I mention Tavi because Style Rookie is the first place that I read about Girl Power, a new book by Marisa Meltzer. (Let me just point out that Tavi was reading this book at least a month before NYLON, quite a cool publication, ran a little blurb about it. Again, coolest 13-year-old EVAAARRR). The book's tagline: "The Nineties Revolution in Music." GP examines the changes in the musical landscape during the 1990s, the movements (think riot grrrl) that kickstarted those changes, and with that, the prominence and influence of artists like the Spice Girls and Liz Phair. I haven't read the book YET (no thanks to you, Kierkegaard homework), but Tavi's affinity for the decade has made me think about my own favorite girls of the decade. And yes, they're Pretty Predictably Pop Tart-y. But I was in elementary school for all of the '90s, so it's not like Liz Phair and Courtney Love were even blips on my radar. I thought I was Quite the Rebel for loving Jagged Little Pill at such a tender age (although I didn't really identify with Alanis's angst until about 2002...middle school, you know, the playground of Suburban White Girl Aggression.)
Even though I'm excited to read the book, I don't think it'll necessarily change my favored females of the decade. I mean, this list is based on who I was obsessed with then (um, and now too); the music that I sang into hairbrushes and "choreographed" dances to with my fourth grade friends. I can appreciate the influence and trailblazing of Liz Phair, Bikini Kill, and third-wave feminist punk, but at the end of the day, when I'm feeling that nostalgia for elementary school hallways, Crayola and ketchup packets, I really just want to hear "Spice Up Your Life." So here are my top 3 female acts of the decade (in no particular order).
1. THE SPICE GIRLS.
Ten bucks says that any girl (and probably any guy) aged 6-26 at any point from 1996-9 could name all 5 of the Spice Girls' nicknames. An additional ten bucks says that half of those people could easily list all their REAL identities, possibly including last names. And five hundred bucks says that anyone not living under a rock in the '90s could sing along with every word of "Wannabe."
I can't think of a musical group that infiltrated my "playground life" more than the Spice Girls. Literally...my playground life. In elementary school it was just an understood thing that during recess we would be "playing Spice Girls." I can't really remember the exact ins-and-outs of this ongoing game, the rules, or the narrative, but I CAN remember each of my elementary school friends' roles. And any day that I was not allowed to take on the role of pigtailed Emma Bunton (aka Baby Spice) was NOT A GOOD DAY.
My third grade teacher, Mrs. Pittman, assigned us a very broad "country project" in which we were all supposed to choose a nation, make a pretty picture poster, and write up a third-grade report on its history. This was super exciting because we were also allowed to wear costumes and bring national "cuisine." I made up my mind right away that I wanted France AND NO ONE COULD CLAIM IT BEFORE ME, probably just because I'd heard of Paris and happened to like baguettes. But immediately after I signed up to present on France, the Regina George of my friend group snarkily said, "Guess what country I'm doing, Mary? ENGLAND. Know why?"
I instantly remembered just who happened to be from England and froze up. I stopped chewing my wad of Bazooka and, on the verge of tears, timidly asked, "Why did you pick England?"
My frenemy flashed an evil grin at me, the nonverbal equivalent of Be jealous, bee-yotch. "THE SPICE GIRLS are from England. And on presentation day, I'M GOING TO DRESS LIKE THEM."
I went home and cried.
WHY DIDN'T I THINK OF IT FIRST? (For the record, Mrs. Pittman learned of mini Regina's plan and wouldn't have it. I'm pretty sure she wore a Queen Elizabeth costume instead, but I'll just pretend I told Mrs. Pittman to make her dress up as Winston Churchill, because that would have been the ultimate revenge.)
In P.E. we used to have these glorious things called "Free Fridays." Music class and P.E. class would merge, and our teachers would just put on a CD and let us rollerblade, jump rope, jam out, or just run around the room. It was a free-for-all and often the highlight of my week. I remember listening to "2 Become 1" in P.E. class one day and overhearing our P.E. teacher telling our music teacher how much she "loved 'bubblegum' music." I was confused by this term and went home and asked my mother what "bubblegum music" was. She explained that it was sugary-sweet, hook-y pop designed for young people. I asked her if the Spice Girls would fit in this category. She said, "I'm not really that familiar with them, but probably so." Naturally, I then decided that bubblegum music must be the greatest thing in the world.
2. ALANIS MORISSETTE.
Alanis’s high school English teachers may not have hammered the concept of irony quite enough, but I’ll forgive them. I’m not going to say anything really new or revolutionary here (shocking, right?) about Jagged Little Pill. Alanis is surly but goodhearted, angry but funny, blah blah blah. These praises have been given ad nauseum since 1995. Jagged Little Pill is pigeonholed as the Archetypal Angry White Female Album, but it means something different for everyone.
Laugh all you want: I'd heard "Ironic" and "Hand in My Pocket" on the radio, but I first became interested in Alanis while reading a Hanson biography called MMMBop to the Top. Yep, I've been a nerd from day one. The author named Alanis as one of Taylor's favorite artists. Being obsessed with the brothers, I had to check her out. (Discovering Alanis via boys: Now there's something that actually IS "Ironic.")
I have a seemingly innate and very embarrassing tendency to IMITATE a given singer’s voice as I’m belting out his/her songs, and Alanis’s angsty snarl makes singing each track on JLP quite an adventure. Probably my favorite to sing along with is “All I Really Want.” The lyrics were most certainly NOT written with syllables in mind; if you haven’t heard the song before and you want to Google the lyrics and try to sing along with Alanis, well, call me, because that would be hilarious to watch. Spitting out the cramped words as fast as possible while also drawing out certain phrases is just a blast. Favorite line to sing: “I donwanto dissect every-thang today, don’t mean to pick you apart you see but I…caaa-y-aaa-y-aaan’t haaahhllllppp ittt.” There’s some awesome controlled tension in this song; yes, she sounds like at any given point she might spit on you through the speakers, but she never QUITE does. Thx, Alanis.
“Hand in My Pocket” is also a fave, and I remember thinking it ultra-scandalous when I first heard it, especially considering what I’d learned in my DARE class. Remember? With her non-pocketed hand, Alanis is, at one point, “flicking a cigarette.” Uh oh. The radio also consistently blipped out a certain word after “chicken.” I think you know what I’m talking about. Funny how "You Oughta Know" was most DEFINITELY the drrrrtiest song on the album, but all its crassness fell on deaf ears. The only no-no's I actually understood on this album when it first came out were the explicit smoking references. Yep. Yet even when I didn't understand what she was raging about, her anger was palpable. And yeah, I know that if girls who were 16-20 in 1995 read this, they'd probably say that there's no way JLP could have meant as much to an innocent little grade-schooler as it did to an Angry Young Thang. Well, they're partially right; it's not like I really identified with Alanis's angst when I heard JLP in elementary school. (Thankfully, right?) It's more like Alanis introduced me to the concept of angst. And when I rediscovered the album at around age 14, well, I was quite the cliche; JLP for me was the Typical Teenage (world) Turnover, like the musical equivalent of the first time you read The Catcher in the Rye, you know, when you're 15 and you think Holden is AWESOME and so "unhindered by society" rather than whiny and lame. (I still love that book, but Holden Caulfield is not my hero. But I digress.) The point is, Jagged Little Pill is one of those albums that I've grown up with. And at each age, I've heard it a little differently. But it always sounds good.
3. BRITNEY SPEARS.
Before K-Feds and shaved heads and lethal doses of double entendre, Britney Spears was just a person and not a global
franchise/concept/tabloid fixture/household name. I remember my first exposure to Britney. It was on one of the previously mentioned Free Fridays (soooo fantastic) in P.E. We had a substitute that day (her face, for one reason or another, is permanently ingrained in my memory; I guess it's because that was such a Momentous Day). One of my friends mentioned that the substitute was "so cool." Confused, I asked why. She said, "She has the Britney Spears CD, and Hit Me (sic) Baby One More Time is her favorite song! She's about to play it!" I then asked my friend a question that I will never forget asking. Just imagine a world where you turn to someone and obliviously ask, "Who is Britney Spears?" Remember when that world existed? Just thinking about it blows my mind. My friend held up the album cover, and there was Britney, kneeling and smiling innocently, wearing a little short-sleeved red cardigan. I remember thinking she looked a little like Melissa, one of my old babysitters.
In retrospect, I see that moment as a BLT (Big Life Transition). Moving from knowing nothing about Britney Spears to listening to, imitating, idolizing and scrutinizing her. For years. Not just me, but the world. Crazy. Britney Spears is a legend and always will be, and she deserves to be even based on "...Baby One More Time" alone. The music video is Like So Iconic I Can't Stand It. Seriously, though-I remember it coming on both MTV and the Disney Channel, and I'd sit and watch and decide then and there that my elementary school should have uniforms JUST like Britney's. (I'm sure that would have gone over really well.) She was at her best when she was just a tease. Don't get me wrong, I'll stand by Britney and the crazy things she does because I've been a diehard fan since that fateful day in P.E. But nothing she does will ever top "...Baby One More Time." When it came out there was no baggage or big backstory or
anything. She was just a high-school-aged KID sassily sashaying down her school hallway. That song rocked my world. I actually felt a little guilty for liking it. Not because I was a kiddie elitist, but because I think I just sensed that there was something inherently naughty about it.
I can sing her debut album (oh, let's be honest, all her albums) track by track. I've always been a fan, even in my "denial period" circa ninth grade when I thought wearing Birkenstocks made me look "serious about music," when I acted like Dave Matthews was some kind of demigod and wrote "Two Step" lyrics all over my binders, and when I couldn't wait to get my driver's license so I could put a Kavu/Patagonia/DMB fire dancer sticker on my car (I'm blushing as I write this, but I'm willing to bet some of you went through similar phases. At one point or another, you just realize that Britney and Dave have pretty similar voice abilities. That doesn't lessen their appeal, though.) I remember "Soda Pop," track 4 on ...Baby One More Time, and how my sister, her friend, and I once just sat in front of a CD player listening to the first 3 seconds over and over and over again. Britney's vocal intro: "Uh uh, a-here we go now." No idea why we were so fascinated by that part. It was like rewinding a movie to watch a scene over and over, except we started the song over and over until the CD scratched. I think that CD-scratching instance could be compared to what's happened to Britney over the past decade. She's been "scratched" to death by the media and the world. And I think it's just because she's so freaking fascinating.
GIRL POWER.
Tavi, let's do lunch. Or we could just have a spend-the-night party elementary school style; we could Talk Nineties and pop popcorn and paint nails and wear either flannel or power beads (depending on what '90s age group we want to channel-college kids versus elementary schoolers). And watch Freaks and Geeks or My So-Called Life. I'm getting really excited about this.
plan: me and you go to illinois. find tavi. get her to teach us how to be cool 12 year olds... i am currently knitting that scarf she had on at fashion week, because i want to be her, duh.
ReplyDeleteshe would love us.
That sounds like a FABULOUS plan. i'm also totally jealous that you're recreating that scarf. How is she so cool and cultured and accomplished? I don't understand.
ReplyDeleteand yes... She would love us.