You're a Mess (In That Music Video) Girl

There is an interesting post over at NME questioning why artists always want to use the druggy, dishevelled, 'edgy' girl in their videos.

There has always been an air of mystery surrounding girls that don't follow the rules shall we say and generally look like their one line away from a breakdown.  That's where the fun lies.

There has also been this new phenomena of the 'extreme party girl' in the media.  I say extreme because the 'ladies let's have a good time but only if you strap you boobs up to your chin and go back home to your boyfriend' female singers have been around for a while.

The phenomenon of Ke$ha is a good example. Actually anyone who has a dollar sign in their name is a good example. Ke$ha, what did her parents expect giving her a name like that.

Ke$ha, pronounced keeh-sha don't get it wrong she posted a whole YouTube video about it, has whirled up a media storm around her in America with her new single 'Tik Tok' which basically follows the rules of let's get drunk, take some drugs and generally get down tonight.

Now I don't now Ke$ha but I always find these attempts to look different, whether it's looking drunk or wearing sunglasses at midnight, questionable.

Is she for real or is this all a carefully constructed media cue to get to buy more alcohol or invest more in eyeliner, I don't know.

If she is really as wasted as she looks half the time is that really a good thing.

The only thing we know for sure is that Ke$ha is going to tear it up in 2010 and we wish her the best.

Albums of the Decade (through a male gaze)

At least K to the O and crew got a look in

It's not a surprise that The Strokes topped NME's top 100 albums of the decade poll, neither is it a surprise that both the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and The White Stripes have two albums in the poll. It is a complete surprise though how poorly represented female musicians are in this poll.

Bands with female members make up for under 10% of the poll. I'm aware of how poorly magazines represent women but I concluded this was because of all the business crap that gets in the way of creativity and that most music writers appreciate female musicians away from the office.

There are so many bands and artists that have been missed out that I don't really know where to start. I'll just list those whose place in the list is questionable.

For starters anything with Pete Doherty in, including every Libertines record. He encouraged a whole generation of pretentious, vapid, stoned, self-serving boys to pick up guitars and make millions from yelping on about nothing.

Arcade Fire are just boring. I don't care how many critics love them I tried to get into them before and I fell asleep.

The Klaxons are a great band and all. Nice to dance too, but album of the year. No. How they won a Mercury is still one of the biggest unanswerable questions of the known universe. What the Klaxons essentially did was serve up nostalgia music for 90s babies to flail around to. It should not be award winning, just nice.

I think I'll stop now. I've gone to a dark place.

To read the NME's Top 100 Albums of the Decade click here.

Who Are The Best Female Lyricists?

NME journalist, Emily Mackay started a blog questioning who were the greatest female lyricists of all time. She came to a justified decision and picked out Bjork, M.I.A, PJ Harvey, Kate Bush and Patti Smith.

I can't really disagree with her, I love every single one of them, but I have a few more I would add to the list:

Corin Tucker- Lead singer/howler of the inspirational band Sleater-Kinney, Corin generally wrote most of the lyrics and we're glad she did. Corin remained stridently political throughout her career and voiced her opinions in an intelligent and clear way.

Listen: Combat Rock


Kim Deal- The famous bassist of the legendary Pixies, did anyone see them this October if so I'm jealous, is one of my favourite lyricists. She wrote one of the band's greatest songs, Gigantic, which was previously song of the month here. Kim's lyrics tend to not follow the rules and instead wander through the dark forests and magical landscapes of her mind.

Listen: Cannonball

Poly Styrene- This teenage punk was way ahead of her time when she started her band in the midst of the punk era. Avoiding the cliches that many fell into Poly sung about environmental issues, consumerism and the loss of identity.

Listen: Identity

Enough of me going on, which girls do you love?

To read more of Mackay's blog click here.

No Male Editors

After the news that Conor McNicholas, who has edited the NME for nearly a decade now, is leaving, for Top Gear magazine of all places, it has been revealed that he is being replaced by a woman. Krissi Murison is the new editor of the prestigious NME. This is a first in the magazine's history and a great leap forward for female journalists but what does this mean for women.

Murison worked for NME for six years until February when she left for greener pastures and became the music director for Nylon magazine in New York.

Murison was hopefully picked because she previously worked as the Deputy Editor and I'm guessing she knew the magazine inside out. I don't think it was a conscious decision to employ a female editor.

Also we have to question whether a female editor would actually want to do more for other women. The NME employs amazing writers but it is a mainstream magazine which caters to the mainstream, usually young white middle class men, by giving them the mainstream, young white middle class men in bands. The falling sales figures have hurt the magazine quite badly lately so the staff have to cater to their market more than ever which leaves out everyone else including women.

Murison starts her new job on 1st September so only time will tell how well she does. No matter what she does I wish her well. I did work experience there for two weeks and it's a hard job, theirs was not mine I didn't really get to do that much, and I hope it all works out well. Don't Dance Her Down Boys will be waiting in line to get her first issue when it comes out.