NPR had the right idea. Suggesting songs or albums that would help a 13-year-old get through her adolescence is a great way to connect with and guide the next generation, but I don't know many 13-year-old girls raised on a steady diet of Katy Perry and Ke$ha who could really get into King Crimson's In the Court of the Crimson King or Neil Young's After the Goldrush. Any chance one would have to drive a teenage girl away from pop music's message that she has to be thin, sexy, and available to boys, take it. But Neil Young isn't going to cut it. At 13, I would have dismissed it as "dad rock."(If you have to go the Bob/Neil/Bruce route, I'd suggesting buying her a guitar to go along with cds.)
Truth be told, I wasn't listening to much of anything at 13. My neighborhood didn't have MTV yet, and my parents kept the radio tuned to talk or country. What little music I listened to had to be so ubiquitous that it was unavoidable. The trifecta of Cyndi Lauper's She's So Unusual, Culture Club's Colour By Numbers, and Thriller made up the entirety of my record collection. I didn't really start getting into music until my late teens or early twenties. Fortunately for me, a lot of great music came out during the latter part of the 80s and into the 90s with the rise of commercial "alternative" rock. (Biggest oxymoron in the world, I know, but it did shake up the music industry for a few years, and dealt the final blow to hairspray rock.) However, by then I was a little too old to really enjoy it. I wish some of it was around when I was younger. If I could send a care package to my 13-year-old self, this is what it would include:
Queen Latifah's "Ladies First" and "U.N.I.T.Y"
My earliest taste of feminism came courtesy of hip hop, and both these songs left a huge impression on me. Hearing Queen Latifah in "U.N.I.T.Y" threaten to punch her harassers "dead in the eye" planted the seed in my head that, "Wow. I can do that?" I never had to, but I used to play that song on a loop in my brain whenever I'm walking home alone.
Patti Smith's "Gloria" Jesus died for somebody's sins but not mine... Truer words have never been spoken, especially to a budding atheist like myself. I kind of wish someone would have pointed me toward this song when, at age eleven, I asked my dad how I could become excommunicated from the church. I actually got to see Patti Smith a few years ago, and it was the closest I've ever been to a true religious experience.
Le Tigre's Feminist Sweepstakes
Going with the entire album here, as there are few artists these days calling themselves feminists, and even fewer records that make the word sound not scary or antiquated.
TLC's "No Scrubs"
What I've always loved about this song, though it was a huge pop hit, was that it was completely free of the victimization of street harassment. Many times "message" songs make me feel more powerless than I did before. This one doesn't, and puts the onus on the creepy guy "hanging out the passenger side."
So, what songs are albums would you recommend to a girl just entering her teens?
"Beginning with a random home rocket kit test flight, Le Tigre: On Tour takes an irreverent look at the camaraderie and adventures of the team, and spends a lot of time fawning over the most masculine of the trio, JD Samson. Dykes will appreciate the attention paid to this mustachioed butch dreamboat who comes across as genuine, humble and sexy, even when she's accepting champagne from adoring fans."
"The documentary references their battles waged in the name of gender display, remaining both feminist AND lesbian in their politics even when media coverage is on the line, and those that centre on an all too familiar theme in feminist work – a sharpened outsider focus on women’s relationships and connections to the ‘larger than life’ works of men (in Le Tigre’s case, it’s Hanna’s cleverly writing ‘Kurt smells like teen spirit’ on Cobain’s wall one evening causing the anthemic song to be written, but we needn’t look far to see this trend continue on in popular culture. The buzz surrounding Kathryn Bigelow, even from a feminist lens, more often than not, whispers the name of James Cameron too)."
I missed much of the riot grrrl phenomenon of the 90s and early 00s, I'm anxious to see this. Unfortunately, there are only a few screenings listed.
