Women, Music, Creativity: from Hildegard to Cosey Fanni Tutti

Is women's creativity different from men's? What special new contributions do women bring to music making? Over the past decades we have witnessed increasing numbers of creative women stepping onto the stage of history. As the number choices for them have been increasing, they kept pushing the borders. All the positive progress, be it in the charts, establishment of authentic collectives, in artistic freedom not only for the privileged few or the stubborn but for a wider female population is discussed. The opening essay describes Hildegard's work of the 12th century being produced by contemporary women composers. A psychoanalytical take on women and punk adds a theoretical introduction to the topic, followed by a snapshot of a Czech feminist band, Stillknox. The interviews with eleven creative women take the largest part of the collection, because their own words best illuminate the issue. This collection is intended for all those who are interested in the topic of women, creativity, and music, both general readers and the scholars and students of cultural studies, gender studies, sociology of music, and music anthropology.