The Influence of P!nk

Hi everyone! To close out Women’s History Month and our influential women musicians series (at least for now), I’m here to talk about P!nk! First I've gotta say, WOW I LOVE P!NK! I’ve been listening to her since I’ve been a small child and she has always inspired me so much. She is such a badass and thus has made me want to be a badass too.

P!nk was signed to a record label at age 16 after dropping out of school at a time when the standards for women in the pop music industry were very limiting, women were expected to look and act a very specific way which P!nk certainly didn’t. She challenged authority through her music and thus paved the way for other women to do so moving forward. Songs like “Stupid Girls” directly challenged what was expected of women at the time with lyrics like “what happened to the dreams of a girl president”. More specifically in this song she challenged standards of sexuality for women with lyrics like “maybe if I act like that, that guy will call me back. Porno Paparazzi girl, I don't wanna be a stupid girl.” These kinds of standards constantly need to be challenged given that in many instances women are still expected to sexualize themselves while at the same time maintaining an image of ‘purity’ - as though one's sexual activity should make any difference in how good of a person they are considered.

Clearly she has defied gender norms quite a bit through her music but she has also done so through her image. Being a woman with short hair and a more muscular build was a lot more controversial when P!nk started her music career, but still isn’t really the norm. Speaking of image, her music video for “Beautiful Trauma” celebrated that defiance of gender norms both for her and her co star Channing Tatum who were both in drag for the video.

The fact that P!nk has kept up such an impressive career after becoming a mom is pretty astounding too. For a long time there was the expectation that a woman’s career should end after having kids and it’s awesome that she has managed to do both so well. She has even featured her daughter in her work like the music video for “True Love” which is adorable.

I’d also like to share that I was able to attend a concert of hers a couple of years ago and WOW is she a great performer! On top of being a fantastic singer she just casually performed while flying through the air (seen in the photo below)! It’s always awesome to see someone who generates so much energy from their performance like this. Her performance was very inspiring and empowering to me much like her music is.

There are a lot of other influential and inspiring women musicians out there but P!nk is someone who has been inspiring me for most of my life which I am extremely grateful for. It’s not fun to feel like you’re supposed to act a certain way as we all know and P!nk has been one of the people who has showed me what I can be, rather than what I ‘should’ be.

Here’s a playlist of some of my favorite P!nk songs!