At least in part cos of sexism and gatekeeping in the industry
Sinead O’ Connor’s an obvious one, is well known but regarded mostly as a joke and was treated horrendously even though she released some astounding records.
It got the p4k revisited treatment recently but I can’t get my head around how Mary Margaret O’ Hara isn’t more well known, Miss America is a hell of an album
From what I know of Mary Margaret O’hara I don’t think she wanted to be massive and I’m not sure that would’ve been great for her anyway.
yeah, laura snapes alluded to that in her review. still strange that her name doesn’t get bandied about more though, it’s a brilliant record and not even particularly avant garde or inaccessible
hopefully she doesn’t get massive off the back of this thread though so her wishes can still be respected
It’s a great album but I don’t think it stands out as being a lost classic. She and it are pretty well known and respected.
Too late, the arena tour is pencilled in
46k listeners on last.fm isn’t very much imo, but i cba arguing any more about it
feel free to add something to this new thread that isn’t weird nitpicking
I wasn’t trying to argue sorry, just offering my opinion.
as much responsible for rock n roll as Chuck Berry, Little Richard, etc
thread reminded me that Nicola Roberts was on Loose Ends (sometimes quite good radio 4 culture show on Saturday nights) talking a bit about media and twitter bullying. I guess she got a fair amount of acclaim when the album came out and has done a load of writing for others. i wonder if she had much interest or opportunity to do more solo stuff? her wikipedia says as far back as pop stars she had louis walsh telling her she wasn’t wanted in the group!
Dionne Warwick
Just so many aren’t there.
I find it interesting that there has been some recent recognition of pioneers in the electronic music field. I wonder if the fact that many of this work was done either in Universities or electronic laboratories meant that there wasn’t as much exclusion in the way that occurred in the music industry, although obviously the lack of recognition is telling.
Related there are also an incredible set of artists who worked in the library music and soundtrack arena who are slowly gaining recognition.
So artists like Eliane Radigue, Pauline Oliveros, Delia Derbyshire, Daphne Oram, Suzanne Ciani, Daniela Casa, Nora Orlandi and many many others.
I wonder how many amazing bedroom electronic artists in the 70s and beyond have gone unacknowledged? Doris Norton and Michelle Mercure (who only self released tapes) are 80s artists I’ve discovered recently and I think there must be a mass of diy electronics from the last 40 years waiting to be discovered.
The Brill Building writers like Ellie Greenwich and Carol King don’t get the credit they deserve - the fact that it was young women writing for those girl groups to express teenage emotions never seems to be acknowledged and is the essence of pop music.
Feel like you could take every major genre and trend in popular music and there would be treasure trove of hidden/unrecognised female artists who are woefully unrecognized and/or simply didn’t get their music published.
Siouxsie Sioux, but that’s as much for being a goth as a women. Probably.
Kemistry and Storm.
Recent article
Whaaaat?
She’s one of the most celebrated female artists of all time with 14 Grammy nominations, 4 wins, 3 inductions, 3 honours and induction into songwriters Hall of fame and the Rock and Roll Hall of fame, a star on Hollywood walk of fame, Kennedy Center Honour award, plus a whole host of other awards that are too numerous to list.
Judee Sill is a female artist that springs to mind. Wasn’t necessarily held back through any kind of patriarchy, more to do with her own demons, but she should have been far bigger and more recognised than she ever was.
Good shout. I wonder if this might be down to the tragic circumstances which stopped them making music? They were definitely a pretty big deal when they were active, but have fallen off massively in terms of attention since
Storm still tours (in normal times) with a fraction of the attention that people like Goldie, Bukem, Andy C etc get. Given that she co-founded Metalheadz that feels a bit off.
Sure Tapestry is a huge mainstream success but I don’t think the pioneering and amazing work she did along with Ellie Greenwich is acknowledged enough - it gets lost in the Phil Spector narrative. But it was only really an example.
well, I guess that proves your point because I had no idea she did! tbh I haven’t paid any attention to that scene for fifteen years or more, so maybe not surprising but there’s clearly no crossover anymore