Book-It '10! Book #26
Apr. 21st, 2010 06:28 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alivemagdoleneThe Fifty Books Challenge, year two! This was a library request.
Title: Girl Power: The Nineties Revolution in Music by Marisa Meltzer
Details: Copyright 2010, Faber & Faber
Synopsis (By Way of Back Cover): "In the early nineties, riot grrrl exploded onto the underground music scene, inspiring girls and women to pick up instruments, create fanzines, and become politically engaged. The movement’s message of 'Revolution girl-style now' soon filtered into the mainstream as 'girl power,' popularized by the Spice Girls and transformed into merchandising gold in the form of baby tees, lip glosses, and posable dolls.
So what was the legacy of the nineties revolution in music? Though girl power has been criticized as at best frivolous and at worst soulless and hypersexualized, Marisa Meltzer argues that it paved the way for today’s generation of confident girls who are playing instruments and joining bands in record numbers.
Weaving Meltzer’s personal anecdotes with interviews with key players such as Tobi Vail from Bikini Kill and Amy Ray of the Indigo Girls, Meltzer chronicles the legacy of artists including Bratmobile, Sleater-Kinney, Alanis Morissette, Britney Spears, Pink, Avril Lavigne, and, yes, the Spice Girls. Girl Power charts a path for the future of women in rock. "
Why I Wanted to Read It: I adore the majority of the music of the Riot Grrrl movement (particularly the work of Kathleen Hanna).
How I Liked It: The premise of this book is wonderful-- considerations both of the mass-marketing (and dumbing down) of feminism in a recent decade, a crucial chapter for women in music, and feminism and the arts. Unfortunately in execution, it comes up short. We're left with a meandering story (indeed woven with Meltzer's personal anecdotes which manage to obfuscate the narrative, particularly when she mixes them with quotes from other parties) that feels minute to a subject that's massive (maybe in part due to the fact it's actually several subjects). Meltzer gets in some excellent hits once she gets to the mainstream's commercial adoption of "girl power", particularly when she points out the laughable hypocrisy of stealing feminist cant to promote, well, extremely unfeminist "ideals". She dissects The Spice Girls but more interestingly the "bland blondes" that followed in their wake, Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, Mandy Moore, and Jessica Simpson, along with a made-for-Disney punk, Avril Lavigne, who admits in an interview to not knowing what the word "feminist" means.
But Meltzer fumbles both in her summations (overgeneralizing, particularly at the final chapters) and on her narrative as a whole (particularly with her "personal anecdotes" which at times overpower the topic at hand). Jessica Valenti may run over with her own personal asides in her work, but she's managed to never let it distract so heavily from the focused topic. Meltzer makes frequent mention of author/Indigo Girlfriend Jennifer Baumgardner (whose work I reviewed here) who has demonstrated her own skill in combining memoir and topic (and pop culture). You can't help but think of how much better a book this would have been had Baumgardner written it.
Notable: Courtney Love and Kurt Cobain (and the both of them together) generate much ink. There's a particular statement that caught my eye, however.
"The media's obsession with Kurtney, as they were called, came at a time in the early nineties when it was becoming increasingly easier to gather and disseminate celebrity pictures and news-- and when the culture of celebrity worship was just beginning to coalesce." (pg 47)
I don't disagree that it's easier and easier for "just anyone" to produce news and pictures (and video) of celebrities, particularly in this age of citizen journalism. But "the culture of celebrity worship was just beginning to coalesce"? Seriously? In the early nineteen-nineties? The utter absurdity (and, naturally, inaccuracy) of that statement deserves several paragraphs of complaining, however, I will limit my ire and merely wonder how astute a cultural critic Melzter can be when she makes a statement like that. Eep.
On a different, but no less "WTF" note, Meltzer later chronicles the turbulent life of Britney Spears. Throughout the book, Meltzer has made much discussion of "fat positivity" (and weight being yet another rigid part of "conventional" attractiveness), discussed eating disorders, and upon attending the 2008 Spice Girls reunion concert, notes that she's "sure Posh [Spice]'s spindly thighs were doing nothing for anyone's body issues" (pg 141). However, she recounts Spears's infamous performance at the 2007 MTV Video Music Awards thusly:
"She appeared at the 2007 MTV Video Music Awards primed to make a comeback performance but instead stumbled through her dance moves as if in an Ambien (or worse) haze, looking uncomfortable and out of shape in a glittery bikini." (pg 111)
Her performance? Poor, yes. Her dance moves are largely stumbling. She definitely looks uncomfortable. But "out of shape"? Seriously? Go Google Image "2007 MTV Video Music Awards Britney Spears" for what is apparently Marisa Meltzer's definition of "out of shape".
I shudder to think of what she considers "fat positive".
Title: Girl Power: The Nineties Revolution in Music by Marisa Meltzer
Details: Copyright 2010, Faber & Faber
Synopsis (By Way of Back Cover): "In the early nineties, riot grrrl exploded onto the underground music scene, inspiring girls and women to pick up instruments, create fanzines, and become politically engaged. The movement’s message of 'Revolution girl-style now' soon filtered into the mainstream as 'girl power,' popularized by the Spice Girls and transformed into merchandising gold in the form of baby tees, lip glosses, and posable dolls.
So what was the legacy of the nineties revolution in music? Though girl power has been criticized as at best frivolous and at worst soulless and hypersexualized, Marisa Meltzer argues that it paved the way for today’s generation of confident girls who are playing instruments and joining bands in record numbers.
Weaving Meltzer’s personal anecdotes with interviews with key players such as Tobi Vail from Bikini Kill and Amy Ray of the Indigo Girls, Meltzer chronicles the legacy of artists including Bratmobile, Sleater-Kinney, Alanis Morissette, Britney Spears, Pink, Avril Lavigne, and, yes, the Spice Girls. Girl Power charts a path for the future of women in rock. "
Why I Wanted to Read It: I adore the majority of the music of the Riot Grrrl movement (particularly the work of Kathleen Hanna).
How I Liked It: The premise of this book is wonderful-- considerations both of the mass-marketing (and dumbing down) of feminism in a recent decade, a crucial chapter for women in music, and feminism and the arts. Unfortunately in execution, it comes up short. We're left with a meandering story (indeed woven with Meltzer's personal anecdotes which manage to obfuscate the narrative, particularly when she mixes them with quotes from other parties) that feels minute to a subject that's massive (maybe in part due to the fact it's actually several subjects). Meltzer gets in some excellent hits once she gets to the mainstream's commercial adoption of "girl power", particularly when she points out the laughable hypocrisy of stealing feminist cant to promote, well, extremely unfeminist "ideals". She dissects The Spice Girls but more interestingly the "bland blondes" that followed in their wake, Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, Mandy Moore, and Jessica Simpson, along with a made-for-Disney punk, Avril Lavigne, who admits in an interview to not knowing what the word "feminist" means.
But Meltzer fumbles both in her summations (overgeneralizing, particularly at the final chapters) and on her narrative as a whole (particularly with her "personal anecdotes" which at times overpower the topic at hand). Jessica Valenti may run over with her own personal asides in her work, but she's managed to never let it distract so heavily from the focused topic. Meltzer makes frequent mention of author/Indigo Girlfriend Jennifer Baumgardner (whose work I reviewed here) who has demonstrated her own skill in combining memoir and topic (and pop culture). You can't help but think of how much better a book this would have been had Baumgardner written it.
Notable: Courtney Love and Kurt Cobain (and the both of them together) generate much ink. There's a particular statement that caught my eye, however.
"The media's obsession with Kurtney, as they were called, came at a time in the early nineties when it was becoming increasingly easier to gather and disseminate celebrity pictures and news-- and when the culture of celebrity worship was just beginning to coalesce." (pg 47)
I don't disagree that it's easier and easier for "just anyone" to produce news and pictures (and video) of celebrities, particularly in this age of citizen journalism. But "the culture of celebrity worship was just beginning to coalesce"? Seriously? In the early nineteen-nineties? The utter absurdity (and, naturally, inaccuracy) of that statement deserves several paragraphs of complaining, however, I will limit my ire and merely wonder how astute a cultural critic Melzter can be when she makes a statement like that. Eep.
On a different, but no less "WTF" note, Meltzer later chronicles the turbulent life of Britney Spears. Throughout the book, Meltzer has made much discussion of "fat positivity" (and weight being yet another rigid part of "conventional" attractiveness), discussed eating disorders, and upon attending the 2008 Spice Girls reunion concert, notes that she's "sure Posh [Spice]'s spindly thighs were doing nothing for anyone's body issues" (pg 141). However, she recounts Spears's infamous performance at the 2007 MTV Video Music Awards thusly:
"She appeared at the 2007 MTV Video Music Awards primed to make a comeback performance but instead stumbled through her dance moves as if in an Ambien (or worse) haze, looking uncomfortable and out of shape in a glittery bikini." (pg 111)
Her performance? Poor, yes. Her dance moves are largely stumbling. She definitely looks uncomfortable. But "out of shape"? Seriously? Go Google Image "2007 MTV Video Music Awards Britney Spears" for what is apparently Marisa Meltzer's definition of "out of shape".
I shudder to think of what she considers "fat positive".
