From dancing in long floral skirts in a folk dancing class as a young girl, to wallowing in the complete and teenage angst of her punk years (accompanied by the occasional run in with the police), Lavinia Greenlaw's memoir The Importance of Music to Girls illustrates her life from childhood to late adolescence.
Just from the title, I assumed that the book would be about how girls in general find identity through different music genres; which it did, just not in the way I thought. (So why doesn't she just call it The Importance of Music to Lavinia Greenlaw?) Well that's just it: Greenlaw is retelling events from her younger years in a universal way that makes them relatable.
For example, during her love affair with disco music, she describes all too well the lengths that most, if not all girls go through to fit in with a specific group of friends: dressing alike, acting alike, synchronized laughter. In this section of the book, she talks about the group's leader, Tina:
As the book and different music phases go on, Greenlaw develops as sense of self through her relationship with music rather than through her friends and what they think is cool. The first example of her independence was when she bought a pair of straight legged jeans and wore them to her local youth club one Saturday night where she was then laughed at. Even though the people laughing were the same people that she had wanted so badly to fit in with, she didn't care. In her words, "After three years of trying to fit in, I liked the idea of being different."
The Importance of Music to Girls is available at all major booksellers for $15.
For example, during her love affair with disco music, she describes all too well the lengths that most, if not all girls go through to fit in with a specific group of friends: dressing alike, acting alike, synchronized laughter. In this section of the book, she talks about the group's leader, Tina:
"I was becoming a girl as instructed by girls but I knew I wasn't a real girl, at least not of this kind. I wanted to be a disco girl like Tina, whose every aspect conformed to some golden section of girldom: her height relative to her shape, her prettiness relative to her smartness, her niceness relative to her toughness...To me she was wise and ruthless, a goddess of war."Reading between the lines of her memories, we're able to see that even though she seemingly had it all together with her newfound group of friends, she still felt alone and disconnected from them. The only real thing they all had in common was their love for the music that they would spend numerous Saturday nights dancing to.
As the book and different music phases go on, Greenlaw develops as sense of self through her relationship with music rather than through her friends and what they think is cool. The first example of her independence was when she bought a pair of straight legged jeans and wore them to her local youth club one Saturday night where she was then laughed at. Even though the people laughing were the same people that she had wanted so badly to fit in with, she didn't care. In her words, "After three years of trying to fit in, I liked the idea of being different."
The Importance of Music to Girls is available at all major booksellers for $15.
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