Ani DiFranco

Pop stardom is not very compelling. I’m much more interested in a relationship between performer and audience that is of equals. I came up through folk music, and there’s no pomp and circumstance to the performance. There’s no, like, ‘I’ll be the rock star, you be the adulating fan.’

I see a lot of connections between folk and punk music just because they’re both subcorporate music – I mean, traditionally.

I seriously hate pop music and all things super-commercial.

I basically get stereotyped a lot in terms of being a girl and writing ‘chick’ music for teenage girls or something. I think, if anything, the press kind of, because of my gender and my age, tends to kind of relegate my work to this sort of special-interest group. It’s part of the cultural dynamic, I guess.

Men make angry music and it’s called rock-and-roll women include anger in their vocabulary and suddenly they’re angry and militant.