Sunday 29 September 2013

Inspiration: Nineties Girlpop 2

I enjoyed reading the comments on part 1 of this post.  It's funny how the mention of one band or artist triggers memories of a whole load of others.  There were so many artists that kept coming to mind when the idea for this post was in its embryonic stages that I couldn't have included them all.  Instead I opted for the ones that struck a chord with me, just not necessarily for the calibre of the music.   As one commenter observed "Some music just doesn't stay with you, it's too firmly rooted in its time"  I wholeheartedly agree.  But it's OK to get nostalgic once every now and then

Shakespears Sister




I loved them!  Named after the Smiths song of the same name, a fact which was lost on my 11 year old self, as was the Baby Jane aesthetic, but I was unmistakably drawn to the theatrics.  I have 'Smash Hits' and 'The Chart Show' to thank for bringing them to my attention.  Siobhan Fahey remains my favourite member of Bananarama.  Let's not forget that Shakespears Sister produced some very radio worthy tunes.  Even though I didn't really like 'Stay'.  I preferred this one




Voice of the Beehive




My sister liked Voice of the Beehive.  I wasn't too aware of them at the time but had I been, I would have probably been a fan.  I remember this song being on Top of the Pops




Dubstar




The 60's dreampop thing was huge in the 90's.  Sarah Blackwood of Dubstar was another proponent of this.  All industrial eyelashes and helium vocals.  Dubstar's second album 'Goodbye' was the soundtrack to one of my first episodes of what I thought at the time was heartbreak.  I think the songs stand up even now.  And apparently the band have reformed and a new album is on the cards...

    


Fluffy




I was a bit older by this point.  It was 1996 and I had started to realise that I was really into girls in bands.  This band was getting some airplay on the Mark Radcliffe show on Radio 1 and their sound, and their look was right up my street.  In retrospect, a group of rather posh 19 and 20 year olds singing hardbitten songs of emotional abuse and domestic violence doesn't quite ring true.  Nevertheless, they were the perfect antidote to the stage school pop garbage filling the charts at the time and I was quite the fan.  I still occasionally look up their stuff on You Tube



Monday 16 September 2013

Inspiration : Nineties Girlpop

Because, you know as much as I love her, it didn't begin and end with Courtney Love!  Lately I've been musing on some of the female fronted bands from the nineties that inspired me through my pre-teen and teenage years

St Ettienne




Sarah Cracknell was the perfect frontwoman for this 60's inspired helium vocalled dreampop band.  They churned out some impressive tunes in the early nineties, and of course the sequins and feathers sealed the deal




Shampoo (uh oh):-





Jacqui & Carrie, a coule of schoolgirls who ran a Manic Street Preachers fanzine and later went on to form their own pop double act with a hint of riot grrl.  Brattish and abrasive and not everyone's cup of tea.  Not even mine if I'm honest. But I did love these girls' style, more than I cared to admit.  And I'm pretty sure they coined the phrase 'girlpower' before the apocalyptic emergence of the Spice Girls




Alishas Attic:-




Style over substance?  Yeh probably.  Best known for the ubiquitous 'I Am, I Feel'.  Alisha's Attic had one standout successful album 'Alisha Rules The World" then kind of slowly faded into insignificance.   I bought it and spent more time studying the CD artwork than I did playing the music.  These girls had style and in the days before broadband internet the only way to absorb that was album artwork and the NME.  I particularly adored the way they did their make up

And I wanted to live in the flat in this video


Alisha's Attic - I Am I Feel by lucky33
There are more where that came from.  I may yet do a part 2.
Any memories here?
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