Welcome to: Book Review: Record Collecting for Girls by Courtney E ...

Record Collecting for Girls
Courtney E. Smith, September 2011
Source: Netgalley.com
Buy it from Amazon.com: Record Collecting for Girls: Unleashing Your Inner Music Nerd, One Album at a Time

When I came across Record Collecting for Girls, I was super-excited to have the chance to read?a book written by a woman that's all about how women relate to music, both inside the industry and out. Music?shapes our emotions.?Most of us wind?up thinking of our favorite songs and artists as representations of ourselves, and we also judge other people's personalities based on their musical likes, so why not dive in a little deeper and study our relationship to music?

Early in the book, author Courtney E. Smith?talks about how girls'?taste in music is?so often?shaped by men, and she discusses the gender inequality that often arises in music. Yes, there are plenty of female artists out there, but unless they are pop stars,?they rarely get the?same airplay as male artists within the same?genre. Smith relates the attitude of?an alternative rock station's music manager who once told her that his station would never play two songs by female artists in a row, and would always try to limit how many female voices played over their radio waves, because it might alienate their mostly-male audience.?All-female bands are still?rare, but Smith?shares some great, helpful?info?about the history girl bands, staring in the 60's and leading right up to today when the best girl bands, Smith contends, are underground, outside the reach of the mainstream. The blockbuster female acts these days are mostly?in the pop scene, and they frequently sing songs written by men and produced by men and their public images are precisely calculated to appeal to men. So. We ladies still have a long road ahead of us for achieving?music industry equality, but we can definitely do it.

The book is written?partially in memoir style and focuses a lot on the author's own?ideas and experiences. Record Collecting for Girls isn't an impersonal, informational guide like the title might suggest,?and I like the talking-to-a-friend approach of the writing.?Hearing another person's?lifelong experiences with music is always a revelation.?I like the many playlists in the book and the how-to guides like the advice on how to make a Top 5 favorite artists list for yourself. Rule?#1 for the list is "You Must Own All the Full-Length Albums Released by Any Artist in Your Top Five", excepting greatest hits albums and the inevitable low-point-of-their-career album.?I really like Rule?#2, "Artists Cannot?Be?In Your Top Five of All Time if They've Only?Released One Album"--it's called a sophomore slump for a reason, and plenty of?bands and singers with world-rocking first albums followed up their success with a bit?of a clunky second album. Time and patience will let you know who?your true favorites are.?And you don't have to impress anybody! Pick your artists, change them when you want to, and don't ever be embarrassed about liking something uncool.

?The book is also very much about relationships. How many songs are about true love, lost love, impossible love, or a disdain for love? Music feeds our feelings, and Smith talks a lot about various stages in her life where music enhanced or stabilized the way she felt about a relationship. It's mostly relatable, though the anecdotes occasionally edge into TMI, which makes me think Record Collecting for Girls might be best suited for girls in college and beyond.?College is really the breeding ground for musical discoveries anyway,?and it's the time when relationships move from kiddie angst to full-on grown up angst. For which?we need music. :-)?

I'm a book fan. Literature is my field of study, and I absorb and evaluate books like it's second nature. Record Collecting for Girls has reminded me that perhaps?the level of thought and attention that I think should be paid to books (even books meant purely for fun) should be paid to music, also. I want people to really think about what they read--why they love it, why they hate it, how it enhances their life or affects their emotions--and after reading Courtney E. Smith's work, I think we could all benefit from devoting as much thought to our musical choices. This book is part musical history, part memoir, part "how-to" guide, and all interesting. Grade: A-

Source: http://tigersallconsumingbooks.blogspot.com/2011/06/book-review-record-collecting-for-girls.html

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