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callofthelibrary's review
4.0
Don't let the high numerical praise fool you- I disagree with Jessica Hopper's critical assessment quite a bit, not insomuch the feminist lens, which I appreciate, but the way it's soaked in riot grrl's "girl-punk" flair. calling any guitar playing "feminine" or a man's voice "femme" is lame in my personal post-gender estimation. this is a second edition which, based on reviews, attempts to open up the writing on Black music and Blackness more explicitly but it still falls short imo (the black women she discusses are typically "land-locked" in specific genres- like rap or rnb). i also kind of think Hopper doesn't deserve the majority of the credit for the R. Kelly piece considering the way jim derogatis kept that story alive mostly on his own for literal decades. by contrast its very telling that the two artistic projects that get exhaustive treatments at the end (in the "she says" sections, implying the ability to speak and be heard) are Hole and Bjork lmaooo. i find Hopper's transition to her own kind of pop-timism exhausting and factors into like 90 percent of my personal beef with her which is her total awareness of like the 90s underground to a degree that is frankly giving it too much credit but does not afford any future scene (except local Chicago artists) much of the same awareness (there are no women in emo circa 2003, apparently, which is true in a mainstream sense, in a radio sense, in a big package-bill tour sense, but any knowledge of the underground tells you women have always been there, which is a more interesting story). the most egregious issue i have is her repositioning of Chalk Circle's Sharon Cheslow as the forgotten mother of Revolution Summer because she talked to Ian Mackaye about masculinity one time when Amy Pickering of Fire Party LITERALLY CAME UP WITH THE IDEA. but Pickering isn't a part of riot grrls one-to-one punk mentoree legacy and she was part of the Boys Club that was Dischord, not wanting to be known as a "girl band" so maybe that makes her less interesting to Hopper idk. amy pickering is never mentioned in this collection but kathleen hanna will be randomly shoehorned into as many articles as possible- i'll tell you that much! i also disagree with Hopper's assessment of nostalgia. i wish there was more negativity in her reviews (again, she oftentimes gives artists she likes way too much credit). and babes and toyland isn't riot grrl, which she couldve made more explicit bc its my pet peeve.
BUT. all that said. i respect the hell out of Hopper. and i love love love the way she writes about music, physically and emotionally embodying it in ways that sit heavy on your skin, like you can feel it playing all around you. i love her tenacity and complete unwillingness to compromise herself, even if that makes me a little mad. she inspires me (partly out of spite and partly out of love) to write about music because it Matters. how many men have started their creative lives because they were driven to do better than what came before? why can't women do the same without being accused of disrespect? of shattering the "girl code" or whatever? this book is going to sit with me for a long time to come.
BUT. all that said. i respect the hell out of Hopper. and i love love love the way she writes about music, physically and emotionally embodying it in ways that sit heavy on your skin, like you can feel it playing all around you. i love her tenacity and complete unwillingness to compromise herself, even if that makes me a little mad. she inspires me (partly out of spite and partly out of love) to write about music because it Matters. how many men have started their creative lives because they were driven to do better than what came before? why can't women do the same without being accused of disrespect? of shattering the "girl code" or whatever? this book is going to sit with me for a long time to come.
nlkirch's review
5.0
Jessica Hopper wanted me personally to read The First Collection of Criticism by a Living Female Rock Critic, and you, too. In the afterword of the 2021 edition, she notes how essential it is to create and consume media outside the culturally accepted norm. Female critics like Hopper provide a much-needed perspective on artists that would otherwise go undervalued. It is empowering to read reviews from a feminist view, and the reader uses their purchasing power to uplift the author.
Hopper puts pieces of herself in the reviews. We see her growth from fangirl to respected writer and her journey from Midwest suburbia to Chicago to Los Angeles and beyond. We see the music that shapes her worldview and the music that breaks its boundaries. Her path is both similar to her peers and uniquely her own. Hopper’s story could be yours, and that is what makes this collection powerful. She is a mentor through text.
Not every review is written with a feminist focal point. However, when her sharpened pen targets the masculine majority opinion, there is no mercy. No genre is safe: punk, country, rap, and rock. Hopper champions women forgotten and maligned. Her piece on Rolling Stone‘s editorial department highlighted those who blazed the path that Hopper would later trek. There’s enough meat for a Hidden Figures treatment of their story.
In both the afterword and throughout the collection, Hopper reaches out to women in all parts of the music industry. From fan to artist she says thank you, I hear you, keep being you. We need each other to build a better industry. If there’s no space for you in the pit, elbow your way in and stay there, and bring your squad.
https://soundgirls.org/review-of-the-first-collection-of-criticism-by-a-living-female-rock-critic/
Hopper puts pieces of herself in the reviews. We see her growth from fangirl to respected writer and her journey from Midwest suburbia to Chicago to Los Angeles and beyond. We see the music that shapes her worldview and the music that breaks its boundaries. Her path is both similar to her peers and uniquely her own. Hopper’s story could be yours, and that is what makes this collection powerful. She is a mentor through text.
Not every review is written with a feminist focal point. However, when her sharpened pen targets the masculine majority opinion, there is no mercy. No genre is safe: punk, country, rap, and rock. Hopper champions women forgotten and maligned. Her piece on Rolling Stone‘s editorial department highlighted those who blazed the path that Hopper would later trek. There’s enough meat for a Hidden Figures treatment of their story.
In both the afterword and throughout the collection, Hopper reaches out to women in all parts of the music industry. From fan to artist she says thank you, I hear you, keep being you. We need each other to build a better industry. If there’s no space for you in the pit, elbow your way in and stay there, and bring your squad.
https://soundgirls.org/review-of-the-first-collection-of-criticism-by-a-living-female-rock-critic/
justine014's review
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
I stumbled upon Jessica Hopper’s essay “Emo: Where the Girls Aren’t” over a decade ago as an angsty teen scrolling a corner of Tumblr that was very much entrenched in the emo scene. I remember trying to shrug it off at as “too much of a downer,” as nearly all of the bands I worshipped at the time were dominated by men. But it continued to fester in the recesses of my mind, and as the years went on, I found myself drawn, mostly organically and occasionally intentionally, more and more to music created by women (or anyone who was not a man). Despite reading more of Jessica’s work over the years, I had nearly forgotten about this essay until I picked up this collection about a month ago, and reading it as an adult I actually don’t think it’s one of her stronger pieces. I found the feature on Warped Tour, which precedes it, to be more detailed and interesting.
Jessica Hopper is one of, if not the most, thoughtful and empathetic music critics I’ve read. I was engaged even with the works on artists who I don’t particularly follow or care about. It’s clear just how much she truly loves, and believes in, music as a force for and creator of community. I would recommend this to anyone who, like me, is a complete and absolute nerd who lives for understanding every inch of the music scenes they care about.
Jessica Hopper is one of, if not the most, thoughtful and empathetic music critics I’ve read. I was engaged even with the works on artists who I don’t particularly follow or care about. It’s clear just how much she truly loves, and believes in, music as a force for and creator of community. I would recommend this to anyone who, like me, is a complete and absolute nerd who lives for understanding every inch of the music scenes they care about.
emily_nelson's review
5.0
This should be required reading for anyone who wants to write about music, listen to music, talk about music, anything having to do with writing or talking about or experiencing music. Jessica Hopper writes with such precision and has that quality of all great music writers to use the exact word or phrase to nail an artist's sound that is just so satisfying to read. Furthermore, her writings on the business side of music, advertising, and the artifice and ambition of pop music are in-depth and fascinating. She writes not one, but three essays on Lana Del Rey, and by the time I finished I had changed my mind about hating LDR myself. As other reviewers (most famously Tavi Gevinson) have written, Hopper's writing makes music vital and reminds me why I listen to music and what it is we seek in listening. Highly highly HIGHLY recommend.
oohsarracuda's review
4.0
This book needed a better editor (multiple uses of "of" instead of "have" - "should of" "would of" - and "it's" instead of "its") but Hopper is such a good writer. Even when she's writing about things/people I could not care less about, I'm still into it, because she's such a good writer. Reading in bed, I laughed so hard at "tape-hiss horn of plenty Sebadoh" that I was afraid I'd wake my husband up.