Spinner

St. Vincent Slams Lilith Fair, Lady GaGa and 'Sexism of Lowered Expectations'

Guitar-slinging crooner Annie Clark, better known by her nom-de-rock St. Vincent, may have been too young to be a part of the '90s Riot Grrrl movement, but she's nonetheless a realization of their gender-blind dream.

"I wasn't reactionary, like, 'I'm gonna play guitar to spite you. Girl Power!' I just love playing guitar, so that's what I'm going to do," she tells Spinner in Toronto a few days after a sold-out set at the Horseshoe Tavern. "Some people expect I wouldn't be able to play guitar very well. I don't know why guitar is this phallic thing to so many people, but that's other people's deal."

She also decries the "sexism of lowered expectations," be it people being wowed by her girl guitar skills or Lady GaGa getting props for writing songs like 'Poker Face' instead of taking the Britney route and hiring Swedes.

"That she should be rewarded [because she says,] 'I write my own songs.' Yeah, duh. So?"


But what really riles up Clark is anything that focuses more on a musician's femininity than her music, especially women-only tours like Lilith Fair, a late-'90s staple that Canadian founder Sarah McLachlan is planning to return to the road next summer.

"The Lilith Fair thing was Bummer Town -- hey, hop aboard the marginalizing train. I guess you had people come out of that and have careers, but I think there was a pretty intense backlash, too," she says, noting she attended the 1998 edition in Dallas because her aunt and uncle's band (jazz duo Tuck & Patti) shared a manager with Bonnie Raitt. And because Clark wanted to see Erykah Badu, who was slotted criminally early on the bill.

"It was just white people who wanted to see the Indigo Girls," she recalls. "It also helped perpetuate this idea that what women do in music is acoustic, sincere, sentimental and without an edge to it."

Clark has moved up through the ranks of male-led bands (Polyphonic Spree and Sufjan Stevens) to become an indie star in her own right. Her new St. Vincent album, 'Actor,' and current tour -- on which she's been offering up a dirty-blues cover of the Beatles' 'Dig a Pony' -- offer a good counter-argument against such Lilith-inspired assumptions.



"Musically, I have more things in common with tons of bands that have no female members," she says "I'm supportive of women, absolutely, and it's so gratifying to have girls come up and say, 'I'm really inspired by your guitar playing.' I mean no disrespect to the sisterhood, but musically I feel more drawn to things like Dirty Projectors, the National and Grizzly Bear. I like Fever Ray, but not because she's a woman.

"I just don't see music on those gender terms."

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11 Comments

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fantana

Bat for Lashes (natasha khan) and Annie Clark are wayyyy better than that feminist crap Lilith fair is all about , heres to independent female singers doing their thing!

October 28 2009 at 10:38 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Alex

I love Annie but she needs to do some slight fact checking. There's three women in Dirty Projectors. That might actually work in favor of of her argument for not seeing music on gender terms.

October 19 2009 at 4:44 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to Alex's comment
amy

I'm pretty sure she knows there are women in the Dirty Projectors. However, it's primarily David Longstreth's project.

October 20 2009 at 1:08 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
aikanae

Blaming "lowered expectations" for women in music by blaming women only venues does not serve to solve the problem - and there is one when 50% (or more) of the population is represented by less than 10% of the popular music widely available. This is a problem in movies too.

Control of accessible music and movies has been determined by a handful of primarily white (sexist) males who have determined that 'women don't sell'. Talent is not a prerequisite. Their business model requires a handful of superstars to support the entire industry.

Amy Mann bucked the system by developing her own 'system'. The only reason the focus is on gender has been because of the predetermined stereotype for getting signed by a label and getting radio play / exposure.

Lilith Fair was a financial success and still, even then money didn't talk. There were few females added to the largely 90% male dominated music market. It's narrow-minded sexism. That's the only reason gender has become an issue and it's LONG OVERDUE.

Warner Brothers exec came out and stated that the studio would not cast a female lead in any movie after Tomb Raider because of perceptions that female don't sell. It's not about talent. Julia Roberts established her own production company to skirt preconceived notions such as that - and again, even financial success hasn't persuaded studios that maybe there is an audience interested in anything but perfect looking comic book stereo types that makes casting largely unbelievable, laughable and boring.

I mentioned to a friend about some new music I liked, and his response was he wasn't interested in "chic rock". Uh, is that a new genre? It seems so. Very disappointing and verges on the disgusting. He listens to largely commercial, big label music and the radio.

So St. Vincent may have a point, but her blame is misplaced. I don't know who produces her music, but if she's joined the big label crowd, then she needs to look at herself as part of the problem too.

September 02 2009 at 6:11 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
pixel pusher

Come on jerk offs!- Annie Clark has overcome obstacles that male guitar players never had to think about. Get past the fact that she is an attractive woman. Get past the fact that she has used that to her advantage, just like any smart performer would
male or female. Eventually you'll realize that she is a talented musician and song writer and that is what we should be paying attention to. The Beatles had lots of female fans - but, BELIEVE IT OR NOT they had lots of male fans too. At the end of the day it's the music that we love and the fact that she covers a Beatles song makes
me appreciate her even more. Her version kicks ass!

August 25 2009 at 1:33 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
A Roberts

Sexism is a complicated thing. It could be said, for example, that St Vincent is perpetuating an archetypically male value system, while at the same time disrupting the notion of feminine roles. It can also be said that groups like the Indigo Girls may reinscribe certain sexist stereotypes while at the same time nurturing and valueing women and their experiences. Our simple (and reductive) Western epistemology of either/or should perhaps be reconceptualised as and/also, as a first step in better understanding sexism, as well as, racism, classism, heterosexism, etc.

August 20 2009 at 7:10 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Clark

No reason to believe that comparing her to this or that is being disrespectful.

August 20 2009 at 4:01 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Dr BLT

It's easy to put other artists down, but I'd rather focus on making music that is creative and unpredictable. That's why I took on this song:

It's a shame the best music has to come from such self-destructive souls.

Michael Jackson has had a collosal impact on music, and the music crosses multiple genres, as is apparent in the country remake of Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean":

Billie Jean
Dr BLT and Penny Marie
(also features Kim McAbee)
http://www.drblt.net/music/BJmusic.mp3

from the CD, From Buck Owens Blvd. to Merle Haggard Drive
http://www.drblt.net
(hit "music" link and go to songs from CD, From Buck Owens Blvd. to Merle Haggard Drive.

August 20 2009 at 12:44 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Casey

I agree with everything she said in this article--but her cover absolutely sucks.

August 20 2009 at 12:14 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
lizzyville

Bat for Lashes said a similar thing in an interview with Pitchfork recently - that she's frustrated with always being compared to women musicians ONLY. It's too bad that this is the knee-jerk way we tend to compare musicians. Great post!

August 19 2009 at 11:01 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
lizzyville

Bat for Lashes said a similar thing in an interview with Pitchfork - that she's frustrated by always being compared to other women musicians ONLY. It is sad that this is the knee-jerk way people think.

August 19 2009 at 11:00 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply