I’ve been wondering this for a while. Here in Europe, Ani Difranco’s not very well known (I know maybe six or so people who know her), but her albums are available at most record stores and I’ve seen her live here, so it’s not like she’s completely unknown.
My question is: how ‘big’ is she in the States, compared to other singers like, say, Tori Amos or (shudder) Sheryl Crow?
Who?
This is the first time I’ve heard of her.
Hm. Interesting. Well, there have been some threads about her in the previous months, so I’m guessing some people here have heard about her. And people have assured me that she’s a lot better known in America than in Europe. :s
I’ve heard of her, she seems to be popular among those who like “alternagirl”-kinda singers in the Tori Amos vein, at least among the people I know.
Being a Minnesota native, she has some name recognition with me. However, once you get outside the immediate circle of fans she’s not as big as Tori Amos or Sheryl Crow.
She is not even in the same ballpark as Tori or Sheryl as far as popularity goes, but I think she used to be pretty hot. Haven’t seen her in a while so can’t really say now.
Yeah, not at all. She seems to inhabit the alt-girl somewhat political feminist niche. And it’s not a widely popular one.
Sort of a female Billy Bragg.
Ani Difranco is a bit more popular here in Aus, judging by your responses. She certainly gets fairly regular airtime on at leas one major radio station (Triple J).
She’s kind of a fringe figure. She handles her own production and distribution, and is the very model for how a musician can do this and make a decent living without label representation or significant chart action. She’s not in Sheryl Crow’s ballpark, but she is in John Prine’s, Sleater-Kinney’s and Christine Lavin’s. Compare her career to, say, any former Spice Girl’s and then tell me you can dismiss her career path. (Not that anyone actually said that…)
She gets little or no mainstream airplay in Philadelphia. She is lionized on on the University of Pennsylvania radio station, WXPN.
She looks bigger on stage on in her platform heels or big shoes, but she’s actually pretty tiny 5’1"- or 5’2" in socks.
I’ve met her. She’s about shoulder height.
Did she do the ‘I Kissed a Girl’ song that got some radio play a few years back? If not, I never heard of her until I met my ex-wife, who was a big fan of hers. I guess that should have been some kind of warning sign.
No, that was Jill Sobule.
I would place them, in order of “name recognition,” as
Sheryl Crow
Tori Amos
Ani Difranco
I’m familiar with Ani (own some albums, seen her live, etc) and expect that people who listen to college radio stations are also familiar with her. She does not receive airplay on mainstream radio stations or even conventional alternative commercial stations.
I expect, from personal experience, that she is, however “bigger” in the states than in Europe. I saw her play in London and most of the people around me were American college students abroad, rather than Brits.
snip
That’s putting it mildly…
She’s pretty big if your into folky altenative music, but she doesn’t get any commercial airplay. She recently toured whith my favorite artist, the even more obscure Hamell on Trial . She’s pretty cool if you like the femist rocker type. (And I do.)
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I am familiar with Ani DiFranco, own several of her albums, and have seen her in concert (fantastic show!)
I agree that she is not “popular”, but that in no way means she is not talented or unheard of. Her songs are very well written, she is musically sound, and she has grown considerably in the production aspect over the years.
I was one of the few men at her show at the U of Delaware a few years ago, as she tends to draw the ladies at a ratio of, I’d guess, 80/20. My wife (girlfriend at the time) got me tickets to the show, she had never heard of her, and we made a long weekend out of it. After the show, I wanted a poster, and she volunteered to stand in line for me. As she was getting the poster, a crowd had grown behind her, and she had a hard time working back through the crowd. She started saying “Excuse me…excuse me…coming out…coming out…” when a girl (17, 18 maybe) tapped her on the shoulder and said “I’d say something else to this crowd, if I were you, unless you really mean it.”