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Dolly Mixture

#dolly mixture #demonstration tapes #1980s #80s music #twee pop #twee #black and white #indie pop #debsey wykes #rachel bor #hester smith #post punk #girl groups

“We are the Dolly Mixture Gang.” Revisiting some old pieces by chance, and it’s a nice little motivational boost. Momentum and enthusiasm are hard things to manifest. As with most of those intangible things in my life that I want real bad, it’s just something I have to clear a path for and just be ready to pounce. This tribute from a couple years ago poured out of me during a really thrilling period of creativity, when I didn’t really have anything else taking up my time. How to get back there? Still working on that.

“Everything and more, that is what you’re still waiting for.” The punk/ post-punk era– my favorite era– is a wonderland of off-kilter, pioneering women. It was brimming with outsiders in general, but for women especially it took a lot of audacity to step out and make noise. I am filled with so much admiration for those ladies. But those feelings of awe are always coupled with anger. Our culture has a nasty habit of keeping interesting women down. And it’s recent history; it’s not a relic. We’re still coping with those shockwaves, and the most insidious aspects of that original suppression never went away at all. All-powerful extraterrestrial Kate Bush aside, an infuriating number of those amazing women were stifled and stunted. Aggressively presenting groups like The Slits were met with contempt and violence. Others who worked their asses off to make their mark were met with indifference. Some were treated like objects meant for consumption. And the ones who managed to persevere through all of that bullshit were then left to contend against the monster of marketing. Look up any female artist of the time and you will find a story about a record company trying to reduce them to something insipid. Jawdroppingly talented artists had blandness foisted on them in the name of commercialism. They were denied any say in their own art. It is unconscionable. There is infinite space in my Badass Women pantheon, but Dolly Mixture hold a special top spot because their brand of passive confrontation resonates so deeply with me. They weren’t patrolling the streets and accosting strangers, but they believed fiercely in what they made and they weren’t afraid to say “no”. They rocked up in thrift store clothes and ambiguous haircuts. They played their own instruments and wrote their own songs. They made intricate, heartrending, melodies. They balked at being molded into a conventional girl group. Because of that defiance, their legacy has drifted into the fringes. Luckily, we now live in an age where everything is findable if you know where to look. So I would just like to say, “LOOK HERE!!” Thank you Rachel, Debsey, and Hester for being so stubbornly different and so wonderful.