In June, NPR released a list of the 150 best albums created by women. The list was compiled by around 50 women who either work for NPR or are otherwise involved in public radio. Just scrolling through the list it is easy to tell that there are albums from women of many different backgrounds, ethnicities, races and sexualities. Nearly every genre of music is represented as well. There is such a wide expanse of important music made by women that people have not heard of, that I have not heard of, that have had huge impacts on women’s rights. Even in little ways.

I will be picking one of these albums to review every other week. I don’t necessarily care what the ranking of each album is in terms of what is “better” or “worse” since it is so subjective. What matters more is that the album or artist was influential, that it empowered a woman enough that they decided it belonged on a list like this one. As long as the music is powerful to me or somebody else, I want to be writing about it.

The goal is to delve into each album and artist and answer several questions. Why is this album/artist important, historically or otherwise? What about this album/artist is important? Is the album/artist empowering? And lastly, how did this album make it on a list of the greatest 150 albums made my women?

I’ll be starting off with an artist that has changed a mass of Latinx people both in Latin America and in the United States. Selena’s album Amor Prohibido is placed at number 19 on NPR’s list.

She has been marked as the Queen of Tejano music or “Tejano Madonna” due to her overwhelming musical presence and fashion sense. Tejano music is defined as a style of folk or popular music with elements from Mexican-Spanish vocal traditions and Czech and German dance tunes and rhythms, while the term Tejano itself refers to a Mexican-American person residing in Southern Texas.

Selena released five albums in her lifetime, which ended tragically in 1995 when her agent fatally shot her. Her death shook the world and has been commonly compared to the deaths of John Lennon or Elvis Presley.

Over six hundred people attended her funeral while tens of thousands of people flocked to numerous vigils around the United States. She was only 23 years old when she was murdered.

Amor Prohibido is the second to last of her five completed albums and was released in 1994.

There are so many musical female icons that have taken a spotlight that Selena hasn’t been included in despite her tremendous influence such as Missy Elliott, Amy Winehouse, Madonna, Joni Mitchell, Billie Holliday.

When I quickly Google searched for the most influential female musicians of all time, Selena didn’t show up in any articles on the first page of search results. How is this possible when her confidence, vivaciousness, and spiritedness permeated an entire generation of Latinx people just like all of these other women have?

In fact, all Latinx women were generally absent from these lists, which is a primary example as to why the world needed Selena. (I mean, seriously Rolling Stone? Shakira? Jennifer Lopez? Celia Cruz? Gloria Estefan? None of those pioneers came to mind?)

Before moving forward, a disclaimer: I haven’t taken Spanish since my AP Spanish class three years ago. Since I was better at comprehending the language than speaking it, I expect to understand most of it, but definitely not every single word of it.

As I listen to the album, the first word that comes to mind is happy. The music is joyful, and the brass is a perfect accompaniment. It’s dancing music, it’s living music.

While some of the lyrics are full of longing or feel somber, the music doesn’t always reflect this. I interpret this as an optimism that isn’t always found in sad music. Even though she is feeling less than enthusiastic in what she sings, the music allows for hope.

I haven’t looked up Selena’s lyrics or their English translations before I’ve decided that I would listen to this again one million times. I could get ready to this music on the laziest of days, and by the end of one song I would feel ready to take on the world.

Selena’s voice is not what I would have expected. Her lyrics are deep already, but are made more so by her voice. She feels when she sings, she forces the listener to understand what she’s saying with their emotion. It’s a catalyst to the purest of responses.

Songs that stand out to me from my first listen through the album are “Amor Prohibido”, “No Me Queda Más”, “Fotos Y Recuerdos”, “El Chico Del Apartamento 512”, and “Bidi Bidi Bom Bom”. So basically, I love all of them. Her band and lyrics put together are so rhythmically spot on that it’s so easy to move to.

She sings in the way an artist asks you to stand up and dance at their concert. This is sappy, but it’s like she truly cares about the happiness of the person that’s listening.

“Techno Cumbia” also really sticks in my mind because it’s so different from the rest of her songs on this album. It’s incredibly catchy so I can’t stop listening to it, but it isn’t as much of a favorite as the others I’ve listed.

“Ya No” is also very different, because Selena isn’t singing to a Tejano band. I would expect to hear this kind of accompaniment in a Shania Twain song, so it was very unexpected to hear similar music here.

I can’t sit here and say a negative thing about any of Selena’s music on “Amor Prohibido”. It’s seriously all amazing. I can normally muster some kind of criticism, but I am at a loss.  I’ve never listened to Tejano music before, much less sat down and wrote an article analyzing it, but it’s something I should really invest more time into listening to in the future. I haven’t felt this way about finding new music in a very long time, and I wholeheartedly agree with her placement on NPR’s list.

Listen to “Amor Prohibido” on Spotify below or on YouTube here.

Stella is a column surrounding analysis and appreciation of the 150 albums chosen by NPR as the best created by women thus far. Each week I choose an album from this list I’ve been wanting to listen to, that peaks my interest, or that seems like essential listening to write about. The column’s goal is to provide female identifying readers with the empowerment that can only be obtained through a badass woman and her amazing music.

The post Stella: “Amor Prohibido” by Selena appeared first on KRUI Radio.

That question was a constant throughout the conversation that took place between an audience, Leslie Nolte, Nate Kaeding and Shumpei Yamaki. Nolte used to be a dancer, Kaeding used to be a pro football player, and Yamaki used to also be a dancer. The hour long discussion was about the 1st and 2nd act of the lives of dancers and athletes.

The 1st act is the actual career that a dancer and athlete has. The 2nd act is after. After the injuries that no longer allow that dancer or that athlete to continue the dream that they always had in their minds.

The conversation started off with the MC of the night saying that for dancers, they know that their career is going to end. It’s simply a matter of when. When this happens, when the dancer or athlete makes the decision to end their professional career, that is their first death.

Shumpei Yamaki began his introduction by saying that he came from Japan at the age of 21 and wanted to breakdance and be a student. He was going college in Philadelphia while at the same time being a part of a hip hop dance group. He couldn’t manage being a part of the group and maintain good grades in college and so he moved to the University of Wisconsin. His senior year of college he was hit by a drunk driver. The accident caused him to severely damage his left knee and his right arm. The accident resulted in his mom telling him to take an art/ceramics class which would work as a way for him to rehabilitate his arm. He then went to grad school at the University of Iowa for Art/Ceramics. (Hire a qualified Lansing auto accident attorney to represent your case in getting a full claim for any damages suffered in road accidents).

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Leslie Nolte began her introduction as if it was her 20 year old self up on the

stage of The Mill. She believed that no doubt she thought her career would never end. But then the surgeries happened. She tore her ACL and her MCL in one leg and then tore the ACL and MCL in her other leg. Even with everything that the “universe sent my way to say maybe this isn’t your path” she was still getting job offers and contracts at the age of 21. Her husband and her were living in Chicago because thats where the companies that wanted to work with her were. Her husband, Mark, then moved to Iowa City and didn’t expect Nolte to follow him. However, weeks later, Nolte discovered she was pregnant. For her, this was the moment of truth for her dancing career.

Nate Kaeding began his introduction by saying that as a young athlete, he never thought “What’s next?” For him, it was always, “How can I get better?” Kaeding was a star athlete in college and he had, what he called, “tunnel vision.” The only thing that mattered to him was making it to the pros. Through constant training, he was able to do just that. In the first play of his career, he tore his ACL. He continued to play pro football picking up multiple injuries but his body was “never quite the same.” Kaeding said that his torn ACL was the “beginning of the end for me.”

Nolte discussed what she called the transition period between Act 1 and Act 2. As a female, she was forced to choose between family and career. Could her family withstand her career and could her career withstand her family? The answer for Nolte was no.

Nolte admitted to being pissed for 10 years after she left Chicago to start her family. She stated that the reason she was pissed was because she never really got to see what her reality could have been. Instead, she was left with the wonder. The “what if?” She doesn’t know what she could have been and it has left her with the question, “Is it better to succeed and then fail or to never have succeeded at all?” She always thought that the path she ended up taking “was forced upon me.”

Kaeding discussed that when when the profession one has dies then it’s time to change your mentality. You have to begin the process of writing the next chapter in your life. Kaeding admitted to being a “one trick pony.” Due to the fact that his ability to score field goals wasn’t a skill set that you could apply to other careers. He stated that for years people tell you to “follow your passion.” But when your left with a blank state later in life you have to build a new skill set and one way to do that is by “thanking the past for leading you.”

After Nolte, Kaeding, and Yamaki finished telling their stories, the MC asked the crowd to come up with questions. The first question was what advice would the 20 year old versions of Nolte, Kaeding, and Yamaki give themselves to prepare for their 2nd act.

Yamaki stated that he had never really stopped dancing and loved his passion for ceramics. Nolte said that she would tell herself, “Don’t be angry. Leslie, move on.” Kaeding’s advice for himself would have been to prepare himself by focusing on other things.

All three are parents so the question was “What role did being a parent have in their transition of their 2nd act?”

Kaeding replied that it showed him, especially after his career ended, that he couldn’t be selfish. Being a father allowed him to be more well rounded and have a less singular focus.

Nolte stated that she wouldn’t have been able to do what she had planned to do when she was younger and have 5 children. She asked herself if she would trade her 2nd act with her 1st. Her answer was no. Her children mean everything to her. She stated that the fight of being a good mom and being a successful company director is hard.

Yamaki responded by saying that his daughter was the reason he had so much passion into pottery. His daughter was his core and motivation for having passion for what he does. He stated that he wanted his daughter to respect him and to believe in him.

The last question asked was “After moving into your 2nd act and seeing others start their 1st act, how do you feel?”

Nolte responded that at the beginning of their transition period she did feel jealousy and anger at seeing others accomplish their dream. She stopped having these feelings when somebody thanked her for helping their dreams come true. Her jealousy and anger turned to happiness.

Kaeding replied that he feels more pain for the guy that misses the game winning kick as opposed to feeling happiness for the guy who scored the game winning kick. He feels nostalgic whenever he goes to football games at Kinnick because he knows that he can never replicate those feelings. The feeling of running through the tunnel, the feeling of playing.

Yamaki responded that he felt great because “I’m full of myself and I don’t really see any better dancers than me.”

Listening to Nolte, Kaeding, and Yamaki really gave me something to think about. Dancers and athletes know that their body is going to break and they know that their career is going to end either right away or years later. Yet, they still push through it, they still strive to accomplish their goal. Tonight gave me a newfound respect for dancers and athletes.

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