In relation to my last post regarding a feminist perspective of women in rock music, I have found an online community who commented on someone’s blog titled “No Good Female Guitarists.” I was just waiting to come across some stereotypical,sexist resources, although, without these particular points of view, I suppose we wouldn’t have much to research or discuss, seeing as the idea of women in rock music can be seen as adirect comparison to men in rock music, and how each of these groups form thier identity and selves through music and gender.
It still made me a little angry to see these obviously uneducated sexists belittle women,argghhh,this assessment is truly bringing out the feminist within me ha! I think everyone should have a read.
Whist researching the 1990’s as an era when women took the next step and immersed themselves into the male dominated genre of rock, I came across a pretty interesting concept which idealises female rock musicians as “representations of girls, girlhood and girl culture.” The emergence of these elements of popular culture has been categorised by Gayle Wald as “girl studies; a subgenre of recent academic feminist scholarship that consructs girlhood as a separate, exceptional and/or pivotal phase in female identity formation.” I found this particularly feminist perspective pretty interesting as Wald’s portrayal of “girl power” signifies that contemporary female rock musicians personify a movement of female empowerment. Walde uses Madonna, Gwen Stefani, Courtney Love and Lisa Loeb as examples of women who define the developing notion of “girl power” (2002).
When we initially chose this topic to use for our blogging assessment I did not consider the amount of feminist opinions that I would be reiterating. Previous to this assessment, I listened to female rock musicians,appreciated the lyricism and music, although never actually thought about the societal impacts that these artists exemplify; gender debates, (masculinity versus femininity), sexualisation and discrimination.
Wald, G., “Just A Girl? Rock Music, Feminism and the Cultural Construction of Female Youth”, Rock Over the Edge: Duke University Press, Durham & London 2002.
I found a review by Mavis Bayton that concentrates on the written literature of women in rock history and more specifically a book by Gillian Gaar named “She’s a Rebel: The History of Women in Rock & Roll”. Bayton writes about the, some what, non exposure of women in rock, “rock history has been largely written by men about men and much of women’s presence and contribution has been rendered invisible or played down in the process” (Bayton. M).
Women were mostly unwelcome in the rock industry in the earlier years and were often the subject of crude sexism, racism and expoiltation. Suzi Quatro was one women who was not going to endure this unfair treatment and inspired many other women to enter the rock genre, “Suzi Quatro was responsible for inspiring Joan Jett to pick up a guitar and to form The Runaways”, (Bayton. M) this created a domino effect and the industry saw the emergence of many other female rock artists.
The review celebrates Gaar’s publication of the acceptance and change that women in rock has created for females everywhere “Gillian Gaar celebrates through out her book and, indeed, in its very title, the spirit of resistance which has brought about these changes, not only in rock but in the lives of the women who have watched the bands and bought the records”. (Bayton. M)
Bayton, M, Untitled, http://blackboard.newcastle.edu.au/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab=courses&url=/bin/common/course.pl?course_id=_1294330_1 Accessed 14th May 2008
Through analysing women in rock music we can identify with various societal aspects which highlight the importance of gender and identity within contemporary society.
While I was researching women in rock, from a historical perspective, I came across an interesting online source that communicates a sociological view of the effects of gender binaries upon women in rock.
Martha McCaughy states that “our culture is wedded to distinguishing bodies as male and female. One way that sex is materialised is through regulatory noroms surrounding the use of aggression. Cultural ideals of manhood and womanhood include a cultural, political, aesthetic and legal acceptance of men’s aggression and a deep skepticism about fear, and women’s prohibitions… When women learn how to respond aggressively to thwart assaults, they realise that feminine niceness is a historical effect, not a natural given of womenhood. The body self is transformed through rehearsals of aggression that solidify a new body ideal.”
This idea correlates with the subject of women in rock music through the example of Alanis Morissette who is a female-rocker from the 1990’s. Her aggression towards men and life within her song lyrics reinforce that women, similar to men, take on masculine roles and attain a sense of power through aggression; “Lyrically, it is an instance that the one who has left pay attention to the mess left behind; musically it is loud, punding, purge of rage that we sense leaves the singer (and her listeners) feeling more powerful than before.”
Although, this raises the question; women, who are lyricists of feminism, take on masculine traits-are they walking contradictions?
I’m not sure where I stand on this, so comment and let me know what your thoughts are.
Through finding this online resource, I am now going to use Alanis Morissette, as well as Courtney Love, to discuss women of the rock genre who established themselves in the 1990’s!
‘Teenybop is as much made by the girls who buy the records and magazines as by the boys who play the music’ (Frith in Valentine 1995: 475).
It’s crazy, but I think the above quote is still a common conception of women in relation to music. Back in the day they were constructed as fans rather than someone who could actually make music. Singers like Debbie Harry and Nico, who we profiled this week, are good examples of female artists who entered into rock music but were not always taken very seriously.
‘The trouble was that rock was created on a man’s terms and women have struggled to compete in those terms…It is no wonder that women found it hard to survive in rock. There was no tradition or outlet for women in music except singing’ (Punk77 website).
I like this quote, because I think it sums up a lot of the issues that women in rock music must confront. Again back to Nico and Debbie, I think their careers as models (and the fact that they were both very beautiful front women) cast a shadow over their actual musical talent.
Sources
Valentine, G, 1995, ‘Creating Transgressive Space: The Music of kd lang’, Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, New Series, Vol. 20, No. 4, Published by: Blackwell Publishing on behalf of The Royal Geographical Society (With the Institute of British Geographers), pp. 474-485.
you can really see, physically, what Harry was about in this video.
She plays up her sexuality throughout the performance, her clothing is risque, her hair is wild.
Her masculine voice in this song is very challenging, very provocative, however if you turn off the sound and freeze frame on a close up of her face you could be forgiven for thinking she could be singing a pure pop song.
Debbie Harry is an amazing set of contradictions, this is what makes her appealing, especially to men. The reason she’s had so much success in the rock industry is because she can both utilise her femininity and challenge in a masculine way.
Found this live performance of one of Suzi’s songs, Devil Gate Drive. “Suzi Quatro’s shows are testament to what we deserve more of.” (http://www.hotsource.com.au/news/705/Suzi_Quatro) She woud be pretty awesome to see live, I can’t even image the intense atmospere that would surround something like that!
Suzi Quatro, a talented singer, song writer and bass guitarist. Suzi was born in the USA in the 50’s leaving her to grow up experiencing the rock’n'roll revolution as it happened. She started her singing career as a teenager in the band The Pleasure Seekers. After the band broke up Suzi moved to London to become a solo artist with a string of hits during the mid 70’s.”She was really one of the first women to break the mould and play hard and driving rock’n'roll” (King. B) in addition to this she often recorded cover songs that male artists had released without changing the lyrics, she wanted to everyone out there that women could do what men could and possibly even better “she showed the world that women could do rock ‘n’ roll just as well as men and her music still has a drive and message that has so much to say.”(King. B)
Suzi has also ventured in to the TV industry, starring as Leather Tuscadero in Happy Days and guest apperences on many other British shows. In the 90’s she tried her hand at starring in and writing musicals.
These days there are talks of a movie about her life which she would do the album for.
References:
Oglesbee. Frank W, http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2822/is_2_23/ai_61838449/pg_7, 1999, Accessed 11th May 2008
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio2/shows/quatro/biography.shtml, Accessed 11th May 2008
King. B, http://www.ee.surrey.ac.uk/Contrib/music/suzi-quatro/, 23rd July 1996, Accessed 11th May 2008
The first time I heard Nico’s voice was on the Velvet Underground’s first album, aptly titled The Velvet Underground and Nico. I was deep in my Lou Reed obsession, and after listening to a few solo albums I decided to hear where it all started. On first hearing ‘Femme Fatale’, the first song Nico sings on the album, I was a little confused. Her incredibly deep androgynous voice fascinated me, and immediately I had to know more.
Brian Eno once said that while hardly anyone bought The Velvet Underground and Nico when it was first released in 1967, all of those who did seemed to go on to form a band. While Nico was only a guest star on three of the tracks on the ‘Banana Album’, it was largely due to her involvement that the album was ever recorded.
Born Christa Paffgen, the iconic actress, model and singer spent the early years of her life in war-time Germany and post-war East Berlin. At the age of fifteen she was ‘discovered’ outside a department store in Berlin and became a model. She met Andy Warhol in Paris while he was promoting Poor Little Rich Girl, and early film starring Edie Sedgwick. Nico had also worked in films, namely Federico Fellini’s La Dolce Vita, where she played herself. When Nico moved to New York, she became one of Warhol’s ‘Superstars’ and a regular at his Factory.
Warhol then suggested (read, insisted) that she sing with resident band The Velvet Underground in his Exploding Plastic Inevitable, a travelling show which combined music, film and theatre. While she intrigued audiences, Nico often complained that she had to struggle to gain any respect in the band. ‘They played the record of Bob Dylan’s song ‘I’ll keep it with mine’ because I didn’t have enough to sing otherwise. Lou wanted to sing everything. I had to stand there and sing along with it. I had to do this every night for a week. It is the most stupid concert I have ever done’ (Nico in McNeil and McCain 1996: 12-13).
Her involvement with the band at this stage led to her recording of three songs on their debut album.
In fact, it was Nico that brought the Velvet Underground thir recording contract, as recalled by their former manager Paul Morrissey: ‘Verve/MGM only bought the albums from me because of Nico’ (Morrissey in McNeil and McCain, 1996). Yet they had little commercial success. The Velvets chose a rather unfortunate time to record an ‘arty’ album. The year was 1967, best known as the ‘Summer of Love’. Audiences weren’t interested in songs about heroin and S & M. The majority of music was coming out of San Francisco, and the Velvet Underground’s music was as far from the popular folk style as possible.
Later that year, Nico went on to record her first solo album with Andy Warhol, titled Chelsea Girl, which was the first of six solo recordings she made until her death in 1988. Nico struggled with a heroin addiction in the last 20 years of her life.
Surprisingly, despite her underground success and her involvement with one of the most influential bands of the 1960’s, Nico is best known for her bedhopping. The amount of writing on her affairs with Lou Reed, John Cale (also in the Velvet Underground, Nico was blamed for Reed and Cale’s creative split), Jim Morrison (The Doors), Iggy Pop, Tim Buckley and Bob Dylan, just demonstrates the point of this whole blog.
Nico is constantly represented as a beautiful (and somewhat scary) non-musician who was carried along by the more talented musicians that surrounded her, the girl who stood to the side of the stage playing a tambourine because that’s all she could do. But her career reveals more than that. Nico completed six solo studio albums in her lifetime, plus her work with the Velvets. And while in her early career her peers wrote songs for her, by her second solo albums The Marble Index, Nico was writing all her own music.
Her bizarre singing style and the dark subjects she sings about led Rolling Stone to name her as the founder of Goth rock in 2003.
Sources
McNeil, L. and McCain, G. 1996, Please Kill Me: the Uncensored Oral History of Punk, Grove Press, New York.
Author Unknown, 2007, Nico’, Woman’s Hour, BBC Radio 4, 30th September.
