Free Blog post: How women fought to rock in the 70s from the Runaways to Heart

It goes without saying that David Bowie, Mick Jagger, Iggy Pop, Jimmy Hendrix, Robert Plant and Jim Morrison, among many, were amazing rockers who made their mark in the 70s and in history. In spite of their genius they are all male figures and have sadly outshone some strong potential women. This blog post is a homage to a few of the many women that had to fight to be able to rock and that I look up to as a musician.

          

First and foremost the 70s were wild to say the least, rockstars were praised as gods, art students got bands together even though they didn't have the slightest idea about music, punk was born and any teen who had real fervor and a rebellious temper was angry at the authority or the so called "man". With a stirred political context as conservative parties were in power both in the UK and the USA, there were many crisis and the economy was about to crash, which was a problem for the world but a miracle for engaged music and for punk's birth.  This was an opportunity for women to fight to change the image the patriarchy had placed on them and to have a voice in the music industry.  

 

 

This leads us to Joan Jett, an american singer and guitarist, who had a project of creating an all female band, The Runaways. This band had five female members Lita Ford, on guitar, Sandy West, on drums, Jackie Fox, on bass, Cherie Currie, on vocals, and Joan Jett herself also on guitar. They were pioneers as no all women band went as far as the Runaways and still they were shamed by their image. They used to smoke, drink and do drugs things only male rockstars were allowed to do.  They decided to take the bad reputation they had and use it as a message of protest for women's liberation by wearing lingerie on stage and writing provoking lyrics. Some of their songs such as "Cherry Bomb" or "I Wanna Be Where The Boys Are" show their will to emancipate from this masculine world of rock:

 

I wanna be where the boys are
I wanna fight how the boys fight
I wanna love how the boys love
I wanna be where the boys are

Hello, daddy. Hello, mom.
I'm your ch-ch-ch-cherry bomb!
Hello world! I'm your wild girl.
I'm your ch-ch-ch-cherry bomb!

As a result of this band more all girl bands started to form such as the Slits, a London based band, who were part of the post-punk movement. They also used the savage and sexualised image to emancipate themselves from public opinion and critics from the music industry.

Even though a lot of female bands formed there were still mixed bands which made it even more difficult for the women from these different bands to take some credit as they had to share the spotlight with men. This includes the band Heart where the Wilson sisters were shamed and had been called lesbians by their band and their record company. This was of course not true and they decided to write a song named "Barracuda" to answer to these reproaches showing that they wouldn't let themselves be destroyed by a predominantly male industry and that they had the will power to fight back through music.

You lying so low in the weeds
I bet you gonna ambush me
You'd have me down, down, down on my knees
Now wouldn't you, Barracuda? Oh

In contrast with Heart's songs, the frontwoman of Blondie, Debbie Harry, had to sing from a male perspective as the members of the band who wrote the lyrics were men. She didn't always recognise herself in the words but she felt the need to represent men as a woman and even thought of a boyish style to incarnate a man. This helped to give a strong comercial image to Debbie Harry as an emancipated woman.

I would like to point out that the word "frontman" first appeared in 1932 but that the word "frontwoman" does not even appear in the dictionnary.

In a nutshell, we can say that women from the 70s also made their mark in rock history but have never received the same recognition as "the boys" like the Runaways would say. These women had more nerve than the men as they had to fight to be able to rock which reflects in their bewildering music. I think women should look up to them as they have claimed their right to be recognised as the men were, if not more. The skill and stamina they had and still have has allowed most of them to have a long and successful career.

Other women who deserve recognition:

Patti Smith, singer and poet

Suzie Quatro, bass player and singer

 

Stevie Nicks, singer and 

member of Fleetwood Mac

Siouxsie Sioux, singer and frontwoman 

of Siouxsie and the Banshees

Poison Ivy, singer and guitar player

AND MANY MORE...