MEN'S MUSIC.

This is awesome. Kathleen Hanna has announced that she and former Bikini Kill members have started a Bikini Kill Archive online, where users can add their own memories and stories. Check it out!

Discovering Bikini Kill at fourteen was one of those life changing experiences. I can see from this site that I'm not alone and other people found their music as inspiring as I did. Everybody has their own favorite Bikini Kill song, but mine was always their only quasi ballad, "R.I.P.- Rest in Pissoff- ed ness" about a murdered gay boy.

But wait
There's another boy genius who's fucking gone
I hope the food tastes better in heaven
I know there's lots of rad queer boys up there
I hope every time they talk to you
They know they're lucky to be yr friend

I had never heard such a boldly queer positive song. Maybe I still haven't. I was fourteen and living in rural Washington State, and the message helped. So much so that maybe it saved my life. Who knows? My best friend Alice, who is still my template for awesome women (see every play I've ever written) and me both got our first tastes of self-esteem from this loud music, which said to us that even though we were weird and queer and gay etc. we were okay. Not only were we okay,  we might just be fucking AWESOME.

God, I wish there were more bands like Bikini Kill today. I cringe when I think that Miley Cyrus and Taylor Swift or whoever don't have strong alternatives telling girls and fags and outsiders to reject what they're being sold and to make their own way. Except for The Gossip I can't think of any radical females in the game.

Speaking of music, an old livejournal friend recently wrote that she wished there could be a freeze on straight dude music critics for a while, so that we could get some different perspectives. What would happen?

Would U2 finally fucking retire? Would under appreciated subgenres (by douche bag critics, that is) finally get the recognition they deserve? Like motown? The girl groups of the 1960's like The Ronettes and The Shangri-las? How about disco, which never gets the respect it deserves? And how about the fact that music critics always skip over New Wave in it's entirity like there was nothing between punk and grunge? To her view (and mine) critics act like music begins and ends with The Beatles and that Yoko Ono was just a musical footnote. BULLSHIT.

Let the ladies take over for a while. And the fags. Music history would look a lot different.

Comments

[boyfriend]

Mine were Suzanne Vega, The Pet Shop Boys, Violent Femmes, L7 and R.E.M. music can mold you and make you a better person. I'd still be shy and scared to talk to people if it wasn't for the music I found in my teens. praise 120 Minutes, hallelujah.

[99]

Where does Lady Gaga fall on the spectrum for you?

I do agree that indie pop has become pretty much all boys and pretty, pretty movie stars. Unless there's some great underground we don't know about. Which would be depressing, because then that would mean we're really fucking old.

[Josh]

Lady gaga? Hmm. Well, I like that she's such an advocate for the gay community, but her music itself isn't very bold or political.

[99]

Good point. She's bringing the aesthetics, but not the politics. Then again, it doesn't seem like anyone's really bringing the politics these days. If Green Day is what counts as a political band right now...I shudder. Where the hell is Midnight Oil when we need 'em?

[Earl Flournoy]

Yeah, I'm definitely with you. Not that I have something against male-centric and mainstream music, but I think now's the time to acknowledge the under-the-radar genres. My wife and I both love Motown. In fact, whenever we attend costume parties, she dresses up like Diana Ross with her Motown Tress wigs, and I try to be as smooth as Lionel Richie. Anyway, I think it's enough that people like us exist. At least those underdog genres of music are alive somewhere, right?