Women who Rock: Part 3

We left off with the beautiful Janis Joplin and Tina Turner, who ruled the era of the Summer of Love as Queens of rock n’ roll.  From here, Rock in general exploded into about 10,000 genres, subgenres, and crossover genres:  Funk, Soul, Pop, Punk, Metal, Alt, Grunge, Classic, Soft, Hard, Prog, and I could literally go on forever. Consequently, I debated for a long time where to go from here.  The Funk mavens of the 70’s? The acoustic ladies who hung with Cat Stevens and the like?  80’s/90’s feminist folk?  Pop divas?  Punk princesses?  The options are endless!**

Consequently, I’m just gonna try to draw attention to some female musicians that I am particularly inspired by.  Who better to start with than two women who were born at the exact time that Janis Joplin and Tina Turner were tearing it up?

PJ Harvey (b. 1969)

That link is to the video that made me fall in LOVE with this chick by her sheer badass-ery.  (Sexy white suit + Bejeweled High Heels = Hell Yeah.)  After then tumbling down the rabbit hole that is her collective musical output so far, I discovered that PJ Harvey was Gaga before Gaga was Gaga, in that she does whatever the hell she wants without apology, and her stuff is wacky.  …Except for the fact that her music/style is completely different. There is no couple of songs that encompass PJ’s sound because she has varied so much over the course of her 20 year career, but shes' generally pretty punk.  (Here's another song, if you just can't get enough.)

Neko Case (b. 1970) 

Quite a bit better known than PJ and significantly more folk/country influenced, Neko’s powerful and unique voice totally captivated me a few years ago and I still haven't stopped being hypnotised by it.  For a hilarious autobiography of this lady, check out this link. 

The thing that inspires me about these two artists, and which links them in my mind, is that they both have a really unconventional feminist viewpoint without being militant or even really promoting Feminism as a cause. (Which often puts people off.) These women have game-changing ideas simply by being awesome artists who aren’t afraid to share a unique and intelligent point of view through music. 

(See also: “Lady Pilot” and “People Got A Lotta Nerve” by Neko Case;

“Dress” and “ Working for the man” by PJ Harvey)

**The historical stuff I have talked about heretofore was based on Dr. Ken Kleszynski's History of Rock n' Roll class at University of Portland.  AWESOME class, AWESOME professor.