Big Feelings
Queer and Feminist Indie Rock After Riot Grrrl
Listening to music that gives listeners a shared sense of what feels—and is—urgent
Description
In the past decade, a distinctive resurgence of indie music has seen young, queer, and feminist artists reformulating the genre with strategic reappropriations of ’90s grunge and 2000s-era pop. Big Feelings offers a nuanced analysis of these musicians and the socio-political crises informing their sounds. Dan DiPiero situates this new wave of indie music within the context of the emotional sensibilities and social orientations of a young generation flattened by an endless stream of everyday traumas. Listening closely to Soccer Mommy, Indigo De Souza, Jay Som, SASAMI, The Ophelias, Vagabon, boygenius, and more, Big Feelings traces points of resonance and connection that help fans perceive politics where it might first appear absent.
By bringing listeners’ experiences into the analysis, DiPiero shows how indie rock feminisms have shifted since the 1990s, rejecting overt political messages in favor of sonic catharsis, and reflecting the complex, ambivalent feeling of being young while the world burns. In reprising the sounds of an alt-rock associated in public consciousness with white male pain, Big Feelings music doubles down on the stereotypical association between femininity and emotionality to perform whole spectrums of feeling in varied states of overwhelm. In doing so, these artists draw attention to overlooked histories of women and queer musicians who have been forging indie rock all along, while also remaking how the music matters in the present.
Dan DiPiero is Assistant Professor of Music at Boston University. He is also the author of Contingent Encounters: Improvisation in Music and Everyday Life (2022).
Reviews
“Big Feelings is a gorgeously written, fiercely intelligent exploration of the emotional landscapes salient in a beloved niche of contemporary indie music. Blending music theory, cultural studies, and personal narrative, DiPiero rigorously considers the intersections of sound, selfhood, and queer/feminist (be)longing. From lo-fi bedroom ballads to riotous distortion, DiPiero theorizes a distinct affective tenor that sets apart the millennial and Gen Z music so many of us passionately obsess over. This book is all at once an indispensable subculture history, a necessary intersectional lens on a traditionally white genre, and a love letter to the kind of music that hits in our bones. A must-read for anyone who takes seriously femme feelings and the possibilities of the melodic noise that carries them.”
- Raechel Anne Jolie, Author of Rust Belt Femme
“DiPiero is making a huge contribution to indie music and queer feminist studies by treading new waters with his latest book. Big Feelings analyzes the transformation of modern indie music with a passion and enthusiasm that only someone immersed in this subject can possess.”
- Theo Cateforis, Author of Are We Not New Wave? Modern Pop at the Turn of the 1980s
“Big Feelings is a multigenerational exchange between contemporary feminist songwriters and the artists they grew up absorbing. This book shines in its ability to highlight underrepresented identities and thus provides a vital intervention in contemporary analysis of pop music.”
- Alyxandra Vesey, Author of Extending Play: The Feminization of Collaborative Music Merchandise in the Early Twenty-First Century
"Finding this affect in the music of Soccer Mommy, Indigo De Souza, the Ophelias, and boygenius, among others, DiPiero provides a close analysis of their lyrics, melodies, harmonies, and presentation. He lays out how big feelings artists draw on elements of their predecessors while creating a unique sonic experience for the current generations."
- Kathleen McCallister, Library Journal
“To flesh out his arguments, DiPiero focuses on specific artists and their work—Soccer Mommy and boygenius among them—but his analyses will enrich readers' appreciation of many bands, such as Screaming Females, Girl Tones, and Wet Leg. . . . Recommended.”
- J. G. Matthews, Choice
“Big Feelings: Queer and Feminist Indie Rock After Riot Grrrl is a significant contribution to popular music scholarship. By centering emotional excess, ambivalence, and care—while refusing both didactic politics and neoliberal narratives of resilience—Dan DiPiero provides scholars with a nuanced framework for understanding how feeling operates as an aesthetic, social, and political force in contemporary indie rock. The book offers a compelling model of how close listening, cultural history, affect theory, and reflexive scholarship can be productively integrated to rethink genre, community, and the politics of emotion in popular music.”
- Shayna Maskell, Popular Music History