The Female Role in Rock ‘n’ Roll

I know that you had it hard and
you wanted to tell me that you’re the man,
that you’ve got all the answers
but I don’t think you do.
Verity Susman

I. DECLARATION OF WAR.
Reject Rock.
Cock Rock, that is. Or rather reject its present state and use it to make something new. Own it. Make your own cock, a prosthetic cock and pay special attention to its penetrative power. Don’t ignore the masculinity in music, use it and your audience. If we reject the accepted (un)equilibrium, the “asymmetrical” (Gelles136) balance of power for which “scholars of both sexes [should] bear responsibility” (Koskoff2) then we might have a chance at setting up a stage for dramatic events. This “we” should include both sexes and all interpretations of sex as gender and though our unique strengths are not always apparent we must embrace the constant flux all around us and as individuals use these strengths to find a place in music (and in greater society for that matter) that challenges protected stereotypes.
One must acknowledge the stereotypes and know them as thine enemy.

More than two hundred years ago, Abigail Adams, wife of the second president of the United States, John Adams, encouraged her husband, despite religious incarceration, to treat women as equals and proclaimed: “Why should we be patriotic when we are treated as mere subjects without power?” (Gelles29) She means to “allude to the great efforts of the founding fathers as they fought Britain for equal representation, but clearly this was a stretch for colonial Protestant minds and therefore her husband default[ed] to the common idea that women are always in power regardless of the fact that it is their husbands who hold office and figuratively head the household.” (Daum3) Abigail Adams’ question works well for our argument as well: Why should women support rock culture when we observe in countless professions throughout the industry, “apart from that of sex object, [that] this world only allows women the subservient, chauvinistic role of secretary-handmaiden?” (Bayton2) If it is the stereotype that we mean to destroy as the solution to the problem why is it that the Riot Grrrl and female post-punk rebellion left us basically where we began albeit insufficient additional opportunity despite our mollycoddled stereotypes? We accept that women have “occupied the position of the singer” assuming their “biologically determined social roles” in order to conform to “white standards of beauty and sexual attractiveness.” (Daugherty5) Because of this, today a female musician finds irrevocable male dominance across the proverbial stage and soundboard especially since the dominant sex refuses to deny their birthright and present themselves as equals to their counterparts.

We, too, self-celebrated independent musician, once desired only to be lead to a band of males. You see, though, it was with the idea that a power dynamic within the band might be empowering. NaÃ?¯vetÃ?© allowed us to believe that we would be in charge when in actuality we would be performing the same role that too many others had performed before. Unfortunately this idea was formed and solidified before sexuality and gender roles appear to have been detected by the radar of a female child desiring ownership over the limelight. How was she to know at the age of eleven that her lauded demonstrations actually fed into a stereotype that had been supported and enforced since a woman like Ruth Brown “single-handedly carried the Atlantic label in the early 1950’s?” If we had taken these early women as examples to model ourselves after would our desire for the limelight have changed? Certainly not. Our problem rests in the fertile and contested valley of power. For years after the ideas were solidified we would finally learn that from the beginning we were expected to be “consumers, fans, and in supportive roles (wife, mother, girlfriend) rather than as active producers of music.” (Bayton27)
Apparently we failed to realize that, as a girl, expectations and performance differ from that of male counterparts. Apparently, we failed to respond appropriately when applauded for our performance, accepting the role and reveling in it for too long. Apparently we failed to recognize that there were Others and that they had come around long before having left their bones on secret plateaus in fertile forested valleys of the universe like scattered pieces of a great star that exploded five billion – no, make that just fifty years before.

This naÃ?¯vetÃ?©, obviously, is herewith proscribed. This is war and we’ve already reached for our revolverÃ?ª.

II. CAUSALITY.
PT.1
“Small habits well pursued betimes/ May reach the dignity of crimes.” Hannah More
The origin of female persecution in rock music may be credited to one seemingly negligible moment in history: Appearing in the year 1952, a show called Bandstand squirmed in its marginal local spot on ABC-affiliate WFIL in Philadelphia. This baby Bandstand flew out of its cocoon and went national in 1957 as the now renowned American Bandstand. This show influenced other variety shows: The Ed Sullivan Show, The Steve Allen Show, and The Milton Berle Show and together they encouraged the visual appeal of rock & roll and solidified the “so-called ‘teen idol’ market [which] cater[ed] to a young female audience.” (Gaar25) By the time rock and roll was given to the masses it was rooted in money not musicianship and record deals were handed out to “polite, pleasant-faced boys” almost exclusively. The importance of mass television exposure linked with the diminishing presence of original rock ‘n’ roll “pioneers” (Gaar26) and the payola investigations of 1960 left the music industry to choose security over speculation.

From then on girls were screwed.

Obviously it’s not quite that simple, but that’s as close as we’re going to get to a good clean answer. Take it or leave it.

In their book The Sex Revolts, Joy Press and Simon Reynolds offer more complex material to ponder. They describe the influence of gender roles on the creative arts in the twentieth century with section titles including “Rebel Misogynies”, “Wargasm”, “Back to Eden”, and “Soft Boys: Nostalgia, Incest and Zen Apathy” and one can’t help but believe in their efforts. Similar to our own study they have attempted to find the origin and explanation for gender roles within the music industry and describe their text as more of an “interrogation than a trial.” We find their research to be informative and stimulating but as a collection of data it does not convince. Certainly it is possible that we ask too much of the authors and should accept the entirety of their research as evidence of the result of the “psycho-sexual dynamic of breaking away.” (Pressxvi) Still, of all the literature surveyed, The Sex Revolts comes closest to our project and yet it falls short of relieving our anxiety.

Herein, we will not pretend to be able to provide a thorough (or even significantly partial chunk of the) history of women in music, certainly this chore has been attempted and subsequently rejected as impossible. We find heaps of women’s studies piling up since the feminist movement of the seventies and our best efforts at weeding through these stacks leave us dissatisfied. Many sources have informed this study of the role of women in rock land and their unfixed futurity including a few surveys of music history but, obviously we value and with greater amplitude respond to gender studies, interviews, and epistolary analyses. For your evaluation and our own it is our primary goal to lay out a few significant points of reference so that the role of women may be closely estimated. With this estimation we may be able to find a space for exploration or possible condolences for our failures but most of all we want a reason.

PT. 2
Before we lay out a few subjects on the cutting board let us pretend for a moment that we are Press and Reynolds. While we would prefer to stray away from creating excuses for male domination it seems that if we cannot forgive their actions we might be able to blame their physicality begin to understand.

If the “process of [gender] differentiation is cultural, serving to position men and women within a hierarchical social order” (Callen) then it seems that gender must be rejected altogether in order to reject the hierarchy. Rejecting gender is not such an easy task. Attempts made to confront this hierarchy have taken form in subtle and not-so-subtle cross-dressers, glam rockers, in drag kings and queens, in direct sexual confrontation through homosexuality and gray areas that engulf and seep into every community. Acceptance of these gender crossers is not uncommon but they remain a novelty and are not considered members of the true social standing.

Sex is a biological definition that science now allows us to alter while gender is a learned through society. Yet ‘does natural law submit women to men’ (Callen) such that we are socially affected by our physical attributions? Of course. We learn how to fit into the male/female dichotomy or realize eventually that we didn’t fit into the hierarchy from the onset. At that moment we must decide whether or not we accept the hierarchy and then if we do not it only seems right that we should come up with arguments against it in order to change the social order. If the core of female persecution in rock music can be attributed to Bandstand, we find that beyond that moment in history exist societal hierarchies that are undeniable. Physically, women have less potential than men and in sexual intercourse are penetrated and inseminated with the male potent seed. We are from the core of our animalistic function absolutely dominated in our symbiotic relationship.

Just for conversation sake:
Let’s say that I am biologically a female. I have female genitalia and I prefer the gendered male to others gendered female as friends and lovers. Technically I fit within this society’s model of proper female selection. What if beyond this biological definition I consider myself gendered differently. What if I accept my female attributes but in my mind consider myself male. Still, whereas a homosexual male would use anal intercourse as a means of sexual stimulation, what if I, with my female parts, enjoy standard, missionary intercourse. This brings us to wonder why or how I could consider myself a man and not a woman, psychologically, to consider what makes up this abstract “Man” definition and where it’s origin is found. Shouldn’t I by all means reject this dichotomy or must I accept it and attempt to swerve around and in between?

My mother, an antisocial hermit who has rejected most societal bonds in her own way, always told me that if you want to beat your enemy you must rise above them and be better, in all senses. She said: “You’re better than them, so act like it.” The female “natural difference” (Callen) is of no use beyond sexual difference compared to that of an abstracted male ideal and should not be used to “order and reinforce hierarchical or social roles.” (Callen) Obviously but it is. In fact, biological differentiation created that hierarchy and we would be remiss to deny it now. Let us now stop asking why because we know inherently regardless of historical data. My mother is right and instead we should create impressive models of ourselves and with this logic find a more creative solution to the problem rather than accept its belittling bond. (see IV. COUP DE GRÃ?Â?CE).

III. COLONIALISM

“For the opportunity to negate the historical absence of strong female voices in music, ” (Daugherty28) we give you Three Major Points of Departure:

A. Heart
The sisters Ann and Nancy Wilson fronted the band as lead singer and guitarist, respectively, and by “avoid[ing] being presented as women first [they] were more readily able to be seen as simply two members of the five-member group.” (Gaar222) The sisters either wrote or co-wrote most of the band’s material and attempted to differentiate themselves from other women in rock at the time by focusing on their creativity rather than their image. While stressing always the idea of the band and rigorously attempting to maintain this balance, eventually inner turmoil would destroy the band since the sisters inevitably received more attention than the other male members, two of which happened to be their partners. To their dismay the press would focus on the bandmates’ relationships rather than the music and it seemed that their revolutionary project was flattened to media hype.

In their own words1:
(from the 70’s)
Nancy: “Heart was really a new kind of configuration with women fronting the band and men playing in it too.”

“Being a woman in rock, largely you don’t get taken seriously; that’s the downside. Nobody believes that you’re an artist or that you can play that well or that you are legitimate to begin with. But you prove them wrong! But being a woman in rock also, especially when we came along, sold albums. Because nobody else was doing it and it was really ‘interesting.’ So even if it seemed like a novelty at the time, it definitely got us noticed when we got out there.”

Ann: “I’ve found that there is this void where female rockers should beâÂ?¦But the more women come into rock, the more people will understand women in rock. “

Nancy: “It’s almost like [women are] set aside into a whole different category than music itself. We expected it to be more of an accepted thing than it even now seems to be. Especially in rock & roll; in rock bands, in real rock music, driving, kick-ass rock music, you don’t find a lot of women. They’re maybe just now starting to scratch the surface.”

(quick biographical note: after their original success the band breaks up, reforms and original male members are replaced with new male musicians.)

Nancy: “After five years the record company was like ‘Oh yeah, these guysâÂ?¦let’s sign the new groups!’ So we got lost in the shuffle. It was a really scary time, ’cause we not only didn’t have any support from the label, the management company was not working out, and there were a lot of problems within the group and so everything was wrong.”

(qbn: changed management company and signed with Capitol)

Ann: “We rallied all of our energy and said, ‘Okey! Whatever it takes! It’s either this or be a guitar teacher in Bellevue! So if it looks better to do rock videos and be sexy a little bit more than we might have chosen for ourselves, we did it. We put on the jewelry and made a big splash, and it worked.”

(Heart’s self-titled LP, released by Capitol in 1985, was their best selling record with the single “These Dreams” hitting number one on the charts.)

Their “new kind of configuration” failed because of intra-band relationships and they subsequently obsequiously returned to rock music in a more acceptable form. From Heart we learn that if a female rock group is going to be taken seriously they’ve got to resist the urge to include men in their lineup and in order to avoid tension each member should be credited equally for the band’s creation.

B. the Slits
We shall now allow Miss Daugherty to introduce our second specimens:

In 1976 the Slits, the first all-female punk band, performed their version of the 1960s classic “Heard It through the GrapevineâÂ?¦The remake of the widely recognizable song acknowledged the musical tradition of those who had played the song before and at the same time negated the dominance of that tradition. By altering the lyric, singing “I heard it through the bass line,” the Slits self-consciously reversed the position of women in popular music by questioning women’s absence in the ranks of rock musicians. Girls were not supposed to be hearing anything through the bass line! (Daugherty)

John Savage writes: “History is made by those who say ‘No’ and Punk’s utopian heresies remain its gift to the world.” Greil Marcus responds: Since [punk] the world has changed little enough that, putting on the discs today, it can seem as if the gift is being opened for the first time.” (Marcus) After the sixties had passed, once endeared girl groups like the Crystals, the Shirelles, the Shangri-La’s, and the Supremes were parodied by early female punk groups like the Slits. Girls in these groups rejected traditional objectification but unfortunately the sort of “amateurism” they promoted as a product of punk meant that the boys didn’t respect them. Girls became what they’d always been, maybe not in the “establish[ed] image of femininity” (Daugherty5) but these movements made them clowns and common performers rather than serious musicians since they “prized creativity over technique.” (Azerrad) In fact, Malcolm McLaren, one of “punk’s principal ideologues” (Press37) was “unable to conceive of a female rebellion or outrage equivalent to what he’d wreaked with the Sex Pistols”(Press38) and was prepared only to exploit them. Our only disappointment with the Slits is that “drifted off mainstream radar to become romanticized cult figures1”. Commercial success was denied to The Slits because they fought “commodification and sexism when record companies wanted to change their image.” (Catamero) We find that bands like the Slits, aside from inspiring future girls to make their own bands, made one significant step: They were the first girls to say “No.” In an interview conducted for Kitty Magick Ari-Up of the Slits provides a glimpse of her own experience and offers new hope for the music world today:

If we were able to be away from all that male chauvinist shit going on at that time we would have been to the level of… you know, it was alright for guys like the Pistols or the Who to smash up their instruments… The boys could be boys. They could be punks. They could be naughty. It was acceptedâÂ?¦And the Slits, or any other female band, of course weren’t acceptable. I was definitely not fully aware of things then, I was only thirteen. I personally didn’t know about the business that much at all. If we handled the Slits like women know how to handle business now, we still would have gotten shit because not only were we 20 years ahead, musically, of our time, and revolutionary, spiritually, socially and clothes-wise, but we were girls and girls didn’t know. If we were around now, we would be right in time.

Thirty years since the appearance of the Slits, the “degree of change in [our] fragmented musical climate appear[s] to be small” (Gaar227)

C. Electrelane
Far as my research has traveled into the dark corners, back rooms, and of women in rock, I find One. One band that I can respect and respond to musically, ideologically, emotionally, and most importantly, Seriously. These girls are serious about what they do and they do it well. Celebrity producer Steve Albini was a fan of their debut LP and would provide the studio and production for their critically acclaimed second release, The Power Out.

An all-female rock quartet from Brighton, England, Electrelane consists of Emma Gaze, drums; Ros Murray, bass; Mia Clark, guitar; and Verity Susman, keyboard, vocals, guitar, saxophone. On their first release, Power Out, the band produces instrumental soundscapes that have been compared to those of Stereolab. While the band dislikes this comparison it has not been to their discredit. For the album’s artwork the band refused to use images of themselves opting instead to use their own photography of spaces, particularly of abandoned amusement parks. Immediately we are informed that this band of girls is not going to be like many others. One might think this a gesture of the record label due to nontraditional beauties within the band but we find that this is not the case. We recently saw a few pictures of the girls and they’re absolutely gorgeous by anyone’s standards. Disagreements with their original label, including the use of their faces for videos and album artwork, lead them to sign with MrLady a label known for carrying Le Tigre, the Butchies, and other predominantly female bands who focus on pushing sexual standards. It would not be adequate to call all of the ladies on the MrLady label “lesbians” because if our research serves any purpose at all it informs us that they would not want to be all-inclusively blanketed in that fashion. In Electrelane, all of the ladies choose to express their sexuality eclectically rather than default to the societal norms but unlike their label comrades in Le Tigre, they do not express their sexuality in a blatant fashion. With their first album they considered singing unnecessary and the music was therefore interpreted by listeners on an individual basis. Immediately we were drawn to the band for their dynamic power and found the only criticism of the album came from critics who wanted the girls to sing.
Rock it to the Moon (1998) was praised by critics and its popularity allowed the band to play high-profile sold-out shows with Sleater-Kinney, Death In Vegas, Broadcast, And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead, Primal Scream, and Le Tigre1. By concentrating on the music above all else and the emotions that they could convey with it, Electrelane secured a solid following.

The girls are smart: They prefer “bookish” to the cliquish “art-rock” that is popular in the indie scene now and with their degrees (particularly Susman’s philosophy degree) they utilize and reference marginal literature to make understated remarks regarding their sexuality. Yet, their politics do not dominate their project. Susman in an interview stated that while they were adamantly behind the post-feminist movement that they were reluctant to shout out at their audience, in the way that Le Tigre might, stressing instead that they want to make the music as accessible as possible to as many people.
At the moment Electrelane is as close as we have come to rebalancing the inequipoise of the music industry. Their fame is by no means monumental and they remain attached to the radical indie label, MrLady, but we find that acceptable. If we remember correctly, the downfall of Heart was connected not only to inner band turmoil but to their submission to industry ideals – a submission that Electrelane likely will not mimic. Heart learned their lesson and with that lesson went on to teach their progeny, namely female rock bands like Electrelane and those who cannot yet be named.

Again, Electrelane consistently focuses on the music. They are Serious musicians and the music that they produce is of epic proportion. This is their major contribution to the history of women in rock music. We urge you to go out and buy their record or download it if that is your only means. The music will speak for itself – more eloquently than any words could express.

IV. COUP DE GRÃ?Â?CE
PT. 1
In order to bring us up to present day, we’ll present an excerpt from an interview with Allison Cole, a comic book artist and self-professed music snob. During the course of a few Cosmo’s she talked a bit about women in music, the role they play and the sort of band that she envisions could be revolutionary. Here she outlines her own ideal:

“The whole idea would be that we would be girls without emphasizing the fact that we were girls. The downfall of female musicians is that they emphasize the fact that they’re girls. But the Riot Grrrls take it to a whole different level. They’re sadâÂ?¦Bikini Kill is so awful. They’re just not good. If they made good music – like Highway to Hell – like AC/DC. We’d have a hot male vocalist but have people not know that the girls were the musicians and not be the focus but just play the instruments well. It’d almost be a gimmick but -” (Daum8)

Though delivered fourteen years before we can pretend that Kathleen Hanna of Bikini Kill responds to Allison:

“All-female bands before tried to integrate their presence as women into classic rock ‘n’ roll forms as assimilationistâÂ?¦they just want to be allowed to join the world as it is; whereas I’m into revolution and radicalism and changing the whole structure. What I’m into is making the world different for me to live in.” (Gaar442)

According to Allison, Bikini Kill’s intentions were pushing women in music up to a higher plateau but their failure was in the music that they created. An attempt to appreciate this music will find most listeners scratching their heads wondering why they don’t like it when they know that they should. Bikini Kill’s audience, like the audience of early punk groups, is limited not only by their political motivation but by their power and intentional inaccessibility.

The efforts of these early pioneers paved the way for a band like Electrelane to come into their own but it is presently our task to move beyond the parody into fresh fertile territory in order to begin the attack on the fortress of male domination.

PT. 2

O, “aesthetic Tiller[w]omen!” we leave you with the Secret of Success:

Do it, do it well, and if you want to make some real progress forget about the boys for a while. Take the bit between your teeth and rise above as a sonic wizard.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

Azerrad, Micheal, Our Band Could Be Your Life: Scenes from the American Indie Underground 1981-1991, Little, Brown and Co., copyright 2001 Micheal Azerrad

Bayton, Mavis Frock Rock: Women Performing Popular Music,; copyright Oxford University Press 1998

Belz, Carl, The Story of Rock, copyright 1969 Oxford University Press

Callen, Anthea, “Ideal Masculinities: An anatomy of Power,” from The Visual Culture Reader edited by Nicholas Mirzoeff, copyright Routeledge1998

Catamero, Maria, “ARi-UP: Interview, Kitty Magik Magazine 2002

Daugherty, Rebecca, “The Spirit of ’77: Punk and the Girl Revolution,” Women & Music, 2002

Daum, Megan, “Interview with Allison Cole”, copyright Rhode Island School of Design 2004

Daum, Megan, “Sacred Thoughts, a discussion of First Thoughts: The Life and Letters of Abigail Adams,” copyright Rhode Island School of Design, 2004

Gaar, Gillian G., She’s a Rebel: The History of Women in Rock and Roll, Seal Press, copyright Gillian G. Gaar 1992

Gelles, Edith B., First Thoughts: The Life and Letters of Abigail Adams, , copyright 1998 Twayne Publishers

Gillet, Charlie, The Sound of the City: The Rise of Rock ‘n’ Roll, Dell Publishing Co., copyright 1972 Charlie Gillet

Koskoff, Ellen, Women and Music in Cross-Cultural Perspective, Greenwood Press, 1987

Marcus, Greil, In the Fascist Bathroom: Punk in Pop Music, Harvard University Press, copyright Greil Marcus 1993

Press, Joy and Reynolds, Simon, The Sex Revolts, Harvard University Press, copyright Joy Press and Simon Reynolds 1995

Reynolds, Simon, “Walking on Thin Ice,” from Da Capo Best Music Writing 2002 edited by Jonathan Lethem and Paul Bresnick, copyright Da Capo Press 2002

OTHER SOURCES:
Sasha Webb, Electrelane: Sexual, Intellectual, Unconventional, http://discorder.citr.ca/features/electrelane.html
Jumana Farouky, Electrelane Interview http://www.undertheradarmag.com/webonly/electrelane/electrelane_bonus.html

Hannah More, “Florio” 1779
Verity Susman, all quoted lyrics from Electrelane are the copyright of Verity Susman 2004