The Pop Corporation

Trailblazing women, often undervalued and overlooked, are about to get their spotlight with a cool new compilation and an exhibition at the Tate. Called ‘Women in Revolt! Underground Rebellion in British Music 1977-1985’ will be a 14 track comp, available on vinyl and digitally of course.

This is a partner piece to the imminent exhibition at Tate Britain of the same name which will unveil on 8th November this year.

The exhibition looks at the work of over a hundred women artists who worked in Britain between the ’70s and ’90s. The album has been co-compiled by the exhibition’s creator Linsey Young (Curator of Contemporary British Art at Tate Britain) and Julie Weir (Head of Music for Nations), looking at those who worked on the fringes and in the underground.

Linsey Young says: “I think music is often a gateway drug and it absolutely was for me. I grew up in rural Scotland and accessing music as a teenager – by way of 1.5 hr bus trip to a monthly record fair in Inverness! – was one of the first ways that I started to find a like-minded community, make friends and start to explore books, films, art and left-wing politics. I was also interested in feminist thought so naturally sought out women musicians: bands like The Slits were fairly easy to find but I later worked in a record shop and studied in Glasgow where clubs like Optimo opened the doors to all sorts of experimental work by a wide range of people. The energy and vibrancy of the alternative music that inspired me will be present throughout the whole of the Women in Revolt! exhibition.”

It’s all set for radical ideas, women’s liberation, social and political change, and between the two, we’re set for an explosion of sound, painting, sculpture, film, photography, performance and more. It all sounds very, very excellent.

We’ll get pieces that processed the British Women’s Liberation movement, legal fights, independent music, originality, Greenham Common, art made by black and South Asian women, voices on AIDS crisis, Section 28, and the whole thing will shine a light on voices that have frankly been buried for too long.

On the music side of things, Cosey Fanni Tutti, The Raincoats, Poly Styrene’s X Ray Spex, The Gymslips, The Slits, Au Pairs, and loads more.

You can pre-order and pre-save the album by clicking here and for more information about the Tate Britain exhibition, click here

There’s loads of ace merch as well, such as t-shirts, totes, bundles and the artwork is killer. Make sure you click those links so you don’t miss out.

Women in Revolt! Underground Rebellion in British Music – 1977-1985 tracklist

Mo-Dettes – White Mice

The Slits – Typical Girls

Poison Girls – Ideologically Unsound

The Gymslips – Dear Marje

X-Ray Spex – Identity

Au Pairs – You

Girls at Our Best! – Warm Girls

Ludus – Sightseeing

The Raincoats – No Side to Fall In

Marine Girls – In Love

Strawberry Switchblade – Trees and Flowers

Essential Logic – Aerosol Burns

Vivenne Goldman – Launderette

Chris & Cosey – October (Love Song)