MAKE MORE NOISE!

The title of this set—4 CDs and a book—comes from British suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst’s call to arms for women to fight for their rights: “You have to make more noise than anybody else,” said Pankhurst, who died in 1928.

- Phill Brett

Make More Noise! Women in Independent Music UK 1977–1987 Various artists. Various producers. Cherry Red Records. CRCDBOX99. 4CD set and booklet

MUSIC

SONICS

The first words you hear on Disc One of Make More Noise! are sung by Poly Styrene of X-Ray Spex, who was born almost 100 years after Parkhurst and died a decade ago, in 2011: “Some people think that little girls should be seen and not heard.” This opening lyric, from the song “Oh Bondage Up Yours!,” is followed by a raw sax solo by Styrene’s bandmate Lora Logic.

That pairing of very differently styled feminists from across centuries is unlikely in some ways, but it defines this collection, which showcases women musicians from a pivotal decade of music. Eighty-nine tracks, from the years 1977–1987, follow “Oh Bondage Up Yours!.”

Punk had kicked open the door with a Dr. Martens boot, opening up a space where music could be made by people not confined by the stereotypes of what a musician should be, how they should look and how they should sound. It was a time when women were picking up musical instruments in increasing numbers, to make noise and be heard.