I've been attempting to juggle full time work and packing up my entire life to move out at the end of this week, so I've been pretty negligent of every other aspect of my life including this blog and my personal hygiene.
Last week I spoke about my number one hero in all of music, which was Poly Styrene, lead singer and general badass from 70's punk band X Rey Spex. As an attempt to keep this ball rolling, I'm going to do it again and eventually work myself a little catalogue of all of my favourite ladies in music.
#2 in my list of awesome women in music is Lykke Li. Her debut album, Youth Novels, is one of my all time favourite records featuring tracks such as 'Little Bit', 'Dance, Dance, Dance' which soon became one of my favourite summer renditions of any song I'd seen after she was accompanied by Bon Iver on the streets of L.A.
After that she worked alongside Robyn, another one of my favourite Swedish popstairs, as well as a band of monochrome bohemian-looking types to record one of the most emphatic live renditions of her song 'I'm Good, I'm Gone'. Although she is able to capture herself within her music and music videos, nothing like her live videos does it with so much sincerity. She is rapturous with energy, however while always being so subdued, it allows her vocal talents to take centre stage rather than her on-stage character.
Although Lykke Li is a singer, she attempts to covert her style in every aspect of her field. Not allowing herself to be confined as her role as a singer, she spills out into film, writing, photography and art. Collaborating with the likes of Christian Haag for 'Breaking It Up' and Johan Söderberg for 'Get Some', there is an indefinite aesthetic about Lykke Li. Yet she refuses to hide behind costumes or gimics, relying simply on her captivating stage presence and phenomenally unique voice.
Throughout the three albums she has released, Youth Novels, Wounded Rhymes and the newly released I Never Learn she has grown and developed as an artist, although remaining familiar with a somewhat sombre tone of heartbreak. I Never Learn is completely dreamy and sensitive. Lykke Li is incredibly good at staying relevant within the ever changing music scene by adapting her sound as well as collaborating alongside A$AP Rocky, but she still retains the charm that allowed everyone to fall in love with her by harnessing the common emotions that every feels - senses of loss, heartbreak and experience. This is the main thing I love about Lykke Li's music. That it allows the listener to be introverted. Whereas a lot of music is much about outward expression.
I really appriciate Lykke Li's attitude towards her own music. Despite being incredibly self-depricating, she allows others be the same way. She also chooses not to settle for the same position she has held throughout her musical career. She not only attempts to better herself, but better the industry. While using her music as a platform for change and growth, she also uses it to testify against the overtly sexual nature of modern popular music. The video for 'Get Some' was an attempt subvert the objectification of women, not only on a sexual level but also on a power level. In an interview with The Guardian in 2010, she openly objects to how the male-orientated industry attempts to compare and confine female artists, saying "I just feel like it's unfair sometimes to be a woman."
Despite achieving two best-selling albums, and being a female artists who strives to stand out in a crowd which often doesn't want her to do exactly that, she still considers feminism an integral part of who she and her music are. She believes that although women have made strives in so many instances within music, we still have a very long way before we reach equality. And she's completely right. Women are taught to harness their sexuality in an attempt to sell records and gain fame. However, it is always questionable as to whether these ideas of sexuality as a tool are propagated by management and record labels in a bid to make more money or if stars such as Miley Cyrus and Rihanna actually are empowered by their own personal motives. And even if these are the acts of empowered women, media and the industry attempt to make women compete against one another. Yet, Lykke Li's introversion and isolation that follows alongside her music allows her to see this word in retrospect, from the outside in, whilst still being on the inside. Despite female artists being bred to fight against eachother, Lykke Li sees the actual fight to grow as women important and exciting, expressing in The Independant that "It's great being a woman, I love being a woman. It's fun to have more to fight for."
Molly
Images: Bell & Light
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