History Main / RiotGrrrl

[[folder: Comics]]

[[folder: Live Action Television]]

Riot grrrl bands largely drew their inspiration from female-fronted punk and alternative musicians of the past, such as Music/TheRunaways, The Raincoats, X-Ray Spex, The Slits, Music/XUSBand, Music/PattiSmith, Music/ThePlasmatics, Lydia Lunch, Music/{{Crass}}, and [[Music/SonicYouth Kim Gordon]]. Their music, much like the {{grunge}} that was becoming popular around the same time, was based around ThreeChordsAndTheTruth, eschewing complex musicianship in favour of raw production, aggressive sounds, and lyrics dealing largely with politics, society, and feminism. The movement relied heavily on promotional means pioneered by punk rock bands in the past, such as publishing various zines, photocopied handbills, collage-based booklets, and cassette culture. Said zines had a definite political bent, featuring commentary and experiences on various important issues such as sexism, mental illness, body image and eating disorders, sexual abuse, racism, rape, discrimination, stalking, domestic violence, incest, and homosexuality.

The movement coalesced around the UsefulNotes/{{Seattle}} and Olympia metropolitan areas in Washington, largely due to its extensive DIY infrastructure (and The Evergreen State College in Olympia), with its roots in the unorganised collective outrage drawn by the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anita_Hill Anita Hill judiciary hearings]] in 1991. Its name comes apocryphally from a letter Bratmobile member Jen Smith wrote to Allison Wolfe, stating ''We need to start a girl riot''. The phrase itself was the name of a zine started by Wolfe, Molly Neuman, and Bikini Kill members Kathleen Hanna and Tobi Vail.

* Music/PussyRiot

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/riotgrrl.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:The first issue of the ''Riot Grrrl'' zine.]]

Riot grrrl bands largely drew their inspiration from female-fronted punk and alternative musicians of the past, such as Music/TheRunaways, The Raincoats, X-Ray Spex, The Slits, Music/XBand, Music/PattiSmith, Music/ThePlasmatics, Lydia Lunch, Music/{{Crass}}, and [[Music/SonicYouth Kim Gordon]]. Their music, much like the {{grunge}} that was becoming popular around the same time, was based around ThreeChordsAndTheTruth, eschewing complex musicianship in favour of raw production, aggressive sounds, and lyrics dealing largely with politics, society, and feminism. The movement relied heavily on promotional means pioneered by punk rock bands in the past, such as publishing various zines, photocopied handbills, collage-based booklets, and cassette culture. Said zines had a definite political bent, featuring commentary and experiences on various important issues such as sexism, mental illness, body image and eating disorders, sexual abuse, racism, rape, discrimination, stalking, domestic violence, incest, and homosexuality.

Riot grrrl bands largely drew their inspiration from female-fronted punk and alternative musicians of the past, such as Music/TheRunaways, The Raincoats, X-Ray Spex, The Slits, X, Music/PattiSmith, Music/ThePlasmatics, Lydia Lunch, Music/{{Crass}}, and [[Music/SonicYouth Kim Gordon]]. Their music, much like the {{grunge}} that was becoming popular around the same time, was based around ThreeChordsAndTheTruth, eschewing complex musicianship in favour of raw production, aggressive sounds, and lyrics dealing largely with politics, society, and feminism. The movement relied heavily on promotional means pioneered by punk rock bands in the past, such as publishing various zines, photocopied handbills, collage-based booklets, and cassette culture. Said zines had a definite political bent, featuring commentary and experiences on various important issues such as sexism, mental illness, body image and eating disorders, sexual abuse, racism, rape, discrimination, stalking, domestic violence, incest, and homosexuality.

The mainstream music world largely misinterpreted the Riot Grrrl movement's political stances and sensibilities, making them out to be StrawFeminist [[DoesNotLikeMen misandrists]] and generally not caring enough to do the research. They also lumped various female-fronted AlternativeRock bands with the movement no matter how tenuous the similarities were, such as Music/{{Hole}}, Music/TheBreeders, The Gits, Elastica, 7 Year Bitch, Babes in Toyland, and even '''''Music/NoDoubt'''''. The sheer lack of care or research became so excessive that Bikini Kill entered a media blackout around 1993. Kathleen Hanna encouraged all the bands to do the same, but not many followed through.

A few bands have a disputed or tenuous connection with Riot Grrrl. Music/{{L7}} probably has the strongest claim to association with the movement, due to organising the Rock for Choice benefit concert. Other female punk bands that are political but didn't identify with the movement, no matter how much uninformed music journalists wanted them to, included: 7 Year Bitch, Babes In Toyland, Music/JackOffJill, Spitboy, and Adickdid. More recently, the Russian band/collective [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pussy_Riot Pussy Riot]] has been compared to the "classic" Riot Grrrl bands in some media, chiefly due to their outspoken activism against UsefulNotes/VladimirPutin.

Riot Grrrl = PunkRock + [[UsefulNotes/{{Feminism}} Feminism]] (not the [[StrawFeminist straw kind]], mind you).

Riot grrrl bands largely drew their inspiration from female-fronted punk and alternative musicians of the past, such as Music/TheRunaways, The Raincoats, X-Ray Spex, The Slits, X, Music/PattiSmith, Lydia Lunch, Music/{{Crass}}, and [[Music/SonicYouth Kim Gordon]]. Their music, much like the {{grunge}} that was becoming popular around the same time, was based around ThreeChordsAndTheTruth, eschewing complex musicianship in favour of raw production, aggressive sounds, and lyrics dealing largely with politics, society, and feminism. The movement relied heavily on promotional means pioneered by punk rock bands in the past, such as publishing various zines, photocopied handbills, collage-based booklets, and cassette culture. Said zines had a definite political bent, featuring commentary and experiences on various important issues such as sexism, mental illness, body image and eating disorders, sexual abuse, racism, rape, discrimination, stalking, domestic violence, incest, and homosexuality.

RiotGrrrl = PunkRock + [[UsefulNotes/{{Feminism}} Feminism]] (not the [[StrawFeminist straw kind]], mind you).

!!Bands generally associated with RiotGrrrl include:

The mainstream music world largely misinterpreted the Riot Grrrl movement's political stances and sensibilities, making them out to be StrawFeminist [[DoesNotLikeMen misandrists]] and generally not caring enough to do the research. They also lumped various female-fronted AlternativeRock bands with the movement no matter how tenuous the similarities were, such as Music/{{Hole}}, Music/TheBreeders, The Gits, 7 Year Bitch, Babes in Toyland, and even '''''Music/NoDoubt'''''. The sheer lack of care or research became so excessive that Bikini Kill entered a media blackout around 1993. Kathleen Hanna encouraged all the bands to do the same, but not many followed through.

The mainstream music world largely misinterpreted the Riot Grrrl movement's political stances and sensibilities, making them out to be StrawFeminist [[DoesNotLikeMen misandrists]] and generally [[TheyJustDidntCare not caring enough to do the research]]. They also lumped various female-fronted AlternativeRock bands with the movement no matter how tenuous the similarities were, such as Music/{{Hole}}, Music/TheBreeders, The Gits, 7 Year Bitch, Babes in Toyland, and even '''''Music/NoDoubt'''''. The sheer lack of care or research became so excessive that Bikini Kill entered a media blackout around 1993. Kathleen Hanna encouraged all the bands to do the same, but not many followed through.

Also, Music/{{Hole}} have absolutely nothing to do with the genre. Music/CourtneyLove hated the scene, accusing it of misandry and claiming the Evergreen State College cared more about dogma than encouraging free thinking, and mocked the riot grrrls in the Hole song "Rock Star" (originally named "Olympia"). Yet, some people still tried to claim that Hole was a riot grrrl band. Go figure.

The movement splintered by the mid '90s, disillusioned with its misrepresentation in the mainstream music press and feeling that its radical politics had been subverted or co-opted as simple "girl power" by various female-fronted bands like the Music/SpiceGirls and the Music/DixieChicks.

* Music/HuggyBear (an English band)

* Music/MamboTaxi (another English band)

The mainstream music world largely misinterpreted the Riot Grrrl movement's political stances and sensibilities, making them out to be StrawFeminist [[DoesNotLikeMen man-haters]] and generally [[TheyJustDidntCare not caring enough to do the research]]. They also lumped various female-fronted AlternativeRock bands with the movement no matter how tenuous the similarities were, such as Music/{{Hole}}, Music/TheBreeders, The Gits, 7 Year Bitch, Babes in Toyland, and even '''''Music/NoDoubt'''''. The sheer lack of care or research became so excessive that Bikini Kill entered a media blackout around 1993. Kathleen Hanna encouraged all the bands to do the same, but not many followed through.

Also, Music/{{Hole}} have absolutely nothing to do with the genre. Music/CourtneyLove hated the scene, accusing it of bigotry against men and claiming the Evergreen State College cared more about dogma than encouraging free thinking, and mocked the riot grrrls in the Hole song "Rock Star" (originally named "Olympia"). Yet, some people still tried to claim that Hole was a riot grrrl band. Go figure.