“Little pigs, French hens, a family of bears. Blind mice, musketeers, the Fates. Parts of an atom, laws of thought, a guideline for composition. Omne trium perfectum? Create your own group of threes, and describe why and how they fit together.
—Inspired by Zilin Cui, Class of 2018”
My group of threes is some of the most influential and interesting singer-songwriters of our time: Joni Mitchell, Kate Bush, and Bjork. They have similarities in their talents and classic boundary-breaking albums, but also in how they are disregarded by popular culture despite deserving so much more recognition.
Joni Mitchell is a Canadian singer-songwriter who started out as a painter, but started releasing folk music in the 1960s inspired by her tragic early life. Mitchell’s music is always deeply confessional, and the songs paint a very detailed and specific picture with their lyrics. Her 1971 album Blue was monumental because of its stark confessional lyrics and multi-octave vocals. Lesser-known is Mitchell’s experimental period, starting in 1975, when she began to include many different styles in her folk-based music. Her early folk songs have become hits and covered many times, but her more innovative eras are very often forgotten.
Kate Bush is an English singer-songwriter who debuted with the unexpected hit single “Wuthering Heights”, inspired by the book of the same name, at the very young age of 18 in 1978. Her music is always extremely literate and theatrical, and gradually got more experimental over time; the most extreme example being 1982’s The Dreaming, which is my favorite album. Bush writes about controversial, uncommon, or intense subjects in her music such as war, homosexuality, death, and birth. Her music is celebrated by millions across the world, but is vastly underrated; Bush has never won any Grammy awards, and is an unrecognizable name to most people.
Bjork is an Icelandic singer-songwriter who joined the music business at age 11, but it wasn’t until she released Debut in 1993 that she became very culturally significant. The title was ironic, but perhaps it meant a reinvention of herself, as the music was like nothing she’d done before; for the album, and all her subsequent records, she focused on electronics and dance music and avoided using any guitar, which was something almost unheard of for pop artists at the time. She gradually got more experimental with each successive album. Her groundbreaking 90s albums helped to bring electronic and experimental music into the mainstream culture. The albums that came after that were built on huge concepts such as 2003’s Medulla which is almost entirely a capella. However, like Kate Bush, Bjork has yet to win any Grammy awards. Bjork is close to being the artist with the most Grammy nominations without a single win.
All 3 women are extremely influential on other artists, especially those who are female or experimental. Their innovations paved the way for many more famous artists to come. However, none of them have become household names; ask any American teenager about any of the 3 artists, and it’s unlikely that they’ve heard of them, and practically impossible that they would be able to name a song or album.
Also, all 3 artists have experimental eras that casual fans tend to overlook, which is disappointing because it’s their best work. The Hissing of Summer Lawns is easily Joni’s best because of its extremely intelligent and political song subjects and jazz-inflected instrumentation that was ahead of its time, i.e. including “world” music and synthesizers in pop music before it was popular. Yet, most fans see the album as “too difficult to get into”, or ignore it completely in favor of her accessible folk albums. The Dreaming is arguably Kate’s best album, because of its incredible uniqueness, even to this day, and its abundant variety and depth in songwriting. However, many, especially critics, dismiss it as a “she’s gone mad” album and instead just a chaotic “warm-up” for the more popular Hounds of Love that would follow 3 years later. Bjork has been increasingly experimental with every album since Vespertine, but most casual fans will dismiss anything past that as too weird or niche, which is a shame, because I believe Medulla and Vulnicura are her most innovative, conceptually complex, and emotionally convicting works.
Sadly, it is likely that misogyny plays a role in society and critics’ failures to recognize these talented women’s art and where the true gems are. Each of them gets dismissed for some petty reason: Joni is too folksy, too cutesy, or too feminine. Kate’s voice is too high and annoying. Bjork “sings like a dead animal” because of her accent that she can’t help. But I bet if it was a man that had those same qualities, and released the same songs, they would be the most famous artists of all time, and every song, no matter how seemingly experimental/hard-to-approach, would be a classic.
All 3 women are extremely influential on other artists, especially those who are female or experimental. Their innovations paved the way for many more famous artists to come. However, none of them have become household names; ask any American teenager about any of the 3 artists, and it’s unlikely that they’ve heard of them, and practically impossible that they would be able to name a song or album.
Also, all 3 artists have experimental eras that casual fans tend to overlook, which is disappointing because it’s their best work. The Hissing of Summer Lawns is easily Joni’s best because of its extremely intelligent and political song subjects and jazz-inflected instrumentation that was ahead of its time, i.e. including “world” music and synthesizers in pop music before it was popular. Yet, most fans see the album as “too difficult to get into”, or ignore it completely in favor of her accessible folk albums. The Dreaming is arguably Kate’s best album, because of its incredible uniqueness, even to this day, and its abundant variety and depth in songwriting. However, many, especially critics, dismiss it as a “she’s gone mad” album and instead just a chaotic “warm-up” for the more popular Hounds of Love that would follow 3 years later. Bjork has been increasingly experimental with every album since Vespertine, but most casual fans will dismiss anything past that as too weird or niche, which is a shame, because I believe Medulla and Vulnicura are her most innovative, conceptually complex, and emotionally convicting works.
Sadly, it is likely that misogyny plays a role in society and critics’ failures to recognize these talented women’s art and where the true gems are. Each of them gets dismissed for some petty reason: Joni is too folksy, too cutesy, or too feminine. Kate’s voice is too high and annoying. Bjork “sings like a dead animal” because of her accent that she can’t help. But I bet if it was a man that had those same qualities, and released the same songs, they would be the most famous artists of all time, and every song, no matter how seemingly experimental/hard-to-approach, would be a classic.
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