subtitled: What is the future of popular and rock music?

The band KATSEYE from the 2026 Grammy Awards

Rock and Roll Toddler

Anyone who is familiar with this blog will recognize a brand new topic with this one. I normally discuss education, technology, or dreaded politics, or a combination of the three.

Today, I want to broach the topic that is , frankly, my true passion in life: music. I am a musician and have been in many bands, played for many years, and worshipped the music of myriad artists for decades upon decades. My first listening experience was with a little plastic “record player” in my 5-year-old’s bedroom, playing repeatedly Alvin and the Chipmunks and “The Yellow Rose of Texas” while bouncing up and down in my toddler shorts.

Until I got the Beatles first American release. It was at that moment….things changed.

They could never get me to leave my damn room. Anyway, I’m pretty sure this is a familiar story: girl loves music, Beatles change life, etc. But the non-primrose path of a female lady musician was all in store for my future, and as I walked that path, I felt the sting of the many thorns. Thorns like women were supposed to sing, not play instruments, and while they sing, they should always be wearing uncomfortable clothes and very high heels.

High Baby Voices

At the Grammy Awards this year, I was pleased to notice just how many women were nominated and winning awards. We have made some progress for sure. Some of them even picked up a guitar here and there. Yet, there was one thing that so many of these ladies shared: an extremely high and whispery, almost child-like singing voice. What’s with that? What ever happened to the lower and sultry voices like Karen Carpenter’s, the pissed-off and humorous talk-singing of the great Chrissie Hynde, even the harder- to- listen- to but highly interesting sandpapered singing of the Janis (Joplin)? Where are the unique voices of women? Are they auto-tuned away and special effected out until they have nothing in common with reality?

Chrissie Hynde of the Pretenders

Exceptions

Just a brief shout out to some of the exceptions: Chappell Roan, Miley Cyrus, and of course, Lady Gaga certainly hold their own in the canon of great female singers, ya’ll. Ain’t no baby voices there.

But let me just add one more thing: Justin Bieber, in his boxers, strumming on a little electric guitar with the same three chords over and over, and then looping the strums into a machine so that those same chords continue, is not the poster child for future musicianship.

I hope more women start exploring all of the octaves of their voices, and that they are not so electronically modified that they become unrecognizable. I hope more folks start really learning their instruments and playing them well for us on the stages. I hope I will one day hear more complicated and interesting music on the…..radio? no. (On wherever we hear music: Sirius, Spotify, Award shows, etc..)

She Selling Something–Oh No!!

Over the past year, alongside teaching and writing, I’ve been working on a series of music-themed puzzle books — partly as a creative outlet, partly as a way to think about how people engage with music differently than they do with essays or arguments.

They’re meant to be playful, thoughtful, and genuinely relaxing — not educational in a heavy-handed way.

If that sounds like your kind of thing, I wanted you to know they exist. If not, no worries at all — regular blog posts will continue as usual. I will always have plenty to say (you’re probably thinking: thank goodness! Right? ha!)