Rock She Wrote: Women Write about Rock, Pop, and Rap

by Evelyn McDonnell (Editor), Ann Powers, Joan Morgan (Contributor)

Brings together music criticism, fan experience, and performers' first person accounts from more that 60 women writers for 1960s to the 1990s.

This intelligently compiled, wide-ranging volume provides exciting evidence of women writers' inroads made over the past three decades into the still male-dominated field of popular music criticism. Pioneers such as 1960s New Yorker columnist Ellen Willis and Jazz & Pop editor Patricia Kennealy-Morrison (better known, tellingly, for her marriage to rock icon Jim) are grouped with younger counterparts, from novelist Mary Gaitskill to cultural critic bell hooks in sections broken down loosely by topic. In "I Am the Band," female performers such as Sonic Youth bassist Kim Gordon, offer touring testimony; critic Jaan Uhelszki, meanwhile, finds herself onstage with Kiss, makeup and all, for a 1975 Creem magazine assignment. The latter instance points up one of the book's most fascinating aspects: in a rock-and-roll world where boys wear lipstick and girls increasingly get to make lots of noise, the effects of gender on both performer and listener are far from straightforward. Many of Rock She Wrote's strongest pieces? Joan Morgan's story on her love/hate relationship with Ice Cube's misogynist rap; Lori Twersky's musings on familiar images of the "female teenage audience" as screechy and sex-crazed?find their writers at the intersection of conflicting reactions to the subjects at hand. A remarkable collection, Rock She Wrote makes clear both the difference women writers have brought to music writing and the impossibility of any attempt to nail that difference down once and for all.

Genres: Music, Nonfiction, Essays, Feminism, Anthologies, History, Pop Culture

477 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1995

Reviews

[Sarah Paolantonio · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have been meaning to read this book since I first found out about it I don't know how long ago. It is a foundational text of music journalism and of feminism. When I saw a perfect, used copy at Powell's Books in Portland, OR while on vacation this fall I knew I had waited for the right copy to cross my path. I lugged this baby from Oregon down to the next leg of our trip, San Francisco, and then across the country home to Brooklyn, NY. And then several dozen times across the East River into Manhattan and back on my commute. This book has gone the literal distance with me, and it was a pleasure to read, every word.

Ann Powers, legend and co-editor of this volume (along with Evelyn McDonnell), writes in the Outro: "Filling in the gaps, women writers throw into doubt the hierarchies of taste and of experience that order pop's history, and challenge the order that, paradoxically, relies on their willingness to be seduced without allowing for their full participation." She also uses the phrase "spent her life gulping mouthfuls of rock's wild air." That's me. That's why I came here.

I've been writing online about music for over a decade. It's how I found my voice and it's how I round out the world around me. Music journalism and women music journalists is a passion of mine. (Also see: Jessica Hopper's volume of criticism.) This book means a lot to me. From finally reading many pieces from Creem--Jaan Uhelszki's piece about being on stage with KISS in full makeup--to getting to pieces I wasn't around for in the first place from now defunct iconic publications such as The Village Voice, BITCH, many indie weekly papers, many indie papers and magazines that are now long gone and dead. Rock She Wrote is an important artifact of journalism and feminism. I can't say it enough.

Reading about the 2 Live Crew's censorship battle (while Young Thug's battle rages on) to pieces on the beginning of the Riot Grrrl scene through zines about rape culture and queer life, to Courtney Love interviews to Crawdaddy originals to Ellen Willis to Holly George-Warren writing about drug use and rock stars ("the perfect way to crawl back into the womb"); it's about feminism, about female fans in heavy metal, being married to rock stars, supporting them, being them, wanting to be them, finding your community, and bell hooks on Madonna in 1992: "Plantation Mistress or Soul Sister?"

The best part about this collection is the short blurb before each piece placing the reader in time with its author, and the fact that the pieces are dated from when they were originally published. Many collections I have of music writing that span decades don't include the year; I find that part to be the most important.

I am so glad I lugged this book all over everywhere. I hope young people saw its title, and its age, while I fumbled with it on the subway. Titles like "Little Songs of Misogyny," feminist interviews with James Brown, Lisa Robinson writing about The Velvets, writing about Sinatra in the 90s, the female teenage audience, Moshing at the Michigan Women's Festival. It's all here. This book is a historical text and I'm so glad it is mine on the shelf belonging with all the others.

Get it for anyone interested in music history, journalism, feminism, and women's role in rock journalism. Girls to the front!

[Courtney · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting collection of essays by women in the world of rock (artists, writers, groupies, etc).

[Jenny · Rating 5 out of 5]

oh, it's a good one.

[Marie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this a few years ago. It's a great collection of music essays by women. I wish I had read it in college. I think it would have had an affect on my career journey.

[Freddie · Rating 4 out of 5]

interesting selection. only point is they could have made the categories a little clearer. read from start to finish which i reckon is rare for an anthology.

[Tyler Roland · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked and chose a few articles from this tome before knocking the rest out in a marathon sitting. It taught me less about music and more about feminism (esp. Riot Grrrl and upper-class white feminism, in particular, though there are entries by bell hooks, etc.). It reads as dated at points, being a book from the '90s, and some of it was a little much. Even for a fairly progressive guy like me! But, on the whole, quite a good book. Not just saying that because my former mentor is the editor

[Marcia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting, informative, and entertaining. My only criticism (and you can’t even call it that) is that it was written in the early ‘90’s and it would be great to have a new version or volume that covers that last 25 years. Wait....weren’t the ‘90’s like, yesterday?

[Adam · Rating 4 out of 5]

A superb collection of essays and musical criticism from the '70s, '80s, and '90s - all written by women and from a specifically feminist perspective. Quite excellent.

[Rachel Davies · Rating 5 out of 5]

READ ! THIS ! BOOK !

[Abra Richardson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Exceptional pieces of journalism in here! Works by bell hooks, Jaan Uhelzski, Patti Smith, Kim Gordon and so many more. I did not see many excerpts about rap, which was slightly disappointing.