Grrrls Interrupted

By Forest Lightbody

Photo courtesy of Oriana Barbato

As a child with much older siblings, I remember liking very few of the musical song choices of my sister and brothers. The list of few consisted of Heart, Patti Smith, the Pretenders and Kate Bush.It was not until the mid 80s that I “discovered” music, the girls on the radio with the crazy that I began to like. Acts like Cyndi Lauper, the Go Go’s, Pat Benetar and Nina Hagen.

Once the 90s had begun, I began sneaking into gay bars underage to try and find out what I thought I was missing. Watching the gay boys dance to bad dance music, I realized that there were only a few songs that I actually liked. I wasn’t sure what it was that I thought I was missing but it didn’t amount to much, as I once again started losing interest in the current state of music.

It was around that time that I started hanging around in the dyke non-bar scene. There were some girls like myself that had tattoos and dyed hair and in my opinion had more of a radical take on the world. It was in this peer group that I could relate to more than the boy scene. I started listening to more ‘alternative’ music.

My passion for music hit me all at once with the explosion of the ‘riot grrrl’ movement. I would have to say that that is when music became an obsession. Going to concerts with my friends and seeing unapologetic women playing guitars, screaming and swearing. It all made me lose control in the mosh pit. I remember losing my nose piercing from a kick in the face from a steel toed crowd surfer at a Hole concert, bruised ribs at an L7 show and a broken bone at 7 Year Bitch. I had never felt so alive and thought it was all worth it. I thought I would love music forever.

Nothing lasts forever is what they always say, and unfortunately they were right. It all fell apart too quickly. In fact, in my opinion what happened was sickening.

With all the music that is out now, there is a definite lack of strong women. If you don’t believe me just listen to any radio station. Most playlists consist of 90% male vocalists, and the selected few females that make it on the radio are singing about love found or love lost.

Recently, I have been going back in music history as far as the 20s to find the ones I have missed. My obsession with music has once again faded and I wait not so patiently for women in music to get off their asses and start kicking some.

Photo courtesy of Jez Brown – Maverick Photography

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