Big Feelings: Queer and Feminist Indie Rock After Riot Grrrl

In the past decade, a distinctive resurgence of indie music has seen young, queer, and feminist artists reformulating the genre with strategic reappropriations of ’90s grunge and 2000s-era pop. Big Feelings offers a nuanced analysis of these musicians and the socio-political crises informing their sounds. Dan DiPiero situates this new wave of indie music within the context of the emotional sensibilities and social orientations of a young generation flattened by an endless stream of everyday traumas. Listening closely to Soccer Mommy, Indigo De Souza, Jay Som, SASAMI, The Ophelias, Vagabon, boygenius, and more, Big Feelings traces points of resonance and connection that help fans perceive politics where it might first appear absent.

By bringing listeners’ experiences into the analysis, DiPiero shows how indie rock feminisms have shifted since the 1990s, rejecting overt political messages in favor of sonic catharsis, and reflecting the complex, ambivalent feeling of being young while the world burns. In reprising the sounds of an alt-rock associated in public consciousness with white male pain, Big Feelings music doubles down on the stereotypical association between femininity and emotionality to perform whole spectrums of feeling in varied states of overwhelm. In doing so, these artists draw attention to overlooked histories of women and queer musicians who have been forging indie rock all along, while also remaking how the music matters in the present.

Dan DiPiero is Assistant Professor of Music Studies at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. He is also the author of Contingent Encounters: Improvisation in Music and Everyday Life (2022).