美国国家公共电台 NPR--25 years on, Lilith Fair is a reminder of how one woman's radical idea changed music

25 years on, Lilith Fair is a reminder¹ of how one woman's radical² idea changed music

Transcript³

It was July 5th 1997: Opening night of the groundbreaking all-female music festival Lilith Fair.

The lineup featured a who's who of female alternative musicians of the moment: Sheryl Crow, Jewel, The Indigo⁴ Girls, Lisa Loeb, Fiona Apple, Shawn Colvin, Tracy Chapman, Natalie Merchant and more.

Lilith Fair was the culmination⁵ of a year of work by its founder⁶, a Canadian singer-songwriter. Sarah McLachlan had been told by music and concert industry executives that putting more than one woman back-to-back on a lineup or radio playlist wouldn't sell.

"Like, I'd walk in and do an interview and they said, 'Well, we'd love to add this song but we can't add you this week because we had a Tori Amos or because we added Tracy Chapman or because we added Sinéad O'Connor,'" she recalls. "And it was extremely frustrating⁷. So the beginning of this was just born out of a desire to come together as a community. And it became this — we're going to break down some barriers. We're going to prove these guys wrong."

So McLachlan started to fundraise and work with performers to join her on stage before launching Lilith in the summer of 1997.

In its first summer, Lilith easily outpaced the then-fading Lollapolooza festival, in both audience size and ticket sales. It returned for two more summers and went on to become the top-grossing music festival of the late 1990s, racking up $60 million in ticket sales over its three-year run.

The eclectic group of women artists included folk, rock, country and pop musicians and sold out nearly every single show its first year. But as Lilith's popularity increased, critics disparaged⁸ the festival as "mom music" and called out its mostly white bill of performers.

Exactly 25 years later, musicians who participated in Lilith Fair and journalists who covered it reflected on the festival's importance in interviews with NPR.

Jessica Hopper, who authored an oral history of the Lilith Fair, says Lilith's lessons remain relevant today.

"Safe space is something that we're still trying to foster and kind of hold it up as an ideal, and it's like wait — this was accomplished⁹ three summers in a row with the biggest names in music," she explains. "It showed people models of possibility."

Criticism was quick, but so was change

Perhaps inevitably¹⁰, Lilith became a target for comedians¹¹ and cultural critics scoring points at the expense of female musical agency. It took just a few months after Lilith's very first show for Saturday Night Live to introduce a recurring¹² character mocking the overly earnest stereotype¹³ of a Lilith artist, played by Ana Gasteyer, who droned on about her folkist approach.

By 1998, the organizers of Lilith had more money to work with, and could point to the marked success of the previous summer. The festival expanded from 37 shows to 57 shows, expanding its lineup to include more than 100 artists across three stages. Festival programmers challenged perceptions of Lilith Fair as a majority-white group of folk and alternative artists at a time when R&B, rap and hip-hop were gaining broader popularity.

In the lead-up to its second year, McLachlan worked with organizers to intentionally¹⁴ add more artists of color to the ticket: Erykah Badu and Queen Latifah joined the main stage for Lilith's second year, along with up-and-coming Missy Elliott, who made her debut¹⁵ live performance at Lilith Fair in a giant vinyl trash-bag-inspired suit.

"All of that second year, I think, is really significant because those were artists who were changing things in different worlds than the world that [McLachlan] occupies," says NPR Music critic Ann Powers, who attended all three summers of Lilith Fair. "And through a 2022 lens, we could say, 'Oh I wish it'd been even more diverse' ... but you got to give them credit."

The addition of more artists of color opened the festival to a broader audience, and exposed its up-and-coming Black female artists to a new set of fans. Meshell Ndegeocello, a bassist and composer who joined the show in 1998, recalls the festival's comforting atmosphere and the thrill of getting to see such powerful female artists — from Paula Cole to Erykah Badu to Natalie Merchant — performing together and supporting each other.

"I was able to see people I admired but cherished in a way that had a musical connection to me that was uplifting and healing," she remembers. "And I think I flourished as a musician because I was out of the male gaze and music where it's just, you know, 'Show me what you got.' And it was more like, 'What can you make me feel?'"

Sarah McLachlan said that's exactly what Lilith Fair was always supposed to achieve.

"To create an environment where everybody gets to be seen and heard and valued, and come as you are, you know, let your freak flag fly ... this is the place you get to do that and there is no judgment¹⁶ here," she recalls.

But the show couldn't go on forever — or make a comeback

After its third successful summer on the road, the 90's iteration of Lilith came to an end.

By that time, many stars could look back and point to Lilith Fair as a major catalyst¹⁷ for their success — like Jewel, who graced the cover of Time Magazine in 1997 and sang the National Anthem¹⁸ at the 1998 Super Bowl. Or English singer Dido, whose song "Thank you" was featured in movie soundtracks and sampled in Eminem's award-winning single "Stan."

"Some of these women were told by their agents, 'This is going to kill your career if you do this,'" says Hopper, referring to early industry doubts around the festival's founding. "And in fact the opposite happened ... it minted stars."

It was partly the demands of Sarah McLachlan's own celestial¹⁹ career that brought an end to Lilith Fair. Releasing two albums in three years, kick-starting a major touring festival and getting married –- all milestones²⁰ that left the singer exhausted²¹. As McLachlan recounted to Glamour²² Magazine in 2017, "I've got to go home. And I have to have a life. People have been having babies and getting married and divorced, and I've missed it all."

But in 2010, McLachlan tried to get Lilith off the ground again, turning to former festival favorites such as Erykah Badu and Tegan and Sara.

Lilith Fair's second iteration faced several obstacles. For one, McLachlan was now the mother of two daughters and was busy finishing yet another album. As she explained to Glamour, she was headlining the tour and working with many of the same behind-the-scenes coordinators who had helped manage previous tours. Still, disorganization and shoddy financial management caused many artists — including Kelly Clarkson and Norah Jones — to drop out of shows at the last minute.

What's more, the music industry had undergone a seismic²³ change over a decade. The digital music era meant that audiences were now discovering new music online, rather than on touring festival lineups. Ticket prices had also increased, with some Lilith VIP packages costing $750.

McLachlan later speculated that, much like herself, Lilith's original audience had developed a different set of priorities. "A lot of the young women who came to Lilith back then now have kids at home, have busy careers," she told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in 2012. "And I don't think we did enough due diligence in discovering how our audience had changed and how to reflect that. In a new show, we kind of threw up the same model, which, you know, obviously in hindsight was quite stupid and it didn't get the audiences that we expected to get."

McLachlan and her partners ended up canceling the tour after only a few shows.

Lilith's legacy²⁴ 25 years later

Looking back, did Lilith achieve what it set out to accomplish?

Ann Powers says yes. She says it upended longstanding presumptions²⁵ that audiences wouldn't connect with the femininity and eclecticism²⁶ of an all-female music festival. Not only that, Lilith Fair radically²⁷ expanded creative possibilities for women musicians, who took to its stages to triumph, to experiment, even to fail and to try again.

"This is a snapshot of a huge array of what women were doing in music in this era when there was a lot of space and demand for women of all kinds to be taking risks in music," Powers says. "And Lilith Fair is almost like, 'Here's your compilation²⁸ of every every wild idea that women had in music in the '90s.' And I think so much of that stuff is just like forgotten."

For the artists and fans who experienced it, Lilith Fair felt revolutionary. It's success upended concert industry norms and created a new place where female artistry could evolve and flourish. Lilith Fair was a cultural phenomenon that coalesced²⁹ at just the right time.

NPR researcher Will Chase contributed to this report

1 reminder   

n.提醒物，纪念品；暗示，提示

参考例句：

• I have had another reminder from the library.我又收到图书馆的催还单。
• It always took a final reminder to get her to pay her share of the rent.总是得发给她一份最后催缴通知，她才付应该交的房租。

2 radical   

n.激进份子，原子团，根号；adj.根本的，激进的，彻底的

参考例句：

• The patient got a radical cure in the hospital.病人在医院得到了根治。
• She is radical in her demands.她的要求十分偏激。

3 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

4 indigo   

n.靛青，靛蓝

参考例句：

• The sky was indigo blue,and a great many stars were shining.天空一片深蓝，闪烁着点点繁星。
• He slipped into an indigo tank.他滑落到蓝靛桶中。

5 culmination   

n.顶点；最高潮

参考例句：

• The space race reached its culmination in the first moon walk.太空竞争以第一次在月球行走而达到顶峰。
• It may truly be regarded as the culmination of classical Greek geometry.这确实可以看成是古典希腊几何的登峰造级之作。

6 Founder   

n.创始者，缔造者

参考例句：

• He was extolled as the founder of their Florentine school.他被称颂为佛罗伦萨画派的鼻祖。
• According to the old tradition,Romulus was the founder of Rome.按照古老的传说，罗穆卢斯是古罗马的建国者。

7 frustrating   

adj.产生挫折的，使人沮丧的，令人泄气的v.使不成功( frustrate的现在分词 )；挫败；使受挫折；令人沮丧

参考例句：

• It's frustrating to have to wait so long. 要等这么长时间，真令人懊恼。
• It was a demeaning and ultimately frustrating experience. 那是一次有失颜面并且令人沮丧至极的经历。 来自《简明英汉词典》

8 disparaged   

v.轻视( disparage的过去式和过去分词 )；贬低；批评；非难

参考例句：

• French-Canadian fur trappers and Sioux disparaged such country as "bad lands. " 法语的加拿大毛皮捕兽器和苏人的贬低国家作为“坏土地”。 来自互联网
• She disparaged her student's efforts. 她轻视她的学生做出的努力。 来自互联网

9 accomplished   

adj.有才艺的；有造诣的；达到了的

参考例句：

• Thanks to your help,we accomplished the task ahead of schedule.亏得你们帮忙,我们才提前完成了任务。
• Removal of excess heat is accomplished by means of a radiator.通过散热器完成多余热量的排出。

10 inevitably   

adv.不可避免地；必然发生地

参考例句：

• In the way you go on,you are inevitably coming apart.照你们这样下去，毫无疑问是会散伙的。
• Technological changes will inevitably lead to unemployment.技术变革必然会导致失业。

11 comedians   

n.喜剧演员，丑角( comedian的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The voice was rich, lordly, Harvardish, like all the boring radio comedians'imitations. 声音浑厚、威严，俨然是哈佛出身的气派，就跟无线电里所有的滑稽演员叫人已经听腻的模仿完全一样。 来自辞典例句
• He distracted them by joking and imitating movie and radio comedians. 他用开玩笑的方法或者模仿电影及广播中的滑稽演员来对付他们。 来自辞典例句

12 recurring   

adj.往复的，再次发生的

参考例句：

• This kind of problem is recurring often. 这类问题经常发生。
• For our own country, it has been a time for recurring trial. 就我们国家而言，它经过了一个反复考验的时期。

13 stereotype   

n.固定的形象，陈规，老套，旧框框

参考例句：

• He's my stereotype of a schoolteacher.他是我心目中的典型教师。
• There's always been a stereotype about successful businessmen.人们对于成功商人一直都有一种固定印象。

14 intentionally   

ad.故意地，有意地

参考例句：

• I didn't say it intentionally. 我是无心说的。
• The local authority ruled that he had made himself intentionally homeless and was therefore not entitled to be rehoused. 当地政府裁定他是有意居无定所，因此没有资格再获得提供住房。

15 debut   

n.首次演出，初次露面

参考例句：

• That same year he made his Broadway debut, playing a suave radio journalist.在那同一年里，他初次在百老汇登台，扮演一个温文而雅的电台记者。
• The actress made her debut in the new comedy.这位演员在那出新喜剧中首次登台演出。

16 judgment   

n.审判；判断力，识别力，看法，意见

参考例句：

• The chairman flatters himself on his judgment of people.主席自认为他审视人比别人高明。
• He's a man of excellent judgment.他眼力过人。

17 catalyst   

n.催化剂，造成变化的人或事

参考例句：

• A catalyst is a substance which speeds up a chemical reaction.催化剂是一种能加速化学反应的物质。
• The workers'demand for better conditions was a catalyst for social change.工人们要求改善工作条件促进了社会变革。

18 anthem   

n.圣歌，赞美诗，颂歌

参考例句：

• All those present were standing solemnly when the national anthem was played.奏国歌时全场肃立。
• As he stood on the winner's rostrum,he sang the words of the national anthem.他站在冠军领奖台上，唱起了国歌。

19 celestial   

adj.天体的；天上的

参考例句：

• The rosy light yet beamed like a celestial dawn.玫瑰色的红光依然象天上的朝霞一样绚丽。
• Gravity governs the motions of celestial bodies.万有引力控制着天体的运动。

20 milestones   

n.重要事件( milestone的名词复数 )；重要阶段；转折点；里程碑

参考例句：

• Several important milestones in foreign policy have been passed by this Congress and they can be chalked up as major accomplishments. 这次代表大会通过了对外政策中几起划时代的事件，并且它们可作为主要成就记录下来。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Dale: I really envy your milestones over the last few years, Don. 我真的很羡慕你在过去几年中所建立的丰功伟绩。 来自互联网

21 exhausted   

adj.极其疲惫的，精疲力尽的

参考例句：

• It was a long haul home and we arrived exhausted.搬运回家的这段路程特别长，到家时我们已筋疲力尽。
• Jenny was exhausted by the hustle of city life.珍妮被城市生活的忙乱弄得筋疲力尽。

22 glamour   

n.魔力，魅力；vt.迷住

参考例句：

• Foreign travel has lost its glamour for her.到国外旅行对她已失去吸引力了。
• The moonlight cast a glamour over the scene.月光给景色增添了魅力。

23 seismic   

a.地震的，地震强度的

参考例句：

• Earthquakes produce two types of seismic waves.地震产生两种地震波。
• The latest seismic activity was also felt in northern Kenya.肯尼亚北部也感觉到了最近的地震活动。

24 legacy   

n.遗产，遗赠；先人(或过去)留下的东西

参考例句：

• They are the most precious cultural legacy our forefathers left.它们是我们祖先留下来的最宝贵的文化遗产。
• He thinks the legacy is a gift from the Gods.他认为这笔遗产是天赐之物。

25 presumptions   

n.假定( presumption的名词复数 )；认定；推定；放肆

参考例句：

• Much modern technological advance is based on these presumptions of legal security. 许多现代技术的发展都是基于这些法律安全设想的考虑。 来自互联网
• What visions, what expectations and what presumptions can outsoar that flight? 那一种想象，那一种期望和推测能超越他之上呢？ 来自互联网

26 eclecticism   

n.折衷主义

参考例句：

• Eclecticism is good,that they keeped the style and avoided the defects.兼收并蓄是好，避免了很多中国传统样式的问题，却依然古色古香。
• All of the groups moved towards a broader eclecticism and synthesis.所有的乐队都朝着更广泛的折衷主义和结合主义的方向前进。

27 radically   

ad.根本地，本质地

参考例句：

• I think we may have to rethink our policies fairly radically. 我认为我们可能要对我们的政策进行根本的反思。
• The health service must be radically reformed. 公共医疗卫生服务必须进行彻底改革。

28 compilation   

n.编译，编辑

参考例句：

• One of the first steps taken was the compilation of a report.首先采取的步骤之一是写一份报告。
• The compilation of such diagrams,is of lasting value for astronomy.绘制这样的图对天文学有永恒的价值。

29 coalesced   

v.联合，合并( coalesce的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The puddles had coalesced into a small stream. 地面上水洼子里的水汇流成了一条小溪。
• The views of party leaders coalesced to form a coherent policy. 党的领导人的各种观点已统一为一致的政策。 来自辞典例句