Girls Rock!: Fifty Years of Women Making Music
- Book Review,
by Mina Carson
Book Description
When Leah Hinchcliff played her guitar in a fourth grade talent show, a male classmate said, "You can’t play guitar because you’re a girl." Erin O’Hara was ignored by music store employees, who the answers to O’Hara’s technical questions toward her husband. "I don’t work in music," he finally protested. "Tell her." Although women have been writing and performing rock music for decades, little has been written about their relationship to the industry and how they construct identities as rock ‘n’ roll artists. Girls Rock! examines the determination, motivation, and passion of the female rock and rollers working in a male-dominated field. Whether learning an instrument, starting a garage band, or headlining a stadium concert, women are taking an increasingly visible and feminist stand in the music business and inspiring audiences, other musicians, and fans all over the world. In telling the stories of a broad spectrum of women performers, authors Mina Carson, Tisa Lewis, and Susan M. Shaw bring together history, feminist analysis, and developmental theory to look at how and why women have become rock musicians. Spanning a half century of music history, Girls Rock! recounts the experiences and insights of top stars as well as up-and-coming performers and music professionals. The contributions of prominent musicians such as Amy Ray and Emily Saliers of the Indigo Girls are examined alongside the experiences of women hauling newly bought electric guitars, basses, and drumsticks to Portland to attend the Rock and Roll Camp for Girls and take the first steps toward their dream of making it in rock. Combining interviews with dozens of women in rock, observation of live performances, and research in social, developmental, and feminist theory, the authors celebrate what female musicians have come to understand about their experiences as women, artists, and rock musicians and how they have influenced broader trends in rock ‘n’ roll. From Wanda Jackson’s revolutionary act of picking up a guitar to the current success of independent artists such as Ani DiFranco and Jonatha Brooke, Girls Rock! is an insider’s look at women in rock ‘n’ roll that examines the shared threads of these performers’ lives and the evolution of women’s roles in rock music since the 1950s.
About the Author
Mina Carson, associate professor of history at Oregon State University, is the author of Settlement Folk: Social Thought and the American Settlement Movement, 1885-1930. Tisa Lewis, professor of human development and Christian education at Montreat College, is the author of Faith Influences: Gospel Responsibilities in a Changing World. Susan M. Shaw, director of the Women Studies Program at Oregon State University, is the coauthor of Women’s Voices, Feminist Visions: Classic and Contemporary Readings.
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