Women in Music Vol.2 - Laurie Anderson

After starting the , I deliberately chose Laurie Anderson as the second artist to represent in the series in order to emphasize the diversity of female artists and their creative input throughout the history of recorded music. Unlike the raw emotion of Bessie’s blues, Laurie Anderson’s music and her charisma are refined, subtle, and introspective. She is the voice in the dark and quiet room of the subconscious mind. Her primary quality isn’t her singing but her voice, her narration, her breath. Suggestive as she is, Laurie can make you bristle just by whispering. My favorite record by Anderson, the spoken word album “The Ugly One With the Jewels,“ demonstrates that ability of hers in its best.articles about women in music with Bessie Smith

Being a pioneer in electronic music, Anderson invented several devices that she has used in her recordings and performances, beside playing her primary instrument, the violin. In 1977, she created a tape-bow violin that uses recorded magnetic tape on the bow instead of horsehair and a magnetic tape head in the bridge. In the late 1990s, she developed a talking stick, a six-foot (1.8 m) long baton-like MIDI controller that can access and replicate sounds.

She performed in New York during the 1970s. One of her most-cited performances, Duets on Ice, which she conducted in New York and other cities around the world, involved her playing the violin along with a recording while wearing ice skates with the blades frozen into a block of ice; the performance ended only when the ice had melted away.

Anderson became widely known outside the art world in 1981 with the single "O Superman," which ultimately reached number two in the British charts. The sudden success led to Anderson signing a 7-album deal with Warner Bros. Records, which re-released the single "O Superman" was part of a larger stage work titled "United States" and was included on the album “Big Science.”

A recurring motif in Anderson's work is the use of a voice filter which deepens her voice into a masculine register, a technique which Anderson has referred to as "audio drag". Anderson has long used the resulting character in her work as a "voice of authority" or conscience, although she later decided that he had lost much of his authority and instead began utilizing the voice to provide historical or sociopolitical commentary, as he does on "Another Day in America", a piece from her 2010 album “Homeland”.

Anderson’s discography is a treasury of contemporary art, social engagement, sound literature, and refined aesthetics. Her performances are unique experiences, a treat for the eyes and ears. She is the voice of the progressive artist that feels obligated to interpret the world with the help of sound and words. Free from the boundaries of the stylistic stereotypes forced by the music industry, Laurie Anderson remains one of the most original female voices to leave a mark on modern music.