Research // Sexism in Rock, Metal & Alternative Communities // Basic History Overlook

So, let's start at the beginning. The VERY beginning. Rock N Roll comes from the Blues - Blues was created by freed slaves in the deep south of America. As the slaves moved around to different states they would play songs that included African musical traditions, african working songs & spirituals, with these including shouts, chants, field hollers & simple ballads. The Blues evolved into Jazz, rhythm & blues & rock and roll. Ultimately, we owe rock and metal to black people.

Rock N Roll is coined to have been started by a black, queer, american woman named Sister Rosetta Tharpe. She was a singer, songwriter & played guitar. She played Gospel music but is considered pioneer of Rock n Roll because of her use of heavy distortion on the electric guitar. If this is a name you don't know there's one reason why - sexism. Elvis is considered the king of rock n roll, but if Sister Rosetta never played her beautiful songs to a wide audience, Elvis would have never been inspired. Not just Elvis though -Little Richard, Johnny Cash, Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis etc. She took on tours that meant she was able to take gospel music to places it wouldn't normally be, such as nightclubs. She was written out of history until around 2018 when an article wrote about her history and what she did for rock n roll, and she was finally acknowledged and inducted into the rock and roll hall of fame 45 years after her death. (the rock n roll hall of fame is problematic in itself but that’s for another day)

This also happened to a lot of the 60’s bands - the british invasion came to america in the early 60’s with bands like the beatles making it big and then bringing rock back over to the UK. A new craze was happening in the pacific northwest of the US thought - garage rock. Basically, it was suburban white kids making bands in their parents garages. It felt like they didn't have much impact to begin with, but they became a driving force for the scene as whole, as they were defying conservative norms, blending rock n roll, R & B, and a lot of them actually pre-date the british invasion. The bands would also play gig’s anywhere and everywhere, creating the underground culture that the alternative scene as a whole has. Every single article I've read about garage rock only references male bands, and yet there were plenty of women defying the norm too! Notable bands include Ace of Cups, She, The Girls, Goldie & The Gingerbreads, The Untouchable, The Pleasure Seekers & The Liverbirds. Some of the women commented that they created all female bands because men wouldn’t let them into their bands or only wanted them to play and look a certain way - so essentially these women were not only rebelling against society being female in music but also against the men in their own subcultures. Janis Joplin played a huge part in making space for women in the scene, but also showing women that they could be whoever they wanted. She wasn’t afraid to express her sexuality, was one of the first artists to show a visible tattoo (very scandalous in the 60’s) & was just an all round badass. Psychedelic Rock was huge in 60’s with the rise of the peace movement, and one of the key figures in the movement was singer Grace Slick. Her work in 4 bands, mostly notably Jefferson Starship continued to pave the way for rock and women in general and she was even credited for performing topless once, in a time where women's bodies were heavily oppressed - but she has been written out of history as she retired in the early 90’s. There seems to be a pattern of this throughout the history of the scene, like whenever women retire, take time off to have a family, for personal issues etc they are just forgotten about? A good example of this is Jinx Dawson of Coven. Jinx & Coven are credited to inspiring Black Sabbath, creating the “devil horns” before Ronnie James Dio did it, and they were distinctive in their use of witchcraft in their material. Jinx were widely ignored for a long time - they recently have been brought back into conversation with Tiktok mentioning their place in our history. One of the best examples of bands paving the way are Fanny. They were one of the first all female rock bands to be signed to a label, and their legendary performances inspired the likes of The Go-Go’s, The Runaways & The Bangles.

Hard Rock was also born in the late 60’s with men like Jimi Hendrix, Cream & Eric Clapton inspiring bands like Led Zeppelin & Deep Purple. However in turn, the 70’s & the women of the 60’s brought a new wave of rock and metal to the scene. Women who made mainstream success in the 70’s include Stevie Nicks/Fleetwood Mac, Heart, The Runaways, Pat Benatar, Suzi Quatro Patti Smith etc. Women seemed to stand on more equal footing in the 70’s and I believe this is because it was easier to have a hit. The charts were very unbiased as in genre’s weren’t split into subgenres and rock wasn’t shunned yet and MTV hadn’t found a footing yet - a rock artist had the same chance to get a hit as a pop artist. In terms of race in our own scene though, black women and POC were beginning to be pushed out due to racist views, labels choosing to push white artists further etc. While Rock was enjoying time in the spotlight, british punk was taking off. Punk is widely known for being DIY, anti-establishment, anti-sexism, anti-racism, socialist, political etc. British Punk was born in pub culture - anyone could get up and play. Women that are credited for influencing and playing punk rock are more mainstream like Blondie, Siouxsie and the Banshees with more forgotten bands like X-Ray Spex, The Slits. Black Sabbath gave birth to heavy metal, and it exploded from there. One of the first examples of women in heavy metal is GRLSCHOOL. They were even endorsed by Motorhead after impressing Lemmy at show. Doro Perch, Sean Yseult, Lita Ford also fought for their places in the scene but are often not mentioned unless spoken about specifically.

The 80’s continued to evolve metal and rock and again it enjoyed it’s time in the spotlight with the rise of glam metal, heavy metal evolving & rock getting a mainstream run on MTV with the likes of ACDC, Guns N Roses, Van Halen etc. Women were really beginning to be pushed out of the scene with it becomes more of a “mens” thing. However, some women were not detered by white men taking over the scenes. Women like Annie Lenox, Joan Jett, Bjork, Bonnie Tyler push continued to push through boundaries and gender norms. Vixen enjoyed time in the spotlight as an all female glam metal band (a genre that was heavily dominated by men, and yet was very feminine in how they sang, their appearance etc). Metal was beginning to split off into subgenres like black metal, thrash metal (Metallica gave birth to this particular one). A lot of the women from the 70’s were still riding high, like heart, blondie etc and a lot of these women would inspire the 90’s.

The 90’s was interesting time for rock & metal. Grunge was born with bands like Nirvana & Soundgarden becoming huge, the riot grrl movement happening, and metal having a funny moment as it because very and bands struggled to keep up. The Riot Grrl movement was HUGE. It reached 26 countries and inspired so many women to pick up instruments and scream & shout, talk about feminism, politics, gender, sexuality etc. Bikini Kill, Bratmobile, The Third Sex because huge in the scene. Nu Metal was also born in the 90’s, with Korn being coined the creaters. Nu Metal is a blend of metal & hip hop - it wouldn’t take off properly until the early 2000’s, however Korn were playing it as early as 1993. However, bands like Hole, Garbage, No Doubt, L7, The Cranberries all found footing in the underground scenes and became what would be the new mainstream for our genres. Women are often at the front of the conversations of the 90’s, I think it’s because metal and hard rock were out of the picture for a little while so it allowed unconventional bands and women to flourish. Unfortunately it began to point out other problems in the scene - Courtney Love of Hole married Kurt Cobain and literally faced criticism and hate since. Some speculate that she killed him, she drove him to it etc and it often overlooks Hole’s music and the impact that both bands had on music at the time. Women were starting to get harassed at gigs often as groupie culture of the 70’s and 80’s bled through so men just saw women at the gigs as sexual objects, and it’s a problem that we still haven’t sorted or really addressed.

The 2000’s was another explosive time for our spaces. Kerrang, Scuzz & Metal Hammer helped to create spaces for us & keep our genre hovering on the edge of the mainstream. They blended sub genres and played anything on their channels which really helped for all parts of our spaces to flourish. The birth of the internet would help the scene later in the decade, with myspace playing a huge part into taking things online. Games like Guitar Hero, Need For Speed, Saints Row would also expose people to the music. But lets talk music for a sec! The first half of the decade saw powerhouses like Evanescence, Lacuna Coil, Flyleaf, Within Temptation, Kittie, Jack Off Jill appear, with Evanescence making one of the most successful debuts of the decade with Fallen. Avril Lavigne’s first two album’s were released in all their pop punk glory, inspiring a new generation and fueling the emo age. P!nk also had a part to play - the label wanted her to play pop music but not only was she punk in spirit, her albums in the 2000’s blended pop rock, also further inspiring the emo age. Emo was another interesting time - the first look at how the internet shapes a generation. Myspace gave teens the chance to see people from all round the world and listen to allsorts. Pop punk & Emo women were icons (Paramore, Lights, Hey Monday, Against The Current), but they really had to fight for their places because warped tour and the emo sound was beyond dominated by white men. The emo age really split our spaces apart for a long time - there was a lot of gatekeeping on what music you could or couldn’t listen to, certain ways of how to look, men telling us that we couldn’t like emo AND metal cos liking emo meant you weren’t a true metalhead and just a lot of misogynistic problems. It also cost women being able to enter certain spaces for a long time.

The 2010’s further evolved with a lot of the smaller bands making the big time and with the rise of Twitter, Tumblr & Instagram, the internet gave us the opportunity to reach more people then ever. Heavier bands like In This Moment, Amaranthe, Arch Enemy ,New Years Day, Butcher Babies enjoyed success in the metal scenes, inspiring more women then ever to come to gigs, festivals etc and ignore the men who don’t want us there. The rise of Halestorm, The Pretty Reckless, Skillet etc brought women into Hard Rock spaces that they were previously denied or laughed out of. Pop punk enjoyed the rise of Tonight Alive, We Are The In Crowd, Paramore, Icon For Hire, PVRIS. Other bands include Sumo Cyco, Straight Line Stitch, iwrestledabearonce. The internet is really beginning to highlight the problem in our spaces - festivals are still dominated by white men, every band recommended on any social media platform is still full of men (it is debated if spotify does this intentionally), groupie culture still rears it’s ugly head - the warped tour scandal proved that. Mainstream success is rare meaning POC are automatically at a disadvantage, as labels often won’t take them on. Ash Costello of NYD spoke about how hard it was to get signed because girls are still seen as “token”. We have a lot of issues with sexism, and I feel like our histories really reflect it. Men don’t want to hear how wrong the problems are so we’re laughed at if we speak about it, but I have noticed within the last year, the empowerment of women standing together (weather online or in real life) is starting to make a difference. Everything starts with the fans nowadays as we are the roots of a band - we literally make or break them, and this is power to be used for good.