No Rock And Roll Fun

FEMINISIM: CAUSE SET BACK TO 1972: The whole idea of women being equal to men - long considered by virtually anyone with the power of rational thought to long since have been proven - has been called into serious question by the decision of Oprah's scary Oxygen network to release an album showcasing female musicians. Apparently, this is the best track listing they could come up with for is this:
Dido, "Thank You"
Macy Gray, "Come Together"
Stacie Orrico, "Stuck"
Sixpence None the Richer, "Don't Dream It's Over"
Avril Lavigne, "I'm With You"
Kathleen Edwards, "Six O'Clock News"
Tori Amos, "Cornflake Girl" (Live)
Aimee Mann, "Calling It Quits"
The Pretenders, "I'll Stand by You"
Sarah McLachlan, "Angel"
The Be Good Tanyas, "It's Not Happening"
Sarah Harmer, "Basement Apt"
Erin McKeown, "Slung-Lo"
Oh Susanna, "Right By Your Side"
Martina Sorbara, "Withered on the Vine"

Good god - nearly fifty years of popular music, and over half the population of the planet to choose from, and that's what we get. Rather than a dramatic statement of female creativity, it's enough to make you insist that all recording equipment be slung into the back of those Gentleman's Clubs in Piccadilly to prevent women making records by accident. Even when they've chosen an act who doesn't blow on a scale matched only by the erruption of the Steamboat Geyser, they seem to have insisted on shaking down their entire back catalogue until they find the most insipid, pallid track they could (I'll Stand By You, we're thinking of here.) Where are the punkers, the R&B divas; where's the life and where's the affirmation that, actually, women's music doesn't have to sound like the closing theme to a Hallmark made-for-TV special?

The one saving grace is that Annie Lennox seems to have missed the invitation to tender.