The 90s proved that various music was not a person’s recreation. Ladies had been simply as integral to the style’s mainstreaming, with artists like Alanis Morrisette, No Doubt’s Gwen Stefani, Sheryl Crow, Rubbish’s Shirley Manson, and The Cranberries’ Dolores O’Riordan main the cost. Amongst this crop got here Meredith Brooks, who solidified her place in various rock with a single tune: 1997’s “Bitch.”
Brooks started her profession in 1976 as a teen member of the all-female band Sapphire, performing all through Seattle and her native Oregon. Following the band’s cut up in 1980, Brooks joined the short-lived rock band Lips in addition to all-female trio the Graces alongside Gia Ciambotti and former Go-Go Charlotte Caffey. She later moved to Los Angeles to kick off her solo profession and launched her self-titled debut album in 1986.
Brooks’ breakthrough occurred in 1995 after signing with Capitol Information. Two years later, her career-defining album Blurring the Edges was launched. “Bitch,” the album’s lead single, reduce by means of with a uncooked, refreshing perspective on a lady’s multifaceted persona. “I hate the world today” is daring method to kick off a track, but it surely’s the earworm refrain that made it so distinct: “I’m a bitch, I’m a lover / I’m a child, I’m a mother / I’m a sinner, I’m a saint / I do not feel ashamed / I’m your Hell, I’m your dream / I’m nothing in between / You know you wouldn’t want it any other way.”
Together with confronting patriarchal society’s expectations, the lyrics additionally spotlight a lady’s kaleidoscopic nature. “This song was born because I was so frustrated, I had ten years of album cuts and never had a single. I was coming home from a session one day, full of PMS in a big funk,” co-writer Shelly Peiken advised The Tennessean in 2018. “I thought to myself, my poor boyfriend who I was living with, married to now, he’s going to have to deal with this when I get home. And God bless him, he loves me any way I am. I thought, ‘He loves me even when I can be such a bitch.’”
Stevie Nicks sang about life’s hardships on 1991’s “Sometimes It’s a Bitch,” however Brooks was the primary feminine artist to explicitly confer with herself as one on a success file. Regardless of label executives’ hesitation to launch it on account of its title, “Bitch” loved success: the only spent 4 weeks at No. 2 on the Billboard Sizzling 100 and earned two Grammy nominations for Finest Feminine Rock Vocal Efficiency and Finest Rock Tune. Culturally, the track remodeled right into a feminist anthem that proudly reclaimed a derogatory insult.
Take heed to Meredith Brooks’ “Bitch” on Apple Music or Spotify.
Since “Bitch,” Brooks has launched 4 albums, her most up-to-date being a youngsters’s album If I Might Be… in 2007. She additionally co-produced Jennifer Love Hewitt’s 2002 album Barenaked alongside the New Radicals frontman Gregg Alexander. “Bitch” has additionally taken on new life years after its launch. It’s appeared in tv collection and movies like Orphan Black, Glee, 30 Rock, and — most lately — 2020’s Little Fires In every single place. Britney Spears even reportedly did a quick spoken-word rendition of the tune throughout her 2016 Las Vegas residency.
Alongside together with her friends, Meredith Brooks’ “Bitch” helped lay the groundwork for immediately’s artists as they push in opposition to the stereotype of what a feminine rocker ought to sound or seem like. The inspiration may be seen with St. Vincent and Paramore’s Hayley Williams, in addition to those that float between pop and rock, together with Halsey, Miley Cyrus, and Bebe Rexha, whose 2018 single “I’m a Mess” interpolated Brooks. Ladies finally management their persona, and if that makes them a “Bitch,” then they’ll proudly personal it.
On the lookout for extra tales behind music’s greatest hits? Try the Now! That’s What I Name Music web page.
