Ska queen in a bindi with Marilyn Monroe aspirations
Gwen and I are exactly the same age - I'm older by two weeks - so I felt a kinship with her GenX stories of love.
She started her career in 1987 with the ska-pop-punk band No Doubt, alongside her brother Eric, all while working at Dairy Queen after school. The band’s self-titled album featured the dance single Trapped in a Box, which garnered some indie radio airplay.
Then she tapped into the unresolved feelings from her breakup with bassist Tony to pen monster hits Don’t Speak and Just a Girl on the album Tragic Kingdom, making No Doubt one of the biggest things in the mid-'90s. Rolling Stone named her “the Queen of Confessional Pop.”
She also became the Duet Queen of the late 90s, recording hits with Moby, Brian Setzer, and several with rapper Eve.
Gwen penned the quarter-life crisis album, The Return of Saturn, balancing the inner conflict of career versus trad-mom bullshit through songs like Simple Kind of Life and Ex-Girlfriend. Go was also a serious bop. Rock Steady, too.
She went solo with Love Angel Music Baby and continued her success with songs like Hollaback Girl, Rich Girl, and What Cha Waiting For?
Her private life, unfortunately, is very public, with tabloid-worthy relationships with her ex-husband, Gavin Rossdale, and her current husband, Blake Sheldon.
Life has gone on, with stints as a judge on talent shows, cameos in movies, and residencies in Las Vegas. She’s gotten some grief for Indian (the bindi) and Japanese (Harajuku girls) cultural appropriation and being politically conservative.
As she may say, this shit is bananas.
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