Product Description

Iggy Pop once said of women: "However close they come I'll always pull the rug from under them. That's where my music is made." For so long, rock 'n' roll has been fueled by this fear and loathing of the feminine. The first book to look at rock rebellion through the lens of gender, The Sex Revolts captures the paradox at rock's dark heart--the music is often most thrilling when it is most misogynist and macho. And, looking at music made by female artists, it asks: must it always be this way?

Provocative and passionately argued, the book walks the edgy line between a rock fan's excitement and a critic's awareness of the music's murky undercurrents. Here are the angry young men like the Stones and Sex Pistols, cutting free from home and mother; here are the warriors and crusaders, The Clash, Public Enemy, and U2 taking refuge in a brotherhood-in-arms; and here are the would-be supermen, with their man-machine fantasies and delusions of grandeur, from Led Zeppelin and Jim Morrison to Nick Cave and gangsta rap. The authors unravel the mystical, back-to-the-womb longings of the psychedelic tradition, from Pink Floyd, Jimi Hendrix, and Van Morrison to Brian Eno, My Bloody Valentine, and ambient techno. Alongside the story of male rock, The Sex Revolts traces the secret history of female rebellion in rock: the masquerade and mystique of Kate Bush, Siouxie, and Grace Jones, the demystifiers of femininity, like the Slits and Riot Grrl, tomboy rockers like L7 and P. J. Harvey, and confessional artists like Janis Joplin, Joni Mitchell, and Courtney Love.

A heady blend of music criticism, cultural studies, and gender theory by two of rock's keenest observers, The Sex Revolts is set to become the key text in the women-in-rock debate.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #686411 in Books
• Published on: 1996-10-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 432 pages

Amazon.com Review
The Sex Revolts is a book for those who don't just love rock music, but who also love to think about it. The book's subtitle, "Gender, Rebellion, and Rock 'n' Roll" might seem to presage solemn windiness. Yet the book is trenchantly written, well-researched (complete with footnotes and a helpful bibliography) and covers a very wide array of musicians. Best of all, the book is an entertaining way to bring yourself up to speed on many of rock's current upstarts.

From Publishers Weekly
Attempting to focus on rock 'n' roll's underlying misogynies, freelance critics Reynolds and Press claim that two distinct male characters dominate the genre: the angry rebel and the sensitive mama's boy. They argue that the rebel image, exemplified by groups like the Rolling Stones and Throbbing Gristle, blames mothers for the degenerate youth culture and incites negative, if not violent, portrayals of women. Opposite such groups are those who bring the rebel full circle: dreampop, ambient and noise artists like My Bloody Valentine who have revived psychedelia's romanticism. Left stranded, then, are women who have had to find their place among these two male forces. While Patti Smith and Kate Bush have turned to males as role models, Kristin Hersh and Courtney Love have formulated their own brand of music. Yet the authors speak less about how women have dealt with the misogyny, spending more space defining the rebel and boy personas in this clinical analysis.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Gender is at the core of rock. In this music (historically created by males), the tension of love, lust, and hate between the sexes is a central issue. In addition, rock, from its inception, has challenged the validity of culturally imposed sex roles. Journalists Reynolds (Melody Maker, New York Times) and Press (Spin, Village Voice) address these issues determinedly and knowledgeably. Methodizing gender motifs within male-created rock, they contrast a snarling misogyny (e.g., the Rolling Stones) with an awe-captured, oceanic mother-worship (e.g., Pink Floyd). Especially provocative is the authors' taxonomy of role imagery among female rockers: tomboy rebel, riot grrl, mysterious masquerader, vulnerable confessor. As Robert Walser's excellent Running with the Devil: Power, Gender, and Madness in Heavy Metal Music (LJ 5/1/93) considers only the metal subgenre, Revolts emerges as the only complete analysis of gender in rock music. The writing is intelligent, evocative, and engaging, rich in thought without becoming ponderous. Even those readers who question the authors' nervy paradigms will find this an authoritative, comprehensive history of rock. Thorough, unique, and challenging, Revolts belongs in almost every academic and public collection. Highly recommended.?Bill Piekarski, Southwestern Coll. Lib., Chula Vista, Cal.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Customer Reviews

Very good, if flawed
Fundamentally, this book offers a great overview and analysis of much of the "important" rock music put out since the Rolling Stones. The first two-thirds of the book look at many many (mostly male) rock artists and the various ways they relate to the act of creation, the opposite sex, their instruments and the final product through the expression of their gender. The guitar as phallus, feedback as amniotic fluid, etc. It is very interesting, and whether right or wrong, forces one to consider the music in a new way. Generally, I feel, the authors are right on the money with their analyses even when the reader is forced to groan outloud (an analogy involving Lynard Skynard and intercourse springs to mind). The last third of the book deals almost exclusivly with female (and effeminate) artists and leads to a theory concerning the nature of a female rock and roll and whether or not one exists. They don't provide a physiological answer to any questions(although their earlier analyes could have pointed to this). Instead, the authors view rock as a male creation that females may coopt for their own, feminist expression through lyrical content. However, Rock music, as we know it, cannot expression the truly *feminine* because no women have come along and turned the music on its head. Some examples of people who have come close include the Raincoats and Kristin Hersh. Of course, the theory can't really be summarized here, but one leaves the book wondering if the authors call for the creation of a true female music is just a call for a new genre because they are board with what they know. And what they know was demonstrated in the first two-thirds of the book. A good read for the rock fan and the aspiring gender critic.

Fascinating study of music and gender
This book is a groundbreaking study of rock musicians' fascination with femininity. The authors have exposed the meanings behind the songs - everything from misogyny to love. By using examples ranging from the 60s to the 90s, from pop to punk, they show trends that may not be apparent to the casual listener. The theories and conclusions are sometimes surprising, sometimes evident, but always intriguing. It is well written and researched. This book is a must read for anyone interested in what lies behind the music.