The Importance of Music to Girls

A personal account of growing up with music, or rather, what music you choose to grow up to This was one thin skinned child and angsty teenager it seemed to me Luckily she had angry punk as an outlet She conjures up a lost era of LPs, 2nd hand record shops, making the object of your affections tapes with your own designs, the excitement of going to live gigs, but some of the existential teenage angst does go on a bit And frustratingly, just when her life actually seemed to be getting interesting [...]

The Importance of Music to Girls is an insight into growing up in the 1960s and 1970s in the UK, from the perspective of a girl to whom music meant everything It is an interesting read and than just a memoir of a social history book.

The importance of music to girls seems to me, based on this book, to be as something to dance to and sing to, and something to differentiate yourself with The author covers what music meant to her as she was growing up, from about the time she was 8 till she started college The very short chapters cover the kinds of music she likes, with some rock critic like descriptions, but also covers how music played a role in different events in her life I was surprised at the number of times she mentioned [...]

Lavinia Greenlaw, die mich bisher mit einigen Gedichtb nden und dem hervorragenden Roman Mary George of Allnorthover begeistert hat, hat mit The Importance of Music to Girls ein eigenartiges kleines Buch vorgelegt Der Titel hat bei einigen Lesern eine Erwartung geweckt, die das Buch nicht erf llt hat, so dass es mehrere weniger gute Bewertungen erfahren hat Was also kann man erwarten Lavina Greenlaw ist im Herzen eine Lyrikerin, und das macht sich auch in diesem Prosatext bemerkbar Zu Beginn ber [...]

I must confess that I did not finish this book Perhaps it was the mood I was in the several times I picked it up and gave it a try, but ultimately I believe it was a combination of the level of expectation I had placed upon it and the anticipation I had as I waited for it to arrive When I originally read a review description and decided to request it, I was under the impression that it would focus on music and its sociological impact on the development of adolescent girls Having been an adolesce [...]

As a memoir, it s not a bad read Poetic, almost opulent language, issues and scenes that I can identify with However I expected this book to be much music focused Throughout most of the book, Greenlaw touches upon music only in its relation to other aspects of her life making friends as a child through dance, becoming interested in boys, commenting on her political and social ideals For the first 100 pages or so, music is just an afterthought, and Greenlaw did not even convince me of its import [...]

I liked that I could relate to this book in some way with the musicals, the songs, making angel delight with her siblings, her school life as a teenager, falling in love, there were a lot of aspects I could relate too I did also enjoy reading some of the shocking events I couldn t really relate too She also had a really poetic writing style I liked that However there were parts in this book that the pace really slowed down and dragged a little Also by the way it ended it wasn t what I quite exp [...]

I was a girl Music was important to me In the 1980s, I was a disc jockey on the FM radio I love memoir the best and this is one of my all time favorites I would go so far as to say it s my favorite memoir Lavinia lives in England and Music to Girls is the soundtrack to her life Her words transported me to a time and a place far away, yet so close to my heart I was a lonely, misunderstood teenager and Greenlaw had tons of friends, yet I loved the richness of detail of her relationships and her ow [...]

At one point in her book The Importance of Music to Girls Lavinia Greenlaw makes this observation I don t know how to think or how to talk about what I think I haven t learned anything for years I don t listen I can t speak I am watching myself happening or not happening For some reason when I read that passage I immediately thought AHA That s it, that s the problem Because I really, really wanted to love this book and it somehow left me a little cold Read the rest on iwilldare

i picked this up at quimby s earlier this week and couldn t put it down a perfect book for anyone who spent hours with the same song on repeat, spent algebra class doodling song lyrics and daydreamed about the perfect song for your first kiss yeah, i loved this book.

3.5 A collection of memoir essays that relive the connectivity of music and life at key points in the author s life I was expecting a a academic and general look at the link between music and females, but this was still a nostalgic and touching read covering music from a wide spectrum of genres.

I loved this The blurb comparing it to High Fidelity does it a disservice, as this is much of a literary memoir, tied together with the author s experience of music as central to her life She and I are the same age and so we experienced historical events at the same age, including our progression through various musical styles bubblegum, pop, disco, rock, punk, New Wave There are other similarities recorder and violin check , dance check , a mother who sang and a dad who loved opera check and c [...]

Lavinia Greenlaw creates lyrical connections between such disparate cultural phenomenon as the death of punk rock and the Pompidou Center We could see how it worked and so it stopped working pg 179 She gives us glimpses of her youth as if looking through a kaleidoscope, each phase of her growth into adulthood marked by genres of music Her insights into her own self and distinct dynamics between the sexes are laid out for us like the spoken offhand comments at the end of a studio track, and we st [...]

For me this book is almost as good as it gets, although judging by some of the comments here, not everyone agrees Maybe the title is somewhat misleading the book is not directed only at girls, but at anyone who has ever loved music.The author s taste in music is catholic to say the least, and we see it constantly evolve throughout the period of her life this book covers early childhood through to leaving home aged 18.The story really comes alive when punk eventually arrived in the rather backwar [...]

I really really wanted to love this book From the description, it sounds like it could be about me But I think I expected too much, which is never going to work out well for the reader.Overall, I think this book could have been a lot better It seems like ideas were underdeveloped She never really let us see the people she was describing I just wanted in every respect.Also, there was a bit of a feeling of pretentiousness Every little chapter section began with a quote and most of the time, I cou [...]

Perhaps the element to take away from this music lovers memoir is the idea that girls are capable of loving rock music as much as boys, but our devotion is brushed aside as less important I knew there were those for whom music was soundtrack and those of us for whom it was, well, music, but didn t notice that most of those who took it seriously were boys Sophie and Julia each had a few records but they didn t get upset or excited about bands I was thrilled by discovery, crushed by disappointment [...]

I started this book thinking it would be a breezy memoir of teenage life shared with punk rock and late night drives and adolescent crushes This is pretty much what the sleeve promised Instead it s a collection of very short, scattered, and loose essays that read like prose poems and don t really go anywhere I couldn t even make myself read it on my lunch break, when it was the only book I had with me To sum up I would rather stare at a cafeteria bulletin board and doodle on a napkin than finish [...]

Parts of this creative memoir were like reading about my own life, although unfortunately the music of my youth was the deeply terrible nu metal in the equally terrible nineties A beautifully lyrical exploration of growing up through music this book contains the best depiction of female adolescence in the British alternative music scene that I have read since Gemma discovers punk music in Junk I heard Lavinia Greenlaw read from this and immediately rushed to the library to check it out I have no [...]

i thought this was going to be a normal book about music and stuff but it s an autobiography on a woman and her teenage life and DANNNG it was dramatic it s a lot of i slept with them, then them, then i woke up in my own PUKE because I got HIGH last night but overall, AHMAZINGLY written, and really helps you understand why music is SO important to our culture.

When I originally bought this book, I thought it was going to be a socio scientific look at the way girls understand and interpret music Instead, it s a memoir collection of essays by Greenlaw discussing her own life in relation to music After I got over my initial shock, I enjoyed it a great deal Some of her pieces are startling in their perceptiveness and incredibly moving.

Camden, Live music and Love I loved this book

I don t know, this book just didn t grab me it has an amazing title, and I think I was expecting too much from it less about the importance of music to girls and a scattered memoir.

I was so excited to read this as someone who loves music and usually has a song running in my head It wasn t quite what I was expecting but very interesting to read, it outlines key stages as girls grow up and talks about the authors musical memories that accompany these times It works well in most chapters but others don t quite work as well which is a shame Having said that I enjoyed the book and it has given me plenty of ideas of how this clever idea could work.

This was disappointing I was expecting of exploration on the role music plays in girl s lives, but it s essentially a memoir with a little about music Greenlaw writes beautifully, but it is a little dull and not what I was looking for Won t be finishing it.

Turned out to be a great read Thank you Sam for sharing this book with me, what a lovely present 3

Musikens betydelse f r flickor, 2009

Beautiful prose that evokes emotion and memories of your own adolescence and the importance of music to people in this stage of life.

Music It s a life force for so many people Music forms our ideas, passions and opinions A song on the radio makes us recall a distinct moment in our lives A song can inspire us to change ourselves or change the world A song is there when we fall in love or when our hearts our broken Music is so much than it s got a good beat and you can dance to it But when music is discussed in these terms, it s usually done by the boys Nick Hornby and Chuck Klosterman can obsess over bands, discuss guitar sol [...]

This book is a love letter to music and childhood, and how the two are so intersected Lavinia is a 60s English baby, and her story is one of the changing musical genres, how music helped form and transform her life as it went through the different stages.While I appreciate the concept and the ode to the recklessness of youth and growing up, I didn t love this I don t know if it was because I was not in the right mood to read it, or that I was rushing through it, or if those things were affected [...]

Wow, does this book have mixed reviews, and I can see why The cover mine is different from the one pictured makes it look quite poppy The back of my version, at least, talks about its being a memoir But once I started reading, each section begins with a literary excerpt, some of them fairly obscure erudite, and the sections are heavily atmospheric and poetic, and though chronological I think , not clearly connected, so that it felt highly literary and rather different in tone from what I anticip [...]