again back solely in his hands.

After hosting every night since March 21, he’s found platform to communicate with listeners as events happened. Of note were the protests that emerged following the killing of

“To have certain things happen in my own backyard — when there were some protests here in Brockton, which is where I’m at — while I'm doing the Secret Spot,” began Simpson, “there was just no way I could go prepackaged, you know? I had to actually

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or aren’t a deep statement of inequity, but Simpson excels in programming playlists with songs as powerful as they are pleasing. Take, for instance, his New Year’s playlist.

“To begin the new year, I purposely will program some version of the Black national anthem,” said Simpson. “And then in another hour, just to be positive as we go into the new year because the struggle is not new.

that ‘I know you're not removed from what's going on right now in Brockton

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By Ale Cuellar

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When Arca says it’s time to break down the binary, you listen.

I remember my best friend, Tony, driving me home late one night. We were exiting the neighborhood when they pulled the car over to the side of the road and changed the song playing on their phone.

They reached over to hold my hand, exclaiming, “You have to listen to this.”

blare through the car speakers, and with an opening line as powerful as “I do what I wanna do when I wanna do it,” I swear, time stopped.

A week later, Tony announced they were nonbinary.

I had come across a handful of Arca songs from her 2017 self-titled album but had never taken the time to delve further down the rabbit hole of turn of events, the outside layer of experimental electronic music seems to be just scratching the surface of everything this pioneer in experimental issues ranging from immigrant rights, visibility, BDSM and avant-garde fashion.

queer

As a Venezuelan-born artist and producer, Arca has not only created an abundance of original music and performance art but has also contributed production work to artists including Björk, Kanye West, FKA twigs, Kelela, Frank Ocean, and most notably, her fan base via Discord. Her music style, like her personal life, holds an element of

gender on social platforms, particularly Twitch and Instagram Live. Even throughout lockdown, the live streams were consistent and showcased Arca openly and casually answering questions from her fanbase (known as the Mutants) on the music she was releasing, as well as any topic relating to queerness.

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For Tony, a mere quarantine livestream opened the door to just how beautiful the exploration of gender, and the complete rejection of societal constructs could be. Throughout the half-hour stream, Arca covered topics as broad as transitioning, hormones, her Venezuelan upbringing, and being her own muse She also made comments regarding being comfortable with being addressed by the “it” pronouns. How can

human? We must identify ourselves as a single unit, independent and bold.

Tony was beaming in light of all this new information and clear conversation. I was lucky enough to be on the sidelines of that self discovery, and almost feel compelled to write Arca a thank you card for my best friend’s newfound happiness.

Upon further prodding, Tony went on to share with me, “For a long time, all I heard were just sounds mixed — almost like a bunch of pans clanging. It was only until I began to think of her music in terms of deconstructing gender, that the gravity of her music began to make sense. For me, it seems like the context of the art and the art itself go hand in hand.”

The mixing and dividing of the sound and the message is a commonality in Arca’s music. Like a lot of experimental music, it’s easy to dismiss as mere chaos and commotion. In popular culture, for example, songs have become extremely formulaic, featuring simple melodies and beats that come advertised in digestible sizes. Music has become a passive experience. Arca, on the other hand, basks in the multitudes her identity has provided. Simply is already breaking down the passive listening experience we’re all growing accustomed to. She whispers through many of her tracks, includes various hip-hop elements, and isn’t afraid to contradict or circle back to previous concepts she 34

had introduced — both musically and personally.

Whether it be through the haunting vocals on “Calor,” depicting the vulnerability that comes with opening up yourself to being loved, the hourlong journey of her single titled “@@@@@,” or the metallic clattering on “Riquiquí,” fading out with a chorus of exclamations about being a cat in slow motion, Arca manages to cover every crevice of the music world.

Without Arca paving the way for the entire music industry, some of our favorite musical gems of the past decade or so — as well as so much of the music that’s yet to come — wouldn’t even exist.

And without her authenticity and candor, my best friend would be one step further away from becoming their most genuine self. To put it in the much more capable words of Arca herself, “It’s not a correction, it’s an expression.”

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THE DARK

SIDE

OF THE

K-POP

INDUSTRY

BY MAGGIE LU PHOTOS BY JACK ISACKE DESIGN BY SAM KISS

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OF THE BOY BAND

OF THE BOY BAND

THE DOWNFALL

THE DOWNFALL

By Allison Giust

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*NSYNC O-TOWN BIG TIME RUSH ONE DIRECTION BACKSTREET BOYS LYTE FUNKIE ONES THE JONAS BROTHERS

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RELATIONSHIPS BEGAN TO FAIL AND FRIENDSHIPS HAD FALLING OUTS — MOST NOTABLY THE FRIENDSHIP BETWEEN STYLES AND TOMLINSON.

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illustration (face) by Natasha Arnowitz

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As soon as the words left Natalie Maines’ mouth, she had been condemned. Performing overseas in March of 2003 at Shepherd’s Bush in London, American-bred country artists The Chicks represented everything pure in their genre: a decade-long career, a conservative fanbase that had recently fawned over their rendition of the “Star Spangled Banner” less than two months prior, lyrics touting a small town agenda and homage to their roots, and harmonies that could melt southern hearts. All three of the women were mothers.

The group had risen to stardom with the release of their album Wide Open Spaces, with accolades such as 12 million sales internationally and a Best Country Album win at the 1998 Grammys, along with Best Country Performance by a Group or Duo With Vocal for their single “Ready to Run”. While many tracks held underlying themes of feminism , sister-duo lulled the audience into appeasal. Fan favorite the murder of an abusive husband at the hands of his wife and her childhood friend. Women chanted “Ain’t dark/ Wrapped up in that tarp, Earl?”, undoubtedly dreaming of escapism from their own toxic relationships. After the 2003 Grammy Awards, Maines stated that the track was “an ode to O.J. Simpson.”

They had established themselves in a genre captivated by intense nationalism following the fall of the Twin Tower and were surrounded by tracks such as “Where Were You When the World Stopped Turning” by Alan Jackson, which played as their personal morals placed them in a world of otherness.

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The Chicks’ statement, although falling primarily on Maines’ shoulders, sent shockwaves back home.

Radio stations refused to promote their single “Travelin’ Soldier” and picketers posted up outside of the tour for their album Home, telling a camera crew for their 2006 documentary “Shut Up do it in public.” Death threats, particularly one from an anonymous letter, pointed to a promised execution-style shooting of Maines while performing on stage. A feud with Toby Keith, the Republican martyr and artist behind “Courtesy of the Red, White, and Blue”, sealed The Chicks’ resignation from conservative households. Maines wore a choice acronym on a t-shirt to that year’s ACM awards F.U.T.K. It was this backlash that fueled their 2006 release, Taking the Long Way. Songs like “Not Ready to Make Nice” were co-written by the women and discussed the condemnation they faced for won Album of the Year while “Not Ready to Make Nice” won Song and Record of the Year at the 49th Grammy Awards. The group lost all nominations at the Country Music Association awards and CMT Music Video Awards in 2007. Maines rasped of the Lubbock Preston Smith International Airport in “Lubbock or Leave it”, “Where as you’re getting on the plane/ You see Buddy Holly’s face/ I hear they hate me now, just like they hated you/ Maybe when I’m dead and gone I’m gonna get a statue too.”

Cancel culture, a term cropping up across social media, is nothing new to the music industry.

Loretta Lynn famously promoted birth control, an incredibly controversial topic for the times, in her 1975 single “The Pill”. Lyrics like, “Miniskirts, hot pants and a few little fancy frills/ Yeah I’m makin’ up for all those years/ Since I’ve got the pill,” were enough to have the track banned from sixty radio stations across the U.S. However, it still managed to reach No. 5 on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart and No. 70 on Billboard Hot 100. Her fervent support for life-saving healthcare was enough to change the conversation around birth control and provided women with a 51

space safe enough to have that discussion and seek care accordingly. According to the Washington prescriptions for the pill in 1975 alone.

Boundary-pushers in country music have continued to remain primarily female, although they are often scandalized by the community far before they are re-accepted. Maguire told NPR after the release of The Chicks’ latest album, Gaslighter, “Women are still treated like second-class citizens in country music...And if you talk to women in country, a lot of them feel like they’re underrepresented because they’re women…” It is no surprise, then, that Maines was critiqued by Toby Keith for not being a songwriter when she called his patriotic track “ignorant.” Her opinion wasn’t taken seriously, not because of her lack of involvement in the musical process, but because she was a woman speaking out against his work in a male-dominated genre. She simply commented on the message in his music, not on his songwriting abilities. Keith had no adequate rebuttal for condemning her remarks other than simply hoping he could belittle her into shutting up.

Kacey Musgraves began making waves in the country world in 2013. The release of her second single, “Follow Your Arrow”, a LGBTQ-friendly sing-along with lyrics like, “Make lots of noise/Kiss lots of Boys/ Or kiss lots of girls, if that’s what you’re into.” This unique work made room for a group of country fans who had previously not been embraced by the genre. The track went on to become an anthem; the impact of its catchy chorus blasting at Pride events around the world earned stadium tour . In a 2019 Fox News op-ed, Todd Starnes reproached Musgraves’ calls for stricter gun legislation at that summer’s Lollapalooza, writing, “That poor lady sounds like she’s been say, but Ms. Musgraves is part of a new wave of liberal artists who are determined to change the culture and twang of country music.” Once again, The Chicks were exploited as the prime example of left-wing dissent from the music of 52

the conservative south. It is a title they bear proudly, with Maines retracting her 2003 apology statement to President Bush and trading it for an to the scene of the crime (Shepherd’s Bush) during to declare proudly, “Just so y’all know, we’re ashamed the President of the United States is from Texas.”

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By Mollie Sullivan

2020 is a year that can be categorized as anything but typical. Whether your laptop became your new forgot what your friends looked like, everyone endured unusual challenges. Swimming in a sea of distractions, distress, and damaging hair decisions, I felt lost in my search for creativity last year. Soon, I would learn that I was not alone. On October 20th, I jumped on a Zoom call with Phoebe Bridgers. I was able to learn from one it is to have creative rest.

Bridgers graciously blessed me with her time from her California home just two weeks after announcing her new record label, Saddest Factory Records. She wore her infamous skeleton costume and positioned herself in front of a chalkboard painted wall, of her mother’s distinct handwriting. Funnily enough, I grew up with the same wall in my room in Georgia; I couldn’t help but slip in how triggered I was from seeing a wall that was always a pain in the ass to clean. She told me she’d never tried, and I advised her not to. With gratitude that the chalkboard had somewhat broken the ice, I dove in and asked her some of my personal burning questions regarding all things quarantine, songwriting, and insider music industry advice.

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Mollie: Miss Phoebe Bridgers, I am so happy to have you here! Emerson College worships you. We always joke that you’re our cult leader — I have to put that out there because I can’t be in the same Zoom room with you and not mention it! Thank you for being here!

Phoebe: [Laughs] Thank you, I appreciate that!

M: You’ve been performing a lot, and obviously it’s not the same as touring, but how does it feel to perform post-quarantine? What’s it like to look at your calendar and suddenly have performances showing up?

P: I mean, it’s nice! Part of me was so used to the quarantine thing that it’s freaky, where I’m like ‘But I don’t wanna be around people!’ [I’ve been] eating nothing but bread for like 5 weeks or waking up in the middle of the night to eat a pint of ice cream, and now people are like ‘Oh, we can take pictures of you now!’ Like... no! I haven’t put on makeup or thought of the way I look in so long, so it’s been an adjustment. It is nice to be doing shit for sure. I feel like I remember quarantine as one big day.

M: That’s how I feel, too! I heard you made banana bread too, how’d that go?

P: It got moldy on day two! It was pretty bad. It was not good.

M: [Laughing] You know what though? At least you’re talented with other things and nobody is heavily relying on your baking skills!

P: I don’t need to ever bake another thing! I can poach an egg, so…

M: Oh, shit! Okay!

P: That’s like the only thing I can do for some reason.

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M: You gotta post a tutorial or something because I don’t know how to!

P: Apple cider vinegar. Boiling water. Take it to, not a boil anymore, but a low simmer. Swirl the water around, put an egg in it. Wait like 3 minutes… but the swirling is important so it keeps its shape! It’s easier than they tell you, although crack the egg into a cup or something and kinda plop it in instead of splashing it because it’ll get gross.

M: Okay, now I need to make poached eggs for dinner!

P: [Laughing] M: Life lessons with Phoebe Bridgers! This is better than college.

P: Exactly!

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M: So, I loved the NPR Tiny Desk Concert! The whole White House vibe- I was so excited to see how unique that was. How did y’all come up with that idea?

P: Darin [Phoebe’s manager]. He was like, ‘We have to do a tiny desk from home,’ and I was like, ‘Okay, for sure I’ll think about that.’ Pretty much everything that I was doing through COVID was Instagram live or whatever. It was just me at my desk, so I was like, ‘That’s not very interesting…’

So Darin was like, ‘I’m gonna try to rent us an all of them were shut down due to COVID so we got a green screen.

M: And it worked! I honestly didn’t know it was a green screen until the end — I was shocked!

— it was so embarrassing! The camera guy went up to Darin and Darin’s like, ‘Do you have powder?’ because I was sweating so much.

M: Well, I’ve actually heard that the NPR Tiny

P: Oh, yeah! For sure.

M: In addition to all of your virtual performances lately, you dropped something pretty major earlier this month... you started a record label! Saddest Factory Records! Congratulations!

P: Thanks, yeah!

M: The label is tied with Dead Oceans, and your Tell me more about the label!

P: Yeah! Claud was cool! I wanted to have a record label. I made Conor Oberst sign to Dead Oceans for Better Oblivion Community Center, because we were talking about which label. He put out his other records on another small label and I was like, 58

‘I’m pretty sure our label is better…’! He had such a good experience that he signed Bright Eyes to Dead Oceans as well. The conversation came up and I was thinking, I would love to keep signing people and I would love to start my own label.

Then I met Claud and really loved their music. A label had already tried to sign them, but when I came on board, Claud and I built a rapport and it early days though!

M: That’s amazing! Do you have any more signs coming soon, and how do you choose who to sign?

P: I hope so! I’m trying not to just sign everybody.

What’s so fun about Dead Oceans is they really put spread themselves thin — they sign a few things So, I’m just trying to be careful and not get too

M: That’s so huge! You’re killing it. Punisher also dropped this year, back in June. Have you been writing since then?

P: Yeah, I’ve tried a little bit, but I think everybody thought they were gonna get a lot of work done and then everybody went through a depressive episode. I’ve been trying, but also trying not to put a lot of pressure on myself. I think it’s been years since I just watched a movie. I’m serious!

Sometimes on tour I would, but when I’m on tour there’s not a lot of time. I’ve just been reading, listening to podcasts and records, and trying to consume.

on everybody. Some people talk about how creative they’ve been, but then so many people — including myself — have been somewhat creatively stumped.

P: Totally.

M: I try to keep in mind that we’ve just been 59

through trauma as a planet and it’s okay to be on a creative rest sometimes.

P: Yes! M: I write music, and hearing that one of my musical idols is going through a similar experience is super comforting.

When writing Punisher, and really all of your songs, what’s the process like?

Do you start with lyrics, or do you start with a melody? What steps do you take before getting into the studio?

P: Yeah, I feel like I have to send a voice memo to Harry and Marshall [bandmates] and they have to tell me I’m good and I’m allowed to exist.

I’m a very slow writer and I feel like things aren’t really written until I’ve recorded them.

Like Marshall said, we had no idea what kind of record we were gonna make. I loved the way we made and then it’s like is this a folk song or is this a pop song or electronic or whatever, and we tear it apart. So yeah, I feel like things get really written after they are recorded.

M: Do y’all ever have ideas that you share with each other and you openly say, ‘that’s not good’ or that idea isn’t great?

P: Totally! I think that’s part of what’s so great about our relationship. When I don’t trust someone creatively, I’ll tell them that everything they do is great. If I do trust someone creatively, maybe I know that they can do better if they come up with a corny line. I treat them like myself, like there’s a better thing there — what is it? Let’s

M: You’ve said in interviews before that you started writing around 11 years old.

How has your songwriting evolved over time, and how has it stayed the same?

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P: I think I was trying to sound like someone else for a long time — just sound like I wrote music. I think I started getting more comfortable sounding like myself. I think that every time I make something, it’s more like me. I feel like I haven’t written my best song yet, which is what keeps it so exciting, you know? I’m like, ‘Okay this one!’. I do that all the time like I’ll write or I’ll think very early, ‘That’s the single!’ and then ten songs in, I’m like, ‘Fuck!!!’. The ones where I thought the well was dry, and I really push myself, are my favorites.

M: What’s the best songwriting advice you’ve ever been given?

P: I mean, I have two! This one’s kinda dark. I think about it every day, and I don’t think he followed told me that, or actually, I think he told this to Harrison, because we all met him at the same time: ‘Write your life. You’re not interesting if you’re trying to be someone else.’ I think that’s really valid. I think the only interesting thing about each person is their individual view on life. bringing yourself into it, it’s not about what you think someone should write or someone else’s experience. You are what’s interesting and what people wanna hear from, even if it sounds boring.

just have to believe that you’re good”, as cocky as it sounds. You should know, ‘This is great, this thing I’m putting out’, so when someone writes a shitty review you don’t even think about it because it’s like, ‘Well I liked it! Whatever if you don’t like it!’. People who write good things, you agree with. If you’re agreeing with your shitty reviews, then you’re in a bad place. I try to write for myself, like, ‘What would I enjoy listening to?’

Not like, ‘Oh man! The label wants me to have something under four minutes’ which, not really, I’m signed to an indie label — they don’t. I think the dreams of making me a radio success are dead, 61

but I’m in a safe space — they have like Bon Iver

M: That’s such good advice. Just hearing that, along with your relationship with Marshall and — that’s so important in any creative outlet.

heard was ‘Scott Street.’ I was on a plane to San Francisco, and I just remember falling in love and wanting to cry. The chorus hit and it was just one of those magical, sink your heart into your stomach, musical moments for me. I listen to that song all the time, and that feeling never leaves. that just emotionally break you, but in the most beautiful way?

P: Hm… yeah! I feel like, ‘Poison Oak’ on I’m Wide Awake This Morning, the Bright Eyes record.

That song, I can’t listen to. I skip it actually.

It’s too intense. Almost that whole record, but especially that one, I just can’t do it.

M: That’s a good one. Those just stab you in the heart! You have a lot of those songs, by the way.

How often do you listen to your own music?

P: All the time! I feel like it’s built into my life, which is nice. I don’t have to admit to myself I’m doing it, you know we do all the livestreams… I feel like I’m constantly working on something, whether it’s Punisher or if I’m trying to relearn a harmony or something, so it’s kinda built into my job. Whenever I’m on an airplane, I’ll listen to all my voice memos because I have an insane amount; when you don’t have service there’s nothing else to do! I’ll listen to pieces I abandoned all the time, or I write when I’m driving or walking and listen to it over and over and over.

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M: Do you ever get sick of any of your own songs?

that don’t sound like me to me. I think it’s kinda before I found my voice. I was really excited to I could really mix up the set. Sometimes you get sick of the same set every night because when you only really have ten songs out, you can’t do much night on tour, but someday!

M: Someday! I’ll be there, I can’t wait! Alright, now I’ve got to ask. What is your favorite Phoebe Bridgers’ song?

P: Hm… It changes, but I think I’m really proud of ‘Graceland Too’. It came really easy too, I remember the writing process — my friend Christian had the initial melody, and then it got stuck in my head wrong. I was singing it all the time; the words came really easy and I was showing it to people. I write with Marshall and Harry and they lot on Punisher. It was very close to the end and I was writing that song. I would get stuck and show it to them and they’d be like, ‘how about this?’ and I’d say ‘No! I want to write this by myself for some reason!’ So that was fun about it, too.

M: Wow! I love that. Do you have any advice for anyone wanting to go into the music industry during 2020?

P: I think that the ‘believe that you’re good’ to have a tendency, or I used to be afraid that record, or with my band Boygenius, I remember when we were putting that record together, I was thinking ‘Well I have this good song idea, but I don’t want to use that on Boygenius because then I won’t have an album. I should give Boygenius a whatever song idea, and then we’ll make it good.’

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But I think the opposite advice has been great, which is whatever the next project is, put your favorite thing out because it’ll keep you writing your favorite thing. I’m so glad I did that with Boygenius because it’s exhausting to put out music you feel whatever about. Or when people are picking singles, they’re like, ‘I’ll put out my second and everybody knows that with the record they’re going to hear my favorite song,’ and it’s like people’s attention spans understandably aren’t that big. You should show them your favorite thing your favorite things!

Hearing Bridgers’ experience taking on this unique year made her that much more relatable than the heartbreaking, soul-mending, therapeutic presentation we get to hear of her through her music. She faces her own creative challenges and gets by with a little help from her friends. From supportive bandmates and management, guidance from industry peers, and a record label that gives her the freedom to be inventive, love fuels her journey. Add the love that she receives from her thousands of fans, as well as the core belief in herself that she is talented [as she explained was advised to her by friend, Conor Oberst] and there you have it: a successful music career, and most importantly, a healthy relationship with creativity. Rather than pushing ourselves to be (or produce) something, we must push ourselves to be true to our own talents and desires; like Miss Phoebe Bridgers emphasized, having fearless ultimate recipe to land in a good place.

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My brother has always refused to give me the aux in the car, dubbing my music “weird, with a lot of screaming.” In his defense, my playlist is called “yelling, but while driving” and mostly consists of Modern Baseball, Mitski, and The Front Bottoms. To him, of the “Hip Hop Central” Spotify radio station.

We’ve spent countless hours in the car screaming the lyrics instead of at each other for a change.

I’ll throw on some Kendrick Lamar at the gym or even A Tribe Called Quest as a background track to do homework. I honestly really do like hip hop music—not that I would sit down after a stressful day and blast Lil Wayne’s “Mona Lisa” to unwind.

When I began looking into the industry’s culture and lyrics attached to it, however, I quickly discovered the problematic nature of the genre. While 2020 is a year experiencing a fantastic and noticeable surge in mainstream attention and commercial success, the genre is still rooted in controversy, a culture of protecting abusers,

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double standards. unpack them all.

Let’s

Lyrics are the most telling and important aspect of this genre.

The fast pace of rapping makes it almost impossible to catch everything the artist says in a mere listen, meaning it is easier for them to get away with some horrendous lyrics. Male rappers have been writing about sex in graphic detail for years.

For example, we have this gem from Snoop Dog’s 1992 track “Nuthin But A ‘G’ Thang”: “And before me dig on contraceptive/You never know, she could be earn’n her man and learn’n her man/And at the same time burn’n her man/And you know I ain’t wit’ that shit lieutenant/Ain’t no pussy good enough to get free ride on my [B] ennett.”

If that didn’t do it for you, how about some fresher lyrics written this year? Let’s take a look at the “Don’t Rush” remix with DaBaby: “Maybe when I made her bring that pussy back/It’s like she owe me somethin’ (Bring it back)/I met

her, she was twenty-four/ I’m talkin’ Kobe number (Swish)/I bought a rim, I’m in that pussy/Tryna score me somethin’ (Rr)/ She put my dick all down her throat/She tryna choke or somethin’ (Nasty).”

Men can get away with this profanity, yet the world explodes when a woman sings about her own body and sex. Yes, I am talking about “WAP,” the song that captivated listeners everywhere. Its release prompted countless articles, tweets, and critics tearing Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion apart over the lyrics.

Even conservative political commentator Ben Shapiro felt compelled to make an entire video out of it,thus producing “Ben Shapiro Sings WAP”— the funniest meme to come from the song so far.

While the song was grabbing the attention of the world, something far more sinister happened to one of the track’s leading ladies. On July 12, Megan Thee Stallion was shot in the foot and came forward on Aug. 20 claiming rapper Tory Lanez was the assailant.

This, of course, is ironic because he quite literally says “We don’t resort to

violence/Just resorts and islands” “Stuck With It.” The Los Angeles County District Attorney stated the rappers were in an argument while riding in an SUV and exited the vehicle, where Tory Lanez “shot her several times in the foot, with intention to harm.” I’m pretty sure that counts as “resorting to violence,” right? Lanez was charged with one felony count each of assault with

as well loaded,

as

carrying a unregistered

Oct. 13.

Most of the time, lyrics mean nothing. But, what if they actually do? What if they hold incriminating evidence or point towards an artist’s violent behaviors?

Even worse, what if they are used as a tactic to redeem the artist in the public eye?

For example, YNW Melly released a song called ‘Murder On My Mind,” where he confessed to and later was charged with two murder.

Tons of rappers write about guns and murder, but that doesn’t necessarily make them violent people— similar to the age-old 69

debate of “will violent video games make my children murderers?”

Writing violent lyrics is one thing, but acting on those violent fantasies is another, right? The ever-so-charming Eminem, who has been entangled in several cases and claims of domestic violence, wrote some of the genre’s most violent lyrics. He was even sued by his own mother for $10 million in 1999 for “publicly slandering her name.”

His savage vocals appear limited to, a track called “Kill You,” in which he raps, “Slut, you think I won’t choke no whore ‘til the vocal cords don’t work in her throat no more?” In fact, Eminem’s lyrics have even been used in a court of law. Not just in any court of law—The Supreme Court.

In 2014, John Roberts, Chief Justice of The Supreme Court, quoted the rapper’s 1997 hit “Bonnie and Clyde” during the trial of Anthony Elnois, who was convicted for making violent threats on Facebook against his estranged wife in 2011.

These posts, including one that read, “There’s one way to love you but a thousand ways to kill you,” landed Elonis a 44-month prison sentence.

During the 70

a n i d e oot r trial, his lawyer tried s i o t s try to argue that threats made er s u b a on the internet can be g n i . t w i misinterpreted, just like f o allo r rap music.

Roberts then p o t e u quoted Eminem, saying, contin “Dada make a nice bed for mommy at the bottom of the lake”and ”tie a rope around a rock, There goes mama splashing in the water, no argued those lyrics were written with the intent of art and the consumer knew that, trying to make the

yrics mean nothing. ctually do? What if threat” in the online Despite the point iminating evidenceworld.

Roberts was trying to rds an artist’smake against Elonis, the Eminem’s actions outside behaviors? the studio.

When Eminem released “Love the Way You Lie” in 2010, many listeners took it as a way of him addressing and apologizing for the years of domestic abuse towards his exwife, Kim Mathers. This is an epic contrast because the songs about Kim were

what if they tactic to re deem he p ublic way they described eye? inherthe abuse from the rapper.

rn a blind eye to acts, continuing avorite tracks in

The worst part of the song is that it features Rihanna, a survivor of domestic abuse. If that was not enough to ruin the song, many fans felt as if the track “redeemed” 71

him, erasing the previous and behavior.

Then there’s Chris Brown, the man who abused Rihanna.

Brown was arraigned on April 6, 2009, and pleaded not guilty to one count of assault and one count of making criminal threats.

On June 22, 2009, he a felony, accepting a plea deal of community labor,

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My question is why are men in the hip hop genre so protected? For years, we sat by and let Eminem sing about his disgusting fantasies expressed through his far too descriptive lyrics.

A more recent example of this is Tekashi 6ix9ine.

The rapper’s extensive criminal history includes everything from assault, racketeering, and sexual exploitation of a minor, which landed him on the sex

and domestic violence counseling. In the 2017 documentary “Chris Brown: Welcome to My Life,” he discussed the 2009 event which left Rhianna bruised and bleeding after an altercation between the couple and referred to himself as a “monster.”

Many fans felt as if that was enough of an apology and continue to support his work to this day.

ended up in jail in 2018 for involvement in gangrelated activities, his fans were more outraged that he was in jail and unable to release new music. They even started a hashtag, #free6ix9ine, which has over 201K posts on Instagram.

In his recent return to music, his fans remained loyal and his track “GOOBA”,

Eminem and Chris Brown, unfortunately, are not the only examples of hypocritical abusers in the industry. Take, for example, the late Tupac Shakur, who wrote “Keep Ya Head Up.” The entire track addresses the lack of respect towards women, yet Tupac was sentenced to prison in 1996 for sexually abusing a female fan.

“TattleTales” even topped charts.

There’s also R.Kelly, one of the most disgusting of them all.

For years, fans continued to play “Ignition” as a staple party song and support his music.

Meanwhile, the artist is being held in federal jail and facing charges of child pornography, sexual exploitation of children, sexual assault,

obstruction of justice, and racketeering in four jurisdictions.

to empower. And I think artists like Megan Thee stallion, Rico Nasty,

The hip hop industry is rooted in a vicious cycle of allowing abusers to have a career and

a good start. Know who you are listening to and supporting.

as if fans turn a blind eye to these disgusting acts, continuing to play their favorite tracks in ignorant bliss.

After looking into the atrocities buried in the genre, it was hard for me to do back and listen to some of my previously favorite songs without analyzing the lyrics and considering how I would feel if what the artists were saying had happened. It’s time for fans of hip hop to start holding their favorite artists more accountable!

The music in this genre can be captivating but why not direct your attention to the females shattering their way unto the scene? Stream the women who use this creative space to create productive, unapologetic, and unproblematic music.

The genre that many have loved yet been forced systemic issues needs to be reimagined. It needs to be turned from a harmful, hateful, and misogynyridden space, to one used 73

Photos by Alison Madson

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In the early ‘90s, the punk scene was explosively popular, but few people were allowed to participate freely; white men dominated American culture and counterculture. Women were relegated to the sidelines of the scene. They had no place on the stage, nor space in the crowd without fear of harassment. They had no voice in the zines, no presence in the culture. Until they had Riot Grrrls. The Riot Grrrl movement emerged in Olympia, Washington, beginning with feminist zines and expanding to all-female bands and an all-female music convention known as Girls Night.

Icons like Kathleen Hanna and Molly Neuman led the movement, directly confronting the sexist systems and behaviors they had witnessed in the community.

Today, these original Riot Grrrls are inspiring a new generation of young and vocal feminists. hip-hop, and making space at last for women of femininity.

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Riot Grrrls have always come in countless forms; the very nature of the movement insists that girls be whatever they want to structured aesthetics but by their purpose, which is outlined in The Riot Grrrl Manifesto.

The reasons for the revolution were many: from combating selfdestructive girl drama in the community, to rejecting male expectations, to dismantling capitalism.

The Grrrls were not only taking on the punk community but the world at large, bringing feminist theory into daily language and hosting discussions about sexual assault.

The primary function of the revolution was to normalize female anger and sexuality, encouraging girls to celebrate the emotions and struggles, complexities of self that they had been instructed to suppress. Riot Grrrls clause of the manifesto states, “BECAUSE I believe with my wholeheartmindbody that girls constitute a revolutionary soul force that can, and will change the world for real.�

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Now, with the nation irreparably divided, a civil rights movement in progress, and women’s reproductive rights somehow still being debated as fervently as they were in 1991, a revolutionary soul force is exactly what we need.

Riot Grrrl is being reincarnated not only in new feminist punk bands, but in artists like MariaCecilia Simone Kelly, known professionally as Rico Nasty. Simone embodies a Riot Grrrl’s sense of self by embracing her power and vulnerability equally, and channelling her many facets through

whereas Taco Bella, another one of her personas, portrays a more sensitive side. Rico’s ability to her experience as a woman —to name them and give them life — is Riot Grrrl at its core. Though she creates rap music, it often features essential elements of punk tracks with aggressive vocals and screaming in the background. Her lyrics also her track “Rage,” announcing “I love bad bitches who be ragin’.” She encourages female anger and praises it on all occasions. Rico further contributes intersectionality to the traditional Riot Grrrl ideology, celebrating the power and beauty within women of color in particular, in her song “Bitch I’m Nasty,” screaming “Black girls, stand up!” Rico’s whole identity is a call to action for young Black women to embrace themselves in their entirety: their sexuality, their rage, their weirdness. Rico Nasty is the quintessential Riot Grrrl, creating space for young Black girls

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in the alternative scene while starting her own revolution of girl power and uniting punk and rap.

And she isn’t alone.

Princess Nokia, also a hip-hop artist, often on her life and music. She deeply values her role as an inspiration to any person of color who has has never seen themselves in it. On her Beats 1 radio show “The Voices in My Head”, Nokia said that “the majority of all the goth kids, punk kids, ravers, emo kids, scene kids, hardcore scene kids existed in the hood,” explaining that this music and the subcultures attached to it can be a necessary escape for people who have only known oppression. Nokia has described herself as both

a weirdo and a radicalist, and prides herself on the intersectionality displayed in her music.

Like the original Riot Grrrls, her music marries the personal and political. In her song “Sugar Honey Iced Tea”, she tells the story of the time she defended a group of young Black men on the train from a confrontational racist, stating “I love to throw hands on racists, bigots, and scum,” Nokia has embraced and upheld all those pillars that the Riot Grrrls established surrounding girl power and the right to take up space, the right to feel safe, and extended the movement to explicitly include people from her community. Princess Nokia embodies the new age Riot Grrrl through her blend advocacy for those oppressed.

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It is not at all surprising that female rappers are leading the modern Riot Grrrl movement. Hiphop and punk music both have a history as the language of the oppressed, and have often been concerned with the same issues. And Riot Grrrl has of the scene reveal that there were very few traditional band formations, that general rules and expectations of music itself went out the window. “Angst compensated for everything,” she says in Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl. Today’s Riot Grrrls may not produce traditional punk music, but they’ve got angst, and they’ve got the revolution underway.

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“I know you ain’t used to a female alpha,” British pop star Dua Lipa seductively trills on the hook of the opening track to her sophomore album Future Nostalgia. The project, which dropped in March, lives up to the second word of its name, leaning on disco and funk-pop sounds throughout its runtime.

Lipa wasn’t the only charting artist to draw inspiration from the past this year.

Stars like The Weeknd, Lady Gaga, Doja Cat, and BTS all released singles or albums that hearken to either disco or the bubblegum sound of the 1980s. This widespread embrace of an older sound suggests something about the future, too, and how music extreme uncertainty the world is experiencing as we head into the next decade.

Tim Riley, an Associate Professor of Journalism at and music you Emerson ain’t used toCollege

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“I know a female alpha,” British pop star Dua Lipa seductively trills on the hook of the opening track to her sophomore album Future Nostalgia. The

critic, feels that that uncertainty has something to do with the trends that have resurfaced lately. “The urge to nostalgia can be a very conservative mode,” Riley said. “Things have gotten way too wild and crazy and noisy now. There was a time in the idealized past when we didn’t have to worry about any of

It’s worth noting that this kind of thing happened in the very decades that came roaring back this year, albeit in a

In the 1970s, progressivism abounded. Psychedelia and drug use were common and accepted.

There was a sexual revolution happening. The music of The Kinks, Lou Reed, and David Bowie expressed ideas of emerged, catapulting artists like The Clash and The Ramones to notoriety.

“Punk had enormous energy, an enormous outpouring of ideas and new sounds, interesting sounds. It was interesting, liberating thing to go through,” Riley said. “Reaganism felt very reactionary and very like an overreaction to something.”

Enter the ‘80s: Ronald Reagan’s election in 1981 was a victory for conservatives who 85

felt confused and threatened by widespread acceptance of progressive ideals. The ‘70s comparatively uncomplicated ‘50s, which shaped the music landscape along with the general culture. The dominant sound became much more upbeat and palatable than that of the ‘70s. When it comes to the many people think of synthpop: “Take On Me,” The Human League’s “Don’t You Want Me,” pretty much anything by Erasure. Pop icons Prince, Michael Jackson, and Madonna reigned on the charts.

“I wrote a book about Madonna,” Riley said, “and I think the ‘80s was her decade.

What I liked about her was that she was using a lot of reactionary modes and styles to convey some very radical the top of the whole pop wave there for a while, and she was incredibly interesting because she was not expressing conservative, reactionary ideas.”

The

early

Madonna

canon

just look at “Material Girl”’s tongue-in-cheek commentary on our money-focused culture or the brazen equation of sex and religion in “Like A Prayer.”

Madonna is universally lauded as the queen of pop, holds the number one spot on Billboard’s 86

Greatest of All Time Hot 100 Women Artists list, and ranks as the highest-grossing female touring musician in history. She earned those accolades while coding seemingly harmless pop songs with progressive messages, conservative doing so.

decade

while

What she did with those conservative styles in the 80s is what many pop artists have done this year.

Doja, Gaga, and Dua Lipa — contemporary pop queens whom Madonna arguably paved the way for — cloaked lyrics about rape culture, female sexual agency, and mental illness in buoyant, danceable beats. They took a conservative technique This strengthens the messages they convey and makes them hit even harder.

Conservatism, as we understand it in a political the instinct to conserve. Yes, the instinct begets political conservatism, but I’m talking about the literal drive to save when things feel chaotic and out of control, times like what Riley described, and like what we’re experiencing now. So when we give in to the urge to nostalgia, sometimes that’s what we’re doing: 87

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It’s 1973. William Miller is sixteen years old.

He’s just been on a month-long tour with up-andcoming rock band Stillwater as a music journalist

lying utterly exhausted on his childhood bed in San Diego when guitarist Russell Hammond walks an interview after a solid lifetime of being an irredeemable asshole. Miller sits up, turns on his tape recorder, and the conversation goes like this: Miller: So Russell. What do you love about music?

Hammond: To begin with? Everything.

If you can hear the dulcet tones of Led Zeppelin’s “Tangerine” play in your head as you read that last paragraph, you may have seen“Almost Famous”, a cult classic based on the life of writer and director Cameron Crowe. You also might be familiar with the term Band-Aids.

Band-Aids, as portrayed in “Almost Famous,” are music. As Estrella Star, an original Band-Aid, eloquently relays to Miller; “just blow jobs, and that’s it!”

This ideology of not sleeping with the rock stars turns out to be bullshit, but there is a truth within. Band-Aids truly do love the music, as Sapphire says, “so much that it hurts.” And that

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Modern day Band-Aid Dollierocker weighed in on the one of four women who runs the Instagram account @BeatleBandAids, a “Vintage Groupie Troupe” by their own description who have rubbed shoulders with big names in the modern rock era:

not Groupies’ pretty seriously. It wasn’t until we had a gal, Miss Senti from England, join us and tell us about Pamela Des Barres that we realized that the G word has just been bastardized through the years and that we had so much in common with her as she was a Beatles fanatic and a groovy the word groupie ever since.”

Pamela Des Barres is a Los Angeles native was a famous groupie in the 1960s. She is of three women who were Crowe’s inspiration Penny Lane, alongside Bebe Buell and Pennie Trumbull. Unlike Buell and Trumbull, who love

who one for Ann the

feels like she can’t tell her story in a cinematic format because of its success, but she also thinks that Penny Lane “was not owning groupiedom, what it stands for or what it actually means.” Des Barres has been working to disassociate the word “groupie” from its bastardization since she held the title herself, walking Sunset Boulevard in the 1960s. Now that the Beatle Band-Aids have joined, and with September being the 20th anniversary of Shame is a common weapon used against women in the rock music world. It always has been, and always will be. “Almost Famous” is a wonderful movie, but any good feminist can admit there are issues with

Des Barres likes to bring up that if Cameron Crowe

This is true for most movies.

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Dollierocker added: “Each party has their own story to tell and gender isn’t the golden ticket in my view.” “ I think the overlap is purely a projection, or perception. Cameron had the resources to make his movie because Jerry Maguire was wildly successful. Now, I will say that it is not lost on me that a movie like ‘The Dirt’ was pushed through because people want to know all about the debauchery of that scene through the eyes of the band. But I guarantee you, there is an audience that really wants to see the story of a 60s groupie in all her glory through her eyes.”

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Groupie or Band-Aid, Madonna or Whore, labels are construct similar to gender, not all women in the rock world fall under a label, or even want to.

Labeling yourself is either incredibly freeing or intensely restrictive. While Dollie is a proud label, accurate or empowering. Tess, a powerhouse woman in the world of rock music who works to spread love and positivity everywhere she goes, rejects categorization. Countless people on social media know her as @Safetytess, a freelance Jane-of-Allnever looked back. Among her fantastic stories and infectious laugh, she talked about not being taken seriously for any number of reasons: being a woman, being plus sized, and wearing glitter.

While she doesn’t identify as a Band-Aid, she embraces the Band-Aid lifestyle, and had some sage words to share on the subject, “Honestly, Band-Aid and groupie terms are, in my experience, kind of frightening because of the fact that there is a stigma attached to them too.” She continued, “So if you aren’t ready to pull out like a receipt of your life to explain reasons why you are considered these things, it can be something that you sit with forever. More like ‘did I say I was this when really maybe I was that’ kind of a thing.”

While Tess declares her support for women and for taking the shame out of “consensual and awesome sex,” she’s knows exactly what problems can arise when someone becomes involved with a musician.

“There’s always someone who wants to sleep with them because it’s them, or it’s the other way around like in ‘Almost Famous’ where the music

While Dollie proudly wears a label, Tess rejects one; they share a love of all things rock music, hippie chic, and 2001 cult classic, so what’s the problem?

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By Hayden Scoplitte

CW: r*pe, s*icide or skip to page 98

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It’s common knowledge that Chris Brown is a known abuser and rapist, but what isn’t as openly discussed is that David Bowie raped a 15-year-old girl, Lori Mattix, in the 1970s. Unfortunately, these men are only two on a long list of artists that have partaken in similar activities. The music rape culture. It’s not a new concept; the reality has only been exposed in recent years. These musicians, particularly male artists, are often worshipped as some twisted kind of “sex gods.”

From the stereotype of sleeping with groupies and hooking up with underage fans to the competition of sex appeal weaved throughout the performance industry, the music industry has an overwhelming sense of sexualization in that was present from the start and will likely prevail for centuries to come.

This culture of rape and over-sexualization of artists within the world of music is oftentimes hidden directly under our noses. Nobody wants to compile a list of their favorite artists and check a box for each one charged with or accused of sexual assault — most likey, they would be It’s almost heartbreaking to think about icons like Morrissey and Elvis Presley sleeping with severely underage girls, but the list of our beloved artists doing these things goes on and on. Presley found a 14-year-old girl, Priscilla Beaulieu, to marry and have sex with while he was serving in the military at age 24. It becomes very easy to ignore these actions because we simply don’t want to acknowledge that they happened for the sake of keeping the image of the musicians clean and pristine in our minds. These musicians are our heroes and our role models, so coming to terms with their decisions hurts despite how necessary it may be.

After the #MeToo movement arose in 2006 (thanks to Tarana Burke) and became popular on Twitter in 2017, people are now much more aware and sensitive to the actions of musicians today. In the summer of 2020, a list of indie/alternative bands and musicians accused of sexual assault released on 96

a turbulent downfall after a majority of their artists faced sexual misconduct allegations, such as Nobunny, The Growlers, and Buttertones. Bands like SWMRS and Banes World were almost immediately “canceled” after their horrid actions were exposed. willingness to jump and criticize modern groups for doing terrible things while refusing to acknowledge the actions of musicians that shaped the entire music industry. Holding current groups accountable for their faults is much easier. We have the ability to create an entire movement about their actions in an instant because of our access to social media. With this endless stream of information, it is almost impossible to ignore these sexual misconduct cases popping up day by day.

It’s harder to do the same for our problematic old favorites; many of them are either dead or already too successful to get the consequences that they deserve. As listeners, we are tasked with being an ethical consumer, which, in this case, is based on morals. Deciding whether or not to continue supporting the artists is a personal decision, but support those that have been negatively impacted by their actions is a great start.

Oversexualization and rape culture are weaved throughout the music industry and will only continue to thread itself through if society allows musicians to skate free without facing consequences for their actions. They can’t rape people and get away with it simply because they’re famous. Half-hearted apologies on social media are not enough to erase the injustices they have taken a part in. This rape culture is something that needs to be frequently addressed and debunked, not brushed under the blanket.

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Emerson Spotlight

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The soft hum of NPR music’s Tiny Desk concerts, the rapid taps on Macbook keyboards competing with casual conversations, the vibrant hues of red and white abstractly advancing across olive-colored walls — Emerson College’s Lions Den, in all of its multifaceted glory, provides a sanctuary of sophistication and solace to its students. As the natural light from the spacious windows slowly waned away, the warm glow from the ceiling’s stringed

pm dinner rush and overstimulation of whirring teal t-shirt and midnight black jeans, the Emerson artist was almost impossible to miss. Davis slid into the plastic chair and, like his musical persona, gravitated towards a candid conversation the subtle art behind not giving a fuck.

The 21-year-old singer-songwriter, guitarist (and doors music can open. The Oakland native spent the majority of his childhood studying the Beatles memorabilia covering his kitchen walls. Davis had the opportunity to observe music from all angles: whether it was listening to Jimmy Page’s Bad Times” by Led Zeppelin or snagging a frontrow seat to watch his late father compose music, he became infatuated with the array of equipment and techniques musicians used. Being exposed to extensive genres and artists from multiple decades only fueled his love for music. By admiring the stylistic elements he heard in various songs, Davis learned how to craft his own unique sound.

Dominic Fike, an artist who has become a risky is one of Davis’s idols. Fike’s background is anything but conventional: from receiving a four million dollar record deal after serving time in prison to using his newfound fame to save his parents from a large-scale drug bust, nothing entered the music scene in seemingly identical ways. Davis began rapping in hopes of emulating the sounds shared in his social circles. At the 109

start of Davis’s musical career, he did not play any instruments or develop the alluring vocals that now grace his most recent releases. Similar streaming sites almost immediately after they were posted. Davis has always strived to pursue his passion professionally, but he initially felt producing such personal content. Up to this point, therapeutic way to work through his emotions.

His younger self struggled to create music that exposed the speculation and sentiments nagging at his soul while also being listenable. In his eyes, the words poured onto paper essentially became an grew, Davis realized one thing: the only factors holding him back were the fears and limitations manifesting within his own mind.

Davis decided to take the risk of seriously pursuing music during his junior year of high school, and with that, he received indescribable rewards.

streams and supporters— it originated in Emmet’s garage [Davis’s best friend and fellow musician], where the two were captivated by the grueling

the deepest and darkest sectors of making music exposed him to the light at the end of the tunnel.

almost high, of making music. Once I found that I got addicted to that a little bit. I would always try to chase that same feeling again. I wanted it as much as possible, and I knew music is what’s going to give me that.”

About a year and a half into his music career,

of shying away from a vulnerable approach, Davis learned to embrace it.

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shared. “I feel like I can’t really say what I want through certain genres. That’s sort of why I kind of go back and forth a little bit. I just sort of learned to not really give a fuck and make music that I like.”

Choosing

to

keep

his

artistic

expressions

singles are tagged as explicit, immediately earning him a reputation and space within the industry that may not have been available to him at the ripe age of seventeen. “Pink Wine”, a two-minute and forty-second track alluding to alcohol, expresses Davis’s abrupt ability to get lost in love. The song’s capability to border the lines between alt-pop and rock while still wrapping his listeners up in a sweet melody only reinforces Davis’s range. “Reach”, one of Davis’s most recent singles, welcomes listeners into the war taking place between the walls of his mind.

His straightforward approach is a stark contrast from songs like “She Ain’t Know I Was Crazy”, where Davis purposefully focused on enticing his audience with a pretty sound. In both instances, Davis exposes his emotional tendencies and makes his experience; it’s almost as if his audience can follow his stream of consciousness through his lyrical content, the inner workings of his intellect unraveling with every new verse. His choice to honestly approach his work, despite whether it will be well-received by his fan base, largely stems from artists who instilled those same feelings of invincibility when he was on the other side of his headphones.

“I hear my favorite artists say something that is so vulnerable and so upfront or are conveying a message in a way that I really, really like. You almost get courage because you see your favorite artist doing it. If they can do it, I’m not going to hold back.”

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Although it can be easy to embrace the aspects that give listeners a personalized meaning to musicians’ songs or discographies, artists need to be held accountable for their problematic portrayals and actions. Davis, despite being new to the industry, is working towards his goal of being transparent with his fan base.

“Obviously there are some genres where women are depicted in demeaning ways. That aspect has been romanticized, and I have been guilty of some of my songs I try to talk about the partner in a positive route. I do not make songs to ever put anyone else down in the slightest. I just try to put my own personal experience to light in ways that I’m inspired by.”

Davis is currently on the cusp of creating new songs and keeps the family tradition alive by inviting his older brother to collaborate on some of his musical projects. He now enters his imaginative headspace with a beer and complete silence; previously, Davis opted for the much louder approach of smoking weed to spark inspiration.

Like a rollercoaster, Davis’s trajectory is only shooting up — the buildup in each song mimics the same adrenaline rushing through one’s veins in the moments leading up to a ride’s peak; his seamless switch-ups throw listeners through the same loops that can be found on an amusement park’s biggest attraction; riders and listeners share the same anticipation when experiencing the line or unknown of his songs. How do you predict the future that is yet to come for a genre-bending artist, you may ask? The only expectation is for there to be none.

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