About
“What’s it like being a female musician? It’s like being a musician.”
- Kaki King
______________________
From 40s French divas to 90s punk bands to emerging indie artists, there’s lot of lady for your ears to love. Here’s hoping you’ll find something you hadn’t heard before that you can’t stop spinning, and here’s hoping we can help, even just a little, to give the women of this world the stage their music deserves.
Things you’ll find here: interviews, songs, lyrics, concert updates, photos
Things you won’t: patronizing or disrespectful language, including dismissive terms like “chick rock” or “girl group”
Not everyone thinks we should set women’s music apart — aren’t we just feeding into the various stereotypes or “differentness” we’re striving to overcome? — but I think that until music produced by women has access to the same platform as men’s, we need to create it.
Excerpt from an interview I did with Kaki King in 2008: “And Ain’t I a Musician?”
“Kaki King beat me up with a phone.
Not literally, of course - but the renowned guitarist bit into me as a journalist and spit me out like a piece of gristle. She answered my questions with questions, engaging in a verbal fistfight without the violence but with ample frustration and hard-hitting insight.
It’s not you, she said. Don’t take it personally. I’m just sick of the media.
Kaki King is a woman, a guitar player and a lesbian, but to call her a gay female guitarist is like calling John Bonham a straight rock drummer.
‘Why do I have to be the torch bearer for girls who play guitar?’ she asked. ‘Why do girls even have to play guitar well? … The whole idea that women are equal to men, nothing that men can do that women can’t, I’ve been starting to question the whole damn thing.’”
