ABSTRACT
In the American musical mainstream, the most innovative performers are usually the least commercially successful. This may be less true in Great Britain, where avant-garde artists such as Laurie Anderson have reached the number one position on the pop singles chart, but even that was considered a novelty, and it remains surprising that the most commercially successful female recording artist in Britain is Kate Bush. Kate Bush’s music integrates intellectually challenging subject matter into complex and often experimental instrumental arrangements. Her 1985 album Hounds of Love, for example, which was a Top 10 record in the United Kingdom, contained songs dealing with out-ofbody experiences, the later life of Wilhelm Reich, and witch trials; and Bush frames her visions in arrangements that combine ancient folk instruments with the latest in synthesizer technology. How has such an apparently “uncommercial” artist been able to succeed within the constraints of the music industry? This question is the focus of the first half of my essay. In the second half I examine the ways in which Bush’s musicspecifically that found on Hounds of Love-employs intricate musical and narrative structures to convey her vision of a human essence that transcends temporal boundaries.
