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Why Sinéad O'Connor matters / Allyson McCabe.

by McCabe, Allyson.

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University of Texas Press, 2023.

O'Connor, Sinéad.

O'Connor, Sinéad -- Influence.

Singers -- Ireland -- Biography.

Women singers -- Biography.

Women rock musicians -- Biography.

9781477325704 (hc.)

Alternate title:

Sinéad O'Connor

209 p. ; 22 cm.

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.

Includes bibliographical references.

"Irish singer-songwriter Sinéad O'Connor burst onto the pop scene in 1987 with her album The Lion and the Cobra, and followed it with the Grammy-winning I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got (1990), which featured a cover of Prince's song "Nothing Compares 2 U." In 1992, she infamously tore a picture of Pope John Paul II on Saturday Night Live to protest the sexual abuse committed by priests and covered up by church authorities. O'Connor was immediately castigated for her politics, which were already radical, and her career has suffered ever since. For many people-including, for many years, the author-what they know of O'Connor stops there. Allyson McCabe argues that both that moment and O'Connor's long career deserve re-examination. For McCabe, hindsight suggests that O'Connor "was right." Right about the church, right about how the music industry uses women, and "most of all, she was right to seek and speak her own truth" no matter the price she's paid for it. O'Connor continues to be controversial, with public breakdowns and problematic statements (to say nothing of changing her name twice). She also has released 10 albums in addition to one-off collaborations and singles. She is a hero (as this book makes clear) to Fiona Apple and other influential women in music. McCabe plans to address both triumphs and struggles, to offer "a fresh look at Sinéad O'Connor's life through the lenses of music criticism, cultural analysis, and personal reflection." The book works through O'Connor's life and career in chronological order, from her abused childhood to initial success, stardom, and the ensuing fallout. McCabe compares O'Connor with Madonna, digs into how she aspires to be a protest singer rather than a pop star, and McCabe explores O'Connor's attempts to de-stigmatize mental illness."--From publisher.

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