Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dsjbd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-24T02:01:00.128Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

“Singing for Our Lives”: Women's Music and Democratic Politics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 March 2020

Nancy S. Love
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Although democratic theorists often employ musical metaphors to describe their politics, musical practices are seldom analyzed as forms of political communication. In this article, I explore how the music of social movements, what is called “movement music,” supplements deliberative democrats' concept of public discourse as rational argument. Invoking energies, motions, and voices beyond established identities and institutions anticipates a different, more musical democracy. I argue that the “women's music” of Holly Near, founder of Redwood Records and Redwood Cultural Work, exemplifies this transformative power of musical sound.

Type
Research Article
Information
Hypatia , Volume 17 , Issue 4 , Fall 2002 , pp. 71 - 94
Copyright
Copyright © 2002 by Hypatia, Inc.

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Biakolo, Emevwo. 1999. On the theoretical foundations of orality and literacy. Research in African Literatures 30(2): 42–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bickford, Susan. 1996. The dissonance of democracy: Listening, conflict, and citizenship. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Boyarin, Jonathan. 1992. The ethnography of reading. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Brown, Lyn Mikel, and Gilligan, Carol eds., 1992. Meeting at the crossroads: Women's psychology and girls’ development. New York: Ballantine Books.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Guy, Carawan, and Carawan, Candie eds., 1990. The Story of the Civil Rights Movement Through Its Songs. Bethlehem, Pa.: Sing Out Corporation.Google Scholar
Chambers, Simone. 1995. Feminist discourse/Practical discourse. In Feminists read Habermas, ed. Meehan, Johanna. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Christian, Meg. 1974. The muses of Olivia: Our own economy, our own song. Off Our Backs (August/September): 2–3.Google Scholar
Cohen, Joshua. 1989. Deliberation and democratic legitimacy. In The good polity, normative analysis of the state, ed. Alan, Hamlin, and Pettit, Philip. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, Ltd.Google Scholar
Coles, Romand. 1997. Rethinking generosity: Critical theory and the politics of caritas. New York: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Connolly, William. 1999. Why I am not a secularist. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.Google Scholar
Crafts, Susan D., Cavicchi, DanielKeil, Charles, and the Music in Daily Life Project eds., 1993. My Music. Hanover, N. H.: The University Press of New England.Google Scholar
de Certeau, Michel. 1996. Vocal Utopias: Glossolalias. Representations. 56(fall): 29–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
de Certeau, Michel. 1997. The capture of speech and other political writings, trans. Conley, Tom Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.Google Scholar
“Don't Let the Singer Down,” from Holly Near's Early Warnings, Appleseed Records 1056, © 2001, CD. Words by Holly Near. Music by Jeff Langley. Copyright 1984 Hereford Music (ASCAP).Google Scholar
Dryzek, John. 1990. Discursive democracy, politics, policy, and political science. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dumm, Thomas L. 1996. Michel Foucault and the politics of freedom. Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage Publications.Google Scholar
Dunn, Leslie C., and Jones, Nancy A. eds., 1994. Embodied voices: Representing female vocality in Western culture. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Durham, Jimmy, and Brown, Roy. 1989. Sky dances. Holly Near. Redwood Records.Google Scholar
Echols, Alice. 1989. Daring to be bad: Radical feminism in America 1967–1975. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota.Google Scholar
Engh, Barbara. 1993. Loving it: Music and criticism in Roland Barthes. In Musicology and difference: Gender and sexuality in music scholarship, ed. Solie, Ruth A.Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Eyerman, Ron, and Jamison, Andrew. 1998. Music and social movements: Mobilizing traditions in the twentieth century. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fishkin, James. 1991. Democracy and deliberation: New directions for democratic reform. New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Flammang, Janet. 1997. Women's political voice: How women are transforming the practice and study of politics. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.Google Scholar
Freundlich, , Susan. Letter to author. April 1996. Letter to friends of Redwood.Google Scholar
Frith, Simon. 1996. Performing rites: On the value of popular music. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Garofalo, Reebee. 1992. Introduction. Roclcin' the boat: Mass music and mass movements. Boston: South End Press.Google Scholar
Gelb, Hal. 1991. Theater. The Nation. 11 September, 313–15.Google Scholar
Gilligan, Carol. 1982. In a different voice: Psychological theory and women's development. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Gilligan Carol Annie, Rogers, and Brown, Lyn Mikel. 1990. Soundings into development. In Making connections: The relational worlds of adolescent girls at Emma Willard School, ed. Gilligan, Carol, Lyons, Nona P., and Hammer, Trudy J.Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Goldberger, Nancy Rule, Tarule, Jill M., Clinchy, Blynche, and Belenky, Mary F. eds., 1996. Knowledge, difference, and power: Essays inspired by women's ways of knowing. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Gutmann, Amy, and Thompson, Dennis. 1996. Democracy and disagreement. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Habermas, Jürgen. 1996. Between facts and norms: Contributions to a discourse theory of law and democracy, trans. Rehg, William. Cambridge: The MIT Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hersch, Charles. 1998. Democratic artworks: Politics and the arts from Trilling to Dylan. Albany, New York: SUNY Press.Google Scholar
Holly Near, Biography. 2002. Retreived 16 April 2002 from the World Wide Web: http://www.hollynear.com/bio.html.Google Scholar
Hudson, Nicholas. 1994. Writing and European thought. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Kort, Michelle. 1983. Sisterhood is profitable. Mother Jones (July): 39–44.Google Scholar
Koskoff, Ellen. 1991. Gender, power, and music. Vol. 3, The musical woman: An international perspective. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press.Google Scholar
Kupferman, Michelle. 2000. Holly Near talks about feminism, women's music, past and present. Sojourner: The Women's Forum (December): 29–32.Google Scholar
Landes, Joan. 1995. The public and the private sphere: A feminist reconstruction. In Feminists read Habermas, ed. Meehan, Johanna. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Langley, Jeff, and Sarber, Ginger. 1976. You can know all I am. Holly Near. Redwood Records.Google Scholar
Lee, Orville. 1998. Culture and democratic theory: Toward a theory of symbolic democracy. Constellations 5(4): 433–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lont, Cynthia. 1984. “Between a rock and a hard place: Subcultural persistence and women's music.” Ph.D. diss., University of Iowa.Google Scholar
Lont, Cynthia. 1992. Women's music: No longer a small private party. In Rockin the boat: Mass music and mass movements, ed. Garofalo, Reebee. Boston: South End Press.Google Scholar
Love, Nancy S. 1991. Politics and Voices: An Empowerment/Knowledge Regime? Differences: A Journal of Feminist Cultural Studies 3(winter): 85–104.Google Scholar
Love, Nancy S. 1999a. Musical metaphors in democratic theory: Habermas and Rawls. Paper presented at the American Political Science Association Convention. 2–5 September.Google Scholar
Love, Nancy S. 1999b. Why do the sirens sing? Figuring the feminine in Dialectic of Enlightenment. Theory and Event 3(3).Google Scholar
Mattern, Mark. 1998. Acting in Concert: Music, community, and political action. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press.Google Scholar
McClary, Susan. 1993. Reshaping a discipline: Musicology and feminism in the 1990s. Feminist Studies 19(2) (summer): 403–422.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McGinnis, Ann Cain. 1980. Music and healing. Heresies 3(2): 11–14.Google Scholar
Nash, Alanna. 1991. Holly Near. Stereo review 56(1): 122.Google Scholar
Nash, Alanna. 1988. Holly Near. Stereo Review 53(1): 86–87.Google Scholar
Near, Holly. 1985. Smile beneath your tears: Women's song and resistance in Uruguay. In Cultures in contention, ed. Douglas, Kahn, and Neumaier, Diane. Seattle: Real Comet Press.Google Scholar
Near, Holly. 1987. Don't Hold Back, Redwood Records RRCD 413, CD.Google Scholar
Near, Holly. © 1989. Sky Dances, Redwood Records 8902, CD.Google Scholar
Near, Holly, with Conti, Karen. 1979. On performing. Paid My Dues: A Quarterly Journal of Women in Music. 3(3): 12–15, 41–44.Google Scholar
Near, Holly, with Richardson, Derk. 1990. Fire in the Rain Singer in the Storm: An Autobiography. New York: William Morrow.Google Scholar
Ong, Walter. 1991. Orality and literacy: The technologizing of the word. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Pegley, Karen, and Caputo, Virginia. 1994. Growing up female(s): Retrospective thoughts on musical preferences and meanings. In Queering the pitch: The new gay and lesbian musicology. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Philipson, Irene, and Michael, Omi. 1984. Singing for their lives: An interview with Holly Near and Ronnie Gilbert. Socialist Review 73(Jan/Feb): 79–92.Google Scholar
Pratt, Mary L. 1977. Toward a speech act theory of literary discourse. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Pratt, Roy. 1994. Rhythm and resistance: The political uses of American popular music. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press.Google Scholar
Reagon, Bernice Johnson, and Honey, Sweet in the Rock. 1996. We who believe in freedom: Sweet honey in the rock … still on the journey. New York: Doubleday.Google Scholar
Richardson, Derk. 1982. Holly Near's current tour aims to disarm. In these times, 11 November, 13–14.Google Scholar
Rodnitzsky, Jerome. 1975. Songs of sisterhood: The music of women's liberation.” Popular Music and Society IV (2): 77–85.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rycenga, Jennifer. 1994. Lesbian Compositional Practices: One Lover‐Composer's Perspective. In Queering the pitch: The new gay and lesbian musicology, ed. Brett, Phillip, Wood, Elizabeth and Thomas, Gary C.New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Salvaggio, Ruth. 1999. The Sounds of Feminist Theory. Albany: SUNY Press.Google Scholar
Sanger, Kerran L. 1984 “The rhetoric of the American negro slave spirituals.” Ph.D diss., Pennsylvania State University.Google Scholar
Schweickart, Patrocinio P. 1996. Speech is silver, silence is gold: The asymmetrical intersubjectivity of communicative action. In Knowledge, difference, and power: Essays inspired by women's ways of knowing, ed. Goldberger, Nancy Rule, Tarule, Jill M., Clinchy, Blynche, and Belenky, Mary F.Basic Books.Google Scholar
Shepherd, John. 1993. Difference and power in music. In Musicology and difference: Gender and sexuality in music scholarship, ed. Solie, Ruth A.Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
“Sing to Me The Dream,” from Holly Near's Singer in the Storm, Chameleon Music Group D274832, © 1990 CD. By Holly Hear and Jorge Coulon. Copyright 1984 Hereford Music (ASCAP).Google Scholar
“Singing for Our Lives” from Holly Near's HARP: A Time to Sing, Applessed Records 1954, © 2001 CD. By Holly Near. 1979 Hereford Music (ASCAP).Google Scholar
“Sky dances” from Holly Near's Early Warnings, Appleseed Records 1056, © 2001 CD. Words by Jimmy Durham. Music by Roy Brown. © 1987 Discos Lara‐Yari (ASCAP).Google Scholar
Slobin, Mark. 1993. Subcultural sounds: Micromusics of the west. Hanover, N. H.: University Press of New England.Google Scholar
“Song to a Melody,” from Holly Near's You Can Know All I Am, Redwood Records 3600. © 1976, Album. Words by Jeff Langley and Ginger Sarber. Music by Jeff Langley. © 1975 Hereford Music (ASCAP).Google Scholar
Tilchen, Maida. 1984. Lesbians and women's music. In Women‐identified women, ed. Darty, Trudy and Potter, Sandee.Google Scholar
van Gelder, Lindsy. 1985. Holly Near. Ms. 13(7): 72–73.Google Scholar
Verba, Sidney, Schlozman, Kay Lehman, and Brady, Henry E. 1995. Voice and equality: Civic voluntarism in American politics. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Watrous, Susan, and Blanchard, Bob. 1990. Holly Near: The progressive interview. The Progressive. 54(3): 34–38.Google Scholar
White, Stephen K. 1991. Political theory and postmodernism. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
“You bet,” from Holly Near's Simply Love: The Women's Music Collection, Calico Tracks Music CTM0003, © 2000 CD. Words by Holly Near. Music by Meg Christian. Copyright 1978 Hereford Music/Thumbelina Music (ASCAP).Google Scholar
Young, Iris Marion. 1990. Justice and the politics of difference. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Young, Iris Marion. 1997. Intersecting voices: Dilemmas of gender, political philosophy, and policy. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Young, Iris Marion. 2000. Inclusion and Democracy. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar