A surreal moment from back in the day

[laughingrat]

[Charlie Rose interviews Sioux and Severin in 1986]

The juxtaposition of Charlie Rose and the Banshees stopped me in my tracks. Rose is a good interviewer, and it'd be a great interview if he'd've stopped talking over Severin so much. Personally, I enjoy the part around 5:15 or so when Severin says that what makes their music different is that they're actually interested in a wide variety of things, and that most people aren't deeply interested in anything at all. I do believe we call that "being a geek," these days, and it's part of why I liked their stuff so much as a weird, awkward teenager.

If you're unfamiliar with Siouxsie's career and the way she hacked out a new space for women in music, this post provides a nice overview of that, including some necessary commentary about problematic aspects of her work--and there's plenty of them. There's also a little about Siouxsie's ways of performing gender. All of the analysis is tantalizingly short, especially to someone who has a pretty good familiarity with the music in question, and who's basically a lifelong fan (ahem). It's a great place to start, though. [YouTube, incidentally, has an absolutely astonishing amount of Siouxsie's work, not to mention interviews and documentaries.]

Part of why I'm getting passionate about the Banshees again after an embarrassing number of years is because of Siouxsie's amazing in-your-face presentation, which is completely lacking in meekness or apology, even when she's singing a ballad or a dance tune. That attitude was exactly what I needed as a teen, and I'm finding it quite inspiring these days, too. Another reason is that, what with her having a 30+ year career, it's possible to look back and watch her growing up; you can see her gradually abandon much of the worst problematic imagery and behaviors, for instance, and the music itself changes constantly. If listening to music I haven't listened to for 20 years is making me feel my age, I can at least watch Siouxsie, who seems to be constantly in a state of Becoming, and find another way to frame growing older.

Comments

[the_future_modernes]

I had been looking into her, and then I met one of her songs, can't remember which one it was at the moment and my growing love affair came to a screeching halt. I am glad that she seems to have learnt and grown up because there is a lot about her to like. Thanks so much for this!

[laughingrat]

*nods sadly* The angry/violent/horror imagery from their early stuff I don't have much of a problem with, strangely, because it seems to fall under the "let's shock people" umbrella. That racism, though, that is the pits. There was a lot of problematic stuff around race/ethnicity in their early work especially, but honestly, I think even these days "cultural appropriation" is just a string of meaningless syllables to her. *sigh*

[the_future_modernes]

Damn. Damndamndamn. :/

[laughingrat]

Well, it's more in terms of borrowing beats, musical styles, etc.--but, you know. Still. I can't pretend it's not a problem.

[the_future_modernes]

Also, WHY did Charlie Rose that interviewing a woman equaled talking over her? Isn't the point of interviewing to ask questions and LISTEN to the answers? Since the damn institution is supposed to be about the interviewee?

[laughingrat]

Trufax. I was pretty surprised. It was almost like he was scared of the answers--not literally afraid, but what was coming out of both their mouths was more thoughtful and more odd and intense than anyone probably was comfortable with. Maybe Charlie Rose grew into a better interviewer over the years, just as Sioux grew into a less offensive performer. :-P

[the_future_modernes]

*sigh*