PJ Harvey - Musical Style and Influences

Musical Style and Influences

Harvey has been noted to dislike repeating herself in her music, resulting in very different-sounding albums. In an interview with Rolling Stone in October 2004, she said: "when I'm working on a new record, the most important thing is to not repeat myself ... that's always my aim: to try and cover new ground and really to challenge myself. Because I'm in this for learning." Among the musical genres she has experimented with are alternative rock, pop, electronica, and, most recently, folk. She is also known for changing her physical appearance for each album by altering her mode of dress or hairstyle, creating a unique aesthetic that extends to all aspects of the album, from the album art to the live performances. She works closely with friend and photographer Maria Mochnacz to develop the visual style of each album. Around the time of To Bring You My Love, for example, Harvey began experimenting with her image and adopting a theatrical aspect to her live performances. Her former fashion style, which consisted of simple black leggings, turtleneck sweaters and Doc Martens boots, was replaced by ballgowns, catsuits, wigs and excessive make-up. She also began using stage props like a witch's staff and a Ziggy Stardust-style flashlight microphone. She denied the influence of drag, Kabuki or performance art on her new image, a look she affectionately dubbed "Joan Crawford on acid" in an interview with Spin in 1996, but admitted that "it's that combination of being quite elegant and funny and revolting, all at the same time, that appeals to me. I actually find wearing make-up like that, sort of smeared around, as extremely beautiful. Maybe that's just my twisted sense of beauty." However, she later told Dazed & Confused magazine, "that was kind of a mask. It was much more of a mask than I've ever had. I was very lost as a person, at that point. I had no sense of self left at all", and has never repeated the overt theatricality of the To Bring You My Love tour.

At an early age, she was introduced by her parents to blues music, jazz and art rock, which, she told Rolling Stone in 1995, would later influence her: "I was brought up listening to John Lee Hooker, to Howlin' Wolf, to Robert Johnson, and a lot of Jimi Hendrix and Captain Beefheart. So I was exposed to all these very compassionate musicians at a very young age, and that's always remained in me and seems to surface more as I get older. I think the way we are as we get older is a result of what we knew when we were children." During her teenage years, she began listening to new wave and synthpop bands such as Soft Cell, Duran Duran and Spandau Ballet though later stated that it was phase when she was "having a bit of a rebellion against my parents' record collection." In her later teenage years, she became a fan of American indie rock bands including Pixies, Television and Slint, though not as many critics have suspected, Patti Smith; a frequent comparison that Harvey dismisses as "lazy journalism." However, recently Harvey has said that Smith is "so energising to see and so passionate with what she's doing" and has also drawn inspiration from Russian folk music, Italian soundtrack composer Ennio Morricone, classical composers like Arvo Pärt, Samuel Barber and Henryk Górecki, and Neil Young. As a lyricist, Harvey has cited numerous poets, authors and lyricists as influences on her work including Harold Pinter, T.S Eliot, William Butler Yeats, James Joyce, Ted Hughes and contemporaries such as Shane MacGowan and Jez Butterworth.