Björk in my ears is a multisensory experience

I was reminded today of the existence of Björk's "Debut". I use the quotes partly because it's a title, but also because it was only a title. It was Björk's first foray into solo artistry since leaving the sugarcubes, but already had the startlingly disco "Björk" in 1977 (no, really) and 1990's Gling-Gló under her belt, to say nothing of the albums she did with the Sugarcubes, and also with KUKL.

So it wasn't in the traditional sense, a debut. But as Björk drawing a line under everything that had gone on before, and declaring, albeit subtly, that this was something new. And it was. Looking back, it makes total sense, with how her career has gone since then.

If you're recommending Björk to a first-time listener, whichever of her styles you prefer, or want to impress upon the listener, it's likely to be something from after 1992. You might recommend the earlier stuff as further listening, to someone who has already delved into Björk's catalogue, or you might even recommend one of the albums on its own merit, though that's still unlikely to be in the context of "this will give you an idea what Björk is about".

I actually got into Björk because of the singles on Debut, and then, particularly Play Dead. The first single I bought was Army of Me. It was the CD single with b-sides rather than remixes. Army of Me is terrifying. It wasn't at all what I expected, and I didn't really like it. Not a great start. The b-sides were Cover Me, You've Been Flirting Again, and Sweet Intuition. They're all songs that I adore now, and have a special connection to, as this EP was where I really became a fan.

They're all quite sparse and disjointed, which is definitely part of their charm, but which at first confused me. It also intrigued me: here was someone using elements I recognised, in combinations that I didn't (like the pretty dresses and doc martens, that were soon a thing), and that forced me to re-assess what was acceptable in music.

It didn't feel like it at the time, but that last statement was pretty fucking huge. I've listened to a lot of music, and there is no shortage of artists who've influenced what I make, and how I make it. Björk though, kind of opened a door and asked "have you seen what's through here?".

So the first album I actually heard was Post. I didn't get it immediately it came out. I wasn't yet a devout fanboy. I'd dipped my toe in the water and it felt fine, but I was still getting my head round Army of Me. It took Hyperballad to get me properly on board. I loved that its name was a description rather than a name. I was/is exactly that. A ballad, with a bonkers beat over it. I was still only becoming aware of the potential of orchestral strings over an electronic beat, and Hyperballad caught me at just the right time.

I got Post in the ltd edition digipak version. Again I was confused. I already knew I loved Hyperballad, and I was growing to like Army of Me. It was also nice to hear an English version of You've been flirting again, but a lot of the rest of the album left me utterly bewildered. I resolved to come back to it and try again, and went and got distracted with George Michael and Radiohead.

Some months later, having neglected to try Post again, I was in HMV, and they had the then brand-new Homogenic, on a listening post. I popped on the impressively robust cans and dove in. By the end of the track, I had decided I was having the ltd edition digipak again. getting it home and finding that Hunter is followed immediately by Jóga, reassured me completely that my impulse buy was definitely going to have been worthwhile.

The instrumentation on Homogenic is predominantly strings over electronic beats, mostly provided by Mark Bell of LFO (who I just learned is from my home town. Yay!). It was while she was touring this album that I first got to see her live. The entire set was just Björk, Mark Bell, and the Icelandic String Octet. My mind was blown.

Ever since then, I've been pretty completist about her stuff, working back and getting the stuff that cam out before I was properly aware of her (hence finally hearing Debut after both Post and Homogenic.

I haven't really kept up with the last few albums, and I'm still not really sure what scared me off, I'll get round to it some time. But from Debut to the Live Box, I've got pretty much every b-side and remix, and I know that stuff really well because I've listened to it to death...but not for a while.

It's always a pleasure to go back revisit an artist you love, and hear them through ears that have been changed by experience, since last they were host to this album, or that EP.

So today I listened to Debut, and then Post, and now I'm on Homogenic. What struck me is that listening to each, you get a kind of mental image of the artist as a character. Like, what was she experiencing to write these songs? The first album's overall feel is summed up in the title of the album's one cover - "Like Someone in Love". The whole album is the excitement and optimism about a new love, the feeling of boundless joy, as everything feels to fall into place, and anything seems possible.

Debut closes with The Anchor Song, which is quite bittersweet in tone, and the imagery is of sinking to the dark depths and making it home. It's not dark as such, it's a contended voice that sings it, but one which is maybe a little more resigned than the boisterous, energetic voice of a few songs ago, a little more melancholy than the voice accompanying the harp on the jazz standard.

So the angry, pounding, unrelenting power of Army of Me, when played right after Debut, makes you sit up and take notice. This is no longer the happy-go-lucky protagonist of the first adventure, it's the confident, no-shit-taking superhero that is going to guide us through her bonkers breakup recovery methods. It's glorious, such a contrast to Debut. It's more mature on every level - complexity of songs, themes, lyrics, music, production. Björk was in control, and getting stronger for it.

It was that contrast that made me want to write today. I could go on, dissecting each album, listing all the amazing b-sides that are virtually unknown, but Just hearing these albums again made me want to share the story of how Björk lit a fire in me.

International Women's Day. It's not just for women

In a society that allows there to be more CEOs called John, than there are CEOs that are women; that allows there to still be a massive discrepancy between wages for men and women doing the same jobs; where "women's" magazines consistently serve to undermine and demoralise women, rather than empower them (as they purport to); where girls' toys are invariably pink, how can we begin to balance things out and move towards actual equality? 

We can do it by being examples. By being conscious of the biases which are so ingrained as to often be subconscious. By accepting and acknowledging that we have been conditioned to think in certain ways that inherently devalue women and girls. 

From an early age we are taught to accept without questioning - to accept that there are boys' pursuits and girls'. That there are acceptable career paths for men, and different ones for women. So much of the time we don't even realise it. When we reach that age where friends start producing progeny, we instinctively buy blue for boys and pink for girls. We push identities on to them based on factors that have no basis in logic, and no relevance in the society we live in. We encourage boys to be doctors and girls to be nurses, because a hundred years ago we didn't know any better. Now we do know better, but the mindset continues. 

Every one of us has women in our lives who are important to us: our mothers, daughters, sisters, wives, friends, colleagues. They all have to work much harder than their male counterparts to achieve the same recognition. 

All women face unfairness on a daily basis. They are seen as weaker than men, less able (or more suited to "traditionally female" roles), they are judged on appearance, by both men and women. We live in a society where the gender of the person carrying out a particular role is completely irrelevant, yet we are conditioned to accept these biases without a second thought. And it's bullshit. Anachronistic, irrelevant bullshit. And it's holding us back. 

If everyone could be aware of this kind of thing happening, and conscious of it, and actively try to prevent its perpetuation, if we could actually encourage equality of sex and shun the outdated myths of male superiority, rather than allowing the scales to remain weighted by tradition and paranoia and bullshit, it would make an immediate and noticeable improvement to the whole of society. 

In many roles, even when women are able to succeed in spite of the inherent culture of oppression, it's often only by trying to fit in and be "one of the boys". Equality isn't about encouraging women professionals to be more like men, it's about encouraging and supporting them to show their own talent and innovation. So many industries are built on archaic, testosterone-controlled hierarchies and infrastructure, and we tolerate it because that's how it's always been and we are often terrified of change. 

The way to evolve and thrive as a society is to allow every individual to shine and excel in their own chosen disciplines. If boys want to play with dolls and girls want to play football, encourage them. A great way to set someone on the path to failure is to try and push them into a particular direction for which they aren't suited, and in which they have no interest. This obviously applies outside the confines of gender equality, but nowhere else is it so prevalent, so ingrained in our collective consciousness. 

We need to recognise and champion the fact that empowering women empowers everyone. Encouraging girls and young women to pursue the things they're good at, rather than the roles that tradition would have us believe they're more suited to, leads to a future workforce of real balance and efficiency. It leads to a better, more caring, more productive society. How much further would we have progressed if we hadn't spent centuries telling women that they can't be scientists, or systems analysts, or authors, or doctors? How many discoveries have we missed out on because women were expected to be home-makers? 

The spread of the internet has started to give women a voice that they never had before. A forum to discuss things and share things that they could hitherto only dream of. The world now is a completely different place to the one I spent my childhood in. Anyone with an internet connection and something worth saying, can make their voice heard. We can read the opinions of real people, not just journalists. The concepts of viral media, blogging, youtube, Twitter have given us the power to tell things as we see them, and to not rely on the likes of Murdoch to effect change. But it's still not enough. Not yet. 

For so long the plight of feminists has been a battle. Women have had to fight for rights that men take for granted. And the fact that it's always been almost exclusively women fighting the battles and making the sacrifices has only served to perpetuate the status quo. Even when they realise what's going on, it's been hard for men to stand up for women's rights because of the inevitable ridicule from their male peers, propagating ingrained misogyny, often without even realising it because of the extent to which we've allowed it to continue unchecked. 

Being a real man isn't about being the alpha male. It isn't about earning the most or being able to drink the most. It isn't about belittling and undermining women. It's about taking the privilege you have always had, solely because of your gender, and using it to empower those we have for so long oppressed. It's about standing up to those friends you think will mock you for being a feminist, and pointing out how neanderthal their views are. It's about having the cojones to recognise and challenge the status quo. It's about respecting women because they *are* equal, not because you want to be seen to be doing the right thing. 

The fact that we still need an international women's day is indicative of how far we still have to go to achieve equality. But the sooner we can all have the balls to openly challenge the current inequality, the sooner we celebrate the half of the population that has had a bum deal since time immemorial, and the better off we'll all be. 

I am P4-810. I am HeForShe, and I believe in a society where we can all pursue our own dreams and goals, and where we can all benefit from the equal opportunity to pursue them.