Michelle Branch

There are countless women who we could be writing about for our series of women in rock. But we thought we’d start by writing about someone whose music affected us in some way during that time, and continues to do so until today.

That’s why we chose Michelle Branch. If you were rocking out or going through a break-up during those times, you could pretty much be guaranteed you had a song by Michelle on your mixtape or freshly burnet CD!

Her first major single release, Everywhere, peaked at 19 in Australia and number 2 in New Zealand.

The lyrical content of the song has been described as “ultra-romantic,” but was left intentionally ambiguous by Branch. In 2001, Branch told MTV that “I like to keep my songs open-ended so people can listen to it and say, “Oh, I think it means this. I’ve been through that.” Instead of having it be about” anything specific.

“Everywhere” won the “Viewer’s Choice Award” in the 2002 MTV Video Music Awards.

Breathe was the second single from her second album, Hotel Paper.

Breathe hit 46 in Australia and failed to chart in New Zealand. I have a theory about music when an artist produces better music and more mature music, the more critically acclaimed, the poorer they do in the charts. The same thing happened to Cyndi Lauper.

The following from Wikipedia

Katherine St. Asaph of PopDust.com gave the song a 3.5 out of 5 and stated that “without the constant hard-rock callouts, “Loud Music” is every bit as good as the rest of Branch’s back catalogue”. Amanda Hamsel of PopCrush gave it a 4 out of 5 rating, praising the song for its sound, and writing that it “is definitely the kind of song that sounds best, well, loud, with its ’80s pop flavour and heavy-on-the-guitar back-track”. Sarah Maloy of Billboard gave “Loud Music” a mixed review, praising the song’s “strong beat, steady vocals and breezy melody,” but criticized the production for “sometimes overshadowing” Branch’s voice and for being at odds with the song’s lyrics.

Born Michelle Jacquet DeSevren Branch
Occupation: Singersongwriteractress
Years active: 1999–present
Genres: Pop rock rock country acoustic
Instruments: Vocals guitar piano drums accordion cello
Associated acts:
The WreckersSantana
Website: michellebranch.com