Review: Freedom Girls: Voicing Femininity in 1960s British Pop, by Alexandra M. Apolloni

Abstract

Book Review| March 01 2023 Review: Freedom Girls: Voicing Femininity in 1960s British Pop, by Alexandra M. Apolloni Alexandra M. Apolloni. Freedom Girls: Voicing Femininity in 1960s British Pop. New York: Oxford University Press, 2021. 336 pages. Sarah Dougher Sarah Dougher Portland State University Sarah Dougher is a writer, educator, and musician from Portland, Oregon. Her current work as a professor at Portland State focuses on strengthening the pathways for high school seniors into higher education, especially immigrant, first-generation and other historically excluded students. In addition to releasing eight albums of music, she also helped found the Rock ’n’ Roll Camp for Girls, developed educational programs for unsheltered youth in the Portland area, and has written extensively about girls, music and social change in both popular and academic venues. She is currently working on a book of essays. Email: sed@pdx.edu Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar Email: sed@pdx.edu Journal of Popular Music Studies (2023) 35 (1): 133–135. https://doi.org/10.1525/jpms.2023.35.1.133 Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Peer Review Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn MailTo Tools Icon Tools Get Permissions Cite Icon Cite Search Site Citation Sarah Dougher; Review: Freedom Girls: Voicing Femininity in 1960s British Pop, by Alexandra M. Apolloni. Journal of Popular Music Studies 1 March 2023; 35 (1): 133–135. doi: https://doi.org/10.1525/jpms.2023.35.1.133 Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All ContentJournal of Popular Music Studies Search The vocal performance of girls and young women, whether on the stage as singers or in the performance of gendered expectations in daily life, is a complex phenomenon. We need only cast our ears towards the screams coming from the Linda Lindas, a contemporary LA-based, multiracial, riot grrrl-descendent band, who scored a viral hit in 2021 with “Racist Sexist Boy.” The song’s vast digital circulation signaled fascination, if not celebration, of the group’s full-throated musical confrontation of oppression. The range with which girls can make vocal music is wider now than it has ever been, and perhaps because of our access to personal technologies, girls can create and broadcast their voices more easily. As listeners, we are also able to access more diverse voices, should we go looking for them. Alexandra Apolloni’s Freedom Girls: Voicing Femininity in 1960s British Pop, gives contemporary assessments of girls’ performance and vocalized resistance... You do not currently have access to this content.