Why? What makes for better emo punk than the overwhelming intensity and borderline toxicity so many of us find in the highs and lows of lesbian love? Dyke Drama is Sadie Switchblade’s solo project, and this music lives up to this name. While her music will likely speak to any sapphic, gotta say as a trans dyke, it hits especially hard.
Where to start?
“Crying in a Bathroom Stall” is the song where Sadie first grabbed me. An aggressive guitar riff capturing that moment where we just want to burst into tears and scream from love lost. And with the last line, my heart breaks, “Do all tall girls die alone?”
While there’s a lot of heartbreak from the referenced dyke drama in her music, there are also moments of timid hope.
The song “Thelma and Louise” is especially one of those. It’s that moment I think a lot of us have had, when you and another find each other but fear you will hurt one another. But instead, maybe we take a chance on each other?
And for those nights drenched in rough feelings, barely able to stand it, and you throw yourselves into each others lips anyway, there’s “Up Against the Bricks.”
Why? Rina Sawayama has a unique presence in contemporary pop music. Her introspective and intimate lyrics paired expertly with melody, a voice that sits differently than many other singers, and a powerful vulnerability. As a Japanese British artist and pan sapphic woman, she brings a unique perspective through her music that I know captivates me.
Where to start?
Her 2021 performance of her single, “Chosen Family,” with Sir Elton John is moving and perfect. The fact that Elton plays to her lyrics and composition wholeheartedly is beautiful and speaks to the talent he sees in this young queer artist. There is no better ode to the beauty of chosen family that defines queer life.
I also want to encourage people to listen to her entire 2022 album, “Hold the Girl.” Rina has spoken in interviews about how this album was her attempt to “infuse pop with therapy” (https://www.them.us/story/rina-sawayama-hold-the-girl-interview-cover). And so many of these songs have accompanied me on my own journey through trauma therapy for which it’s hard to express how much they mean.
The title track, “Hold the Girl,” is about her own experiences reconnecting with the girl she was that trauma disconnected her from, but I can’t help but read my own experience as a queer trans fem into it:
“Reach inside and hold you close
I won't leave you on your own
Teach me the words I used to know
Yeah, I forgot them long ago
I wanna rеmember
She is mе and I am her
So hold the girl”
Much of her music is also joyfully and unrepentantly queer. Another single from that same album, “This Hell,” should be a pride anthem for all of us that left religious trauma, but it also features a pansexual, polyamorous, cowboy wedding...yes, you need to watch it now! Also, I can’t help but read the two partners she’s marrying in the music video as representing Madonna from “Don’t Tell Me” and Lil Nas X from “Old Town Road.”
And the first song I encountered her through, “STFU,” is a battle cry for every person tired of dealing with mansplaining reply guys...and the video is a hilarious roast of every terrible man Rina has ever dated.
Sapphic Music Sunday is dedicated to platforming music by lesbians, sapphic people, and women loving women. This is an archive thread to keep track of all of my Sapphic Music Sunday Posts, with new ones added each week (hopefully).
Why? Joan Jett's music is a cornerstone of queer rock and she was not only one of the few women to hold her own in the world of punk and hard rock in the 80s and 90s, but also was explicitly sapphic during these times when queer people were pushed out of music.
Where to start?
"Crimson and Clover" may be a cover, but Joan made it hers in a way that is deeply seductive with a lesbian gaze. I may have also sent it to a cute girl to express my feels for her because that's how much it makes my little gay heart euphoric
"Bad Reputation" is another cover she fully makes her own, also feeling like she's pulling a bit from the Patti Smith cover. The video has so much gender going on
Some of her songs are just great love ballads that feel so appropriate for the head over heels and unabashed love sapphic relationships enjoy, like "I love you love me love"
Why? Because there is something dangerous yet alluring in so much of her music, and it manages to capture and portray multitudes of sapphic roles and play. Her music uses bass to great effect and often sounds like the kind of indie pop/rock you expect to have lurking about you on a strange and exhilarating walk through a metropolis late at night.
Where to start?
Since CJ brought up the Daddy Discourse (https://octodon.social/@siege/110901262516204334) the other day, I haven't been able to get it out of my head - so naturally, I find myself obsessed with KiNG MALA's "she calls me Daddy"
She also does an amazing job creating tracks that feel like the afternoon on a bad brain day in a cathartic way. Her song "dirty dishes" is a big mood for this tired, depressed lesbian who definitely has literal and metaphorical dirty dishes in her sink that need doing.
Why? Because Tove is an underrated queer alt pop artist with really good hooks and pulling in some good electronica elements. Not to mention so many of her videos drip with queer womanhood and sapphic bisexual libido.
Where to start?
I keep coming back to her most recent album, "Dirt Femme" because it is wrestling with mental illness and meets me where I am on the edge of where so many lesbians are: codependency, complex trauma, and dangerous, fiery love.
"No One Dies From Love" is such a catchy song, but also captures the heartbreak and codependency I've personally wrestled with lately. And the music video is just amazing and so intensely gay:
The toxic love story between Tove and the robot Annie from the above video continues in most of the music videos for this album.
The one that I can't get out of my head is borderline - as those of us who live with CPTSD can easily slip into that overlapping storm of CPTSD, codependency, and Borderline Personality Disorder. It's cathartic to see it portrayed both in its intoxicating, spiral of extremes and it's ultimate destructiveness toward yourself and everyone you love:
I also am obsessed with another song on this album not related to these, called "Grapefruit" about eating disorders and body dysmorphia. There's a lot in it that also hits for trans fems in particular, even though it probably wasn't intended, wanting her body to "change overnight" and wondering how she keeps coming back around into this unhealthy obsession and cycle.