Riot Grrl

Anyone my age and older can remember a time (the early to mid 1990's) when bands with women members were all the rage. Remember when Garbage, Veruca Salt and Hole were on the radio all the time? That was because of the Riot Grrl movement.

Because of lesser known bands (at the time) such as Bikini Kill, L7, Team Dresch, Heavens to Betsy and Bratmobile, bands such as the ones previously mentioned were beginning to get signed on major labels.

The media and fashion industry and all other types of popular media discovered that these young women could possibly make them some money. Because feminists don't like crap like that, the Riot Grrl movement disbanded. Unfortunately, so did women artists getting breaks. ( I totally disagree with the rationale behind why the Riot Grrl movement ended. I wish these bands didn't mind becoming popular. Think of how many young women around the world could have been exposed to the message and have saved them from "lipstick and boobs".

I'm not 100% knowledgeable about the music industry today. From my limited observations, I see that there really are no women bands. There is Pink, which from performances I've seen are not entirely feminist friendly. Yes, she has that one song about not being like Lindsey Lohan or something, but the message is lost when she performs practically naked and the majority of her songs about some guy.

Then there is something called Lady Gaga, which, with all my research, I still can't entirely figure out what's going on there other than another female "role model" selling young women fascist images of beauty instead of intelligence and empowerment.

I am discouraged with the music industry. I still hope someday MTV will once again try to sell Riot Grrl to it's viewers.

Check this out. Riot Grrl was so popular, it made it onto an episode of Roseanne!