Best known for her time in the influential New York noise-rock band Sonic Youth, Kim Gordon is set to release her second solo album, The Collective, on March 8. “Most of the songs are about how there is no narrative in the world anymore,” she says of the tracks, which are set over sparse hip-hop-inspired beats from the ’80s and ’90s. “It’s just disconnection all the time.”
Since 2012, Gordon has also made music as part of Body/Head, an experimental guitar duo she formed with Bill Nace that she describes as “pure freedom.” But her visual-art practice—she graduated from Los Angeles’s Otis College of Art and Design in 1977—has always been her main focus. “I don’t know anything about music. I see myself more as a visual artist,” says Gordon, whose paintings have examined everything from pop culture to our fraught relationship to tech. “I am making music from that point of view.”
For this issue, Gordon created a playlist around the theme of legacy, with songs like Cat Power’s “Nude As the News,” the Raincoats’ “Only Loved at Night,” and the Runaways’ “Cherry Bomb.” “I wanted to include people and bands who were actually around in the ’80s and who I liked and influenced me,” she explains.
Listen to Kim’s playlist exclusively on Apple Music.
Ariana Marsh is Harper Bazaar’s senior features editor. Working across print and digital, she covers the arts, culture, fashion, literature, and entertainment—and a bit of everything in between.