You're never heard of Ani DiFranco?
How about Woodie Guthrie?
One question that can come from my peers that I have very little compassion for is,
"What kind of music do you like?" It's like, "What are we, in high school?"
I have the same kind of antagonism for the question, "What do you do?"
I wrote about it that in my online portfolio yesterday - you can read it here.
I LOVE MUSIC! And, I LIVE.
What more is there?
How about ~ "How is Your Family?"
(Well, gee, I think I received another early morning, stalking voicemail from
my manic-depressive mother today. How's that for an answer?)
So, Ani - she's one of the baddest ass, American contemporary, singer songwriters that you've probably never heard of. Twenty albums later, a self-made label because she wasn't going to sell out, two marriages, one daughter, loyalty to her Buffalo roots where she refurbished a historical building that the city had condemned AND she introduces us, her passionate listeners, to other American musical musts: including Woodie Guthrie as well as the centuries-old, human-rights activist folk songs as sung by the late Utah Phillips, and many more. She's a true feminist - "I mean why can't all decent men and women call themselves feminists, out of respect, for those who fought to get us here."
Feminism isn't just about us women, yo! It's about all of US, together - sustaining and building upon our vibrant whole. Feminism is a natural up-swing from the millennium-old tale of God as the Son/Sun and Adam/Atom as the center of our Soular System/Universe. "Hello! We're all GODS here." Though, today's man - like my brother B. was demonstrating on Tuesday night - must recognize that the sensitivity of the clitoris is many, many times greater than that of the penis and that the world is best served when man bows down to the creative life force of destruction and creation that woman naturally embodies. And, here's the best part, men - we love you and we want to submit to you. All it takes is your understanding and honoring the rightful balance of life lived on this planet Earth.
So, look through your stored music - CDs. iPod, i Pad, what have you - and notice... if your gizmos are predominantly stuffed with western male bands then, my friend, it is time for you to expand your awareness and EVOLVE. And, no, it isn't just women you need to hear singing and belting out real stories. It's Africans, and Indonesians, it's world music and flavor. It's meditation and singing bowls. It's the LOVE frequency (528 gigahertz), the sound of your own heartbeat as well as your beeloveds, and the wind through the trees, the ocean crashing on the shore, the birds singing overhead and more. LOVING MUSIC IS EQUIVALENT TO LOVING LIFE.
IT SERVES YOU WELL TO BEE AS DIVERSE A CONNOISSER AS POSSIBLE. (Especially if you're a musician.)
