Thoughts on Laura Marling

I recently read an interesting article written by Helen Davies, in which she gave a detailed account of how women in the music industry are - and have been - treated by the press. The piece was titled ‘Rock n Roll is Homosocial: The representation of women in the British rock music press’. In it H. Davies touched on how female artists are – and have been - treated unfairly in mainstream pop culture and how their talents are widely discredited and overlooked in favour of their appearance, amongst other things. It is no doubt that a lot of this is true. Female performers in the music industry have been treated with a distinct lack of equality since ‘pop’ music was formed (the term invented by a male, no doubt), with men writing songs for men, and the target audience for many mainstream magazines, bands and songwriters being males aged 16 – 24.
It is with all of this in mind that I believe Laura Marling stands out. Firstly - as a blood-sucking male journalist - I intend to look at her appearance in the stereotypical way: She has short, blonde, undistinguished hair. She wears little or indeed no makeup and wears – dare I say it – rather scruffy clothes that are too big for her. Point one made. It is impossible to say Laura Marling is trying to sell records by using her looks.
This leads me nicely onto my second point; Marling’s song writing style is always very true-to-roots, giving it an illustrious air of authenticity, something which many of today’s female so-called singer-songwriters are lacking, or faking (Kate Nash, for example). Her songs have a slight hint of traditional Irish music, along with an exuberant amount of influences from 60’s English folk culture. True, she is no Bert Jansch on guitar, but she doesn’t try to be. Again, it is in this aspect that Marling stands out from the crowd; she is not trying to be anything but herself. Her songs are catchy, yet not over flamboyant. She rarely plays to huge crowds, preferring to play low-key intimate gigs. She comes across shy, and rarely looks comfortable playing her guitar. Let me tell you one thing however, she sure can play and sing those songs of hers. It is the combination of all these ingredients that makes her appealing to so many. For Marling, less is definitely more.
A recent near-miss with the Mercury prize may be a blessing in disguise for Laura. It is too hard to see her being a star on an international scale. She is not ‘mainstream’ enough, and she absolutely will not sell out on her writing style in order to sell more download units. The success of her debut album, ‘Alas I Cannot Swim’ coupled with various tour dates at major UK festivals has made 2008 a successful year for her. In a world where female artists are constantly scrutinised for seeking attention or being over-dramatic in a very illustrative sense, Laura Marling may have found just the right mix of authenticity, good songs, shyness and of course, talent. Let us not forget that Laura Marling is only nineteen years old, yet for me, she is setting the standard for all female singer songwriters out there. Ladies, follow her lead.

Ian Easton

03.10.2008.