January Jams

January was a busy month and I didn’t get a chance to write any blog posts, but hopefully February will be the month I get back into writing. I’ve also had no time to write up a proper post and therefore you will have to deal with this.

My January Jams!!!!!!!!!!!! (or, the songs that I liked listening to in January, aka the worst month ever)

These songs are just songs that I’ve been listening to a lot this month, not in any order or to do with anything.

Superfood - Superfood  

Joan Jett - I Wanna Be Your Dog 

Sonic Youth - Drunken Butterfly 

The Smiths - Shoplifters Of The World Unite

Drenge - Gun Crazy 

Splashh - All I Wanna Do 

David Bowie - Ashes To Ashes  

Bikini Kill - Rebel Girl

DIIV - Sometime

The Libertines -What Katie Did

- Charlotte

Does hating the artist mean you have to hate the music?

I was suddenly struck with inspiration for this post earlier. It's a short one, I'm sorry.

Does hating the artist mean you have to hate the music?

When listening to music, I try and focus on the actual music, rather than the artist. This might seem like the obvious thing to do, but I know it isn't always the case. 
Music is often first judged by who created it. Say, The 1975 or Bastille made a pretty good song, most people I follow on twitter would dismiss it and say it's 'terrible' because of the fact The !975/Bastille made it, yet if Arctic Monkeys or The Smiths made an awful song, people are likely not to criticise it because of who made it.
Personally, I can't understand why people do this. By doing this, you're missing out on listening to music you could really enjoy and pretending you like stuff you don't, just to fit in. What's the point? If I dislike a song, I tell people I dislike it. If I like a song, I tell people I like it, regardless of the artist.
Take the band Hole for example. I know a lot of people hate Courtney Love and stuff, which yeah, is their own opinion. However, hating her does not mean you have to hate Hole. They're one of my favourite bands, and one of my friends favourite bands (she hates Courtney). There is no reason to hate music because of who made it. It's silly to miss out on music because you hold too much of a grudge against a member of a band.
Another aspect to this is a debatable subject - should somebody's criminal record affect what you think about their music? Even I am iffy about this. I think that if you like a song, you should continue to like it, even if the lead singer turns out to have murdered someone. I guess you could link this to drugs as well. If they do something you do not like, you should not refuse to listen to the music they produce (especially if it's only one member of a band). Music is music, the artist's life choices are their life choices. 

So in conclusion, give somebody's music a chance, even if you dislike them. You might just find a new favourite song from somewhere you never thought you would.

- Charlotte x

Music Tastes

While going through peoples twitters this week, I realised how much people seem to have against people who like different music. I even saw something about not liking someone because they didn't like The Smiths. This whole concept seems silly.

Music Tastes.

People like a variety of music, and that's perfectly fine. Some people love The Smiths and Joy Division, and some love Drake and Eminem. Did you know it's possible to like both? It is.
There always seems to be this mindset in which people think that they have to stay in a certain genre of music, because it's what they're used to, and what's 'cool', but you don't. Its good to listen to different genres of music. It's nice to listen to a variety of music.
However, a surprising amount of people seem to judge a person on what music they listen to. I know I'm guilty of this, and you might be too. See, you shouldn't judge someone on what music they like. Just because someone doesn't like The Smiths or Arctic Monkeys, doesn't mean they are any less of a person. It doesn't mean they are not 'cool' or 'cultured', it just means they have different taste - and that's great. Their music taste does not define them, and it's silly to not be friends with them because they like chart music and you don't. For instance, one of my good friends listens to a lot of K-Pop, but it doesn't effect her personality at all. In fact it's nice, because we can talk about the differences in what music we listen to.
Another thing, is that I often see people making negative comments about bands or artists that they don't think are very good, but I often question whether they have ever actually listened to them or whether they are doing it to 'fit in'. Why does hating a band (e.g. Coldplay) make you any better than anyone else? Why should you hate an artist just because it's what everyone else does, do you want to be like them? Is it the 'indie' thing to do? Does a person liking them mean they have a 'bad' music taste even if they like all your other favourite bands?
It happens in the other way too - people pretend to like bands that they don't. What does that achieve? What music you listen to isn't everything about you. If you love a band that everyone hates, don't say you hate them. If you hate a band everyone loves, don't say you love them.It's pointless.
For a long time I seemed to think I had to only like one type of music, and that I shouldn't like some of the artists I like because everyone else I was friends with hated them. It doesn't matter though - I love David Bowie and Peace, but I also really like Beyonce, Jay-Z  and, wait for it, Sleeping With Sirens at times (most of the time). Does that suddenly mean I'm a 'chav' or an 'emo' something? It makes no sense.
So to tie it all up; don't judge people on what music they like, don't pretend to hate bands just to seem cool and just like who you want to like. It's stupid. Music tastes are not the only quality of a person, and you need to remember that when you're judging someone based on the bands in their twitter bios.

- Charlotte x

The Runaways

Seen as I've been very busy this week, and I only got around to writing this today (oops), I thought I'd write a somewhat small post about one of my favourite bands of all time. Although this band have a film released in 2010 about them, they don't get enough recognition for what they actually did.

The Runaways.

The Runaways were an all-girl rock band that consisted of five teenage girls (Cherie Currie, Joan Jett, Sandy West, Jackie Fox and Lita Ford being the most well known line up), lead vocalist Cherie Currie being only 15 when they were formed. They were all about female empowerment, being a female band who played their own instruments and showed everyone what they wanted to do - to do it how they saw male bands playing. The angsty lyrics in the songs and the provocative stage-wear they wore didn't win them success in their home country, the USA, but they managed to gain popularity in Japan. 
After releasing three studio albums and a live album, The Runaways officially split in 1979, after only four years. By the time they split, the band had pretty much dissolved anyway. Cherie Currie had already left, there had been five different bassists and there had been claims of abuse from their management  However, in the short time they were together, the band managed to influence many musicians, and prove that teenage girls could play their instruments.
What's sad is that most people don't know who The Runaways were and what they achieved. 
The 2010 film about them only seems to focus on the relationship between Jett and Currie, and less on the history of The Runaways. I would suggest watching Edgeplay: A Film About The Runaways (it's great and hey, you can watch it for free on youtube). Also, if you have never listened to The Runaways, listen to them. 

And if you're a teenage girl and you want to start an all-girl rock band, do it because why not? The Runways did.

Queens Of Noise - The Runaways

- Charlotte x

Women in the Music Industry

If you follow me on twitter or know me in real life, you should know that I have an opinion on practically everything and I'm not really afraid to express my opinions. Which means, when I have a chance to write about something I feel strongly about - I will. So here it goes.

Women in the Music Industry

With the growing number of female musicians who are having success in bands where they play instruments, you'd think that females in the music industry would be finally recognised to be equal to men. However, that's not the case. For some reason it's still a shock that a woman can play an instrument well. Men can just be a bassist or a drummer or a guitarist - a musician, but as soon as the guitarist is a woman, she's a 'female guitarist'. Why can she not just be a guitarist? Because subconsciously, most people will judge her ability on the fact that she is not male, and that's 'weird'. For example, the phrase "she's good for a woman" might be used. 
Although male musicians may attract fan-girls, most of the time comments made about them are for their music, with the occasional "he's so hot". With females it's different. Take Ellie Rowsell from Wolf Alice for example, her name constantly pops up on my twitter timeline, but it's rare that I see a comment about her ability as an artist. The tweets are mainly about how attractive she is (I do agree) but not how talented she is, which I'm sure must be annoying for her as a musician. 
Another example is a band that I am not particularly fond of: Haim. Now, I don't like Haim purely because I don't like the music they produce, but people always try and argue back to try and make me like them. One of the first arguments that a Haim fan will use is 'But they're so pretty'. And believe it or not, I've once had a friend of mine tell me he didn't think that musically Haim were great, yet their attractiveness was one of the main reasons he liked them.
Now, you can argue back if you like, but most people don't try and support the fact that a male musician is good by the way he looks? It doesn't make sense - so why does that happen for female musicians? 
This brings me on to my next point: the sexualisation of women.
Many female pop artists look to being 'sexy' as a way to gain following, which it does. This though, means that they may not be taken as seriously and again the main subject of a conversation is not the vocal ability she has, but how 'hot' she is in her latest video. Even male musicians look to the use of an overly sexualised woman in their music video. Even bands that I really love are guilty of it, including Peace. Recently, the biggest outrage has been over Robin Thicke's 'Blurred Lines', a song perpetrating rape culture, and that uses women in a completely degrading and sexualising way, but I won't talk too much about that, because that could go onto something completely else.
Now as the last major point of this post, I want you to ask yourself a question. If you saw a teenage boy walking down the street in a band shirt and a teenage girl in a band shirt, who are you most likely to say actually likes the band? The boy, right? Because most people have built up this idea that girls only like bands for an image or to impress people. Why? Because girls actually liking something other than the sexualised pop music that is played so often is 'strange'.
I'm going to finish with a quote by one of my favourite musicians of all time.

"The media says that equality for women has arrived, but if you look around, you still don't see girls playing guitars and having success with it." 

- Joan Jett.

-Charlotte x