Building a Herstory Edition Part 1

Summary

Hit Parade: "Building a Herstory Edition" Part 1

Podcast: Slate’s Hit Parade | Host: Chris Molanphy | Date: August 10, 2024
Main Theme:
Exploring the rise of women in 1990s rock, pop, and alternative music, the origins and impact of Lilith Fair, and the complex trajectory of female artists on the charts.

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Episode Overview

Chris Molanphy takes listeners through a half-century of women changing popular music, with a special focus on the root causes and meteoric rise of the Lilith Fair tour in 1997. He traces the lineage of female singer-songwriters and bandleaders who paved the way, not just for commercial success but for the bold assertion of women's artistry in the face of industry skepticism and radio marginalization.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Lilith Fair: A Turning Point for Women in Rock (01:20–07:01)

• Context:
  • Lilith Fair launched in 1997 as the first major, women-only touring festival.
  • Founded by Sarah McLachlan, it was a direct counter to the music industry belief that you couldn’t put more than one or two women on the same bill.
  • Despite its blockbuster success, rock radio was ironically starting to turn away from women at the very moment women were dominating stages and charts.
• Quote:

  “Many of the biggest acts on the radio and the Billboard charts at the time were women... Even the ones who weren’t at Lilith Fair.” — Chris Molanphy (02:59)

• Insight:
  • Lilith Fair’s success culminated a decade where female artists thrived, but this peak coincided with a regression at rock radio, underlining a recurring cycle of progress and backlash.

2. Historical Precedents: Joni Mitchell and Woodstock (07:01–11:02)

• Context:
  • Joni Mitchell’s “Woodstock” became iconic—yet she wasn't allowed to play the festival.
  • Out of 32 Woodstock acts, only 5 included women.
  • Her song became a hit for Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, not for herself.
• Quote:

  “A woman who would become the voice of her generation was pressured into missing the signature live music event of her generation.” — Chris Molanphy (09:08)

• Memorable Moment:
  • “And on top of this, the song Joni Mitchell wrote about Woodstock was a hit not for her, but for a foursome of men who were never discouraged from attending…” (09:52)
• Insight:
  • Even celebrated pioneers like Mitchell faced exclusion, highlighting the persistent marginalization of women in live music and history.

3. The 1980s Neo-Folk and Female Band Leaders (11:02–21:23)

• Context:

  • After the folk and singer-songwriter wave, the mid-to-late 80s saw a new wave of female artists making inroads—Suzanne Vega, Natalie Merchant (10,000 Maniacs), Melissa Etheridge, Tracy Chapman, and others.
  • These artists blended folk, pop, and alternative influences, with notable chart and critical success often eclipsing their male counterparts.

• Timestamps/Notable Songs:

  • Suzanne Vega’s "Luka" cracks the pop Top 5 (14:09–15:12)
  • Tracy Chapman’s "Fast Car" becomes a multi-platinum breakthrough (15:22)
  • Indigo Girls, Edie Brickell, and others on the newly launched Modern Rock Tracks chart (18:59–19:54)

• Insight:

  • Billboard’s new Modern Rock chart (1988) gave unprecedented visibility to female and mixed-gender acts, reflecting—and accelerating—a more egalitarian era.

4. The Alternative & Grunge Era: New Opportunities and Setbacks (21:23–26:39)

• Context:

  • Women thrived in early 90s alternative/modern rock, scoring hits and critical acclaim (e.g. Sinead O’Connor, Concrete Blonde, The Sundays, Cranberries).
  • However, the rise of grunge brought renewed male dominance, even as women like Melissa Etheridge, Juliana Hatfield, Tanya Donnelly, Courtney Love (Hole), and Dolores O’Riordan (Cranberries) flourished.

• Quotes:

  “Even during the peak of grunge, female artists showed they could go toe to toe with the new generation of guitar rockers.” — Chris Molanphy (23:38) “The first five to ten years of alt rock’s reign were... an exceptionally egalitarian time, gender-wise.” (27:26)

• Memorable Moments:

  • PJ Harvey, Liz Phair, and Hole each win critical "Pazz and Jop" Album of the Year honors three consecutive years (1993–1995) (25:22–26:39).

5. The Quiet Ascent of Sarah McLachlan (28:11–32:44)

• Context:
  • McLachlan’s early albums charted modestly but quietly gained momentum through persistent college and alternative radio airplay.
  • Her signature sound coalesced with “Fumbling Towards Ecstasy,” and songs like “Possession” (31:44).
  • By 1996, she was a “stealth rock star,” not an obvious festival mastermind.
• Insight:
  • Lilith Fair's conception was less about a star's ego, more a result of McLachlan’s community-minded, collaborative approach during a creative lull.

6. The Alanis Effect, Changing Charts, and the Market’s Shift (32:53–37:59)

• Context:
  • The huge crossover pop/rock breakthrough of Alanis Morissette ("Jagged Little Pill") marks both the zenith and a turning point.
  • As pop radio embraced alternative women, modern rock radio started excluding them.
  • Final #1 by a solo woman on Modern Rock Tracks: Tracy Bonham’s “Mother Mother” (1996).
• Quote:

  "Mother Mother ... became the last alternative chart topper by a solo women artist. Forget this, the next 17..." — Chris Molanphy (36:42)

• Insight:
  • The marketplace shifted: success at pop radio started making alternative radio gatekeepers wary of female-driven hits, marking an end of an era.

7. From Crossover Hits to Pop Mainstays—Jewel, Cardigans, and a Shifting Landscape (38:00–41:44)

• Context:
  • Acts like Jewel and The Cardigans found sustained pop radio success but diminishing support from alternative/rock radio.
  • Albums like Jewel’s “Pieces of You” became massive sellers, but her presence on modern rock charts diminished quickly.
• Insight:
  • By 1997, the market had compartmentalized: women could dominate pop, but were increasingly marginalized at alternative formats.

8. Genesis of Lilith Fair (41:44–44:13)

• Context:

  • McLachlan, facing writer’s block, took her manager’s suggestion to do short runs with female friends (Paula Cole, Suzanne Vega, Lisa Loeb).
  • Their first multi-artist show (Clarkston, MI, June 14, 1996) sold out, followed by other successful dates.
  • The moniker "Lilith" (after the mythic first woman) was first used for a September 1996 Vancouver gig.

• Quote:

  “Lilith, named for the female figure in Jewish and Babylonian mythology who supposedly spurned Adam the first man.” — Chris Molanphy (43:23)

• Memorable Moment:

  • The organic, communal spirit and commercial success of these shows provided the proof (and brand) for the coming mega-festival.

9. Cliffhanger: The Impact and Aftermath (44:13–End)

• The episode closes with a tease that part two will follow the full-blown Lilith Fair tour and its broader repercussions, noting the poignant irony that just as women were proving commercial equals (and then some), the radio and industry began to purposely sideline them.

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Notable Quotes & Timestamps

• "At the very moment Lilith was selling out venues nationwide, Radio Rock Radio in particular, was pivoting away from women performers. It was a story as old as rock and roll itself." — Chris Molanphy (03:47)
• “A woman who would become the voice of her generation was pressured into missing the signature live music event of her generation.” — Chris Molanphy (09:08)
• "Mother Mother ... became the last alternative chart topper by a solo women artist. Forget this, the next 17..." — Chris Molanphy (36:42)
• “I was having writer’s block...I liked the idea of doing a few shows, but I didn’t want to do a whole tour. Terry [her manager] was like, why don’t you do a few shows with artists you’ve played with before?” — Sarah McLachlan quoted by Chris Molanphy (41:44)
• “This Vancouver gig was the first to bear the name Lilith.” — Chris Molanphy (43:23)

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Useful Timestamps for Important Segments

• 01:20 – Opening discussion: Lilith Fair and 1990s context
• 07:01 – Joni Mitchell, Woodstock, and women’s exclusion in rock history
• 11:02 – The 1980s: Suzanne Vega, Natalie Merchant, Tracy Chapman
• 18:59–19:54 – Modern Rock chart changes, the rise of female-led bands
• 21:23 – Early 90s alternative & grunge: opportunities and setbacks
• 28:11 – Sarah McLachlan’s early career and evolving sound
• 32:53 – Alanis Morissette, Jewel, and female crossover hits
• 36:42 – The “last” female solo #1 on Modern Rock Tracks
• 41:44 – Formation and early shows of what would become Lilith Fair
• 43:23 – Background on the Lilith name and festival branding

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Summary Takeaway

Chris Molanphy deftly maps the winding road of women in 80s/90s alternative music, setting the stage for Lilith Fair as both crowning achievement and bittersweet turning point. The episode is rich with anecdotes, critical analysis, and chart trivia, balancing stats and stories to reveal an era when women stormed the gates of "boys' club" rock, only to be boxed out just as they proved themselves indispensable. Lilith Fair was not just a celebration, but a protest—a testament to girl power fighting for the main stage.

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For Next Time / Part 2

Stay tuned for a deep dive into Lilith Fair’s national tour, reactions from the industry, and the event's long-term impact on popular music and gender representation.

Transcript

[Chris Melanfi]

You're listening ad free on Amazon Music.

[Slate Podcast Announcer]

Hey there Hit Parade listeners. This episode was originally released in June 2020 exclusively for Slate plus listeners. As of August 2024, it's now available for non subscribers. What you're about to hear is Part one of this episode. Part two will arrive in your podcast.

[Chris Melanfi]

Feed at the end of the month.

[Slate Podcast Announcer]

Would you like to hear every episode all at once? The day it Dr. Sign up for Slate Plus. It supports not only this show, but all of Slate's acclaimed journalism and podcasts. Just go to slate.com hitparadeplus you'll get to hear every Hit Parade episode in full the Day it Arrives plus Hit Parade the Bridge, our bonus episodes with guest interviews, deeper dives on our episode topics, and pop chart trivia. Once again to join, that's slate.com hitparadeplus thanks and now please enjoy part one of this hit Parade episode.

[Various Song Lyrics]

Doesn't mean much.

[Chris Melanfi]

Welcome to Hit Parade, a podcast of pop chart history from Slate Magazine about the hits from coast to coast. I'm Chris Melanfy, chart analyst, pop critic and writer of Slate's why Is this Song Number One? Series on today's show in the early summer of 1997, a team of women mounted a tour that was the first of its kind. It was a traveling festival that defied conventional wisdom, the idea that no concert tour should have more than one or two women women on the bill. This tour would be all women and woman fronted bands. They called it Lilith Fair. Founded by Canadian singer songwriter Sarah McLachlan, Lilith Fair would prove a blockbuster success, the highest grossing touring festival of the year on its very first run. And why should that have been surprising? After all, Lilith's main stage acts were all certified gold. Or platinum.

[Various Song Lyrics]

Where is my happy ending?

[Chris Melanfi]

Where are the cowboys go or multi platform?

[Various Song Lyrics]

Every day is a winding road.

[Chris Melanfi]

I.

[Various Song Lyrics]

Get a little bit closer.

[Chris Melanfi]

At the time, Lilith Faire was received as the consummation of a decade and a genre, 90s rock that had been very good to women performers. Many of the biggest acts on the radio and the Billboard charts at the time were women, even the ones who weren't at Lilith Fair. Moreover, when Lilith expanded its roster to include artists at the forefront of R and B and hip hop, those women were platinum sellers too.

[Various Song Lyrics]

I feel the wind 56789109 but the.

[Chris Melanfi]

Great and sad irony was this. At the very moment Lilith was selling out venues nationwide, Radio Rock Radio in particular, was pivoting away from women performers. It was a story as old as rock and roll itself. Even as generations of women had helped shape what rock became, inspiring countless artists in their wake, They were frequently treated as footnotes or sidebars to rock history. And even after women released some of the 1990s most acclaimed albums. And some of the decade's biggest hits, They still spent the 90s convincing radio programmers and tour promoters they could sell tickets and keep listeners from changing the station. This was the perception Sarah McLaughlin and her traveling Father Festival were aiming to correct in 1997. For a few glorious summers, these women were proved right. Today on Hit Parade, we'll consider the women rockers, rappers and iconoclasts of the 1990s before, during and after Lilith Fair. To be sure, generations of performers who happen to be female have said they are sick of women in rock being treated as a genre. And contrary to the conventional wisdom, the music of this period was far more varied than the stereotype of the soul bearing Diary lyrics singer songwriter but the women who banded together as 90s sisters in song made that stereotype moot the most undeniable way possible by topping the charts. And that's where your hit parade marches today, the week ending July 5, 1997, when Building a Mystery by Sarah McLachlan made its debut on Billboard's Modern Rock chart. The same week her Lilith Fair festival played its first show at the Gorge Amphitheater in Washington State. One month later, McLachlan would have the top single artist album in the country, while Lilith sold out venues across the nation. It was a triumph, the culmination of a decade of female success in popular music. But like many culminations, it was closer to the end of something than the beginning.

[Slate Podcast Announcer]

Stick around in our Hit Parade episode commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Woodstock Music and Arts Festival, I talked briefly about this song, which came out a few months after woodstock in early 1970 and was about the festival.

[Various Song Lyrics]

Billion Euro Carbon we are Go Woodstock.

[Chris Melanfi]

The song was first written and recorded by Canadian singer songwriter Joni Mitchell. However, Mitchell was writing about a concert she herself never attended. In a now infamous decision, she had been invited to play the festival, but didn't even go to upstate New York on the advice of her manager, David Geffen.

[Joni Mitchell]

On Sunday we were supposed to go to Woodstock. The boys were taken in and I was told I couldn't go because I had to do a television show the next day and there was a possibility we could get in, but they didn't know how that we could get out. I felt, you know, that this was an amazing thing that had occurred. And to me that was an important event. And I think I knew that that was as good as as it was going to get.

[Chris Melanfi]

The boys Mitchell mentions in this clip are members of the rock supergroup Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young. They did attend the festival, including Graham. Nash, who was dating Mitchell at the time, recounted the Aquarian experience to her and inspired her to write the song Woodstock. And it was Nash's group who who would score a hit with their cover of Joni Mitchell's composition. CSNY took Woodstock to number 11 on the Hot 100 in May 1970.

[Various Song Lyrics]

We are stuck, we are good, we are big hearted.

[Chris Melanfi]

There is a metaphor here. A woman who would become the voice of her generation was pressured into missing the signature live music event of her generation. A concert that incidentally could have used more women performers. Out of the 32 acts who played Woodstock, only five were women or even included women. Janis Joplin, Melanie, members of Sly and the Family Stone and the Jefferson Airplane, and Joan Baez.

[Various Song Lyrics]

I See My Light Come Shining.

[Chris Melanfi]

And on top of this, the song Joni Mitchell wrote about Woodstock was a hit not for her, but for a foursome of men who were never discouraged from attending the festival. Of course, Joni Mitchell turned out just fine. She spent the rest of the 70s scoring gold and platinum albums and inspiring dozens of female and male performers. Everyone from Emmylou Harris to Chrissy Hind to Prince would testify to Joni's influence in the decades to come. Though Mitchell would not ultimately play Lilith fair in the 1990s, as I will note later, she served as a kind of spiritual godmother to the festival.

[Various Song Lyrics]

You don't know what you got to do.

[Chris Melanfi]

But you didn't have to travel all the way to the 90s to observe Joni Mitchell's thumbprint on the Sound of Pop. A decade earlier on college radio and mtv, Mitchell's sound was all over.

[Various Song Lyrics]

I'm fighting things I cannot see. I think it's called my destiny.

[Chris Melanfi]

In the second half of the 1980s, more than a decade after the folk and singer songwriter movements had peaked, a new wave of folk inspired performers came to the fore. Suzanne Vega, a New York based guitarist and songwriter, made her debut in 1980, 1985 with the heartfelt, bookish, downright Joni Mitchell esque Marlena on the Wall. Vega represented the vanguard of what folk music sounded like at this moment. In pop. At root, the music was acoustic but not acidic. The songs were composed on traditional guitars, but the recordings were conversant with new wave rock and at times employed synthesizers. And while this neo folk wave had its share of male performers, from Billy Bragg and Peter Case to Fredie Johnston. The strongest voices and notably the most commercially successful ones tended to be the women. Several of these women were leaders of all male bands, giving these groups a decidedly female perspective, including Natalie Merchant, frontwoman for the Jamestown, New York band 10,000 Maniacs. Formed in the early 80s, 10,000 Maniacs had their commercial breakthrough in the late 80s in the wake of performers like Suzanne Vega. The men played jangly R.E.M. esque guitars, but it was Natalie Merchant who drove the band's style, sound and profile. The lyrics in such songs as like the Weather were folky, but the songs flirted with various strains of rock. That was also the case for the much harder rocking soloist Melissa Etheridge, whose songs won favor on the otherwise male dominated album Rock Radio format.

[Various Song Lyrics]

Does she like I do Baby tell me does she love you?

[Chris Melanfi]

Even beyond rock radio, songs by this new wave of female singer songwriters started to make a major impact on the pop charts too. In the summer of 1987, Suzanne Vega scaled the Hot 100 with Luca, a song written and sung from the point of view of an abused child, a folk esque song with a big top 40 friendly rock sound. When Luca reached the top top five in August of 1987, on its way to a number three peak, it was bumping up against hits by Madonna and George Michael. As unlikely as Vega's chart success seemed, the breakthrough one year later by another neo folkie was even more remarkable.

[Various Song Lyrics]

Maybe together we can get somewhere Any place is better Starting from zero Got nothing to lose maybe we'll make something.

[Chris Melanfi]

Tracy Chapman was perhaps the most unlikely chart topper of the late 1980s. Totally compelling and utterly out of step with the dance pop, hair metal and new jack swing then dominating the radio the Same Week in August 1988 that her mesmerizing folk single Fast Car reached its number 6 peak on the Hot 100. Sandwiched between hits by Robert Palmer and Steve Winwood, her self titled debut album Tracy Chapman topped the album chart. According to Billboard, it was the first folk album to top the chart since Peter, Paul and Mary in 1963. The Tracy Chapman LP was eventually certified Sextuple Platinum. Both Suzanne Vega and Tracy Chapman had been nurtured by the folk scene, coming up through gigs at coffee houses and receiving their earliest airplay at college radio. Through the middle of 1988, Billboard didn't have a chart to track this college rock scene, but two weeks after Tracy Chapman and Fast Car reached their respective peaks, the magazine launched a new chart to finally properly track this world of alternative music, We talked about the launch of this chart, Modern Rock Tracks in our Lost and Lonely edition of Hit Parade, our episode about the rise of British goth and post punk music. As I noted in that show, when the chart launched in September 1988, Susie and the Banshees had the first modern rock one song with Peekaboo. This in itself was remarkable. Not only a goth tinged song topping a Billboard chart, but one fronted by a woman, Susie Su. Over the prior decade, the magazine's other rock chart album, Rock Tracks, had only been topped by a small handful of women led acts from Joan Jett to Hart to the Pretenders. But Suzie sue was not an anomaly on modern rock tracks. The week the chart launched, nearly half the chart was women fronted from new Icelandic group the Sugar Cubes led by singer Bjork. To punk pokemon poet and cbgb veteran patti smith. Moreover, that first modern rock chart wasn't all post punk music. Neo folk was all over the chart, including 10,000 Maniacs, Tracy chapter. And British folk rock guitarist Joan Armitrie. One of the first acts the modern rock chart broke was the Texas folk rock band Edie Brickell and New Bohemians. Their jam band style single what I Am became a top 10 modern rock hit right after the chart launched in the fall of 88 months before it became a top 10 pop hit. By 1980. In 1989, the modern rock chart was breaking a new generation of women performers including Atlanta folk duo Amy Ray and Emily Saliers, better known as the Indigo Girls.

[Various Song Lyrics]

I'm trying to tell you something about my life.

[Chris Melanfi]

And the chart was giving a leg up to female veterans who had never charted so well in America, such as iconoclastic UK art rocker Kate Bush. Over the prior decade, Bush's singles had mostly missed the Hot 100 and the album rock chart. Her most famous hit, Running up that Hill, barely scraped the top 30. But at Modern Rock, her fall 1989 single Love and Anger was a number one hit. By the early 90s, a variety of women artists were topping the modern rock chart. On the regular 1990 alone saw number one hits by Irish firebrand Sinead O', Connor, UK band the Sundays, fronted by singer Harriet Wheeler. And California band Concrete Blonde led by Jeanette Napolitan, Joey.

[Various Song Lyrics]

Baby.

[Chris Melanfi]

The rise of alternative rock not only on college stations, but on a new breed of commercial alternative stations that were gradually taking over the radio dial gave room for women artists to experiment and stretch their wings. In 1992, Suzanne Vega scored her biggest modern rock hit with A song that turned away from folk in entirely. Her industrial rock hit Blood Makes Noise. And the Natalie Merchant fronted 10,000 Maniacs were broadening their sound, trying anthemic rock on the number one hit these Are Days and even touches of brassy R and B on the top five hit Candy Everybody Wants. Of course, by 1992 and 93, the center of alternative music was shifting away from post punk and folk rock toward the heavier sound of grunge. And even when the first wave of Seattle rockers openly espoused feminist ideals, the fact remained that these bands reasserted the primacy of male rock stars. But even during the peak of grunch, female artists showed they could go to toe to toe with the new generation of guitar rockers. Melissa Etheridge scored her biggest selling album, the Sextuple platinum Yes I Am, when she came out as a lesbian and made her music even more anthemic.

[Various Song Lyrics]

Come on inside Wait. By the light of the moon Come to my window I'll behold.

[Chris Melanfi]

Performers from a prior era of indie rock formed new bands at the peak of alternative rock and experienced the biggest successes of their careers. These included former Blake Baby's singer and guitarist Juliana Hatfield, whose trio The Juliana Hatfield 3 topped the modern rock chart in 1993 with the petulant but heartfelt My Sister, My Sister. And former throwing muses songwriter and guitarist Tanya Donnelly, whose new band Belly topped the list with the rustic Feed the Tree. Even Irish band the Cranberries, led by singer Dolores O' Rourden, turned up the guitars and scored a 1994 chart topper with their lament about IRA bombings.

[Slate Podcast Announcer]

Zombie. Again.

[Chris Melanfi]

At the height of alternative music's dominance, no one sound was guaranteed to succeed, whether it was Sheryl Crow's Los Angeles inflected slacker rock smash All I Wanna Do, a number two pop number four alternative hit, All I Wanna Do Is.

[Various Song Lyrics]

Have a Little Fun Before I Die Just An Man Next to Me out.

[Chris Melanfi]

Of Nowhere or Soul Bearing pianist and songwriter Torrey Amos, who topped the modern rock chart with the ethereal guitar heavy Golly. Women were also sweeping critics prizes at this time for three straight years. The Village Voices authoritative Paz and Jop poll of critics nationwide was led by an iconoclastic female rocker. And all three of these women's albums deconstructed and reinvented previously male dominated tropes. In 1993 the poll was topped by Liz Phair's indie rock masterpiece Exile in Guyver.

[Various Song Lyrics]

Never said nothing.

[Chris Melanfi]

In 1994, the Courtney Love fronted band Hole led Paz and Jopp with their grunge era magnum opus Live through this.

[Various Song Lyrics]

Yeah, they really want you, they really want you, they really do.

[Chris Melanfi]

And in 1995, art rocker PJ Harvey won with her blues derived brainchild to Bring youg My Love. All three of these acts also scored modern rock top 10 hits during this period. To be sure, throughout this early early to mid-90s peak of gen X, alt rock, men were still selling more albums and scoring more radio hits. While a smash album like Sheryl Crow's Tuesday Night Music Club or Melissa Etheridge's Yes I Am would sell 6 or 7 million copies, a blockbuster like Pearl Jam's 10 or Green Day's Dookie was selling 8 to 10 million copies by the mid-90s. Still, the point holds the first five to 10 years of alt rock's reign were, in retrospect, an exceptionally egalitarian time. Gender wise women were competing effectively on the radio and on the charts. It was during this period that a Canadian singer songwriter from Halifax, Nova Scotia made a quieter, less heralded debut.

[Slate Podcast Announcer]

More in a moment.

[Chris Melanfi]

Sarah McLachlan made her first appearance on an American singles chart in 1989. Only it wasn't the Hot 100 or Modern Rock Rock Tracks. It was Billboard's Club Play chart where a remix of her song steaming reached number 37. Her debut LP, Touch, released earlier that year, only got as high as number 132 on the album chart. It would eventually go gold, but not for another decade. McLachlan's first five years were a kind of beta test, a series of experiments toward finding her eventual sound. She got closer in 1992 when her sophomore album Solace blended the driving beats and folky songwriting of her debut with bass driven guitar rock. Into the Fire. Solace's lead single brought Sarah McLachlan into the modern rock top five where it peaked at number four in March of 92. In her native Canada, Solace made Sarah a star, reaching the Canadian top 20 and going double platinum. But in America, despite a sizable alt rock hit, the album charted even lower than Touch. It would take two more years and a song sleeper hit for McLachlan and her producer Pierre Marchand to find the sound that would make her a US Star. Possession was the first track and lead single from Fumbling towards Ecstasy, Sarah McLachlan's third album. The song smoldered with passionate intensity, but it was darker than the average love song. McLachlan wrote Possession around the ravings of a real life stalker who'd been sending her deranged letters what made the song compelling was not only its intense aching lyrics, but its high lonesome cavernous sound. On the modern rock chart. Possession was another number four hit in 1994, but the song had unusual staying power. Pop stations picked up on the song slowly. Some were still rotating Possession a year later in 1995, even as MacLachlan issued new singles like the mid charting modern rock hits Good Enough and Hold On.

[Various Song Lyrics]

Hold On, hold on to Yourself, Fumbling.

[Chris Melanfi]

Towards Ecstasy, just kept quietly selling. The album, which never peaked, peaked higher than number 50 on the Billboard 200, went platinum in early 1995, nearly a year after its release, and double platinum by the summer of 1996. This is the important point to keep in mind about the eventual founder of LilithFair. Sarah McLachlan was at the time no megastar. Right up until the moment she had her idea for an all female festival, she was a kind of stealth rock star. If you had been asked around 1995 or 96 to predict what woman would mount such a tour, you probably would have guessed one of several multi platinum chart dominators because by then there were some really big ones.

[Various Song Lyrics]

To remind you of the mess you left when you went away. It's not fair.

[Chris Melanfi]

Alanis Morissette's Jagged Little Pill, which we have discussed in several prior Hit Parade episodes, was not only the top selling rock album by a woman in the 90s, it is one of the decade's top sellers, period. Eventually certified a staggering 16 times platinum from the moment it was released in the summer of 1995, right through the fall of 96. Alanis Breakthrough disc spun off hit after hit at both top 40 and alternative radio on the modern rock chart. Its first three singles all hit number one, including you Oughta Know, Hand in My Pocket and of course, ironic. At the time, this success by Morissette, a former Canadian teen pop star, seemed to be the closest culmination of every alt rock woman who had come before her, from Patti Smith to Sinead o' Connor to Liz Phair. What it also affirmed was that female alt rock was now the center of pop, no longer a sideshow to the grunge and gangsta rap that had dominated the first half of the decade. The crossover hits from alternative radio to pop radio were getting bigger. From newcomers like Joan Osborne, whose musings about the nature of God, One of Us was a number seven modern rock number four pop hit in 1996. Two now veterans from the age 80s wave of folk pop, former 10,000 Maniac singer Natalie Merchant went solo in 1995 and sold better than her former band ever had. Her Tiger Lily album sold 3 million copies in its first year. It was eventually certified Queen Quintuple platinum and it spun off multiple hits like the 12 modern rock no. 10 pop hit Carnival. Even Tracy Chapman, who had not tried to match the unexpected success of her 1988 debut, came back in a big way with the pop smash Give me one reason. This simple blues based love song reached number three three in the summer of 1996, sold a million copies as a single and powered her new Beginning album to an immediate 3 million in sales. But these pop crossovers were also a harbinger of how the market was changing. Now that alt rock leaning women could score massive Hot 100 hits, alternative radio programmers no longer felt as obligated to spin them alongside the likes of Pearl Jam, Bush or the Red Hot Chili Peppers. A new generation of more bro friendly alt rock started coming down the pike, typified by Sublime's ska flavored dude rock anthem what I Got a Modern Rock no. 1 in 1996. If what I Got was emblematic of chart topping alt rock in 96, so was this hit from earlier in the year by multi instrumentalist Tracy Bonham. The rageful rocker Mother, Mother, Mother, Mother, how's the family? Mother Mother held an unusual chart distinction that only became clear years later after it spent three weeks at number one on modern rock tracks in the spring of 1996, Tracy Bonham's hit became the last alternative chart topper by a solo women artist. Forget this, the next 17 mind you, women did not become scarce at alt rock radio right away. Woman fronted groups continued to do decently over the next two years. The chart would momentarily be commanded by hits from Garbage, led by Scottish singer.

[Various Song Lyrics]

Shirley Manson, I would die for you, I would die for you, I.

[Chris Melanfi]

And by Courtney Love's band Hulk. But even these women led acts started falling off at alt rock radio before the end of the decade. By 1996 and 97, a woman led act was much likelier to break with a pop smash. For example, Swedish indie rock band the Cardigans, fronted by singer Nina Persson were on their third album when they finally had their American breakthrough with Love Fool. The song reached number nine on the modern rock chart, but on pop stations Love fool spent eight weeks as the number two most played radio song. The Cardigan's hit was on and off the modern rock chart in about four months, but it spent nearly a year on the Hot 100 airplay chart. The same went more or less for Jewel the Alaskan folk pop singer songwriter. A half decade earlier, an artist of Jewel's profile, playing an acoustic guitar and singing heartfelt self penned songs likely would have had her greatest success at the modern rock format and she was promoted there at the first who Will Save youe Soul? Jewel's breakthrough hit did respectably at alt rock stations, peaking at number 14 on the Modern Rock chart in July 1996. But the song did better and lasted far longer at pop stations, peaking just outside the top 10 on the Hot 100 and spending 30 weeks on the chart about three months longer than it had on modern rock. By the time of Jewel's second single, the romantic youc Were Meant For Me.

[Various Song Lyrics]

And I Was Meant for you, she.

[Chris Melanfi]

Was a pop megastar, reaching number two on the Hot 100 and riding the chart for more than a year. You Were Meant For Me was Jewel's last modern rock hit, peaking at number 26 in a brief roughly two month chart run. Jewel's album Pieces of youf rode the Billboard 200 for more than two years and eventually was certified for sales of 12 million copies. It was into this changing marketplace for female driven music that Sarah McLachlan had her inspiration and it was less a brainstorm than an attempt at distraction. In the middle of 1996, while MacLachlan was trying to write her follow up album to Fumbling Twice Towards Ecstasy, she later told Billboard quote, I was having writer's block. I liked the idea of doing a few shows, but I didn't want to do a whole tour. Terry was like, why don't you do a few shows with artists you've played with before? Terry was Terry McBride, CEO of McLaughlin's Canadian Label Network and also her manager. As he recalls it, it was McLachlan who challenged her manager and promoters to book all female acts to accompany this brief flurry of gigs in the summer of 96, one artist MacLachlan was already comfortable with and had played alongside was Paula Cole, a just emerging artist who had broken as a vocalist on a piece Peter Gabriel tour and had started recording on her own and she is your Holy Mary.

[Various Song Lyrics]

And you can use me.

[Chris Melanfi]

McLachlan's team paired her and Paula Cole with the now veteran Suzanne Vega, who was touring behind her own latest album.

[Various Song Lyrics]

Those men who lust for land and for riches Strange and who love those.

[Chris Melanfi]

Trinkets and Lisa Loeb, who as an unsigned artist in 1994 had scored a left field Hot 100 number one song from the Reality Bites soundtrack called Stay. I missed you'd Loeb was now herself touring as a major label artist.

[Various Song Lyrics]

So I turned the radio on I turned the radio on and this woman was singing my song Lover's in love and the others run away Lover is crying cause the other won't stay this.

[Chris Melanfi]

Four woman lineup debuted at a show in Clarkston, Michigan just outside Detroit on June 14, 1996 and they played to a packed house of more more than 10,000 fans. After that success, Team McLaughlin replicated the multi artist lineup with Cole, Vega and Loeb at shows in August at LA's Starlight bowl and the Bay Area's Greek Theater. @ a September gig in Vancouver, British Columbia, McLachlan coined a new moniker for this multi artist show, Lilith, named for for the female figure in Jewish and Babylonian mythology who supposedly spurned Adam the first man. This Vancouver gig was the first to bear the name Lilith.

[Slate Podcast Announcer]

Fair. Within a year, the Lilith name was would be applied to an even bigger multi act festival concert and it would exceed everyone's expectations, including Sarah McLachlan's. When we come back, Lilith Fair barnstorms America, defying long held beliefs in the music business about the commercial prowess of women performers. But the ladies had to assert themselves just as the charts were starting to box them out. Non Slate plus listeners will hear the rest of this this episode in two weeks. For now, I hope you've been enjoying this episode of Hit Parade. Our show was written, edited and narrated by Chris Melanfi. That's me. The producer for this show was Benjamin Frisch, with additional 2024 production from Kevin Bendis and we had help from Joel Meyer. Derek John is Executive Producer of Narrative Podcast and Alicia Montgomery is VP of Audio for Slate Podcasts. Check out their roster of [e-mail] podcasts. You can subscribe to Hit Parade wherever you get your podcasts, in addition to finding it in the Slate Culture feed. If you're subscribing on Apple Podcasts, please rate and review us while you're there. It helps other listeners find the show. Thanks for listening and I look forward to leading the Hit Parade back your way. We'll see you for part two in a couple of weeks. Until then, keep on marching on the one. I'm Chris.