Saluting the Women of New Wave

[WolverineSyr]

We’ve had some good conversations about who was the hottest female new wave artist. I think we ought to recognize the other contributions they’ve made to the genre too. I’m not a flag waving, sensitive feminist kind of guy, but I do like women singers a lot. For me, trying to find a true alternative to the typical AOR radio in the ‘70’s meant seeking out something very different – which was women as vocalists & musicians.

Think of the big female rock performers of the 60’s and 70’s – few and far between. I always felt they were held to a higher standard than their male counterparts, a women rocker had to be attractive, have a great voice, and have a hook or identifiable image. If they played an electric instrument, it was an oddity.
Punk changed that. Women were seen as being as viable and as important as the male performers, not just singers, but musicians, writers, producers, and they didn’t have to be pretty, or sexy. Punk was such an equal opportunity genre. It was cool to see not only guys that were angry upstarts, but it was exciting to hear a different kind of voice too.

There was no one like Patti Smith. Her impact wasn’t because of her gender, but her vision & talent. When I think of the architects of punk – Patti is absolutely in the top 5. She brought such an immediacy and art to her music, and did something that was unique, visionary, fearless, and 100% original.
I never thought Debbie Harry fell into the pretty girl singer category. Deb had a vision, she carried an intelligence with her and no one but she controlled her career or dictated what kind of music she would sing. She was beautiful, smart, knew how to market herself and truly experimented with musical styles.
I remember how Joan Jett inspired several of my friends to actually start bands. She could have been anyone of us and proved that even we could be in a band and make it. I appreciated that Lene Lovich and Toyah could be as bizarre and strange as they wanted, and weren’t looked at as novelties, but as artists. I loved how there was such a hoopla about an all girl band like the Go Gos, but by their second album, they were part of the mainstream.

I can’t think of another sub-genre of rock music that embraced female performers the way that New Wave and punk did. Think of the wide variety of performers and the diverse messages from Berlin to the Au Pairs, Siouxsie to Kim Wilde, The Slits to Claire Grogan, Martha Davis to Poly Styrene. All of them different, but as important and memorable as any male performer.

It was a great time, and I just wanted to salute all the women who didn’t play folk, didn’t sing ballads, wore Mohawks, bleached their hair and left a lot of roots showing, could care less if they were fat, had acne scars, or had an overbite, picked up guitars, played hard, sang rough, blew up TVs, redefined what attractive was, redefined who could sing what kind of music, made a mark on the genre, and didn’t do stuff that appealed to just girls – but everyone.

[Spectre General]

I think the problem with your post Wolverine, is that you summed it all up with the opening post!....No wait......you forgot to mention Total Coelo.



Seriously though great post, I agree wholeheartedly with what you said, the moment I saw this I immediately thought of Joan Jett, Kim Wilde and Debbie Harry in that order.

[buffalochipz]

I have to second your mention of Joan Jett. Not only is she a great musician but she pretty much single-handedly invented the leather-n-studs rock and roll/punk look. Who do you think dressed Sid Vicious?

[Bearcatrock]

Good Topic!

My first vote goes to Anne Dudley of Art of Noise.

And although, the new wave connection is loose - I consider most of Kate Bush's work to be born of genius (especially 'The Sensual World'… a ridiculously pretentious genius, but still incredibly talented.

Kate St. John of the Dream Academy.

Alison Moyet.

Siouxsie.

Nena - What a catalog of outstanding pop tunes... Lass Mich Dein Pirat Sein!

Debora Iyall of Romeo Void.

Cosey of Throbbing Gritsle / Chris & Cosey.

And an honorable mention goes to Suzanne Vega, who’s 'Days of Open Hand' is the close enough mesh (for me) of new wave mood/lyrics with pop-folk. She is one of my favorite all-time lyricists and one of the few prominent post-Joni Mitchell era singer/songwriter's that did not stay mired in the stereo-typed Sarah Mclaughlin / Tori Amos / Heather Nova pseudo-feminist (as opposed to rational feminism) folk-rock (which seems to be more of the angst-ridden love songs with the occasional bumper sticker philosophy message thrown in for good measure). (This is not to knock the 3 above's total catalog, but... a little controversy never hurt.)

[DayGloJo]

Wolverine,

I know you didn't mean to overlook Chrissie Hynde, either. She was my absolute favorite. Chrissie and the Pretenders, like Joan Jett possessed an energy and attitude that female rock performers before them never had. Hynde also had the guts to write songs about rough sex for pleasure in a way that no one else previously had: "Precious," "Tattooed Love Boys," "Bad Boys Get Spanked." On the flip side she also created sensitive songs about the longing for intimacy and realtionships like "Message of Love" and "2000 miles."

DayGloJo
"You shot your mouth off and I showed you what that hole was for."

[MartiniHoudini]

Don't forget Annabella Lwin (Bow Wow Wow), she was a tough little cookie at 15.

[2Nu]

Yup yup and... Yup

Great Post and followups but y'all forgots one teeeney leetle artist...

[:0]ANNIE LENNOX![:0]

and I second for Kate Bush (for good artistic measure)
[:D][:D][:D]

[Ollie Stench]

I grew up with New Wave and Punk, starting around 1978 when I was 10. The idea that there was rampant sexism in bands or music in general was never brough to my attention. Kate and Cindy of The B-52's were on equal ground with Fred, Suzanne and JaAnne in The Huma nleage were just as important as Phil. And no man could match Siouxsie! I guess I was lucky (or blind) to never really see the sexism in music.


I've been in around 17 or 18 different bands in my lifetime (so far) and almost halh of them have been co-ed. I have never once had a female in the band simply because she was female, I took the best musicians for the job. In one band I replaced the male bass player who quit with a female bass player who rocked. After our first gig with the new bass player I had 3 different men come up to me and say "Dude, that's so cool you got a hot chick to play bass". That really pissed me off, because from my point of view she was just a damn good bass player.

[DayGloJo]

[quote][i]Originally posted by Ollie Stench[/i]
<br>I have never once had a female in the band simply because she was female, I took the best musicians for the job.
[/quote]

Could I please come work for you???? [;)]

DayGloJo

[guyinsf]

I have always read and heard that Debbie Harry has always be VERY supportive of "rival" female artists. I've seen early blondie pix of her around 76/77 wearing shirts that say "patti smith group" at a time when Patti herself was dismissing Debbie has a legit artist. I also found that after the Runaways disbanded and Joan Jett has a hard time staring up her solo career, Joan would hang out with Debbie on some Blondie tour and Debbie went around introducing Joan to a lot of major people in the industry and even now, they are very good friends. I just think that's a really cool and admirable thing about her considering how big she was at Blondie's peak.

[WolverineSyr]

[quote][i]Originally posted by Ollie Stench[/i]
<br>I grew up with New Wave and Punk, starting around 1978 when I was 10. The idea that there was rampant sexism in bands or music in general was never brough to my attention.
[/quote]

The lack of sexism was one of the reasons I appreciated punk & new wave in the first place and that a gender divide didn't necessarily exist, as opposed to say, Album Oriented Rock formats. Punk & New Wave were an open game regardless of gender, orientation, race, etc. It's a unique genre in that it embraced so many different kinds of people outside the realm of white guys.

Ollie - reading your post, I worry that I was being unclear, so I wanted to clarify that! [:D]

[bpdp3]

To me there's no question that new wave was very accepting of all genders, sexes, etc etc (that includes Jayne/Wayne County). Very different from the heavy metal scene popular at the same time with my friends.

I was just listening to the GoGo's debut the other night, and it's really a terrific record. Wouldn't matter if it was guys or girls, those are great songs. Wish I couldv'e seen them in their heyday.

DayGlo - - you are so right about Chrissie Hynde. God I loved that 1st Pretenders lp. And not even just for the lyrical content - - there again those are really well-written songs. She could dish it out, couldn't she?

[WolverineSyr]

[quote][i]Originally posted by guyinsf[/i]
Joan would hang out with Debbie on some Blondie tour and Debbie went around introducing Joan to a lot of major people in the industry
[/quote]

I'm pretty sure that Joan plays guitar on a track or sings back-up vocals on Blondie's Plastic Letters. I'll have to check the liner notes.

[KYYX4ever]

Not my style of music, but yeah--I always admired Joan Jett for doing her own thing. She really rocks!

Wendy O. Williams (also not my style of music) also rocked a hard jam. That woman played hard and lived harder. What a nut.

Bearcatrock: I totally agree about Suzanne Vega(I LOVE her!), as well as your assertion about the whole angry white woman rock of the 90's. Alanis MorUpset and that sort of useless crap. Blech!

[Ollie Stench]

[quote][i]Originally posted by DayGloJo[/i]
<br>[quote][i]Originally posted by Ollie Stench[/i]
<br>I have never once had a female in the band simply because she was female, I took the best musicians for the job.
[/quote]

Could I please come work for you???? [;)]

DayGloJo
[/quote]

What instrument do you play, and do you want to move to Minneapolis?

Oh, and what do you look like, how well can you bat your eyelashes, and do you look good in a miniskirt? [:D]