As a child I was always in love with music. I loved powwow to pop music to every genre in-between (minus opera & classical). As a lil gay kid, music really helped me escape the outside world. These songs & albums made their impact on me when I was twelve to sixteen.
As First Nation peoples, we learn to co-exist in a cultural world and a modern world. So I felt I could share these without some feeling it isn't very "decolonized" of me. The following are women artists who made an impact on my young mind. I say give them a listen to see if they align, in some way, with our beliefs & traditions.
Janet Jackson Rhythm Nation 1814
'...Jackson insisted on creating a concept album addressing social issues. Collaborating with songwriters and record producers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, she drew inspiration from various tragedies reported through news media, exploring racism, poverty, and substance abuse, in addition to themes of romance...The 30-minute Rhythm Nation 1814 film, a screenplay depicting two aspiring musicians whose lives are disrupted by substance abuse, aired on MTV to promote the album.' From Wikipedia.
Buffy Sainte-Marie Coincidence and Likely Stories
Red Hot + Blue
'...the first compilation album from the Red Hot Organization in the Red Hot Benefit Series. It features contemporary pop performers reinterpreting several songs of Cole Porter, and the title of the album originates from Cole Porter's musical Red, Hot and Blue.[2]
Released in 1990, it sold over a million copies worldwide and was heralded as one of the first major AIDS benefits in the music business. The accompanying ABC television special featured music videos for the songs.[2] The clips portrayed the societal effects of AIDS.' -From Wikipedia.
Tracy Chapman
Sinead O'Connor I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got
My sister played this album over and over again. She said 'Three Babies' was her song.
You have to read or listen to her biography: Remembering.
and her latest
I am certain now that I put them up there that the videos will disappear from the internet. I will try to update. If I don't update please look them up - they are amazing!
Oh and one off:
QUEEN
On March 21, 1989, Madonna released her fourth studio album Like A Prayer, her most introspective release at the time. The album received universal acclaim from music critics and fans, but stirred controversy because of a safe sex pamphlet that Madonna had insisted on including with every album.
She had lost a number of close friends to the disease throughout the 80s, including her best friend and former roommate Martin Burgoyne. Burgoyne had shared an apartment with Madonna in New York’s Lower East Side before the singer’s rise to fame, and later managed her first club tour and drew the cover image of 1983’s “Burning Up” EP album cover… He even briefly appears in the “Material Girl” video. In August 1986, Burgoyne was diagnosed with AIDS-related complex (ARC). Madonna helped care for Burgoyne during his illness, paid for his medical expenses at St. Vincent’s Hospital and leased an apartment for him on West 12th Street in Greenwich Village, so that he could be closer to the hospital. She was with him and was holding his hand when he died at 23 years old of AIDS-related complications on November 30, 1986. (Madonna would later write a song about Burgoyne called “In This Life” which was released on her 1992 album Erotica)
