A Soundtrack for V-Day

taken from the vspot...how many times have you listened to these songs and just not thought about it; and how many times have you listened to these songs and that's all you could hear.

Alix Olson - "Armpit Hair"; "Cunt Country" (spoken word); "Built Like That"

Alanis Morisette - "Still" from Dogma Soundtrack [lyrics]

Amanda Marshall - "Everybody's Got A Story"

Amy Ray - "Lucystoners" - about an early 1900's feminist named Lucy Stone

Amy Sky - "Phenomenal Women" (lyrics by Maya Angelou)

Angie Stone - "Sunshine"

Ani DiFranco - Ani sings about a wide variety of women's issues, including rape and abortion (specifically recommended include "Blood in the Boardroom", "Not A Pretty Girl", "Fixing Her Hair", "The Story", "Make Them Apologize", "I'm No Heroine", "Roll With It", "The Slant", "Lost Woman Song", "Gratitude", "Out Of Range", "Letter To A John", "Angry Anymore", "32 Flavors" ... ) [lyrics]

Annie Lennox - "Why"

Aretha Franklin - "Respect"

Bikini Kill - "Liar"; "Star Bellied Boy"; "Suck My Left One"; "White Boy" (other songs deal with rape too)

Bitch and Animal - "Pussy Manifesto" from What's that Smell (unlisted). [lyrics]

Cassandra Wilson - "Sankofa"; "Redbone"

Christina Aguilera - "Can't Hold Us Down"; "Beautiful"

Cowboy Junkies - "Hunted" from Pale Sun, Crescent Moon - about living in fear as a woman [lyrics]

Cyndi Lauper - "She-Bop"; "Sally's Pigeons"

Dar Williams - "When I Was a Boy" (about blurred gender roles/identity as a child); "As Cool As I Am"; "I Won't Be Your Yoko Ono"

Destiny's Child - "Independent Women, Part 1"

Dixie Chicks - "Earl Had to Die" - about domestic violence

Ember Swift - "Freak"; "Swooshi Swooshi" - about shaving

Eve - "Love is Blind" - a friend recounting the abuse of a friend after the friend is killed by her "partner"

Fiona Apple - "Sullen Girl" - about rape

Gloria Gaynor - "I Will Survive"

Heather Headley - "Sista Girl"

India Arie - "Video"; "Brown Skin"

Jamie Anderson - "I Wanna Be a Straight Guy" - saterical look at hetero/male privilege

Jill Sobule - "I Kissed a Girl"; "Karen by Night"

Joan Baez - "Imagine" (cover of John Lennon's)

Katy Moffat - "Ain't I a Woman" - based on Sojourner Truth's speech

Kinnie Starr - "Praise"

Lauryn Hill - "Just Like Water"; "Zion" - about the joy of the birth of her child; "That Thing"

Madonna - "What It Feels Like (For A Girl)"

Melissa Ferrick - "Freedom"; "Drive"

Meshell N'Degeocello - "Beautiful"

Miriam Makeba - "Masakhane" - fantastic South African women singer

Nina Simone - "Four Women" - about four black womyn, each one a little further along in history and different

Pamela Means - "Uncle"

Queen Latifah - "UNITY"

Saffire: The Uppity Blues Women - "1-800-799-7233" (encouraging womyn who have been the victims of abuse to reach out to the abuse hotline number, cleverly used in the title and refrain of the song); "Bitch with a Bad Attitude" (Encouraging womyn to accept and love thier inner bitch and how it makes people stand correct); "Wild Women Never Get the Blues"; "There's Lightning in These Thunder Thighs". [Saffire is a fabulous three-woman jazz and blues band, playing insightful blues about woman-centered issues including: abuse, rape, domestic violence, empowered sexuality, race, and class.]

Sarah Jones - "Your Revolution"

Sinead o'Connor - "The Healing Room"; "Thank You"

Sleater Kinney - "A Real Man"

Suzanne Vega - "My Name Is Luka" - about a husband beating his wife and people around not doing a thing

Sweet Honey and the Rock - their entire catalog is woman-centered and they have multiple songs about resisting violence; "No Mirror's in my Nana's House"; "Run" - specifically about domestic violence; "Oughta Be A Woman"; "Soundbite From Beijing"

TLC - "Unpretty"

Tori Amos - "Icicle"; "Me and a Gun"

Tracy Chapman - "Behind the Wall" from Tracy Chapman - a song about domestic violence [lyrics]; "At This Point in My Life"

The Wyrd Sisters - "Warrior" on Inside the Dreaming