perdues de vue: quips on women+music

excusemypassion: It’s awkward that they sold her as a sex...

Wed, 09 Jan 2013 07:27:19 -0500

excusemypassion:

It’s awkward that they sold her as a sex symbol but a little girl at the same time

pedo shit

Bon, et bien au revoir 27 club! Je ne vous rejoindrai pas...

Wed, 09 Jan 2013 06:01:15 -0500

Bon, et bien au revoir 27 club! Je ne vous rejoindrai pas aujourd’hui!

happy 28th birthday to me :)

Ms. Arulpragasam will not be releasing her album in April as...

Tue, 08 Jan 2013 12:28:27 -0500

Ms. Arulpragasam will not be releasing her album in April as earlier planned. Her label says the album is “too positive” and that it doesn’t fit her “bad girl” image enough. What a bunch of bull. What if she wanted to reinvent herself? Why does her label entitled to dictate this? They aren’t the ones writing or producing the songs…

under-radar-mag:

M.I.A. has reportedly pushed back the release of her fourth studio album Matangi from its original April release date.

kaliem: The Trevor Project has given an award to Katy Perry....

Sat, 08 Dec 2012 11:29:48 -0500

kaliem:

The Trevor Project has given an award to Katy Perry. Yes, you read that correctly. The Trevor Project, the organization whose aim is to prevent LGBTQ youth suicide, is giving an award to Katy Perry to honor her for “inspiring LGBTQ youth to find their spark through her video ‘Firework’” and ”increasing visibility and understanding of the LGBTQ community.”

I wonder which acts of visibility and understanding they’re referring to exactly. Was it the time she made heaps of money for celebrating the stereotype that girls kissing girls is an act done for attention? You know, the song Kathleen Hanna called “straight-up offensive,” P!nk said “trivializes lesbianism” and Beth Ditto noted was indicative of Perry ”just riding on the backs of our culture, without having to pay any of the dues and not being actually lesbian or anything at all”?

Or was it the time she peppered a song with effeminate gay male stereotypes so she could insult an ex-boyfriend, equating queerness with negativity and encouraging bullying against gay people? Did the fact that she opened that song with the lines “I hope you hang yourself with your H&M scarf /While jacking off listening to Mozart” really seal the deal for a LGBTQ youth suicide prevention group?

Maybe it was the time she talked about looking like a “tranny” in Rolling Stone? Or when she mocked trans* people on twitter, inspiring a condemnation from GLAAD? Those don’t seem like moments when queer visibility was improved, nor were they stellar examples of helping other to “understand” our community any better. Those seem like moments when some homophobia slipped through the cracks, and no one listened when queers called it out. After all, Perry herself has declared that “certain parts of the world — especially in the U.S. — are just dying to be offended” and that it “won’t change how I express myself as an artist.”

Being pissed off at Katy Perry isn’t anything new for the queer community, which is why it seems strange for us to be giving her some kind of award, although it’s certainly not the first time we’ve been baffled by Perry’s inclusion and celebration in a queer space. In 2008, Perry made the cover of the OUT 100, earning the coveted honor of “Musician of the Year,” inspiring lesbian entertainment blogger Dorothy Snarker to ask OUT, “What the fuck? Katy Perry? Katy fucking Perry? This is a joke, right? What you meant to do was pick an actual lesbian to pose amid the gay men, right? Right?”

Autostraddle pretty much nails it with this article.

maybe she just got a new shittier publicist? retoucher? manager?...

Mon, 05 Nov 2012 03:58:02 -0500

maybe she just got a new shittier publicist? retoucher? manager? oh wait, her husband is her manager… no comment.

howtobeterrell:

theuppitynegras:

themaninblackfled:

theblacksophisticate:

beyourloverboy:

Found this on the internet … Dunno what to say :(

Hmmm….

Wonder if Photoshop has anything to do with this.
But even still…skin tone aside…Bey has def embraced a more Eurocentric idea of beauty.

(sigh)

man, i been TELLING muhfuckahs that her skin has been getting lighter and lighter and lighter…and that she dresses like every other white bitch in Hollywood…her nose job…the blond hair…never liked Beyonce anyway but it deeply saddens (angers, even?) me to see black women who try their damnedest to be white. I don’t buy it. Never have, aint nevvah gonna.

le sigh

we miss you brown Beyonce. Come back

C’est clair -> how I feel about 1. #ZoeSaldana playing...

Sun, 04 Nov 2012 14:42:30 -0500

C’est clair -> how I feel about 1. #ZoeSaldana playing #NinaSimone, 2. the #musicindustry in general

"America never liked Josephine Baker. Above all, they resented that she left America. What, she was..."

Mon, 29 Oct 2012 01:22:43 -0400

“America never liked Josephine Baker. Above all, they resented that she left America. What, she was supposed to stay here and become a maid?”

- Dorothy Dandridge on Josephine Baker (via classicladiesofcolor)

jamikaajalon: The Little book with Big Visions The Little Book...

Thu, 11 Oct 2012 05:14:33 -0400

jamikaajalon:

The Little book with Big Visions

The Little Book of Big Visions: How to Be an Artist and Revolutionize the World
This book is out now, with a number of outstanding articles from Afro-german & Afro-diasporic artists, activists. (including, humbly, yours truely).. You can BUY the book, here! Check out the table of contents! There are some thought altering mind flipping work inside :-)

ps: if you want a teaser version of the artical i wrote for Big Visons - ” Fugitive Archetypes of Resistance- a Metamorphical Narrative” check it here. BUT you gotta check the book for the longer retweeked/revised version as well as all those other critical edgy works. I feel lucky to be in such good company :-)

1985 Aimee Mann vs. 2012 Aimee Mann!

Tue, 02 Oct 2012 12:05:04 -0400

As evidenced in that Portlandia ep. she’s got good comedic chops…

awww surprise, surprise, gimmicky music doesn’t sell in...

Mon, 01 Oct 2012 06:43:00 -0400

awww surprise, surprise, gimmicky music doesn’t sell in the long run…

Kreayshawn sold 3,900 copies of her debut LP which is currently being panned by critics everywhere.

WHEN WILL YOU LEARN MAJOR LABELS?

and then you wonder why you’re losing all that money…

As for Columbia records.. a few things to keep in mind.. First just because an artist has 4 million youtube hits doesn’t mean they’re gonna sell 4 million records. For starters youtube numbers can be gamed and you may also have a significant amount of people watching a video repeatedly. I know I watched that Gucci Gucci video at least 654 times, but have no intention of buying the record or album..

(…)

Lastly if history is any indication, we should never forget that this is the same Columbia records that refused to put out Billy Holiday‘s Strange Fruit because they hated the message.. This is the same Columbia that refused to put out Charles Mingus anti-discrimination song Ode to Faubus because they didnt wanna anger racist white folks.

Excellent read fromHip Hop & Politics

Nina Simone + daughter

Mon, 01 Oct 2012 06:31:50 -0400

Nina Simone + daughter

lucitania: “Singer Yma Sumac, a descendant of Atahualpa, the...

Sat, 29 Sep 2012 08:22:58 -0400

lucitania:

“Singer Yma Sumac, a descendant of Atahualpa, the last Incan emperor, 1950s”

under-radar-mag: Congratulations to Feist, who just won the...

Tue, 25 Sep 2012 11:49:51 -0400

under-radar-mag:

Congratulations to Feist, who just won the 2012 Polaris Prize

“Why You Listening To That White Sh-t?”

Fri, 14 Sep 2012 20:46:45 -0400

An excerpt from photographer, music writer and now author Laina Dawes’ cleverly written, brave, personal and yet incredibly relatable book - “What Are You Doing Here?: A Black Woman’s Life and Liberation in Heavy Metal”

Writing this book, I found other black women who had felt rejected by friends, family members, or their communities because of their musical preferences.

At one point, I distributed a mass questionnaire, and nearly three-quarters of the replies described negative reactions to listening to heavy metal.

Many of the replies were predictable: “Many people say the style of music I like isn’t really music, it’s just loud noise. Or that I’m not black because I like rock or punk music.”

Others were encouraging: “Especially when I say I like rock, they think it’s like devil or white music. I find it hilarious. I revel in my musical tastes and find audio joy wherever I can.”

Some were unfortunate: “When I was younger, I was criticized for listening to ‘white’ music and told I was weird and [that] there was something wrong with me for being a black girl listening to rock ’n’ roll … [Then] I learned that black folks actually created it.”

by Laina Dawes [Courtesy of Bazillion Points Books, 2012. ]

fearfullymade-locs: I got dressed in my traditional Indian...

Thu, 13 Sep 2012 11:48:26 -0400

fearfullymade-locs:

I got dressed in my traditional Indian regalia, but there was a man, he was the producer of the whole show. He took that speech away from me and he warned me very sternly. “I’ll give you 60 seconds or less. And if you go over that 60 seconds, I’ll have you arrested. I’ll have you put in handcuffs.”

- Sacheen Littlefeather in Reel Injun (2009), dir. Neil Diamond.

Hmmm, interesting

Hollywood actresses fed up with fluffy interview questions

Thu, 06 Sep 2012 13:32:05 -0400

Hollywood actresses fed up with fluffy interview questions:

“How do you keep so trim?”

“Do you plan to have kids any time soon?”

“Are you dating anyone at the moment?”

One could say the same for musicians, singer-songwriters and performers…

wow. GQ’s man of the year gets a sharp suit...

Thu, 06 Sep 2012 13:05:41 -0400

wow.

GQ’s man of the year gets a sharp suit while
GQ’s woman of the year gets a birthday suit.

GQ, you deserve the slow-clap of the day…

(via guerilla feminism)

kathleen hanna, you’ve always been my hero…

Thu, 06 Sep 2012 01:27:33 -0400

kathleen hanna, you’ve always been my hero…

The Toronto subway gets very empty around 1am #TTC (Taken with...

Sat, 01 Sep 2012 02:12:00 -0400

The Toronto subway gets very empty around 1am #TTC (Taken with Instagram)

Simone de Beauvoir walking down the stairs…

Wed, 29 Aug 2012 12:39:11 -0400

Simone de Beauvoir walking down the stairs…