In several of my classes, we read sixties novels.   I spend a considerable amount of time reading about singers, songwriters, and musicians from this era.  So, I share my musical knowledge to deepen our connection with the novels we read.  Often I talk about my Favorite Female Singers.  Usually, I try to avoid sticking labels on people or sticking people into categories, but before the sixties, I don’t think female singers, songwriters and musicians were as prominent in their industry as their male counterparts.  The sixties were a time of change.  This theme dominates our classroom discussions and our writing.  We talk and write a lot about Social Justice.  I would probably put Joni Mitchell at the top of my list, but I suspect she wouldn’t want to be grouped by gender.  She would ask, ”Why am I not regarded as one of your Favorite Singers period?"  She doesn’t like that talk about gender at all (Sloman).  She believes when she is being compartmentalized, she is being disrespected.  I’m sorry, but no disrespect, Joni. I’m not so much focused on the categories of the singers, but the strength of the women. I believe each of my Favorite Female Singers made a difference in the way women are seen and heard.  They all write their own  songs.  They all have their unique viewpoints.  To highlight their characteristics, I’ve created the groups LEATHER, LACE, and LOVE.  In their unique styles, my Favorite Female Singers have paved the way for future generations, not only singers but all women, to reach out for their dreams.

     Leather singers are tough, dangerous, and defiant. These singers were NOT chosen from any audition in office building; they fight their way on stage.  Taylor Swift may be an excellent singer, but she doesn’t belong in any “Leather” category.  I think she brought her parents to her first audition.  Not only would a leather singer bring her parents to an audition, you probably wouldn’t bring a leather singer home to meet your parents.  Their voices are raw and loud.  They have no trouble being heard.  They may make adults squirm a little bit.  They often look like they are members of a motorcycle gang. Joan Jett is an excellent example of a Leather singer. When she was just a teenager, she started an all-girl band called the Runaways.  Even the name of the band sound tough.  They had to be.  Up until  this point  – 1975  - no one had ever heard of an all-girl band that  played  hard-driving rock music.  All the girls in this band played their own instruments.  They had to fight against sexual harrassment and gender stereotypes (Rogers).   Joan was lead singer and lead bad-ass. She wrote the song, probably about herself, “Bad Reputation.” She sings, "'I don't give a damn about my reputation, it's a new generation…”  Joan Jett was inducted to the Rock ‘N’ Roll Hall of Fame in 2015.  If you want to visualize a true Rock ‘N” Roll  Hall of Famer Woman, you would probably think of a  Leather Girl like Joan Jett.  They wear tight black leather pants and a lot of mascara. Their hair is “Jet” Black.  Not like Taylor Swift.  Like Joan Jett. 

    Lace singers bring more than their voices to the stage.  Beyond the music, “Lace” singers inspire their fans with their fashion choices.  Some may call them Fashion Queens.  Others label them Rock ‘N’ Roll Witches. They never look the same.  They mix and match velvet, lace and silk.  One night you might see them dressed in a Japanese Kimono.  On another night, you might see them dressed up like a San Francisco Hippie Chick in the middle of a sixties free concert in the park. Do you know the song, “San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Flowers in Your Hair)”?  It’s not just teen girls that hang their pictures on their bedroom walls, the boys make room for them too!  Stevie Nicks is a great representative of a Lace girl.  In fact, she wrote a song called “Leather and Lace” that she sang with Waylon Jennings in a duet (“Groundbreaking Feminine Power”). Her songs overflow with  raw emotion, love and heartache.  In real life, she has reached the very top and fell the deepest bottom.  Her money has been made, and her dreams have been shattered.  My favorite Stevie Nicks song may be “Gold Dust Woman.”  It begins with the lyrics, “Rock on gold dust woman/Take your silver spoon/ Dig your grave.”  On stage, Lace singers share their love, laughter and confusion. Their lives are like fairy tales.

     The Love singers may wear Leather or Lace, but the first and last thing you notice about them is the passion and desire in their voice. Deep inside their songs, they have a tendency to share their own struggles and personal issues.   They stand alone on stage in front of hundreds, or thousands, of strangers, their fans, but they open their hearts for everyone to see.   Why do they do this?  It’s because for the duration of the song, they feel FREE.  It might be the only time they feel like this in their lives.  When they sing their love songs, they desperately hold on to the moment.  So, they do it night after night.   Writer Holly George-Warren said this of Janis: “ ]She wasn’t just standing up there singing — she was basically emptying out her guts through that amazing voice of hers, and touching her audience members like they had never been touched before” (qtd. in Angel).  Janis knows something about stuggle.  She grew up in  the Deep South during the early sixties. Because she wore her hair long and liked “Black” music, Rhythm and Blues, she was bullied by her racist high school classmates.  At age 17, she ran away to San Francisco to become a hippie and a blues singer.  My Janis Joplin Love Song is “Piece of My Heart.”  In this song, Janis is wretched with the thought that her lover is going to leave her, she offers  to  break off yet another piece of her heart if only he will take it.  She sings, “Babe, I cry all the time!/ And each time I tell myself that I, well I can't stand the pain / But when you hold me in your arms, I'll sing it once again.”  Love Singers will always have a special relationship with those of us who listen to their songs. Most all of us know the agony of loving someone, but not being loved in return.  When this happens, It’s something we can’t possibly scrape from our minds our our hearts.  Love Singers remind us we are not alone.

     As I conclude my classification essay about my favorite female singers, I’m listening to the panic and anger swirling around the Supreme Court’s impending reversal of our nation’s abortion policy.  Apparently a leaked document suggests what everyone already knew was going happen in this country.  Once the right wing of the Republican party took control of the Supreme Court, we would soon begin losing our rights one by one.   I’m sharing this here because if the leak is accurate, millions of US women will lose respect and dignity they fought so hard for from the sixties up until today.  I realize now my favorite female singers are all products of the tumultuous sixties. Before their appearance on the scene, most women singers were limited to backup roles in Rock ‘N’ Roll.  Janis Joplin began her career by standing off to the side in the group Big Brother and the Holding Company.  Chrissie Hynde had to leave the U.S. for England to find an audience for a female rock singer.  Before Joan Jett, no one had ever  heard of an all-female hard rock band. In the late sixties and early 70s Stevie Nicks stood for Women Power in the world of Macho Rock.   Stevie has become a role model for many young women rockers today.   My categories may have been titled LEATHER, LACE,  and LOVE,  but all female singers are PIONEERS.  Since the sixties, they have fought to get up on stage and stay there.  Their courage should remind us to fight for the rights of women everywhere.   We live in dangerous political times.  Women’s rights will be soon stripped away  The music of my Favorite Female Singers can serve as a call to action.   We all need to vote – WAKE UP EVERYONE! –  in our next election to preserve our freedoms.

Works Cited

Angle, Ann.  Janis Joplin: Rise Up Singing. Amulet Books, 2010.

Hynde, Chrissie.  Reckless. Erbury Press. 2016

Rogers, Jude. “What Happened to Angry Female Music Stars?” The Guardian. Guardian News and Media.  25 March 2010. https://www.theguardian.com/music/2010/mar/25/joan-jett-kathleen-hanna-angry-women.

Sloman, Larry. On the Road with Bob Dylan. Helter Skelter, 2005.

“The Groundbreaking Feminine Power of Rock Icon Stevie Nicks.”   SoundGirls.org. 10  Feb.  2022.  https://soundgirls.org/the-groundbreaking-feminine-power-of-rock-icon-stevie-nicks/ 8 May 2022.  10  Feb.  2022.