Gwen Stefani Biography

Gwen Stefani strutted the stage like she owned it, in her plaid pants, black crop top, and black army boots from her signature clothing line. Her platinum blonde hair whirled around as her vibrant red lips sang the words of No Doubt’s number one hit, “Just A Girl”. From the very beginning Gwen had an influence from her musical and creative family. Her mom and dad basically gave her talent and encouragement to make it big in the music world. In Gwen Stefani’s early years she performed with the band No Doubt and became the center of attention during performances. She transitioned from the shy girl in the back to front and center as No Doubt performed their trendy songs. The band quickly gained stardom and she saw the opportunity to make a name
Eric Stefani is the musician of the family and he brought stefani into the band (No 3). Gwen Stefani would become the back-up vocals and along with the Stefani siblings the other members were John Spence and Tony Kanal (4). The band made songs by themselves with no record label at first. In December 1987, John Spence committed suicide, nevertheless they continued to make music and Gwen soon became the lead vocalist in the group. Guitarist Tom Dumont and drummer Adrian Young joined the group shortly after (Bush 2). The band shortly signed with Interscope records, but did not like the lack of attention they were getting from the label. The band soon came out with the album Beacon Street Collection, which was self released from a record label called Beacon Street Records (No 9). When Interscope let the band release more music after the problem with the first one, they released Tragic Kingdom, the album served as documentation for Tony Kanal and Gwen’s break up. They dated in secret for a while in the beginning, but told members of the band after a few months. They dated for about seven years and Gwen used the break up for inspiration for her songs, “including "Happy Now?," where she teases her ex-boyfriend about being "happy now?" after dumping her, and "Sunday Morning," where she calls him a parasite” (No 8). The band released a few more albums and Stefani started to become the centerpiece for
Since No Doubt’s album Rock Steady, Gwen had a “new ghetto-fabulous persona” (Erlewine Thomas 1), which helped make her new album Love. Angel. Music. Baby. an enormous hit. One of Gwen’s first works without the group was the single Let Me Blow Ya Mind, produced by Dr. Dre with a “ G-funk groove and a sultry pop chorus delivered by Stefani” (1). This song transformed her identity and changed her image to a glamorous club queen instead of ska-punk kid. Gwen has always been the dominant figure in No Doubt and this single made her creating a solo album almost undeniable. The album Love. Angel. Music. Baby. could not be a No Doubt since it was too “club-centric, too fashion-obsessed, too willfully weird” (2). Gwen also makes too many comments about her clothing line, LAMB, in the lyrics. Basically making the album a musical advertisement for the fashion line. The album also had close to eight collaborations which makes the styles of album change dramatically from song to song. Gwen likes to adapt to her collaborators and have them not change to her styles, which truly makes the sound vary. The styles go from sleek to a smooth wave of an anthem and then jumps right into an ecstatic song, but then cools off into a buzzkill featuring the sadness of Martin Luther King inspired lyrics(2). This also what made the album so popular. People loved that way the album could change and how it