Bachelorette

All Music Guide:

The project of Christchurch, New Zealand's Annabel Alpers, Bachelorette mixes '60s psychedelia and girl group pop with folk and lots and lots of vintage electronics. Inspired by acts spanning the Beatles and Smiths to Aphex Twin and Kraftwerk, Alpers began playing in bands in the '90s. She started in a group called Mouse before singing and playing keyboard in the trippy surf rock band Hawaii 5-0, and the electronic noise bands Space Dust and the Hiss Explosion. When Hawaii 5-0 broke up, she lived in Shanghai for a time before returning to New Zealand, and enrolled in the University of Auckland's post-graduate music studies program. While studying computer composition, Alpers also focused on her own songs, recording at home and in her friends' studios as well as the University's facilities. Her first release as Bachelorette, the End of All Things EP, was released in 2005, and won acclaim for Alpers' unique, intimate take on electronic pop. For her debut album, 2007's Isolation Loops, she sequestered herself for three months in a cabin her great-grandfather built in a fishing village near the mouth of the Rakaia River; the album's more complicated arrangements and concept about the end of a relationship made it a significant advance in her music. She performed as a solo artist during the Isolation Loops tour, but for her next album My Electric Family, which was released in 2009, Alpers expanded Bachelorette into a full-fledged band, adding Andrea Holmes and Mick Elborado to the fold. The group took a gentler, more expansive approach on 2011's Bachelorette.

Wikipedia:

Bachelorette is a term used in American English for a single, unmarried woman. The term is derived from the word bachelor, and is often used by journalists, editors of popular magazines, and some individuals. "Bachelorette" was famously the term used to refer to female contestants on the old Dating Game TV show.

In older English, the female counterpart term to "bachelor" was "spinster". However, this has acquired negative connotations and mostly been abandoned. When used now, it tends to imply that the woman has never been married and is too old to find a marriage and have children. A bachelorette may have previously been in a relationship.

In Canada, the term bachelorette also refers to a small bachelor apartment (an apartment with only one large room serving as a bedroom and living room plus a separate bathroom - see studio apartment).

The term is not used in British English and there is no direct equivalent. However it is widely understood in the UK as a result of its use in US media, and particularly in reality TV shows aimed at a young audience.

Derivation[edit]

The more proper neologism would be bacheloress, since the -ess suffix is the standard English suffix denoting a female subject, while -ette is a French-origin diminutive suffix, mainly used to something is smaller in size. However, in American English the -ess suffix is only marginally morphologically productive, and the -ette suffix can indicate a feminine version of a noun without a change in size (though many such words in -ette were intended to be jocular when they were first coined). The -ess suffix is also slowly falling into disuse in the English language due to attempts to neutralize professional terms; it is therefore less commonly applied to new terms nowadays.

Reasons for use[edit]

The traditional English term for a woman who has never married is a spinster, while a woman who is divorced is a divorcée, and a woman whose spouse has died is a widow. All three of these terms have carried negative cultural connotations at one time or another. Spinster often implied that the woman was older than the age when most women traditionally marry and that she would probably never marry; more extremely this was defined as an 'old maid'. Failing to marry was often looked down upon in many cultures. The term widow may be associated with an older woman (although a married woman can be widowed at any time). Divorcée and widow are also indicative that the woman no longer has her virginity. In some cultures, men would/will not marry a woman who was not a virgin.

The more popularly used term for the legal status of a young person (male or female) who has never been married is "single" or "never married".

Among millennials, the term can imply a woman who is a 'spinster-by-choice' and lives free of marriage. The stereotype forged is one counterpart to the term 'Bachelor', and the woman is seen as living by herself with a stable career and health.