Quote:
Originally Posted by dissention
Well, it didn't so much deal with her being a sex symbol as much as it had to do with how her image changed. It talked about how she was a tough but sensitive rocker chick when she hit it big with Bella Donna, but by the time TOSOTM and Street Angel rolled around, she was the epitome of a child-like woman; she had turned into an ultra-feminine fairy princess. I didn't necessarily agree with everything it said, but it was pretty well thought-out and interesting.
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It was an interesting essay, although I didn't agree with all of the arguing points either.
She was always a "child-like woman" and "ultra-feminine"... all the way back to "Crying In The Night," "Rhiannon," "Silver Springs," "Storms," etc.
And she was still "tough but sensitive" on the later albums.
The biggest difference between 1979 and 1989 is that she went from a
young singer with a
young audience, to an older singer with an older audience.
When people discuss Stevie's career, and her dip in popularity, they usually take a pretty insular view, focusing on Stevie herself and none of the external forces that affect a celebrity's popularity.
If one looks back to the years in which Stevie's popularity began to wane, they'll see that Stevie was not the only female pop/rock artist to "lose favor" with their previously large audience.
Stevie, Pat Benatar, Heart, Chrissie Hynde, Tina Turner, Debbie Harry, Cyndi Lauper, Joan Jett... they all saw a decrease in album sales and ticket sales (well, except Tina, whose concert sales have, since her comeback, consistently exceeded her album sales).
Even many of the male pop/rock artists who had been popular around the same time as the aforementioned ladies, suffered dips in their sales.
Stevie's image by 1989/90 was definitely "fuddy-duddy" in the eyes of the 14-17 year olds whose tastes tend to have the largest influence on dictating what's hip and what isn't.
But even if she hadn't been the 40-something, big hair having, big shoulderpad wearing, Mae West meets Kewpie Doll Stevie Nicks... if she had just come on the scene as the 20-something, dripping chiffon wearing, tambourine-bashing, rock 'n rolling Stevie Nicks that everyone in the 70s and early 80s loved, she still wouldn't have been that popular.
After Stevie and her peers fell from favor in the late 80s, up until Alanis, Liz Phair and the rrriot grrls came along, about the only niche in music that women had any success in, was dance or R&B.
But that's "all in the past now," and I think Stevie has proven her worthiness time and time again.
Her career had its heights, it had its depths, and she has endured to become one of the most respected, most revered, and most recognizable female rock stars of her time. :)
