Trip Hop

Apparantly there was some absence of female artists in triple j's hottest 100 of all time. I wouldn't know, because I didn't listen. I didn't listen because I didn't care. I thought I was hung up on the 90's but aparantly the list was dominated by 90's artists, most notably with Rage Against the Machine taking out the 2, and Nirvana taking out the 1.

And I have belaboured again and again, my lament at the death of grunge, it truly was awesomely lazy in a way punk never was. Pretentious maybe, but whatever.

I feel I have neglected another genre that saw it's hey-day in the 90's. You see the absense of girl-bands doesn't really surprise me. Because let's be honest, most girl acts even in alternative music movements survive on sex appeal. They are a novelty.
You would think the largest marginalised demographic would have some powerful messages of disenfranchisement to share with the world, but alas, it never seems to eventuate.

There are bands in what has been filthily labelled as 'Indie Rock' like Veruca Salt as a prominent example. Then you have the Gwen Stefani's and that bassist for Smashing Pumpkins etc. So within their were prominantly cool women. But still nothing like the torrent of cool guys that music seems to produce, everywhere from Mike Patton to Max Cavelera, guys seem to be leaders of their followings when it comes to music.

You read what they say and you savour every word. I've published Mike Patton's essay 'How We Eat Our Young' which had a big impact on my personal philosophy. Rage Against the Machine were some of the most influential on my political consciousness that I've ever encountered, they put me onto both Marcos and Chomsky.

But when it comes to women in rock, sure they have their followings, sometimes eclipsing cult figures like Patton, but they are the idol's not the leaders in my experience. They are held up, photographed, smeared across magazine covers, but nobody is really listening to what they are saying.

Madonna's book was titled 'Sex' for fucks sake. Lady Gaga mimics her, but it's David Bowie's Lightning Bolt she draws across her face. As far as I know, Madonna is really famous for masturbating on stage in the 80's (a mime act too) and Gaga is famous for taking her clothes off. Lil' Kim is famous for 'getting her eagle on' in a poster and singing about having her crack licked.

What also got buried in the 90's I think was the genre that was female artists at their coolist. Trip Hop, I'm thinking Portishead, Sneaker Pimps, Massive Attack and 90's hangovers like Lovage & Gorillaz.

I don't think there was anything gender specific about what makes trip hop good vs what makes grunge good. I just tend to notice that the 'good' trip hop acts seemed to be vocalised by females, it also tended to originate from Bri'ain, just like Grunge tended to be fronted by dudes and originate from Seattle.

My personal working theory is that it tended to hark back to the sultry sexy graniness of jazz club days, which was probably the last time female performers outshone the men in any music genre. Okay, not on the trumpets and shit, but singing, I think of 'Fever' when I think of Jazz, not Louis Armstrong scatting, infact when I think of 'scat' I think of it's horriffic porno connotations these days.

Anyway, enough, Trip Hop, I salute you.