International Women’s Week (3): A Couple of All-Female Bands That Really Blew up
Patti Smith. Joan Jett. Blondie. The Pretenders. Around 1980, it looked like women were claiming their share of the Rock. And then, things stalled. The established stars continued to do ok, but new acts had trouble breaking through commercially. The ones that did so made it largely on vocals-focused ballads or fizzy pop songs, even when they had the chops to do harder, more technically sophisticated material.
Ever since then, while women have kept rocking, they have largely stayed in the singer-songwriter lane or worked as session musicians for more “bankable,” i.e., male stars.
A huge amount of talent has been sidelined, and the question is, why?
I can only put it down to industry and audience sexism. The 80s saw a broad-based backlash against women breaking traditional gender norms. Something like that is clearly happening now, in even more extreme form — it may be cyclical, in which case we can only hope this cycle burns itself out soon… Anyway, rocking out was definitely not considered normal feminine behavior.
That didn’t stop women from going for it. Some female bands started off doing punk and stuck to their guns, and they were every bit as good as the male punk and thrash bands that actually made it big.
In Europe and Asia, there was a wave of female heavy metal and progressive rock bands, which has continued into the present, though none of them have gotten much coverage in the U.S. (I’ve been posting on some of them and plan to continue!)
While progress took time, a few bands still managed to break through. In the next few posts, I will focus on bands where women play the instruments. The first two here were hugely successful. Their most popular stuff was their more poppy, less aggressive songs. But they could still rock!
The Go-Go’s: “Our Lips are Sealed”
Founded in 1978, the Go-go’s merged bubble-gum pop, rock, and a bit of the emerging New Wave esthetic into something uniquely theirs. The second all-female rock band to play all of their own instruments and to chart (the first were the Runaways), they remain the most successful such act to come out of the U.S.
Contrary to their wholesome Southern California beach-blonde image, the Go-Gos got sucked into the crazy rock lifestyle. Their lead, Belinda Carlisle, later openly talked about her intense struggles with addiction and alcohol abuse, which even predated her years in the band, saying at one point that she was “surprised I’m still here.” She has made it a point to try to get the message out about the dangers of drug abuse. The band still occasionally does reunion concerts.
This is from 1981, at the beginning of the New Wave era.
The Bangles: “Hero Takes a Fall”
One of the first all-female rock bands to break through and, after the Go-Gos, one of the biggest. Their best-known hits were not rock songs but ballads — because the market still treated rock as a male thing. This is a rock song, and in my opinion, is better than their most well-known work.
In my next post, I’ll look at some groups that were rougher around the edges. Stay tuned, and if you like this stuff, please share!
Thank you to Alexander Razin; David Acaster; Miss Catherine La Grange, spinster; Jessica Lee McMillan; Jeffrey Harvey; Charlie Cole; Jon Scarborough; Terry Barr; Nicole Brown; Elizabeth Kaldeck Smith; Steve Goldberg; If Ever You’re Listening; Dan Reich; Anthony Overs; Giulia Picciau; Laura Lind; Christine Carmichael; Stephanie Leguichard; and Thank you to Kevin Alexander for publishing.
