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This article attacking #JaggedLittlePill on the grounds that the woman's husband likes superior music has been irking me for days now and has been making me think a lot about a passage from @caitlinmoran's How to Be Famous. As a woman who's spent a lot of time around music--
listening to it, loving it, and writing about it-- I found this passage so deeply moving that I'm going to take the time to type it out so that you may all read it (and hope that I'm not violating some sort of copyright)...
"There is one terrible weakness you can have, if you amusedly and self-deprecatingly describe yourself as an artist, and become famous. One letdown if you become loved by millions, and your work is meaningful work. And that is if some of the millions who know, and love you...
...are teenage girls. There is nothing more shaming than to be loved by teenage girls. The love of teenage girls is not merely substandard, or worthless-- it is an active mortification to an artist. Our language is full of how little we think of artists who are loved by...
...teenage girls: we talk of "mad fans," and "teenyboppers," and "little girls wetting their knickers." Oh, you can take those girls' money and become elevated on their devotion, and enjoy them putting you at Number 1-- you can do all those things; no band ever refused them--
...but you do not respect those girls. You do not want to talk to them, or look them in the eye, or hang out with them, or love them back. You do not talk about them-- unless it is to turn to your "cool" fans-- the men-- and mouth, Sorry. These mad girls crashed the party....
...So embarrassing. Of course, they don't get it. Only you get it. Men are the right fans to have. This is why rock is cooler than pop; acid house is cooler than disco; prog cooler than boy bands. Things that boys love are cooler than things that have girls love...
...That is a simple fact. Boys love clever things, cleverly. Girls love foolish things, foolishly. How awful it would be to love bands like teenage girls do. How awful it would be to be the wrong kind of a fan-- a girl. How awful it would be to be a dumb, hysterical, screaming...
...teenage girl. How amazing it is to be a dum, hysterical screaming teenage girl. How amazing to go to a gig thinking of nothing but how loud you will shout; how hard you will dance; how much you will sweat; how tightly you will hug your friends, as your favorite song plays...
How amazing to react to music in the same way the music wants you-- to become an ecstatic animal. To murmurate, in your millions, through the cities-- calling to each other, in billows of girls, as you head to a gig, to exult. How amazing to scream at the top of your voice...
and see the band respond to your call: they play faster, they play harder, they look sexier, they look out into the audience, and smile. How amazing to give yourself completely, expecting nothing in return. Later on, maybe, in the dressing room, or in an interview, they might...
...apologize to other men, for the screaming girls: "It was a bit mad out there!" "Blimey-- St. Trinian's were mental tonight!" But they know, and you know, that tonight, your screaming was the most important thing to them. It was the energy that they fed on. It was the vortex...
...they levitated in. They could not have been amazing without you. You have blessed them with your magic. You made them holy, and endless, and hot-- and in return, they played in a febrile way they could never attain in front of an audience of motionless men, murmuring...
"Nice middle eight. Good reference." Bands need to be screamed at. In their hearts, they know that. They know there is a power they will never attain until they have stood in the white-light noise of a theater of devotion, and seen girls down the front collapse in ecstatic tears"
@caitlinmoran's passage continues. It is moving and powerful and I encourage you to buy the book and read it. And to appreciate female fandom, women's opinions, our devotion, and that #JaggedLittlePill is a great album.
