Vocal Break

<p><b>A dazzlingly original reassessment of the power and plurality of women's singing voices by the critically acclaimed author of <i>Art Monsters </i>and<i> Scaffolding</i></b></p><p><b>'It took me ten years to go from shy young girl to punk rocker, if I'd had this book I'd have got there much quicker’ Viv Albertine</b></p><p>For millennia, women’s raised voices have been heard as unruly, uncivilized, dangerous. Women singing were cast as sirens: mythical creatures who lured sailors to their death.</p><p>In <i>Vocal Break, </i>Lauren Elkin seamlessly blends memoir, feminist manifesto and cultural history to explore a plurality of female singing voices – and how women have used them to defy convention, genre, capitalism, racism and sexism. Drawing on her own experiences training as a young soprano in the 1990s, Elkin reflects on the way power and identity shape our voices, focusing on the women who most excited her when she was learning to sing.</p><p>A vocal break refers to the place where the voice shifts from lower to higher registers and this is a book about what kind of meanings, and sounds, can be made there. Immersing readers in an eclectic soundscape, from musicals and pop music to art punk, what follows is a full-throated tour of women’s voices, including<b> Édith Piaf, Maria Callas, Cyndi Lauper, Kathleen Hanna, Tori Amos, PJ Harvey, Beyoncé, FKA Twigs and Billie Eilish.</b></p><p>Reflecting on what makes women’s singing so powerful – to the point where others feel the need to control or manipulate it – <i>Vocal Break </i>is a joyous call to arms, a siren call:</p><p><b>Girls to the front: NOW.</b></p>