Anthony Bellore
12/8/14
Article Review #3 pt. 2
Professor Currans
In Jennie Ruby’s article, “Women’s “cock rock” goes
mainstream,” Ruby talks about women’s cover bands that cover classic 70’s and
80’s rock band’s music. Ruby talks about
how these women who play rock songs in the industry are pushing the feminist
movement to show that women can do everything that men can, even though they
might not admit to it. She also claims
how famous women in the rock industry are still in the huge minority of women
in the rock scene.
Jennie Ruby starts out
her article by describing her experience of going to an all-girl Led Zeppelin
cover group named “Lez Zeppelin.” She
talks about how in the mid-80’s, she never would have thought of going to a
show where the headlining group had lesbian in the name of the group, and had
there been a show like that,
“I would have been among mostly
women, recognizing each other on the street approaching the venue in a
secrethandshake kind of way, by the short hair, the Birkenstocks, the
hermaphroditic clothing, the pairings of women, the absence of boyfriends. I
would have felt the thrill of recognition of political bumper stickers on cars
parked in the vicinity. I would have resisted the impulse to hold my
girlfriend's hand until we were safely inside the concert hall, and then
relaxed into the safety of a, for the moment, lesbian space.” (Ruby)
She goes on to explain
how the concert was completely different from what she expected. She talks about how the crowd was mostly full
of straight white men, and that the concert was advertised through email, and
tickets could be bought through a popular online ticket sale website. Also, she described the band as, “And the band was not exactly what you might call
"out." Or even particularly lesbian, for that matter.”
In the next part of Ruby’s article,
she cites an article written in Spin Magazine, a music publication, by Chuck
Klosterman called, “The L-Word.” “Chuck
seems troubled by the possibility that women playing men's music might be
political-returning to that worry throughout his article in between trying to
find ways where it is just about the music, or about fun, or about sex, or
about something else, anything else but "political"”. Ruby claims that the woman cover band groups
are part of the political feminist movement.
She talks about how woman in the rock scene aren’t seen as
instrumentalists, but as mainly vocalists.
She claims that these rock groups are trying to show that woman are more
than just the fronts of bands, but can be the whole band, as well. These cover groups are asserting their
abilities above men in the same genre of music, where the scene is a
male-dominated society.
Jennie Ruby’s article relates
somewhat to my second article in terms of rock music. In my second article review, I talked about
how Hernandez writes about the hegemonic masculinity problems in Mexico, and
how the band Tex Tex sings against the social norms of modern Mexico. In the article, Ruby talks about how modern
all-girl cover groups are pushing the societal norms of a male-dominated rock
industry, and those groups are showing how women can do anything that men can,
if not better. Both articles write about
how rock groups are going against social norms.
This article relates to our course theme of Music, as well. In that course theme, we talked about how
Nicki Minaj is pushing the feminist movement through music, well so are these
female cover band groups. Only the cover
bands are asserting women’s talent while also expressing themselves. He one thing I learned through reading this
article is that there are all-girl cover groups out there. I never knew about them before, and I find it
awesome that women are proving themselves in a male-dominated industry. I have a few bands that I really like where
females are the heads of the group, and I’d like to see more succeed in the
rock music scene.
