Full Description
They're Playing Our Songs offers a unique and fascinating vehicle for women's voices to be heard on the subject of women's music and how it affects their lives. Author Ann M. Savage explores 15 women's engagements with what might be called feminist rock music, including that of such noted artists as Ani DiFranco, Tori Amos, the Indigo Girls, and Melissa Etheridge. The women interviewed here tell deeply personal stories of how songs by these musicians have helped them survive and cope with turbulent life experiences such as difficult work environments, depression, and abusive relationships.
As we can see, then, music can be not only pleasurable but also fiercely expressive, in ways that allow its listeners some vicarious catharsis. These accounts of personal transformation make for a book that is at once compelling and dynamically political, revealing the myriad ways in which art, polemics, and life intertwine to create a side of womanhood that few ever get to see.
Table of Contents
Preface xi
Acknowledgments xvii
Introduction 1 (22)
1. Women's Attraction to Artists 23 (46)
2. "I'm Not the Only One Who Has Felt Like 69 (46)
This": Identification and Appropriation
3. Finding Voice: Expression and Connection 115 (34)
4. The Industry, Society and Self 149 (24)
5. Conclusions 173 (14)
Appendix A: Participant Profiles 187 (4)
Appendix B: List of Artists Appealing to 191 (4)
Respondents
Select Discography 195 (4)
References 199 (8)
Index 207
