She's totally smart and totally threatening...
Even liberals don't like smart women
(Kurt Cobain, New York, July 1993).

This statement defines women in rock. Threatening.
There were only certain things seen as acceptable in music for women, if any at all. As Barry Walters said, "Not so long ago, any woman who wasn't a ballad,
disco, or country singer was an aberration, a suspicious invader of the boys' club, a sexy novelty at best" (26).
In recent times though, it is the atypical female musician who is gaining respect, attention, and changing stereotypes from negative to positive.

In the pre-punk era, women were given a more defined and confined role in music (Raphael xvii). There was no rebellion among female musicians of this time. Even the Shirelles, who were the first all-female band to top the American charts, still fit the mold. Their hit song was "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?" yet another reminder of the male-dominated society.

It wasn't until the late 1960's, that women began to stand their grounds. Artists like Janis Joplin, Patti Smith, Chrissie Hynde, and Deborah Harry paved the way for the more modern female musicians we know today (Raphael xvii). They started a form of socially acceptable defiance. Still singing the same stories, but not so much manipulated by a male-dominated society. They dealt with many issues that are still being dealt with today. Their involvement in music was intense, yet it was still stiffened by the pure fact that they were females. Many of the female musicians from that time period struggled to identify themselves on common ground with their counterparts, the male musicians. Patti Smith said in an interview, "It was hard for me to face up to being a girl. I thought girls were dumb" (Frick 47). These revolutionary women played a major role in breaking the rules formerly set in music.

Things were changing by the 80's. Punk rock had hit the music scene. It was more accepting of the differences in styles and people in music. Punk rock became the focus of independent women musicians, and a movement was formed. The riot grrrl movement began in Olympia, WA, in the summer of 1991, formed primarily by the singer of the band Bikini Kill, Kathleen Hanna. This movement was seen as a positive way for girls to develop themselves. Their main principal is that being female is inherently confusing and contradictory and that women have to find a way to be sexy, angry, and powerful at the same time (France 23). They also wanted to challenge cultural representations of "pretty" femininity by using ugliness as a resistant practice (Eileraas 122).

"Revolution, girl style." Those are the words of a new generation of girls. They wrote things like "slut", "media scam", and "witch" on their arms, stomach, and wherever else they could fit a pen. "Riot Grrrl bands...basked in a 'don't fuck with me' attitude" (Felder 203).

The movement set up an environment where women supported each other on their ideas, actions, and words. They encouraged each other to form bands, and to speak out on many political issues, whether personal, such as rape, or general acts of misogyny. In 1990-1991, a list of men who date-raped was kept on the wall of a stall in the Library bathroom at Evergreen State College (McClure, Nikki as qtd. in "Revolution Girl Style Now"). Several members of the riot grrrl movement who had been raped saw this as a way to warn others.

Riot Grrrls have been a mass target for stereotypes of young females involved with music. They have been called "she-devils out of Rush Limbaugh's worst nightmare" and various other names by the media (France 23). They were often accused of being exclusive by forming a life away from men. Bikini Kill, a band from Olympia that has led the riot grrrl movement, played a show with a British band Huggy Bear, in which a sign was posted requesting all men clear the front of the stage (France 24). Tobi Vail, drummer for the band Bikini Kill warns others not to listen to the spectacle that the media is presenting. Most of the criticism of the band is by people who have not even heard their music.

"Dyke. Whore. Slut. That's all anyone ever focused on" (McDonnell 147). Joan Jett puts it accurately when she explains her statement to an interviewer for Rolling Stone, "Say that you were a guy, and we're sitting here having a few drinks, and talking. And you're the guy that thinks I'm a whore. But I rebuff you. So what am I now? A dyke " (147).

In a speech made by Jody Bleyle, she addressed the violent acts taken against gays and lesbians, particularly in music. "They call our rock lesbionic, and there's a reason" She told the story of her and a band member being beat up after a show because they were "lesbian bitches" (Bleyle, Jody as qtd. in Yo Yo a Go Go). These days, though lesbian-owned labels such as Chainsaw, or Candy-Ass are not considered corny. They are considered hip, and major labels are trying to get a piece of the action, even though they do not comprehend the politics (Walters 28). k. d. lang, a lesbian singer, has also been enjoying success. She has won a Grammy, and has sold a great deal of records, which is quite a feat in America for a lesbian, let alone a Canadian lesbian.

Rock began as a penis thing, it's also a rebellion thing, and as it has grown into a multibillion-dollar corporate funded international, language transcending establishment rock has also rebelled against itself (Walters 26).

The industry is catching on to the fact that women sell. The British band HuggyBear topped the charts in Britain with songs like "Erotic Bleeding," and "Carn't Kiss." Ani Difranco started with some difficulties in music.

For many, many years, simply walking into a guitar store was almost an act of courage...They would kinda look you up and down, and say, 'Hi, honey, are you here to get something for your boyfriend?' (Hamilton 50).

She has since had vast success. She has been quoted in various financial magazines to have "made more money per album sold than Hootie and the Blowfish". She started singing when she was nine years old and formed her own record label. She has managed to stay on her own for the entirety that she has been a musician, despite the many major-label offers. DiFranco is a very successful example, however of independent-label musicians. Many members of independent bands are college students, or hold full-time jobs. Such was the case of Corin Tucker, formerly of the band Heavens to Betsy. She worked a full-time temp job in order to pay the bills. Since forming another more popular band (Sleater-Kinney), however, she does not need a full-time job. It is interesting to note the changes that some female musicians have made to keep with the "status quo." Mary Lou Lord, a folk-singer, had two different versions of a "Some Jingle Jangle Morning." The original talked about a thinking of a boy, and the revised version , about a girl. It makes one wonder if she was not going along with the recent trend of lesbianism. Ani DiFranco has drastically changed her style in what some see as an effort to gain a wider audience. Courtney Love, the front woman of the riot grrrl band Hole, has taken to designer dresses and conservative make-up, rather than her trademark baby-doll dresses and smeared red lipstick. Even with all the recent hoopla of female musicians, there still seems to be a gender-bias. There are still those that think women should not be in the music business, other than as back-up singers, or to play the tambourines. There is still loathing. Huggy Bear, a queer band recognizes this:

The Hate that cheats you as it shakes your hand.
The Hate that leaves you poorer.
The Hate with a pretence to liberalism and
radicalism that is patronising and actually
scared of people of colour with a voice,
queer punk kid rockers with big fucking
mouths.
And now it's the Hate that thinks you won't
refuse.
This is the Hate you have to love.
This is the hate that's 'alright'.
The Hate that finds the notion of an
underground infantile but still tries to bury
it anyway.
This is the Hate that Hates girls again
(Huggy Bear, as qtd. in GRRRLS).

It has been a long and involved road for the women pioneers of the music business. They have dealt with many hardships that would not have happened had they been anothre gender. These stereotypes have caused some limitations, but have been surpassed by the ambitions of female musicians who will not stand for discrimination. Women in rock have changed the way society views them. They have gained quite a following in all genres. They continue to get more and more followers. The atypical female musician has changed the negative stereotypes to positive ones. Though there are still a select few who believe women do not belong in music, they are on equal ground in a scene that was once male-dominated. Kurt Cobain, who was married to a strong, powerful, woman who was very much a part of the music scene, saw this coming a few months before his death when he said, simply, "The future of rock belongs to women."