History Music / LizPhair

* SelfTitledAlbum - It reflected her controversial move towards pop-rock music.

* [[AnswerSong Answer Album]] + PerspectiveFlip - A rare non-narrative example: ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exile_in_Guyville Exile in Guyville]]'' was intended as a song-by-song reply to Music/TheRollingStones' ''Music/ExileOnMainSt.''. Try not to think about it too hard, since some of the song counterparts don't make sense. She did give an interview to ''Rolling Stone'' where [[http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/14639/89656 she elaborated on the parallels]].
* BreakupSong - "Divorce Song"
* CensoredTitle - "H.W.C." (abbreviation for "hot white cum", the phrase used in the song).
* ConceptAlbum – ''Funstyle'', according to Liz. The thread that is sewn in all 11 songs is the power of collaboration and doing music for fun.

* CoverVersion – ''Juvenilia'' has a cover of "Turning Japanese", originally by The Vapors, and one of the bonus tracks on the 2008 reissue of ''Exile in Guyville'' is a cover of "Say You" by Lynn Tait and the Jets.

* DeadpanSnarker – Liz is not a snarker, but she can sound like one when she sings. See "Chopsticks", for example.

* GenreRoulette - ''Funstyle'' is her most diverse album. It contains Indian-styled hip-hop ("Bollywood"), soulful chanting set to what sounds like the outside of a party ("Smoke"), {{funk}}-rock ("My My"), adult contemporary a-la ''Somebody's Miracle'' ("Miss September", "Oh, Bangladesh", "Satisfied"), indie rock ("You Should Know Me", "And He Slayed Her"), space-y rock ("Bang! Bang!") & ethnic dance music played over a Chicago housewife talking crap & some guru ("Beat Is Up").
* HappilyAdopted - At birth. She has notably never sought out her birth parents for any kind of confrontation or reconciliation, and considers her adoptive parents to be her real family.
* IntentionallyAwkwardTitle - "Hot White Cum" (although it's officially titled "H.W.C."), "Fuck and Run", "Shitloads of Money", "Six Dick Pimp", "Fuck or Die"
* IntercourseWithYou - Almost anything by her fits this trope quite nicely, except for ''Somebody's Miracle'', which, actually, didn't have a single explicit song on it.
* LiteraryAllusionTitle - The title of "Dance of the Seven Veils" is taken from Creator/OscarWilde's play ''Theatre/{{Salome}}'' and the song is sung from the perspective of the play's eponymous character (who was originally from Literature/TheBible, which doesn't actually specify what kind of dance she performed).
* LyricalDissonance - "Divorce Song" is sadder than it sounds.
* MoneySong - In "Shitloads of Money," Liz foreshadowed her shift from indie darling to mainstream wannabe by declaring, "It's nice to be liked/But it's better by far to get paid."
* NonAppearingTitle - She has a couple, including "Chopsticks", "Strange Loop", and "Table For One".
* NonIndicativeName - "Flower" is probably the most vulgar song named after a plant ever.
* PissTakeRap - Liz actually raps in "Bollywood". Of course, like the PainfulRhyme example above, it's all in good fun and not meant to be taken seriously.
* PowerPop - A lot of her full-band material fits in the category quite easily.
* PrecisionFStrike - In "Smoke":
-->Bouncer: "You're NOT getting in."
-->Liz: "Fine - fuck you!"
* RecordProducer - Both the generally liked (Brad Wood) and the less so (The Matrix).
* RefrainFromAssuming - [=P2P=] networks sometimes title her songs wrong. Most commonly:

--> ''You walk in clouds of glitter and the sun reflects your eyes''\\
''And every time the wind blows, I can smell you in the sky''\\
''Your kisses are as wicked as an F-16''\\
''And you fuck like a volcano, and you're everything to me''
* SpokenWordInMusic - There's a lot of this in ''Funstyle''.
* TakeThat - "And He Slayed Her" and "Satisfied" are {{Take That}}s at former Capitol Records boss Andy Slater.

* TheSomethingSong - "Divorce Song", "Elvis Song"
* ThreeChordsAndTheTruth - ''Girlysound'' is all this. ''Exile in Guyville'' had some guitar-only songs, like "Glory", "Dance of the Seven Veils", and "Gunshy".
* WeWillUseWikiWordsInTheFuture – ''whitechocolatespaceegg'' and ''Comeandgetit''.
* YouKeepUsingThatWord - Liz is called a lo-fi artist, yet her main indie albums (read: not the ''Girlysound'' tapes) were recorded on decent equipment (a more appropriate word would be "minimalist", but that would only apply to certain songs on ''Exile'' - a lot of the album is made of full-band {{Power Pop}}py indie rock).

In the 2000s, her music shifted to pop rock, which [[TheyChangedItNowItSucks wasn't well-received by many]]. Some critics, while reviewing ''Somebody's Miracle'', admitted that her self-titled album didn't deserve the backlash it got. Currently, she is composing music for television dramas, working on shows like ''Swingtown'' and ''In Plain Sight''. She is also on tour to support ''Funstyle''.

** Also contributed a cover of "The Tra La La Song (One Banana, Two Banana)" to the compilation tribute album, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-JvB5AL59fM Saturday Morning Cartoons' Greatest Hits]].

* DreamTeam – Liz Phair + Dave Matthews, who played guitar on a couple of songs on ''Funstyle''.

* ShoutOut - From John Mayer to Creator/StephenColbert on ''Funstyle''. Also, the title of ''Exile in Guyville'' was partially inspired by Urge Overkill's song about leaving the Chicago indie scene, "Goodbye to Guyville".

Liz Phair (1967-) is an alternative/pop rock musician best known for her controversial, sexually explicit and emotionally honest lyrics. Her debut album, ''Music/ExileInGuyville'', was very critically acclaimed, and it was ranked #328 on [[Magazine/RollingStone Rolling Stone Magazine]]'s [[UsefulNotes/RollingStone500GreatestAlbumsOfAllTime 500 greatest albums of all time]]. In the '90s, she used a heavy production style with loud rock instrumental backings, and eventually became a famous name in AlternativeIndie circles.

* [[AnswerSong Answer Album]] + PerspectiveFlip - A rare non-narrative example: ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exile_in_Guyville Exile in Guyville]]'' was intended as a song-by-song reply to the RollingStones' ''ExileOnMainSt.''. Try not to think about it too hard, since some of the song counterparts don't make sense. She did give an interview to ''Rolling Stone'' where [[http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/14639/89656 she elaborated on the parallels]].

!!LizPhair provides examples of:

** ''Whitechocolatespaceegg'' has contributions from people associated with {{REM}}: the band's longtime RecordProducer Scott Litt produces and plays instruments on it, and "Fantasize" features contributions by Peter Buck, Mike Mills, Bill Berry, Nathan December and Scott [=McCaughey=].

** One of the lyrics of "Stratford-on-Guy" is "And I was pretending that I was in a {{Galaxie 500}} video."

Liz Phair (1967-) is an alternative/pop rock musician best known for her controversial, sexually explicit and emotionally honest lyrics. Her debut album, ''Music/ExileInGuyville'', was very critically acclaimed, and it was ranked #328 on [[Magazine/RollingStone Rolling Stone Magazine]]'s [[RollingStone500GreatestAlbumsOfAllTime 500 greatest albums of all time]]. In the 90's, she used a heavy production style with loud rock instrumental backings, and eventually became a famous name in AlternativeIndie circles.

'''Discography'''

Liz Phair (1967-) is an alternative/pop rock musician best known for her controversial, sexually explicit and emotionally honest lyrics. Her debut album, ''Music/ExileInGuyville'', was very critically acclaimed, and it was ranked #328 on [[Magazine/RollingStone Rolling Stone Magazine]]'s [[RollingStone500GreatestAlbumsOfAllTime 500 greatest albums of all time]]. In the 90's, she used a heavy production style with loud rock instrumental backings, and eventually became a famous name in IndieRock circles.

Liz Phair (1967-) is an alternative/pop rock musician best known for her controversial, sexually explicit and emotionally honest lyrics. Her debut album, ''Exile in Guyville'', was very critically acclaimed. It was ranked #328 on Rolling Stone's 500 greatest albums of all time. In the 2000s, her music shifted to pop rock, which [[TheyChangedItNowItSucks wasn't well-received by many]]. Some critics, while reviewing ''Somebody's Miracle'', admitted that her self-titled album didn't deserve the backlash it got. Currently, she is composing music for television dramas, working on shows like ''Swingtown'' and ''In Plain Sight''. She is also on tour to support ''Funstyle''.

* ''Exile in Guyville'' (1993)

* DoingItForTheArt
--> "I had plenty of time to sit with ''Funstyle''. There were a lot more songs that I didn’t put on that record that were recorded during that period, some of which are very good, and a lot of which I’m sure the critics would prefer. I really felt like I stumbled into a new style which, I’m not gonna start rapping, I’m not Joaquin Phoenix. It was just something that needed to be aired. It was a part of my creative journey that needed to see the light of day, and it was either shove these things under the carpet and pretend like I never did them, and no one would ever hear about it, or stand on my own and say, “I like it. This is what is exciting me now. This is what I see as a creative person now.” And that’s what I chose to do."

* DyeHard - Liz is more remembered as a blonde than a (natural) brunette.
* ExecutiveMeddling
** Liz suffered heavily from this, having run out of money during the recording of her self-titled album. The execs refused to release her album unless she worked with writing team The Matrix (no, not ''[[Film/TheMatrix that]]'' one), which produced her [[BlackSheepHit biggest Billboard hit]], "Why Can't I?", which sounds almost nothing like the works that made her famous, and got her a 0.0 from Pitchfork.
** Liz fought with her management to release “Bollywood.” Fortunately, Liz won.

* KeepCirculatingTheTapes - Aside from ''Juvenilia'' and the upcoming ''Girlysound'' disc, Liz's pre-1993 demos can only be found on the ''Girly Sound'' bootlegs. Two tapes entitled ''Yo Yo Buddy Yup Yup Word To Ya Muthuh'' and ''Girls Girls Girls'' respectively are the most common and are available to download on the internet for free. A third tape and information about it remains elusive.
* LesYay - The ''Girly Sound'' version of "Flower" contains the line "I'll fuck you and your girlfriend too."

* OneHitWonder - "Why Can't I?" from ''Liz Phair'' is her only Top-40 charting song in the United States.

* SignatureSong - "Never Said", "Flower", "Fuck and Run", possibly "Why Can't I?" & "Extraordinary".

* WhatCouldHaveBeen - ''Liz Phair'', love it or not, was a great album for the mainstream. If it was properly promoted, then it could've been more successful. Sure, the indie fanbase would still hate her, but at least she would've met her goal.

* [[AnswerSong Answer Album]] + PerspectiveFlip - A rare non-narrative example: ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exile_in_Guyville Exile in Guyville]]'' was intended as a song-by-song reply to the RollingStones' ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exile_on_Main_Street Exile On Main St.]]''. Try not to think about it too hard, since some of the song counterparts don't make sense. She did give an interview to ''Rolling Stone'' where [[http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/14639/89656 she elaborated on the parallels]].

* ShoutOut - From John Mayer to StephenColbert on ''Funstyle''. Also, the title of ''Exile in Guyville'' was partially inspired by Urge Overkill's song about leaving the Chicago indie scene, "Goodbye to Guyville".

* HotMom

* DidNotDoTheResearch - Detractors of ''Liz Phair'' will call it "AvrilLavigne shit", despite that the great majority of it was ''not'' produced by The Matrix & doesn't sound like Avril.

* YouKeepUsingThatWord - Liz is called a lo-fi artist, yet her main indie albums (read: not the ''Girlysound'' tapes) were recorded on decent equipment (a more appropriate word would be "minimalist", but that would only apply to certain songs on ''Exile'' - a lot of the album is made of full-band {{Power Pop}}py indie rock). Also counts as DidNotDoTheResearch.

Liz Phair (1967-) is an alternative/pop rock musician best known for her controversial, sexually explicit and emotionally honest lyrics. Her debut album, ''Exile in Guyville'', was very critically acclaimed. It was ranked #328 on Rolling Stone's 500 greatest albums of all time. In the 2000s, her music shifted to pop rock, which [[{{TheyChangedItNowItSucks}} wasn't well-received by many]]. Some critics, while reviewing ''Somebody's Miracle'', admitted that her self-titled album didn't deserve the backlash it got. Currently, she is composing music for television dramas, working on shows like ''Swingtown'' and ''In Plain Sight''. She is also on tour to support ''Funstyle''.

** Liz suffered heavily from this, having run out of money during the recording of her self-titled album. The execs refused to release her album unless she worked with writing team The Matrix (no, not ''[[TheMatrix that]]'' one), which produced her [[BlackSheepHit biggest Billboard hit]], "Why Can't I?", which sounds almost nothing like the works that made her famous, and got her a 0.0 from Pitchfork.

** Liz fought with her management to release “Bollywood.” Fortunately ([[YourMileageMayVary or unfortunately]]), Liz won.

* YouKeepUsingThatWord - Liz is called a lo-fi artist, yet her main indie albums (read: not the ''Girlysound'' tapes) were recorded on decent equipment (a more appropriate word would be "minimalist", but that would only apply to ''Exile''). Also counts as DidNotDoTheResearch.

* CoverVersion – "Turning Japanese", originally by The Vapors.

Liz Phair is an alternative/pop rock musician best known for her controversial, sexually explicit and emotionally honest lyrics. Her debut album, ''Exile in Guyville'', was very critically acclaimed. It was ranked #328 on Rolling Stone's 500 greatest albums of all time. In the 2000s, her music shifted to pop rock, which [[{{TheyChangedItNowItSucks}} wasn't well-received by many]]. Some critics, while reviewing ''Somebody's Miracle'', admitted that her self-titled album didn't deserve the backlash it got. Currently, she is composing music for television dramas, working on shows like ''Swingtown'' and ''In Plain Sight''. She is also on tour to support ''Funstyle''.

* TheTropeSong - "Divorce Song", "Elvis Song"