I Believe in You
I am grateful that I grew up with influencer’s like Madonna, Cyndi Lauper, and Aimee Mann; women who had impactful, powerful messages associated with their performances and identity. These personas were critical in shaping my perceptions of the importance that a woman’s voice and self-image had to their character. It created a sense of value in me on how I participated in that identity. It gave me respect for how they shaped that individuality for themselves. Throughout my relationships, friendships, working partnerships, and family structures, it has always felt profoundly important to me to contribute to respecting and building these partnerships with expression and a sense of personhood.
I really wish I had some better stories about my experiences with their music, but I feel like the ones I have are rather ho-hum. I grew up listening to these musicians as they released hit after hit in the emergence of MTV, and I remember the impact it had on the people I went to school with. One of my best friend’s little sister was always running around in rhinestones and fingerless gloves singing Madonna lyrics. Cyndi started a whole wave of hair color, and Aimee wrote one of my favorite songs. I wrote about her a few weeks ago in my post about The Second Day of the Week. When I started playing bass again at the Community Church of Ojai, Dianne and Bill Miller played Time after Time for one of the services. It was powerful to me because I was so happy to be playing music again, and to have the chance to play that song with such a loving crowd of people was very meaningful. Cyndi Lauper is one of those musicians that found me when I was lost.
By far, one of my favorite female musicians as a teenager was Tori Amos. I’m still a little surprised when I bring her up and people don’t remember her, or only have vague recollections. Little Earthquakes played over and over on my cd player and her subtle voice and emotional inflections kept me listening for years after. Winter is one of my favorite tracks by her. While not one of the chart toppers of the album, the melody gets me every time. Her chorus begs us to “make up our minds,” and the versus ask us to stand up for ourselves. “Things are gonna change so fast, I tell you that I’ll always want you near, and you say, ‘things change, my dear…’”
This is such a powerful song about self-acceptance and expectations. It couldn’t have been more real to my own life story about early romance, and I suspect that I’m not the only one. Strong female voices that sang about the complexities of relationships and the challenges of finding identity made an important impact on my personal world view. It is a testament to the benefit of a diverse landscape for expression and the need for a multi-faceted lens for the eyes of global perspective. World leaders have found great accomplishments in the diversifying of their ranks, and no doubt, (pun intended, Gwen) powerful women of music will continue to provide platforms for us to see the whole human story, not just one side of it.
One of my favorite songs tells a great tale of love and faith in each other. Elle Fitzgerald captured my heart with her song It’s Only a Paper Moon, and I hope she adds a little sunshine to yours, today:
Say, it's only a paper moon
Sailing over a cardboard sea
But it wouldn't be make-believe
If you believed in me