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The other day, while singing "Forever Your Girl" in the shower (don't judge – you know that song rules) I started thinking about the awesome female pop stars of the early 90s. Now, full disclosure: I was born in 1982, so I began to develop my own taste (or lack thereof) in music during that golden era. Janet Jackson, Paula Abdul, Whitney Houston – these women taught me and my tween (though we didn't call it that back then) friends what it meant to truly rock out as strong women. Sure, our side ponytails, multicolored keds, and leggings may not have said "Empowered Women" to the kids on the playground, but as we jammed out to "Rhythm Nation" on our Sony Walkmen our veins coursed with the power that only a true Female Pop Star can provide.

The early 90s were full of said Female Pop Stars, so without further adieu, I bring you BitchTapes: Female Pop Stars of the Early 90s Edition. Throw that hair into a side ponytail and let's do this.



Track listing and (I couldn't help it) videos after the jump!

You know what I totally appreciate? Being called out when I am stupid! An exciting incidence of this occurred recently, on my Madonna post, where commenter Crys T notes: 

OK, on this point, I get why you're happy to have Madonna around. But it would be nice to see more recognition on the part of Anglo-American feminists on Madonna's extensive history of cultural appropriation. It's not just that she now buys African children (though even I never thought she'd become that monstrous), it's a very long history of exploiting, offending and therefore harming people from cultures that don't have much of a voice in the English-speaking world.

Which is a darn solid point! In that post, I made reference to Madonna's history of cultural appropriation, and that it gave me "serious pause." And then I just kind of breezed on by it like it was no big thing! Because apparently that was the day that I decided to be gross and obviously privileged, SORRY. Madonna's appropriation of other cultures definitely deserves to be addressed and critiqued at length, in its own post. A post such as this one, right here!  

You know: a lot of people have problems with Madonna. In fact, pretty much the entire history of Madonna has been the history of people having various problems with her! I first learned of her existence when a news channel reported on one of her concerts. I was maybe five or six. It was her "crucifix as fashion accessory" phase; possibly, also, her "pretending to masturbate on stage" phase. And my mother turned to me and said, "you know, it's important to realize that not everyone likes her.

The forthcoming Kanye West and Lady Gaga tour/collaboration/alliance/bizarro-pop-Voltron makes sense for so many reasons. Primarily: Kanye and Gaga are both famous because they do weird things in public. Do you like their music? Do you not like their music? It doesn't matter! What did you think of the weird thing? Did you think it was weird? Because, if so, they have succeeded! And even I, an earnest unpacker of Meanings for lo these many blog posts now, have to admit that I enjoy Kanye and Gaga primarily because they make Meaning effectively useless.