Solange Knowles was destined for the limelight, says musician and writer Stephanie Phillips. “As the sister to a successful pop star and daughter of a self-taught business manager who catapulted that sister to the top,” Solange’s eventual stardom appeared inevitable. But rather than follow a conventional path, Solange patiently carved her own space, becoming an international and influential star in her own right.
Phillips, an arts journalist who also performs in the band Big Joanie, has long been drawn to Solange’s music. In her new book Why Solange Matters, part of The University of Texas Press’ Music Matters series, Phillips traces Solange’s unique journey and unpacks the impact of her career. In this short interview, we asked Phillips about how the inspiration for the project and how Solange’s music fueled her through the process.
Tell us a bit about how this project came to be: Why Solange, and why were you excited to write about her right now?
I got involved with the Music Matters series after I first worked with the series’ editor, Evelyn McDonnell, writing several essays on important women in music history for her Women Who Rock anthology. Evelyn told me she was working on the book series and said I should write a proposal. It was first suggested that I try and write about Poly Styrene. Though I'm a huge fan of Poly, I knew her daughter was in the process of working on a book and documentary about her life, so there was no way I could write anything that would be as interesting as what her own family would have to say. Solange was an obvious next choice; although she is a relatively current artist, compared to the other artists in the rest of the series, her work, especially A Seat At The Table, has made an immeasurable impact on culture, and Black culture specifically. I knew there was a story that could be expanded to reflect a wider generation of young Black people and the way they see themselves. I think she deserves to be analyzed at this stage, which in a way feels like just the beginning.
We’d guess that Solange’s music made up a pretty big part of your listening soundtrack while working on this book. Did you come back to certain songs in particular? And what else were you listening to while writing?
I listened to her albums nonstop while working on this book. I thought I wore them out, but after a few months downtime, I went straight back to them. “Cranes In The Sky” still hits the same every time. I also recorded a cover version of that song with Big Joanie which we released on Third Man Records last summer. I also find myself always coming back to When I Get Home; songs like “Way To The Show” and “Down With The Clique” are such earworm moments. I never go out to clubs, but since we've been stuck at home for forever I always imagine this will be the soundtrack to my first night out. I don't think I was listening to much else as I struggle to do two things at the same time; maybe some Mitski, and I also I re-acquainted myself with early Destiny's Child and Beyoncé songs, as I was a huge fan in my teens but hadn't listened closely to them for a while.
What do you hope readers will take away from this book — both longtime fans of Solange and readers who may be newer to her music?
I hope readers come away with a greater understanding of someone who I believe to be one of the most important artists of our current era. Longtime fans will benefit from a deep reading of Solange's work and an analysis of where she was coming from at each stage in her life. For new fans or those who don't know her at all, I hope they take away from the book a story of an artist who pushed to make her vision and voice central to her narrative, and in the process created a new path for polymathic artists who also aren't interested in being conventional. |
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| - This week’s All Songs Considered new mix opens with the true story of a Japanese big band formed in a Wyoming internment camp during World War II. Plus, an uncharacteristically loud song from Faye Webster, some heart and humor from Tōth and a collaboration between African kora player Ballaké Sissoko and painter Piers Faccini.
- Nashville-based label Dualtone Records is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year with a release called Amerikinda: 20 Years Of Dualtone, featuring Dualtone artists and alumni. This week, World Cafe premiered two songs from the collection: The Lumineers' cover of "Caves," originally by Gregory Alan Isakov, and Isakov's cover of The Lumineers' "Salt and the Sea.”
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- Todd Snider’s “Handsome John” is a tribute to the late John Prine. This week, our friends at Member station WMOT shared a performance of the song from Snider’s studio, The Purple Building in East Nashville.
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- German mezzo-soprano Christa Ludwig died at her home in Austria on April 24. Over a career that lasted nearly five decades, Ludwig embraced a broad range of roles, the breadth of her vocal range matching her expansive repertoire.
- Nearly every day for 80 days during lockdown, Mark Ramos Nishita, better known as Money Mark, shared a minute-long “Isolation Jam” on Instagram. For the Morning Edition Song Project, the former Beastie Boys keyboardist returns to that routine to convey a timeless and timely reminder to “Fight With Love.”
- With decades of experience behind the drum kit, 2021 NEA Jazz Master Terri Lyne Carrington has earned a reputation as one of jazz’s most dynamic musicians, as well as an advocate for gender equality in the genre. Hear recordings that capture her wide-ranging sound on Jazz Night In America.
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To shine a spotlight on the Save Our Stages Act, the members of Lake Street Dive crammed onto a stage not much larger than the Tiny Desk itself at the “biggest little venue in NYC,” Pete’s Candy Store, for the group’s Tiny Desk (home) concert.
Also this week: Rising St. Petersburg, Fla., rapper Rod Wave opened his (home) concert set with an homage to Drake, interpolating “Over My Dead Body” from his verdant subtropical setting. And though the members of Son Lux each filmed their contribution to the group’s Tiny Desk (home) concert separately, the end effect of stitched-and-spliced shots is dizzying in all the right ways. |
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| NPR is turning 50 (!), and we'll be sharing some of the celebrations in this newsletter over the next few weeks. To kick it off, we go back to the start: On May 3, 1971, 20,000 demonstrators stopped traffic in the streets of Washington, D.C., in a protest against the war in Vietnam. On that same day, NPR premiered a new afternoon show, All Things Considered. |
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