To suspect that Difranco didn't have her eye on a lifestyle that would allow her to make a hansome living at what she does would be supposition at best. Still, she made the very personal decision to refuse recording contracts that didn't reckon with her personal politics, and to not let that stop her from making an honest living as a singer/songwriter.
By the end of the decade, the media had "discovered" Difranco, and the music she was making straddled the until-then wide gap between punk rock and traditional folk music. She incorporated world rhythms and a street smarts sensibility that had been muddled in popular folk music since the onslaught of folk-pop in the 70s.
To say Difranco single-handedly instigated the independent music rush that surged through the end of the 20th century and the start of the 00's is an oversimplification. Other folksingers like Dar Williams and Greg Brown also opted to release their records indpendently. Nonetheless, you'd be hard pressed to find an indie artist that doesn't cite Difranco and her Righteous Babe label as frontrunners and heroes in the take-back-the-industry plight, particularly among female musicians and protest singers.
