I was having a conversation with some of my friends about women in alt music and realized many of them weren’t exposed to the wealth of women’s contributions to these genres, so I made these. In no way are these playlists comprehensive and they will continually be added to, but they are what I generally listen to and orbit around by subgenre. Recommendations are welcome if there’s something you’d think I like and could be added! As of right now, there are four categories.
Punk, Alt, and Indie Rock covers the bases of the named categories without stepping into metal. Expect unpolished vocals, upbeat tempos, personal and political lyrics, and experimental sounds. Some of the artists on this playlist are…
The Gits, The Distillers, Hole, Joan Jett, Courtney Barnett, Screaming Females, Sleater-Kinney, and others.
Alternative, Progressive, and Symphonic brings us into the metal category. Expect more focus on singing over screaming, aspects of other genres, instrumental focus, with romantic and gothic overtones. On here…
Oceans of Slumber, Within Temptation, Evanescence, Reliqa, In This Moment, Lacuna Coil, Nightwish, and others.
Hardcore and Metalcore is full-throttle metal. Expect very heavy vocals, unrelenting drums and guitar, enraged and violent lyrics, and breakdowns. You’ll see…
Otep, Once Human, Jinjer, Butcher Babies, Dying Wish, Sharptooth, Spiritbox, The Agonist, Infected Rain, and others.
Black metal, Doom, and Dark Atmospheric is simultaneously heavy and ethereal. Expect a musical storm and dirge-like intonations and wails, broken up by moments of calm beauty and trance-inducing atmosphere. I felt dark atmospheric deserved to be here due to how metal-adjacent and well blending it is. Some of the artists here are…
Myrkur, Asagraum, Sylvaine, King Woman, Frayle, Darkher, Chelsea Wolfe, Black Table, and others.
All musicians on these playlists are female-fronted and sometimes entirely female/single artist acts. Rock on freaky women🤘😎
scars in fiction: I got this trying to save my lover from an assassin- but tragically, I was too late. now I carry the mark of my failure with me always, and I can never forget~
scars in real life: so I was trying to open macaroni sauce with a paring knife
“Untitled” (Portrait of Ross in L.A.) is a 1991 piece by Felix Gonzalez-Torres in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago. It’s a spilled pile of candy.
The pile of candy consists of commercially available, shiny wrapped confections. The physical form of the work changes depending on the way it is installed. The work ideally weighs 175 pounds (79 kg) at installation, which is the average body weight of an adult male.
“Untitled” (Portrait of Ross in L.A.) represents a specific body, that of Ross Laycock, Gonzalez-Torres’ partner who died of AIDS in 1991. This piece of art serves as an “allegorical portrait,” of Laycock’s life.
Visitors are invited to take a piece of candy from the work. Gonzalez-Torres grew up Roman Catholic and taking a candy is a symbolic act of communion, but instead of taking a piece of Christ, the participant partakes of the “sweetness” of Ross. As the patrons take candy, they are participants in the art. Each piece of candy consumed is like the illness that ate away at Ross’s body.
Multiple art museums around the world have installed this piece.
Per Gonzalez-Torres’ parameters, it is up to the museum how often the pile is restocked, or whether it is restocked at all. Whether, instead, it is permitted to deplete to nothing. If the pile is replenished, it is metaphorically granting perpetual life to Ross.
In 1991, public funding of the arts and public funding for AIDS research were both hot issues. HIV-positive male artists were being targeted for censorship. Part of the logic of “Untitled” (Portrait of Ross in L.A.) is you can’t censor free candy without looking ridiculous, and the ease of replicability of the piece in other museums makes it virtually indestructible.
my favorite part of flying home to texas is when the pilot yells YEEEEE HAWWWW WE’RE IN TEXAS NOW BOYS and fires his revolvers into the roof of the cockpit.
