The importance of music to girls (2024)

A personal account of growing up with music, or rather, what music you choose to grow up to. This was one thin-skinned child and angsty teenager it seemed to me. Luckily she had angry punk as an outlet. She conjures up a lost era of LPs, 2nd hand record shops, making the object of your affections tapes with your own designs, the excitement of going to live gigs, but some of the existential teenage angst does go on a bit. And frustratingly, just when her life actually seemed to be getting interesting as she leaves home to move to London, the story ends, with a tacked on conclusion '7 years later'... I was really interested in what happened in those missing 7 years, but perhaps that's material for another book. Well written though, I'd try more of her.

For me this book is almost as good as it gets, although judging by some of the comments here, not everyone agrees. Maybe the title is somewhat misleading - the book is not directed only at girls, but at anyone who has ever loved music.

The author's taste in music is catholic to say the least, and we see it constantly evolve throughout the period of her life this book covers - early childhood through to leaving home aged 18.

The story really comes alive when punk eventually arrived in the rather backward part of Essex where she lived, and although never a slave to any particular genre, she seems to have relished the punk revolution and the music that came in its wake. A wonderful musical history told be someone who was there and went to the gigs.

As a memoir, it's not a bad read. Poetic, almost opulent language, issues and scenes that I can identify with. However I expected this book to be much more music-focused. Throughout most of the book, Greenlaw touches upon music only in its relation to other aspects of her life: making friends as a child through dance, becoming interested in boys, commenting on her political and social ideals. For the first 100 pages or so, music is just an afterthought, and Greenlaw did not even convince me of its importance in her life. In fact, it was somewhat disheartening to gather that she wasn't really into the music, but rather the fashion, the confusion, the overall notion of being an "outsider". Only in reading about her later teenage years does a reader get the sense of the significance of the actual music itself, not just the IDEA of it.

I loved this. The blurb comparing it to High Fidelity does it a disservice, as this is much more of a literary memoir, tied together with the author's experience of music as central to her life. She and I are the same age and so we experienced historical events at the same age, including our progression through various musical styles (bubblegum, pop, disco, rock, punk, New Wave). There are other similarities: recorder and violin (check), dance (check), a mother who sang and a dad who loved opera (check and check). And that feeling always that serious discussion of music was for boys. I gobbled this book up in a day and was sorry to come to the end.

2.5 stars. I was really enjoying Greenlaw's writing style at first but quickly tired of it. I can't really pinpoint exactly what I disliked about this collection, but I think it comes down to not being able to relate to Greenlaw at all. In fact, at times I found her quite pretentious, holding herself at a distance to the reader. Also, I feel the blurb of this is really misleading? Whilst I thought this was going to be really music focused with a touch of memoir, this is more a collection of short, personal vignettes/essays about the author's life, many having a tenuous link to music at best. Rather disappointed in this one, definitely lacked impact for me!

'The Importance of Music to Girls' is an insight into growing up in the 1960s and 1970s in the UK, from the perspective of a girl to whom music meant everything. It is an interesting read and more than just a memoir; more of a social history book.

I don't know, this book just didn't grab me. it has an amazing title, and I think I was expecting too much from it. less about the importance of music to girls and more a scattered memoir.

It was okay. This book is an experiential memoir centered around-you guessed it-music. Sometimes it felt a bit more like a grocery list than a novel, with the specifics all laid out, but it serves its purposes. I could see being assigned one chapter for reading in college, and I feel like that’s the intent of this book. Each chapter could stand alone, which unfortunately meant there was a fair amount of redundancy reading the whole way through.
Tonally it’s pretty dark & pessimistic. I might be too sentimental, but I was kind of put off by how the author described her motives. Like the people she interacted with along her journey must exist to fulfill her desire to be inspired or something. I think an adolescent me would have chewed this up between the angsty memoirs of my middle school bookshelf, but 28 year old me suffered to choke the work down to the end. I don’t want to have to quit on books, I’d like to know where they go. Would recommend as a gift; either to a tween or a mom/aunt who considered themselves a rocker in their day.

I could see what the author was trying to achieve, but every time I felt that we were riding the wave, that we were going somewhere, that we would hit the sweet spot between mere ramblings and utter geniality, we would simply crash and I would have to swallow mouthfulls of banal text attempting to look poetic and inspired. Using the theme of dance and music provided lots of opportunities for Greenlaw to transform a simple childhood account into something magical, but the text never delivered and the promise remained just that.

i looooooove this book, the first time i read it i just couldn’t get into it but i’m so glad i came back to it. so relatable. so cool. i wanna be her friend

The importance of music to girls seems to me, based on this book, to be as something to dance to and sing to, and something to differentiate yourself with. The author covers what music meant to her as she was growing up, from about the time she was 8 till she started college. The very short chapters cover the kinds of music she likes, with some rock critic like descriptions, but also covers how music played a role in different events in her life. I was surprised at the number of times she mentioned dancing -- I guess in the kinds of rock music stories I read, written predominately by men, dancing isn't a key component. The music helped her differentiate herself, from early soul crooner to a disco girl to a punk girl, with friends that were more classic rock lovers or just not that into music. I found the writing refreshing, and see the author is also a poet. The writing has a poetic descriptive quality. At one point, the author talks about how over the top the music magazine writers were, over intellectualizing things. She includes a few paragraphs from a magazine as an example. I found those paragraphs very similar to the rest of the book. I guess I just enjoy the excess stimulation. I see the author is a writer and professor, which is very hard to picture given were she leaves off in her life story in this book. I wonder if in the next phase in her life her music stayed as important to her or not. Perhaps there’s another book there. In summary, if you like the kinds of writing you tend to get in rock music reviews, but want to get more of a memoir, where music is at times the topic and at other times background, this is a good bet. Bonus points for Devo mention.

Lavinia Greenlaw, die mich bisher mit einigen Gedichtbänden und dem hervorragenden Roman „Mary George of Allnorthover“ begeistert hat, hat mit „The Importance of Music to Girls“ ein eigenartiges kleines Buch vorgelegt. Der Titel hat bei einigen Lesern eine Erwartung geweckt, die das Buch nicht erfüllt hat, so dass es mehrere weniger gute Bewertungen erfahren hat. Was also kann man erwarten?
Lavina Greenlaw ist im Herzen eine Lyrikerin, und das macht sich auch in diesem Prosatext bemerkbar. Zu Beginn berichtet sie über die Jahre ihrer frühen Kindheit, Jahre, die nur bruchstückhaft mit Erinnerungsfetzen ausgeleuchtet werden können. Doch gerade das, was schwer fassbar ist, ist Domäne der Lyrik, und so sind die ersten ca. 60 Seiten im Tonfall kein sachlicher Bericht über Kindheit und Jugend in den 60iger und 70iger Jahren in England, sondern ein sehr persönlicher, oft poetischer Text, der mit Bildhaftigkeit das greift, was deutlicher nicht zu sagen ist.
In der zweiten Hälfte des Buches, die Erzählerin ist zum Teenager herangewachsen, wird der Tonfall etwas prosaischer und die vielen kurzen Kapitel könnten auch als für sich stehende Kolumne in einer Musikzeitschrift zum Thema Zeitgeist veröffentlich werden. Lavinia Greenlaw berichtet von der Disco- und der Punkszene, von Partys, Konzertbesuchen und Zwischenfällen wie der Festnahme durch die Polizei wegen des Verdachts auf Drogenbesitz; von schulischen Problemen und der ewigen Frage des Teenagers, wer er wirklich ist.
Musik begleitet Lavina Greenlaw in jeder Phase ihres Lebens und in jeder Form: als Tanz, egal ob Ballett oder Volkstanz, beim selber Musizieren, beim Hören von Musik: Klassik, Charts, Punk. Und immer ist Musik Ausdruck oder Kontrast ihrer Befindlichkeit, immer befindet sie sich im Wechselspiel zur Musik.
Dieser Bericht ist sehr persönlich ausgefallen, was zum einen an der teils lyrischen Sprache der Autorin liegt, zum anderen aber vor allem auch daran, dass Lavinia Greenlaw ein vieler Hinsicht ein ungewöhnlicher Teenager war, der genauso ungewöhnliche Eltern hatte. So gab es die Freiräume, aber auch die Zuwendung, die es braucht, um einen sehr kreativen Menschen wachsen zu lassen.
Wer „Mary George of Allnorthover“ gelesen hat, wird die Titelheldin lange in Erinnerung behalten und sich vielleicht fragen, ob er/sie im wirklichen Leben eine Mary George kennt, einen Teenager, der durch Modewellen und Jugendszene beeinflusst trotzdem so ganz unverwechselbar und eigen ist. Mir war Mary George als fiktive Romanfigur sehr ans Herz gewachsen und die Überraschung kam dann beim Lesen von „The Importance of Music to Girls“, als ich in vielen Details Lavinia Greenlaw selbst als Modell für Mary George erkannte.
Auffällig ist, dass der Titel des Buches „The Importance of Music to Girls” auf dem Buchumschlag, und nur dort, noch mit dem Zusatz “A Memoir” versehen ist. Ich vermute, damit wollte faber and faber einigen Mißverständnissen vorbeugen, was aber offenkundig nicht ganz gelungen ist.
Dieser Erinnerungstext also, der sich kurzweilig liest und nur ein schmales Bändchen geworden ist, ist zugleich reflektiert und lyrisch und hat mich immer wieder belohnt mit einem Wechselbad von Wiedererkennen und Verwunderung. Zu empfehlen für Leser, für die Musik eine bedeutende Rolle in ihrer Entwicklung gespielt hat und/oder die sich mit der Entwicklung von Teenagern beschäftigen. Außerdem Pflichtlektüre für alle, die sich für Lavinia Greenlaw interessieren.

I must confess that I did not finish this book. Perhaps it was the mood I was in the several times I picked it up and gave it a try, but ultimately I believe it was a combination of the level of expectation I had placed upon it and the anticipation I had as I waited for it to arrive. When I originally read a review/description and decided to request it, I was under the impression that it would focus on music and its sociological impact on the development of adolescent girls. Having been an adolescent girl and always interested in music, I was pretty excited to sit down and read this. Instead it is a memoir that, while beautifully written, didn't really live up to the heavy expectations I had placed upon it. The impact of music on the author remained subtly in the backround of the first few chapters that I read and was sadly not present enough to keep me reading. I don't want to discourage others from giving it a go, I think that there's enough potential in the story to perhaps try it again someday, but for now I am left unsatisfied. Lesson learned: Don't judge a book by it's title.

I was a girl. Music was important to me. In the 1980s, I was a disc jockey on the FM radio. I love memoir the best and this is one of my all-time favorites. I would go so far as to say it's my favorite memoir. Lavinia lives in England and Music to Girls is the soundtrack to her life. Her words transported me to a time and a place far away, yet so close to my heart. I was a lonely, misunderstood teenager and Greenlaw had tons of friends, yet I loved the richness of detail of her relationships and her own chameleon feelings played out in the song lyrics and shifting genres: disco through punk.

Buy this book.

I liked that I could relate to this book in some way with the musicals, the songs, making angel delight with her siblings, her school life as a teenager, falling in love, there were a lot of aspects I could relate too. I did also enjoy reading some of the more shocking events I couldn't really relate too. She also had a really poetic writing style I liked that. However there were parts in this book that the pace really slowed down and dragged a little. Also by the way it ended it wasn't what I quite expected I don't feel like she ended it on a point she was trying to lead up too, it was a jump in time and not much explanation I would have liked a bit more I suppose.

At one point in her book The Importance of Music to Girls Lavinia Greenlaw makes this observation: “I don’t know how to think or how to talk about what I think. I haven’t learned anything for years. I don’t listen. I can’t speak. I am watching myself happening or not happening . . .”

For some reason when I read that passage I immediately thought “AHA! That’s it, that’s the problem.” Because I really, really wanted to love this book and it somehow left me a little cold. . .

Read the rest on iwilldare.com

I started this book thinking it would be a breezy memoir of teenage life shared with punk rock and late night drives and adolescent crushes. This is pretty much what the sleeve promised. Instead it's a collection of very short, scattered, and loose essays that read like prose poems and don't really go anywhere. I couldn't even make myself read it on my lunch break, when it was the only book I had with me. To sum up: I would rather stare at a cafeteria bulletin board and doodle on a napkin than finish "The Importance of Music to Girls".

I thought it should be titled, poems and sonnets are important to Lavinia. It is a memoir based on music influences in her life. However each chapter started with a poem. If it was not a poem it was something from Shakespeare. Eventually she threw in some music discussion. She talked about life in England. She gave little snippets of school days. But other than that I really saw very little importance of music to her.

i picked this up at quimby's earlier this week and couldn't put it down. a perfect book for anyone who spent hours with the same song on repeat, spent algebra class doodling song lyrics and daydreamed about the perfect song for your first kiss. yeah, i loved this book.

It's a bit mad how much music can influence the decisions we make & how we perceive ourselves. The first hand account of british punk in the 70s I loved - what an interesting time to be alive.

The moment I read the title, I had very high expectations of this book. Music is very important in my life and I never had read a book before that felt so fitting. Then this title appeared and I was smitten. Once I got my hands on it, I felt myself getting doubts. What if it wasn't what I thought it was? It was the reason I left the book on my shelve for a while. But once I started, I could not stop.

This book is filled with lovely passages. Every chapter describes a fitting moment in Greenlaw's life where music was a big part of how she understood the world. It starts with Greenlaw as a young child. This chronological way of storytelling was not one I had expected but once adjusted I saw why it fitted the story. The whole book is filled with amazing quotes. Here are just a few:

"... one day when I said aloud to myself that it did not matter where I was or what was going on around me, because I lived in my head. The habit of absenting myself was so strong that I eventually had no control over it. It happened in the midst of conversations, instructions, examinations. My imagined world was more vivid and more felt and I was part of it, no the centre of it." (p.22)

and

"As I came to understand music as a social currency, I realized that I needed to declare an allegiance."
(p.42)

In Chapter 15 there are side notes on every page and the way of incorporating the critique she got from teachers in her story of growing up was something that I found very unique. Her way of writing was very available for me and I enjoyed it. It made me connect with her earlier years, especially since I also grew up in a village. "From when I arrived I saw it as a place to get out of, and tripped over myself in the rush to grow up and leave. I did not like to think that it had any effect on me, but I was caught up in its rhythms and could not escape its music." (p.60).

I think the best quote to describe this book, and my fave, is the following:
"There are times when we need the rocket fuel of singing and dancing to power us through an act of blind faith." (p.73)
From there on, Greenlaw goes into her youth adventures and this is where I stopped identifying with her. I enjoyed the story nevertheless but I felt a bit more disconnected, especially because in my youth I was very boring and just stayed home. There were moments in the book that Greenlaw opens up about her discovery that people can listen to more styles of music: "I had thought of music as being the same as style: you were a type and you stuck to it. You couldn't be devoted to heavy metal. but also enjoy punk, only Luke did..." (p. 109)

It's exactly this way of discovering music and thinking about it what draws me to this book. It recognizes the way music can shape someone, something I believe is very true and something that Greenlaw puts perfectly into words in several striking passages: "This is what music could do: change the shape of the world and my shape within it, how I saw, what I liked and what I wanted to look like. How does this work? ... Does it depend who you come across or is there something building up inside you, as I believe there was in me - a half-formed vision needing an external phenomenon, such as music, in order to complete itself?" (p.123)

To conclude, I really enjoyed the book. The reason I gave it only three stars is probably due to my own expectations and has nothing to do really with the book. I would recommend it to everyone that has a special place for music in their life!

3.5*

A collection of memoir essays that relive the connectivity of music and life at key points in the author's life. I was expecting a more a academic and general look at the link between music and females, but this was still a nostalgic and touching read covering music from a wide spectrum of genres.

Loved it so much!
The way she describes everything so personally... It's so relatable.
Honestly recommend!

This is so much more than a book about music. Friendship, coming of age, lush prose, best book I've read this year!

Not what I expected. Really enjoyed the second half.

This is such a well-written and evocative book I'm surprised I didn't love it more. I think my issue was without any real narrative the many short chapters - each a snapshot of memoir - started to feel repetitive. But an interesting read, nonetheless.

Beautifully written chronology of Lavinia’s formative years and her relationship with music. At times, difficult to read due to a technical view, but a moving account of her growth - both emotionally and musically.

I'm finding it hard to think of anything good to say about this book . I feel like after a memoir I should feel some kind of attachment (or at least some feeling) towards the author. I feel like this book described a person and their music taste but missed out so much personality and feeling.

Lavinia Greenlaw creates lyrical connections between such disparate cultural phenomenon as the death of punk rock and the Pompidou Center ("We could see how it worked and so it stopped working" pg. 179). She gives us glimpses of her youth as if looking through a kaleidoscope, each phase of her growth into adulthood marked by genres of music. Her insights into her own self and distinct dynamics between the sexes are laid out for us like the spoken offhand comments at the end of a studio track, and we strain ever so slightly to make them out.

Here are a few of my favorite bits:
"This kind of dancing was like gambling for matchsticks rather than money." (19)

"I knew all the words to Nashville Skyline long before I knew what they meant: LAY LAY DEE LAY, LAYER PONYA BIG BRA SPED...UNTILLA BRAKE ODAYEE...LEMMY CEEYER MAIKIM SERMIYUL." (27)

"What takes three minutes to play seemed to take ten minutes to listen to. It provoked emotions and suggested circ*mstances I couldn't wait to experience--being trapped by regret or riveted by desire; trying to be offhand about passion or grown-up about loss; moving on or giving in. It was, for me, a rehearsal of feeling." (28)

"One thing I grasped from the start was the cachet of obscurity."(46)

"If I had not kissed anyone, or danced with anyone, or had a reason to cry, the music made me feel as if I had gone through all that anyway."(89)

"When punk came to town it didn't take any notice of me and I failed to go out and meet it, but if left behind a sense of disturbance that affected only certain people. It was as if it hit their natural resonant frequency and set something off, the way a car starts to shake when it reaches a particular speed."(100)

"Being a woman seemed to mean listening to the music boys liked and neither dancing nor singing along...A boy could impress a girl with his musical knowledge and taste, but it was something he was showing her, like a fleet of cars or a gun collection." (132)

This was a great recommendation from Rob Sheffield! It took a little while to get into the author's slightly disjointed timeline, but there are some real gems in this book. My favorite is the chapter Spiral Scratch, about making mix tapes."The greatest act of love was to make a tape for someone." She describes the process of selecting artwork, song order, lettering, etc as "choices as codified as a Victorian bouquet." Perfect! I know that will resonate with Lisa Strawberry.