Editing Ani DiFranco (section)

==Music==

===Style===

DiFranco's guitar playing is often characterized by a signature [[staccato]] style,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://folkmusic.about.com/od/artistsaz/p/AniD_profile.htm |title=Facts about Ani |website=Folkmusic.about.com |date=November 14, 2013 |access-date=December 4, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131019093248/http://folkmusic.about.com/od/artistsaz/p/AniD_profile.htm |archive-date=October 19, 2013 |url-status=dead  }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.westnet.com/consumable/1997/06.11/revani.html |title=Ani DiFranco, Living in Clip by Jon Steltenpohl |work=Consumable Online |access-date=December 4, 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131211034955/http://www.westnet.com/consumable/1997/06.11/revani.html |archive-date=December 11, 2013 }}</ref> rapid [[fingerpicking]] and many alternate tunings. She delivers many of her lines in a speaking style notable for its rhythmic variation. Her lyrics, which often include [[alliteration]], [[metaphor]], [[word play]] and a more or less gentle [[irony]], have also received praise for their sophistication.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Ani DiFranco {{!}} Lyrics, Song Meanings & Music Videos |url=https://sonichits.com/artist/Ani_DiFranco |access-date=2024-06-11 |website=SonicHits}}</ref>

[[File:Ani Difranco-32 (48523972877).jpg|thumb|DiFranco in concert, 2019]]

Although DiFranco's music has been classified as both [[folk rock]] and [[alternative rock]], she has reached across genres since her earliest albums incorporating first punk, then funk, hiphop, and jazz influences.

While primarily an acoustic guitarist she has used a variety of [[musical instrument|instruments]] and styles: [[brass instrument]]ation was prevalent in 1998's ''[[Little Plastic Castle]]''; a simple [[walking bass]] in her 1997 cover of [[Hal David]] and [[Burt Bacharach]]'s "[[Wishin' and Hopin']]{{-"}}; [[string instrument|strings]] on the 1997 live album ''[[Living in Clip]]'' and 2004's ''[[Knuckle Down]]''; and electronics and synthesizers in 1999's ''To the Teeth'' and 2006's ''[[Reprieve (album)|Reprieve]]''.{{cn|date=April 2025}}

DiFranco has stated that "folk music is not an acoustic guitar&nbsp;– that's not where the heart of it is. I use the word 'folk' in reference to [[Punk rock|punk music]] and [[Hip hop music|rap music]]. It's an attitude, it's an awareness of one's heritage, and it's a community. It's subcorporate music that gives voice to different communities and their struggle against authority."<ref name=":0">{{cite web|url=http://www.jeffreypepperrodgers.com/difranco.htm |title=Ani DiFranco and Utah Phillips article |website=Jeffreypepperrodgers.com |access-date=April 17, 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140130090622/http://jeffreypepperrodgers.com/difranco.htm |archive-date=January 30, 2014 }}</ref>

===Musical collaborations, cover versions, and samples===

DiFranco has collaborated with a wide range of artists. In 1997, she appeared on Canadian songwriter [[Bruce Cockburn]]'s ''Charity of Night'' album. In 1998, she produced fellow folksinger [[Dan Bern]]'s album ''[[Fifty Eggs]]''.{{cn|date=April 2025}}

She developed a deep association with folksinger and social activist [[Utah Phillips]] throughout the mid-1990s, sharing her stage and her audience with the older musician until his death in 2008 and resulting in two collaborative albums: ''[[The Past Didn't Go Anywhere]]'' (1996) and ''[[Fellow Workers]]'' (1999, with liner notes by [[Howard Zinn]]).<ref>{{cite web|last=Zinn|first=Howard|title=Fellow Workers Liner Notes|date=February 22, 2013 |url=http://zinnedproject.org/materials/fellow-workers-liner-notes-by-howard-zinn/|publisher=Zinn Education Project|access-date=July 31, 2013}}</ref> ''The Past'' is built around Phillips's storytelling, an important part of his art that had not previously been documented on recordings; on the album, DiFranco provides musical settings for his speaking voice.<ref name=":0" /> The followup, ''Fellow Workers'', was recorded live in [[Daniel Lanois]]'s Kingsway Studio in New Orleans and features Phillips fronting DiFranco's touring band for a collection of songs and stories.{{cn|date=April 2025}}

[[Prince (musician)|Prince]] recorded two songs with DiFranco in 1999, "Providence" on her ''To the Teeth'' album, and "Eye Love U, But Eye Don't Trust U Anymore" on Prince's ''[[Rave Un2 the Joy Fantastic]]'' album.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://princetext.tripod.com/i_startrib99.html |title=Prince in Print |website=Princetext.tripod.com |access-date=December 4, 2013}}</ref> Funk and soul jazz musician [[Maceo Parker]] and rapper Corey Parker have both appeared on DiFranco's albums<ref>{{cite web|title=To The Teeth, album|url=http://www.righteousbabe.com/products/to-the-teeth|website=Righteous Babe|access-date=August 2, 2013}}</ref> and featured appearances by her on theirs. Parker and DiFranco toured together in 1999.

She has appeared on several compilations of the songs of [[Pete Seeger]] and frequented his [[Clearwater Festival|Hudson Clearwater Revival Festival]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Toshi Reagon and Ani DiFranco|url=http://vimeo.com/64338104|work=Vimeo, video gallery|publisher=Hudson River Sloop Clearwater|access-date=August 2, 2013}}</ref> In 2001, she appeared on Brazilian artist [[Lenine (musician)|Lenine]]'s album ''Falange Canibal''. In 2002, her rendition of [[Greg Brown (folk musician)|Greg Brown]]'s "The Poet Game" appeared on ''Going Driftless: An Artist's Tribute to Greg Brown''. Also in 2002 she recorded a duet with [[Jackie Chan]] of the [[Irving Gordon]] song "[[Unforgettable (Irving Gordon song)|Unforgettable]]" for a record of unlikely collaborations, ''When Pigs Fly: Songs You Never Thought You'd Hear''.<ref>{{cite web|title=Ani DiFranco & Jackie Chan – "Unforgettable" (Nat King Cole Cover)|url=http://quitmumbling.com/2011/04/uncovered-ani-difranco-jackie-chan-unforgettable-nat-king-cole/|website=Quit Mumbling|access-date=August 2, 2013|archive-date=October 19, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131019085200/http://quitmumbling.com/2011/04/uncovered-ani-difranco-jackie-chan-unforgettable-nat-king-cole/|url-status=dead}}</ref>

In 2005, she appeared on [[Dar Williams]]' record ''My Better Self'', duetting on William's cover of [[Pink Floyd]]'s "Comfortably Numb". She performed with [[Cyndi Lauper]] on "Sisters of Avalon" a track from Lauper's 2005 ''[[The Body Acoustic]]'' album. In 2006, she produced [[Hamell on Trial]]'s album ''Songs for Parents Who Enjoy Drugs''. In 2008, she appeared on [[Todd Sickafoose]]'s album ''Tiny Resisters''. In 2010, she co-produced a track with [[Margaret Cho]] called "Captain Cameltoe" for the comedian's ''Cho Dependant'' album. In 2011, she appeared on [[Rob Wasserman]]'s album ''Note of Hope'', an exploration of the writings of [[Woody Guthrie]] with musical accompaniment, though the track in which she appeared, "Voice", was actually recorded 13 years earlier. Also in 2011 she duetted with [[Greg Dulli]] on the [[Twilight Singers]] record ''Dynamite Steps''.<ref>{{cite web|title=Ani DiFranco credits|url=http://www.allmusic.com/artist/ani-difranco-mn0000046794/credits|website=[[AllMusic]]|access-date=August 2, 2013}}</ref>

Other artists have covered and sampled DiFranco's work throughout the years. Her spoken word poem "Self Evident" was covered by [[Public Enemy (group)|Public Enemy]] founder [[Chuck D]]'s group called Impossebulls. [[Alana Davis]] had some commercial success with DiFranco's song "[[32 Flavors]]". Samples from the track "Coming Up" were used by [[DJ Spooky]] in his album ''Live Without Dead Time'', produced for [[AdBusters]] Magazine in 2003.{{cn|date=April 2025}} In 2010, DiFranco played [[Persephone]] on [[Anaïs Mitchell]]'s album [[Hadestown (album)|Hadestown]].{{cn|date=April 2025}}

DiFranco was approached by Zoe Boekbinder to work on their ''Prison Music Project'', an album of collaborations between incarcerated and formerly incarcerated writers and musicians on the outside.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Douris|first=Raina|date=October 26, 2020|title=The Prison Music Project: Songs from Inside New Folsom Prison|url=https://www.npr.org/2020/10/26/927811718/the-prison-music-project-songs-from-inside-new-folsom-prison|access-date=October 6, 2021|website=[[NPR]]}}</ref> DiFranco co-produced the project with Boekbinder and co-wrote and performed "Nowhere but Barstow and Prison." The album ''Long Time Gone'' was released on [[Righteous Babe Records]] in 2020 after ten years in the making.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Ebejer|first=Sandra|date=August 25, 2020|title=Ani DiFranco's 'Long Time Gone' Is the Perfect Mix of Activism and Creativity|url=https://www.shondaland.com/inspire/a33769059/ani-difrancos-long-time-gone/|access-date=October 6, 2021|website=[[Shondaland]]}}</ref>

===Lyrical content===

Although much of DiFranco's material is autobiographical, it is often also strongly political. Many of her songs are concerned with contemporary social issues such as [[racism]], [[sexism]], [[sexual abuse]], [[homophobia]], [[reproductive rights]], poverty, and war. In 2008, she donated a song to [[Aid Still Required]]'s CD to assist with the restoration of the devastation done to Southeast Asia from the [[2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami|2004 tsunami]].{{cn|date=April 2025}} The combination of personal and political is partially responsible for DiFranco's early popularity among politically active college students, particularly those of the left wing, some of whom set up fan pages on the [[World Wide Web|web]] to document DiFranco's career as early as 1994. DiFranco's rapid rise in popularity in the mid-1990s was fueled mostly by personal contact and word of mouth rather than [[mainstream media]].<ref name=":1" />

===Label independence=== 

DiFranco cites her anti-corporate ethos for the main reason she decided to start her own label. This has allowed her a considerable degree of creative freedom<ref>{{cite web|last=Burlingham|first=Bo|title=Don't Call Her an Entrepreneur|date=September 2004|url=http://www.inc.com/magazine/20040901/difranco.html|work=INC. Magazine|access-date=July 29, 2013}}</ref> over the years, including, for example, providing all instrumentals and vocals and recording the album herself at her home on an analog 8-track [[reel to reel]], and handling much of the artwork and packaging design for her 2004 album ''[[Educated Guess]]''.<ref>{{cite web |title=Educated Guess |url=http://www.righteousbabe.com/ani/educated_guess/more_info.asp |website=righteousbabe.com |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120716183146/http://www.righteousbabe.com/ani/educated_guess/more_info.asp |archive-date=July 16, 2012}}</ref> She has referenced this independence from major labels in song more than once, including "The Million You Never Made" (''[[Not a Pretty Girl]]''), which discusses the act of turning down a lucrative contract, "The Next Big Thing" (''[[Not So Soft]]''), which describes an imagined meeting with a label head-hunter who evaluates the singer based on her looks, and "Napoleon" (''[[Dilate (Ani DiFranco album)|Dilate]]''), which sympathizes sarcastically with an unnamed friend who did sign with a label.

The business grew organically starting in 1990 with the first cassette tape. Connections were made when women in colleges started duplicating and sharing tapes. Offers to play at colleges started coming in and her popularity grew largely by word of mouth and through women's groups or organizations.<ref name=":1">{{cite news|last=Keast |first=James |url=http://exclaim.ca/Features/Timeline/ani_difranco-lil_folksinger_that_could |title=Ani DiFranco – The L'il Folksinger That Could • Timeline • |work=Exclaim! |access-date=December 4, 2013}}</ref> Zango and Goldenrod, two music distributors specializing in women's music, started carrying DiFranco's music. They sold music to independent music stores and women's book stores. In 1995, Righteous Babe Records signed with [[Koch International]] for DiFranco's release of ''Not a Pretty Girl''. Her records could then be found in large and small record stores alike.{{cn|date=April 2025}}

DiFranco has occasionally joined with [[Prince (musician)|Prince]] in discussing publicly the problems associated with major record companies. Righteous Babe Records employs a number of people in her hometown of Buffalo. In a 1997 open letter to ''[[Ms. (magazine)|Ms.]]'' magazine she expressed displeasure that what she considers a way to ensure her own artistic freedom was seen by others solely in terms of its financial success.<ref>{{cite web |title=An Open Letter from Ani DiFranco |url=http://www.columbia.edu/~marg/ani/letter.html |website=Columbia.edu |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090114013744/http://www.columbia.edu/~marg/ani/letter.html |archive-date=January 14, 2009}}</ref>