With no time to write a full and proper entry, this should be considered a teaser. In May, I’ll publish a full length entry about where she is now and a brief history.

I will also investigate broadcast playlists and talk to some local DJ’s as to why or why not she is in rotation.

Enjoy this video clip.

by Dawn Van Ness

Photo by Kevin Law from Flickr

Video:  LILY ALLEN – Smile

Photo by AngelaTaylorOnline on Flickr

With names like Lily and Angel, and with soft, lilting voices like Feist, female musicians’ image and their words are not in sync.   Angel Taylor,  Lilly Allen, and  Feist, rather than shouting their angst, disappointment, or adultery, are smiling still.  Is this another brand of feminism for music?

Punk Feminism:  Mean, lean and unclean

, Photo by Jugzy Malone on Flickr

For the last thirty years, groups like the Slits and X-Rax Spex have delivered images and stage performances which was predictable counter to the feminine ideal.  With asymmetrical died hair or shaved heads, smears of black eyeliner, ripped or stained tutus with combat boots, these artists put their feminism on stage.

The punk feminists were easily recognized and made the topic of books like Third Wave Agenda, were authors like  Leslie Heywood, assistant professor at the University of New York, and Jennifer Drake, assistant professor of English and Women’s Studies at Indiana State University, used them to explore feminism and its many forms within this particular music scene.

Feminism’s softer side?

On first glance, the girls next door seem harmless, but soon their voices bleed lyrics like “you were f***ing that girl next door, what did you do that for?” from Lilly Allen’s “SMILE” and “I’m playing the fool, because nobody loves me” from Angel Taylor’s “Like you do.” (The later seems to be extorting tension in the lyrics masterfully with a bit of Dylan’ishtic charm.)

Lyrics largely are what the audience makes of them, and maybe four letter words are the only way to clue today’s audience in on irony, but the angst and raw tenacity is there without the staging of a bad hair day.

Prim, trim, but not proper, Allen and Taylor speak-up.

In a day when punk is Disneyfied, maybe the new way for feminism in music is wearing a dress without the combat boots?

The mystique of girl and guitar keeps on

For the US, the charting UK sound has been populated with names like Adele, Corinne Bailey Rae, and Amy Whinehouse; these young artists are predominantly soulful with an American music flavor from another generation — in other words, these fresh faces have what is recognized as a classic American sound — tradition tweaked for the new millennium.

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“I can’t say it has got to the point where its just normal and boring to be served by a woman in a guitar shop or have a female studio engineer.” — Felix

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But there is always more than just the institutionalized sounds, and without recognizing it, popular American music has been delivering the UK electronic sound.

UK Electronica

Felix (aka Xfile) is entrenched in UK electronica, producing and contributing through Xfile Productions and her label Tigersonic Records.

Felix (aka Xfile) has been in and around the UK music scene since she was 13. -- Photo by Nora Mancini provided by XFile Productions.

London ladies of the underground music scene

When asked generally about women in music and specifically about women in the London music scene, Xfile said there is a presence.

“There are loads of great talented females out there working,” said Xfile in response to our online interview last week. “But I can’t say it has got to the point where its just normal and boring to be served by a woman in a guitar shop or have a female studio engineer.”

Music by Xfile, Video directed by Koot Hoomies

Where you can hear Xfile’s influence is in the production of the music, the style that takes shape, and the bass line.

“I am a bass player,” said Xfile. “But I guess the studio, cutting stuff up and effects are my main instruments at the moment, so I would add protools, ableton live, and tweaking effects as instruments.”

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“The tunes take their own shape depending on who plays on it and which way it wants to go.   It’s quite a long way of working, it’s a bit like sculpting, the more you edit out the more the track appears and at a certain point it becomes obvious that’s it done.” – Felix

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Is she or isn’t she?  Some perspective on production and the past

This unconventional, post-90s music artistry is more familiar and accepted in today’s generations, but debates still divide musicians in classrooms.

Those who have taken a history of music class, particularly Jazz,  may recall the sometimes loud and emotional debate of the last two decades regarding electronic instruments, tools, and production.  Acid jazz is a sensitive topic to traditionalists as the traditional instruments have all but been replaced by electronic keyboards — improvisation and some tongue and cheek references to the classics like “Take Five” remaining definitive Jazz elements.

For traditionalists and some others, instruments would be restricted and then the labeling of Felix (aka Xfile) as a musical artist would be a tad contentious and not the consensus some of us assume.

Even in my preliminary introduction to this column, I too was using artificial and arbitrary markers as a way to help focus my search, but then my investigation into Felix, Xfile, and Xkollective began to have me reconsidering.

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My aside:  Is it hands-on production of the female musician that is important for this column?  Yes, I am willing to draw my line in the sand there.  For now.

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Xfile explains her process

Felix in the studio, Photo by Dulmini

“Mainly how it works that I have some basic track started or just a bline or a beat or a mood,” said Xfile. “The tunes take their own shape depending on who plays on it and which way it wants to go.   It’s quite a long way of working, it’s a bit like sculpting, the more you edit out the more the track appears and at a certain point it becomes obvious that’s it done.”

Overall, the emphasis is more on the music, the sound produced, versus any individual artist which gives it a highly spiritual quality.

Xfile collaborations are varied, but she also spends time in the studio working alone.

“Producing in the studio brings together my two favourite things,” said Xfile.   “Working completely on my own and working with other people.”

Her mark on the group, Xkollective

Music by Xkollective, Video directed by Eleonora Mancini

Liner End Note

I would like to thank Felix/Xfile for taking the time to answer some of my questions about her and her profession, and I hope to one day be able to do a follow-up.

If music programs are reduced in schools, will a generation of children loose the ability to discern ability and talent from marketing and materialism?

In a discussion with a friend, we talked somewhat about how we don’t even know ourselves how wrong we are because we’ve never experienced better or have known better.  We have tastes born out of living in one area of the world, netted in by geography and economics.

Of interest to matter at hand:   Allegory of the Cave

VA rest stops will remain open, tidy

They live among us–talented children who can sing in perfect pitch, who can play a piano like it is breathing, or can make a violin communicate deep emotions.

And then there are some of us who could successfully ruin a sing-a-long with Telly, a pitch challenged Sesame Street Muppet–still adorable, but in no way are we prodigies.

(Here, a friend of mine and I decided not to include the video of her son growling a testosterone saturated version of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.)

And as someone raising a child, hoping to nurture her talents and interests, I was reminded recently how innately talented some children are.

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…Virginia is full of talent of all kinds,

but it is as if all knobs are being taken off all the doors…

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One-year-old Brooke did not seek out a tune on the piano in the foyer, but she was mesmerized by what she saw and heard on my laptop one day.

It was Holli Steel, a contestant from the UK version of American Idol who in all her snaggled-toothed, seven-year-old glory announced herself a song bird.

And this was not only a reminder of how innately talented some children are, but also how innately we enjoy music as human beings.

The Aliens Among Us

After a few searches on the internet, I came across not only protégées, but the arguments of talent versus industry.

Can a child be made into a super-talent?  Sure.  Should they?  Sometimes, but not usually.  Do some have more of a propensity than others?  Of course.

Are some people, like me, doomed to miss notes regardless of the amount of practice I put in?  Most definitely!

No matter.  I am a virtuoso audience member who can not only do some fabulous chair dancing, but I also have wonderful rhythm when it comes to clapping–very enthusiastic, very loud, and always at the appropriate times.

But what struck me while perusing articles was this:  regardless of the arguments for and against training and for and against innate talent over industry, there was the idea that opportunity more often than not that is missing.

Photograph by Dawn Van Ness

And when a friend said in passing that Virginia is full of talents of all kinds, but it is as if all knobs are being taken off all the doors, it struck me.

One of the things that make the extremely talented look so alien and so talented to the rest of us is the absence of opportunity in our communities to showcase talents and to nurture abilities.

Nurturing Opportunities to Become Fewer

School music programs are essential.  Community music programs are essential.

But due to budget pressures, there are communities today who are trying to save their music programs, like in Danville, Virginia.

Inevitably, Virginia organizations will loose funding as the Virginia’s House of Representatives is poised to cut the budget by cutting funding directly related to music programs.  The cause and effect of todays economy is harsh.

Restrooms open and in the clear

So there will be less funding in 2010, and less opportunity for children to explore their abilities.  There will be fewer resources to nurture the talent in our communities.

But as these things come down, we as Virginians can be proud, our rest stops will be open and tidy.

Blame it on the internet!  There is a resurgence of ultra young girls that rock from Orianthi (who was discovered my MJ and has played guitar since she was six) to Anissa (bass) and Alexia (vocals, guitar) of the metal band Eyes Set to Kill.

To find a short list of female artists, look at Daisy Rock Guitars.  Most artists named have a MySpace page with music streaming available.

With these young women conspicuously missing or crowded out from radio and television, the internet is providing an unimpeded open forum for females with strong opinions and wicked licks.

But why is it going unnoticed or unwritten about?

Women Interrupted

A blogger known only as kperfetto on BlogHer, Life Well Said, posted the article “Where Are The Women Music Bloggers or Fans?”   She was answered by blogger Maria Niles who listed the few music bloggers on their website, BlogHer. The most notable would be Collected Sounds, Celebrating Independent Musicians by someone only going by Amy.  Overall, the women featured were soft spoken on a piano or dreamy in a highly produced piece, all worth a listen.

But these are not mainstream blogs and are very casual in nature – more fan based, riddled with opinion, and often go off-topic.

Marketing the River, No Interest in the Streams

Looking over mainstream blogs from Rollingstone, Spin, and NPR, there isn’t anyone with a “women in music” beat.

This is possibly due to an un-tuned audience.

According to Rebecca Daugherty in her article “The spirit of ’77: punk and the girl revolution,” the fever for female musicians faded decades ago.  Daugherty wrote:

As the girl groups died out in the mid-1960s, attitudes like these about women were coming into rock music itself. The rise of the rock supergroups, such as the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, refocused attention on male musicians and instrumental virtuosity in popular music. Girls’ place was in the audience, chasing and dreaming of male performers.

She later mentions the spike in girl-groups of the punk movement, but goes on to talk about their marginalization.  The 90′s also saw a rise in female-centric groups with a conscious effort to break stereotypes and win fans, but they are continually shadowed by less feminist pop types.

And that formula of making an all guy supergroup with an adoring female audience is still the holy grail of the industry; a personal thank-you from me goes out to capitalism and marketing strategies which have birthed Back Street Boys, Boys II Men, Hanson, and now the Jonas Brothers.

What seems to $ell now (or is being sold regardless) are stripper girls and bad girls.

Their talent is questionable, even with church choir pipes or jaw dropping moves, as they are more spectacle than substance.

Harkening back to days of yore (1970s), the trends of rebel slut and taboo  behavior might remind older ladies of Heart.  Ann and Nancy Wilson had to fight rumors started by their own label, Mushroom Records, which insinuated that they were lovers.   With management and a label ready to sell them as spectacle, they fought to be heard for what they were, musicians with substance.

As a response to a reporter asking Ann Wilson about her and her sister’s “experienc,” Ann wrote “Barracuda.”

Seems the lessoned learned was cash in with your bad selves.  So today the labels and the media companies have produced acts like Ke$ha who, in her own words from a Rollingstone interview, “likes being an a**hole.”

Charting the Uncharted

But among the spectacle, behind the highly produced vocals, stage makeup, lights, camera, and PR action, there is a surging wave of real talent.

This blog is dedicated to searching them out, noting their strengths and contributions, putting them alongside Janis, Stevie, Joani, and Patti.

So go on Orainthi and hit me with your best shot.