Why Sinéad O’Connor Matters
$24.95
Title | Range | Discount |
---|---|---|
Trade Discount | 5 + | 25% |
- Description
- Additional information
Description
In 1990, Sinéad O’Connor’s video for “Nothing Compares 2 U” turned her into a superstar. Two years later, an appearance on Saturday Night Live turned her into a scandal. For many people—including, for years, the author—what they knew of O’Connor stopped there. Allyson McCabe believes it’s time to reassess our old judgments about Sinéad O’Connor and to expose the machinery that built her up and knocked her down.
Addressing triumph and struggle, sound and story, Why Sinéad O’Connor Matters argues that its subject has been repeatedly manipulated and misunderstood by a culture that is often hostile to women who speak their minds (in O’Connor’s case, by shaving her head, championing rappers, and tearing up a picture of the pope on live television). McCabe details O’Connor’s childhood abuse, her initial success, and the backlash against her radical politics without shying away from the difficult issues her career raises. She compares O’Connor to Madonna, another superstar who challenged the Catholic Church, and Prince, who wrote her biggest hit and allegedly assaulted her. A journalist herself, McCabe exposes how the media distorts not only how we see O’Connor but how we see ourselves, and she weighs the risks of telling a story that hits close to home. In an era when popular understanding of mental health has improved and the public eagerly celebrates feminist struggles of the past, it can be easy to forget how O’Connor suffered for being herself. This is the book her admirers and defenders have been waiting for. A stirring defense of Sinéad O’Connor’s music and activism, and an indictment of the culture that cancelled her.Allyson McCabe is a writer, reporter, and producer whose work is often broadcast on NPR, and her byline appears in the New York Times, BBC Culture, Wired, and other publications.
- Prologue
Framing
Take 1
The Lion and the Cobra
As Seen on MTV
Rock-’n’-Roll Cassandra
SPINning Sinéad
She’ll Talk but You Won’t Listen
The Takedown
Is She Not Your Girl?
This Means War
We Do Not Want What She Has Got
Wrecking Ball
Things Need to Change
We Need to Talk about Prince
Hurt People Hurt
Truthful Witness
Acknowledgments
Notes
Additional information
Dimensions | 1 × 5 × 8 in |
---|