March Collective Collaborative Blog: Women Pioneers

Photo by Andres Duarte

From the rock 'n roll icons like Peggy Jones to the experimental trailblazers like Jacqueline Nova, the collective celebrates International Women's Day with a blog and playlist of women pioneers across genres and eras. 

​ Peggy Jones

Not only was Peggy Jones the first female guitarist in a chart-topping band, but she completely defined the way rock ‘n roll would sound in the sixties. Jones drove the rhythm section in Bo Diddley’s band, as well as her solo project The Jewels, by playing a Roland guitar synthesizer, an atypical sound for rhythm and blues at the time. Her technically savvy guitar stylings with her playful, effects-driven improvisations carved out her own niche style that honorably gave her the nickname the “Queen Mother of Guitar.” -- Parisa

Mythic

Mythic was thee premiere American all women death metal act (though they were preceded by a predominantly female band, Derketa.)  Most scenesters I knew in the mid-to-late ‘90s really only knew of Bolt Thrower’s Jo Bench when it came to women in death metal musicianship, so they were frequently both impressed and surprised when I would break out this EP since the scene was mostly a total dudefest.  Mythic’s guitarist and vocalist, Dana Duffy, continues to make music with Demonic Christ and does a zine called Denial of Christ. -- A. Iwasa

Ros Serey Sothea

While Ros Serey Sothea may mostly be known as a pioneer in her native Cambodia, her music knows no bounds. Despite having a relatively short singing career, Sothea released hundreds of songs, ranging from traditional Cambodian love ballads to psychedelic garage rock. She’s been dubbed as the “Queen with the Golden Voice”, and speaking personally, has one of my favorite singing voices of all time. She has the most distinctive balance of vocal control and raw emotionality, and I can’t listen to the song posted above without sobbing, despite the fact that I have no idea what she’s singing about.

​Sothea disappeared during the Khmer Rouge genocide at the young age of 28, and her exact fate has never been confirmed. It’s assumed that she was targeted for her Western influences, and almost all of her master recordings were destroyed by the Khmer Rouge in order to erase her memory. Thanks to some recent re-issues and documentaries, her work is becoming more recognized beyond her home country . So while details of her life and fate may largely remain a mystery, her legacy is certain. Ros Serey Sothea remains one of the greatest voices and martyrs in musical history. -- Parisa
​

Genesis P-Orridge

The more you read and know about Genesis P-Orridge, the more you realize how omnipresent and influential s/he was in the art and music scene and everything counterculture over the last 50 years. Genesis was an English transgender pioneer, who was considered one of the founders of industrial music through h/er band Throbbing Gristle. Heavily influenced by W. Burroughs, occultism, and different disruptive art movements of the 60’s and 70s’, s/he was capable of making even punk seem too conventional. -- Andres
​

Yoko Ono

Let me first get this out of the way - anyone still holding onto the outdated, debunked, and misogynistic take that “Yoko broke up the Beatles” can absolutely suck it. While I could rant endlessly about how she’s so wrongfully treated in music culture, I’d rather focus on recognizing her for being the pop, punk and avant garde pioneer that she is. Yoko Ono has been pushing the boundaries of experimental music since the ‘60s by infusing her outspoken feminist activism and performance art; she’s as complex of an individual as her vast and varied discography might suggest. Albums like Season of Glass, for example, feature her softer side, with bellowing ballads in her classically trained voice, but also spawned a proto-punk new wave movement with the closing track “Walking on Thin Ice” (even the way she stood up for the controversial album cover was a proto-punk movement in and of itself.) Yoko’s legacy will forever permeate the world of experimental and pop music, and it’s about time we pay her the respect she’s always deserved. -- Parisa
​​

Jacqueline Nova Sondag

Jaqueline Nova was an avant-garde and experimental Belgian-Colombian musician, who became the first woman to graduate as a composer in Colombia, and one of the first to create electroacoustic music in South America.  The fact that she was able to do this in such a conservative country, in a music scene heavily dominated by men, was quite an accomplishment. Her music mixed electronic noise, orchestral instrumental and indigenous voices used as an instrument, a thing that was on its own social commentary on a genre and society so Euro-centric and elitist as the one where she grew up. She worked as a radio host, a cultural organizer and ensemble director, with a short-lived career due to her sudden passing at the age of 40. -- Andres
​

Bülent Ersoy

The Ottomon, Arabesque classical singer Bulent Ersoy is a legendary Turkish artist whose made over thirty albums to date (and still going!) Ersoy found herself in opposition to 1980 Turkish coup d'état of Kenan Evren after she came out as transgender, and in a crackdown on "social deviance," Ersoy's public performances were banned. She continued to make music in Germany until 2012 when she won the case against her eight. year stage ban in Turkey. She's an icon for not only her mastery of classical Turkish, but the way she's turned her "years of suffering into triumph" and trailblazing rights for trans musicians in the Middle Eastern world. -- Parisa

Googoosh

Googoosh is arguably the most influential singer of the Middle Eastern. Of all time. Period. She was the biggest icon for Iranian women and the ultimate trendsetter, from her start in the '70s everyone was asking for the "googooshy" hairstyle, up til today where she's still selling millions of records. Throughout her career, she's pushed the lines of pop music, incorporating traditional Persian music with a variety of international styles. Following the Iranian Revolution in 1979, she's been banned from performing or making music, as women are not allowed to make music in the Islamic Republic. Though she's still silenced in her own mother country, she started traveling in 2000 to perform her music abroad. Her legacy has permeated music all throughout the world; my favorite current artist with obvious influence would be Sevdaliza, who is a pioneer in her own right in the way she's evolving trip-hop into this generation. (You can read an older article I wrote about pre-Revolutionary Iranian music and it's influence here.)

As an important side note: When I'm speaking about artists like Googoosh or anyone mentioned on this list, I don't mean to emphasize sorrow in a celebration for International Women's Day, and it's not to say that every woman's story has to be associated with something traumatic for it to be noteworthy. Rather, I'm pointing out the incredible feats of these women to show resilience when every possible force is trying to resist their mere presence. It's to say that women have been, are, and will continue to pioneer music and the arts no matter what obstacle is presented in their path. The more we discuss these stories, the more we can shape our understanding of music history and how we must recognize women (especially queer, trans, and women or color) as a forefront of the story. -- Parisa
​

Tina Bell

Tina Bell was the front woman of the proto-grunge group Bam Bam, a band I only just found out about thanks to KEXP's Sound and Vision podcast. This episode about the "Unsung Goddess of Grunge" is a must listen to gain a deeper understanding of Seattle's iconic grunge sound, and how that sound is indebted to Black women like Tina Bell. She's an absolute powerhouse of a frontwoman, and hopefully this resurgence in the Bam Bam archives will turn people onto the true, unwritten origins of grunge. -- Parisa
​

Wendy Carlos

Wendy Carlos is not only one of the all time greatest synthesizer player, but an absolutely genius composer. She's most popularly known today for creating the soundtrack to A Clockwork Orange, Tron, The Shining, but her legacy began with her debut album Switched on Bach --- a multi-Grammy award winning album that recreated Bach's compositions with a Moog synthesizer. This album was noted for bringing electronic music to the masses, as it was previously only heard in experimental settings. Another important reminder that if you love synth pop, and you love being able to hear it everyday on the radio, you owe your thanks to trans women pioneers like Wendy Carlos. -- Parisa

Sister Nancy

The FIRST woman dancehall DJ who not only pioneered the genre, but was the dominating presence of dancehall for over twenty years. Her discography is full of gems, but her most well known track, "Bam Bam", has been sampled countless times by other legendary reggae and dancehall artists. The track is a forever certified dancehall anthem, and fittingly celebrates her success in the male-dominated genre:

This woman never troubled no one
I'm a lady, I'm not a man
MC is my ambition
I come from nice up Jamaica

Let it also be known that it took thirty-two years for her to receive any royalties for this song, so another important reminder that if you love music that a woman artist makes, you need to find a way to PAY UP $$$.  -- Parisa

Delia Derbyshire

Where would electronic music be without the works of Delia Derbyshire? We'd easily be decades behind where we are now if it weren't for the brilliant mind of Delia, who forever changed the game for anything even remotely electronic or experimental. She was making music in the early '60s, mind you, completely analog, that still sounds like it's coming from another lifetime in another planet (including the work she's most known for, the original Doctor Who theme song). On top of all her achievements in music composition and technical ability, she also essentially created the art of sampling by recording sounds, splicing the tape, and rearranging patterns by hand. However, it was not only her technique that was revolutionary, but her innovation, her imagination, and her sense of humor. 

Delia Derbyshire is, without a doubt, my favorite artist of all time...and if you've been following this blog, that comes as no surprise, as I've written about her at least a dozen times in various posts already. I can't begin to encompass all the work she's created in just this short blog post, but I highly recommend listening to this Sculptress of Sound audio documentary about her life and career to gain a sense of how timeless and monumental her work is. -- Parisa

---

It's obvious that music culture is forever indebted to the endless contributions of women, and while we can't list every essential artist and album in a single blog, here are some more albums from women pioneers across genres and eras:

Spotify playlist by Noe, Parisa, and Andres.