Podcasts about front the true story

Midlands-based journalist, singer and guitarist in the black feminist punk band Big Joanie and author of the book 'Why Solange Matters', Stephanie Phillips knows her stuff when it comes to music and books. So we were dead excited when she agreed to come on Songbook to talk about Kristin Hersh's memoir 'Rat Girl'.Whilst chatting about the book Jude and Stephanie manage to cover Destiny's Child, reading the NME in the noughties, writing teenage diaries, the dreaded 'what's it like being a woman in a band' question and why Stephanie doesn't need or indeed want to play music with men.A brilliant chat between two brilliant women.Books mentioned in the podcast:Why Solange Matters by Stephanie Philips https://bit.ly/3ByoEkM Guitar Girl by Sarra Manning https://uk.bookshop.org/books/guitar-girl/9780340860717 Paradoxical Undressing [or Rat Girl in the US] by Kristin Hersch https://bit.ly/3oNq1nV My Rock n Roll Friend by Tracey Thorn https://bit.ly/3OVCwZs The Raincoats by Jenn Pelly https://bit.ly/3OVOgv1 Girls to the Front: The True Story of the Riot Grrrl Revolution by Sara Marcus https://bit.ly/3oQNSTM What Are You Doing Here?: A Black Woman's Life and Liberation in Heavy Metal by Laina Dawes https://bit.ly/3cPVymu You can buy Jude's book The Sound of Being Human: How Music Shapes Our Lives here: https://uk.bookshop.org/books/the-sound-of-being-human-how-music-shapes-our-lives/9781474622929Finally White Rabbit's Spotify Playlist of 'booksongs' - songs inspired by books loved by our guests - is here: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7chuHOeTs9jpyKpmgXV6uo Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Girls to the Front is the epic, definitive history of the Riot Grrrl movement — the radical feminist punk uprising that exploded into the public eye in the 1990s, altering America's gender landscape forever. This was not just a movement but an era of pissed-off girls with no patience for sexism and no intention of keeping quiet. Author Sara Marcus joins us to talk about her own memories as a Riot Grrrl front-liner and chronicles the story of punk bands like Bikini Kill, Bratmobile, and Heavens to Betsy and their effect on today's culture. Tune in. AllMusicPodcasts is a proud member of the Pantheon Podcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Girls to the Front is the epic, definitive history of the Riot Grrrl movement — the radical feminist punk uprising that exploded into the public eye in the 1990s, altering America's gender landscape forever. This was not just a movement but an era of pissed-off girls with no patience for sexism and no intention of keeping quiet.Author Sara Marcus joins us to talk about her own memories as a Riot Grrrl front-liner and chronicles the story of punk bands like Bikini Kill, Bratmobile, and Heavens to Betsy and their effect on today's culture. Tune in.AllMusicPodcasts is a proud member of the Pantheon Podcasts.

Girls to the Front is the epic, definitive history of the Riot Grrrl movement — the radical feminist punk uprising that exploded into the public eye in the 1990s, altering America's gender landscape forever. This was not just a movement but an era of pissed-off girls with no patience for sexism and no intention of keeping quiet. Author Sara Marcus joins us to talk about her own memories as a Riot Grrrl front-liner and chronicles the story of punk bands like Bikini Kill, Bratmobile, and Heavens to Betsy and their effect on today's culture. Tune in. AllMusicPodcasts is a proud member of the Pantheon Podcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Girls to the Front is the epic, definitive history of the Riot Grrrl movement — the radical feminist punk uprising that exploded into the public eye in the 1990s, altering America's gender landscape forever. This was not just a movement but an era of pissed-off girls with no patience for sexism and no intention of keeping quiet.Author Sara Marcus joins us to talk about her own memories as a Riot Grrrl front-liner and chronicles the story of punk bands like Bikini Kill, Bratmobile, and Heavens to Betsy and their effect on today's culture. Tune in.AllMusicPodcasts is a proud member of the Pantheon Podcasts.

This episode we discuss non-fiction books about Music! We talk about sea shanties, whether musical scores count as non-fiction, reading about music we're unfamiliar with, how we interpret lyrics, and more! Plus: We made a playlist of music for you to listen to based on the books we read! You can download the podcast directly, find it on Libsyn, or get it through Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Spotify, or your favourite podcast delivery system. In this episode Anna Ferri | Meghan Whyte | Matthew Murray | RJ Edwards Things We Read (or tried to…) 808s & Otherworlds by Sean Avery Medlin 808s & Heartbreak (Wikipedia) Sailor Song: The Shanties and Ballads of the High Seas by Gerry Smyth Wellerman (Wikipedia) Uproot: Travels in 21st-Century Music and Digital Culture by Jace Clayton Girls to the Front: The True Story of the Riot Grrrl Revolution by Sara Marcus Disasterama!: Adventures in the Queer Underground 1977 to 1997 by Alvin Orloff  They Can't Kill Us Until They Kill Us by Hanif Abdurraqib You're History: The Twelve Strangest Women in Music by Lesley Chow Go Ahead in the Rain: Notes to A Tribe Called Quest by Hanif Abdurraqib Everybody's Doin' It: Sex, Music, and Dance in New York, 1840-1917 by Dale Cockrell Companion Playlist for this Episode Spotify YouTube Other Media We Mentioned Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain by Oliver Sacks 33 ⅓ Series Master of Reality by John Darnielle Let's Talk About Love: A Journey to the End of Taste by Carl Wilson We Oughta Know (How Four Women Ruled the '90s and Changed Canadian Music) by Andrea Warner Hip Hop Family Tree, Vol. 1: 1970s-1981 by Ed Piskor Burning Down The Haus: Punk Rock, Revolution and the Fall of the Berlin Wall by Tim Mohr Fargo Rock City: A Heavy Metal Odyssey in Rural North Dakota by Chuck Klosterman Killing Yourself to Live: 85% of a True Story by Chuck Klosterman This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession by Daniel J. Levitin Todd in the Shadows One Hit Wonderland: "Scatman (Ski-Ba-Bop-Ba-Dop-Dop)" Billbuds I Only Listen to the Mountain Goats Punch Up the Jam Song Exploder All Songs Considered Brave New Faves BBC Radio 6 Pump Up the Volume (Wikipedia) The Boat That Rocked (Wikipedia) Iron and the Soul by Henry Rollins Vintage Sadness by Hanif Abdurraqib Hospice by The Antlers (Wikipedia) “Hospice tells the story of a relationship between a hospice worker and a female patient suffering from terminal bone cancer” Links, Articles, and Things Episode 008 - Christmas/Holiday Reads 22 Winter Holiday Books by BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour) Authors Manga in Libraries: Spooky & Scary Manga Anime Planet booklist Google Doc Episode 125 - Literary Theory & Literary Criticism Hark! Podcast Harvey Pekar (Wikipedia) Canadian Content - How the MAPL system works (Wikipedia) Riot grrrl (Wikipedia) Vote for which romance genre we'll discuss in our February episode! Amish Contemporary Fantasy/Fairy Tale Western 20 Non-Fiction Music books by BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, & People of Colour) Authors Every month Book Club for Masochists: A Readers' Advisory Podcasts chooses a genre at random and we read and discuss books from that genre. We also put together book lists for each episode/genre that feature works by BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, & People of Colour) authors. All of the lists can be found here. A Little Devil in America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance by Hanif Abdurraqib Rock Roll Jihad: A Muslim Rock Star's Revolution by Salman Ahmad Rebel Music: Race, Empire and the New Muslim Youth Culture by Hisham D. Aidi Boyz N the Void: A Mixtape to My Brother by G'Ra Asim Violence Girl: East LA Rage to Hollywood Stage, a Chicana Punk Story by Alice Bag Black Music by Amiri Baraka (published as Leroi Jones) Queen Bey: A Celebration of the Power and Creativity of Beyoncé Knowles-Carter edited by Veronica Chambers Can't Stop Won't Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop Generation by Jeff Chang Decoding Despacito: An Oral History of Latin Music by Leila Cobo Spitboy Rule: Tales of a Xicana in a Female Punk Band by Michelle Gonzales House of Music: Raising the Kanneh-Masons by Kadiatu Kanneh-Mason Gone: A Girl, A Violin, A Life Unstrung by Min Kym My Name Is Love: the Darlene Love Story by Darlene Love Black Lives Matter and Music: Protest, Intervention, Reflection by Portia K. Maultsby Soul Serenade: Rhythm, Blues & Coming of Age Through Vinyl by Rashod Ollison Approaching Fire by Michelle Porter Run As One: My Story by Errol Ranville Hungry Listening: Resonant Theory for Indigenous Sound Studies by Dylan Robinson Buffy Sainte-Marie: It's My Way by Blair Stonechild Musicians from a Different Shore: Asians and Asian Americans in Classical Music by Mari Yoshihara Give us feedback! Fill out the form to ask for a recommendation or suggest a genre or title for us to read! Check out our Tumblr, follow us on Twitter or Instagram, join our Facebook Group, or send us an email! Join us again on Tuesday, November 16th we'll be talking about Adaptations of Books into other media! Then on Tuesday, December 7th we'll be discussing the genre of Thrillers!

Oh we have a great episode for you, really....all bias aside...it's a belter We look at one of the longest standing and most important bands to come out of the Pacific Northwest's Riot Grrl scene ... Sleater-Kinney We discuss sexism in the music industry, the impact a producer can have on a band, how Sleater-Kinney inspired our guests, The start of the Riot Grrrl Revolution, and obviously a bunch of records!! Re-joining Nick and Ewan are Cheri Amour and Fliss Kitson whose early bands were heavily influenced by the work of SK, Lexicographer and huge fan Ben Zimmer, and ...drumroll please... for this episode only.... the author of "Girls to the Front: The True Story of the Riot Grrl Revolution" ; Sara Marcus!!!!!!!! In this episode we discuss the following (Links are to Bandcamp) https://sleaterkinney.bandcamp.com/album/sleater-kinney-remastered (Sleater Kinney) - 1995 https://sleaterkinney.bandcamp.com/album/call-the-doctor-remastered (Call the Doctor) - 1996 https://sleaterkinney.bandcamp.com/album/dig-me-out-remastered (Dig Me Out) - 1997 https://sleaterkinney.bandcamp.com/album/the-hot-rock-remastered (The Hot Rock) - 1999 https://sleaterkinney.bandcamp.com/album/all-hands-on-the-bad-one-remastered (All Hands on the Bad One) - 2000 As usual there's a Spotify playlist incorporating the podcast and selected songs which you can find at https://sptfy.com/tfsk1 (https://sptfy.com/tfsk1) The Guests: Sara's book is amazing and can be bought in all bookshops, or online at http://www.indiebound.org/book/9780061806360 (Indiebound ) or https://www.amazon.com/Girls-Front-Story-Grrrl-Revolution/dp/0061806366 (Amazon ) Find out more about Sara Marcus, and find links to other pieces she has written at http://saramarcus.net/ (saramarcus.net) Cheri's many projects, from broadcaster, podcaster, journalist, to author are available at http://cheriamour.co.uk/ (cheriamour.co.uk) Fliss is the drummer of the amazing Nightingales, buy some great and important music, and discover the documentary King Rocker at https://thenightingales.org.uk/ (thenightingales.org.uk) Ben does loads of stuff but you can always find him in his regular column on The Wall Street Journal, or sometimes The Atlantic. Find all the links at https://benzimmer.com/ (Benzimmer.com) If you fancy supporting the show, either leave us a review somewhere (Apple Podcasts would be awesome) or ....drumroll.... JOIN OUR PATREON (and help keep the lights on, I don't like the dark) which is over https://www.patreon.com/tempfans (here) Regardless of whether you can chip in, a 5 star review (if you feel like it) on Apple or Podchaser would help enormously. Or just tell your friends!! Jonathan is the genius behind our theme music and you can hear more of his stuff on his https://jonathanfisher.bandcamp.com/ (Bandcamp) Additional music in this episode by https://sessions.blue/licensing/ (Blue Dot Sessions ) All available under the following licenses: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) Support this podcast

“To be a women’s wrestling fan, particularly one who patronizes WWE … is to be constantly disappointed,” Scarlett Harris writes in her book-length critical essay A Diva Was a Female Version of a Wrestler: An Abbreviated Herstory of World Wrestling Entertainment. In this episode, Harris walks us through some of that harrowingly sexist history—God help us, “bra and panty matches”!—which is also full of women whose determination, ambition, and athletic prowess have inspired generations of girls and women (and a few real-life female villains, to be sure). She also shares the heartbreak of being a fan despite the constant disappointment, her take on the women’s evolution from sexy sideshow to serious (if not quite on par with the men’s) main event, her thoughts on GLOW, and why she has hope for the future of women’s wrestling. Read more about it: A Diva Was a Female Version of a Wrestler: An Abbreviated Herstory of World Wrestling Entertainment by Scarlett Harris  Other great books about women in male-dominated arenas: Whole New Ballgame by Sue Macy The Incredible Women of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League by Anika Orrock When Women Invented Television by Jennifer Keishin Armstrong  Girls to the Front: The True Story of the Riot Grrrl Revolution by Sara Marcus

I’ve admired the work, songwriting, and guitar shredding of musician, writer, and organizer Amy Klein for years. Amy is an incredibly thoughtful, inspiring, and knowledgeable Brooklyn-based artist and and in this episode she shares powerful reflections about building a life and vision as a feminist musician and writer.In this conversation Amy and I cover a lot of ground, including how she discovered Riot Grrrl in the 3rd grade by stealing CDs from her older sisters room; the influence and inspiration of the book Girls to the Front and how it encouraged her to move from the online community of feminists she built thanks to a blog and tour diary to a real life community with the Permanent Wave group she founded and helped run for several years; how skills from being a performer translated into skills for being an organizer, especially as an introvert; the importance of making things happen, the power of women’s political rage in public; the value of having difficult conversations in person and the pitfalls and danger of online culture; and the lifetime process of creating art that feels authentic to you.In this conversation Amy is really frank and vulnerable about what she’s learned as an organizer and feminist, especially about confronting racism within feminism as a white woman, so i hope that you’ll listen carefully.Throughout this episode, Amy and I make reference to many different books. We’re both writers and avid readers and books have shaped both of our lives. Here are the books we talk about and books relevant to our conversation topics:Girls to the Front: The True Story of the Riot Grrrl Revolution by Sara MarcusYour Art Will Save Your Life by Beth PickensBluets and The Argonauts by Maggie NelsonThe works of Kathy AckerGood and Mad by Rebecca TraistorEloquent Rage by Brittney CooperWhite Fragility by Robin DiAngeloThe experiences Amy shares around organizing highlight a really important factor of building movements and creating social change: So much change actually comes from the small actions and risks we take every day, the ideas we try, and the relationships we build. These may not coalesce into social movements that get written about in the media or talking about on NPR, but they can make a tangible difference in peoples’ lives and have a lasting impact that does on for years. As such, I hope that this episode also serves as a reminder to keep going, especially in these times that are extremely tough.You can find Amy on Instagram at @amytiger and her music on Bandcamp, as well as via the Don Giovanni Records website.This episode features the song “Half Lie” by Taleen Kali. Riot Woman artwork and logo by Aurora Lady.

The early 1990s gave rise to many fads, trends, and subcultures. Riot Grrrl has been dismissed as just another of them, but had far greater ambitions and achieved far greater things. Motivation, inspiration, and cooperation led a group of activists to change the conversation, until the structures they railed against stepped in to change it back. What's the difference between having a message and controlling the narrative? Can the information we're giving you, filtered through the years, be trusted to make an accurate picture of an underground scene that was unfairly covered in the media? How can digital spaces replicate the conditions that fostered Riot Grrrl? Links! Girls to the Front: The True Story of the Riot Grrrl Revolution Girl Germs, a podcast about Bratmobile's first album, Pottymouth Don't Need You - The Herstory of Riot Grrrl Jigsaw The Riot Grrrl Collection Gallery of Zine covers Newsweek's infamous Riot Grrrl story Please help our show succeed by sharing it. Send a link to someone you know and tell them what you enjoy about History Honeys. Rate and review us on iTunes, Stitcher, or whatever other platform you use to hear us. It helps so very much and we do appreciate it. You can connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or by emailing us at historyhoneyspodcast at gmail.   Logo by Marah Intro and outro by Thylacinus Bikini Kill "Double Dare Ya" Bratmobile "Girl Germs" Heavens to Betsy "Firefly" Censor beep by Frank West of The FPlus

Harkening out of the United State's Pacific Northwest in the early 1990s, Bikini Kill and Bratmobile made a big enough splash that their names and songs are still recognized by many rock fans. And those of us who do recognize these bands tend to link them to a larger artistic and musical genre known as Riot Grrrl. In Girls to the Front: The True Story of the Riot Grrrl Revolution (Harper Perennial, 2010), Sara Marcus traces the first five explosive years of Riot Grrrl, 1989-1994. She convincingly shows that although some very cool music was at its core, the movement went far beyond the bands, and far beyond Olympia, WA. Marcus follows the members of Bikini Kill and Bratmobile as they travel to Washington, D.C. forming girls-only collectives, participating in nationally organized political demonstrations, writing stridently feminist fanzines, and playing gigs to audiences of outcast girls who found there was indeed a supportive place for them to express themselves freely. By '93 the movement was international with Riot Grrrl chapters in Minneapolis, Oklahoma, New York City, Vancouver, B.C., and London to name just a few. Toward the end of the book's timeframe, Riot Grrrl was weakened by forces that befall many social movements: the mainstream press and music industry co-opted some of its important leaders and images, infighting among members kept some chapters from realizing their goals, and strident localism kept geographically disparate branches from forming lasting network ties. All-in-all, however, Marcus convincingly shows Riot Grrrl to have been an important wave of an ongoing feminist movement in which young women and girls redefined sex, gender, and sexuality as their own. Sara Marcus writes about music, books, and politics for numerous publications, including Bookforum, The San Francisco Chronicle, The Los Angeles Review of Books, Artforum.com, Slate, Salon, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Time Out New York, The Forward, and Heeb magazine, where she was politics editor for five years; her poetry has appeared in Death, Encyclopedia, EOAGH, Tantalum, and The Art of Touring. She has taught at girls' rock camps in Portland and New York, has played drums and keyboards in a long string of relatively short-lived bands, and continues to instigate communal, de-skilled music making whenever possible. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Harkening out of the United State’s Pacific Northwest in the early 1990s, Bikini Kill and Bratmobile made a big enough splash that their names and songs are still recognized by many rock fans. And those of us who do recognize these bands tend to link them to a larger artistic and musical genre known as Riot Grrrl. In Girls to the Front: The True Story of the Riot Grrrl Revolution (Harper Perennial, 2010), Sara Marcus traces the first five explosive years of Riot Grrrl, 1989-1994. She convincingly shows that although some very cool music was at its core, the movement went far beyond the bands, and far beyond Olympia, WA. Marcus follows the members of Bikini Kill and Bratmobile as they travel to Washington, D.C. forming girls-only collectives, participating in nationally organized political demonstrations, writing stridently feminist fanzines, and playing gigs to audiences of outcast girls who found there was indeed a supportive place for them to express themselves freely. By ’93 the movement was international with Riot Grrrl chapters in Minneapolis, Oklahoma, New York City, Vancouver, B.C., and London to name just a few. Toward the end of the book’s timeframe, Riot Grrrl was weakened by forces that befall many social movements: the mainstream press and music industry co-opted some of its important leaders and images, infighting among members kept some chapters from realizing their goals, and strident localism kept geographically disparate branches from forming lasting network ties. All-in-all, however, Marcus convincingly shows Riot Grrrl to have been an important wave of an ongoing feminist movement in which young women and girls redefined sex, gender, and sexuality as their own. Sara Marcus writes about music, books, and politics for numerous publications, including Bookforum, The San Francisco Chronicle, The Los Angeles Review of Books, Artforum.com, Slate, Salon, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Time Out New York, The Forward, and Heeb magazine, where she was politics editor for five years; her poetry has appeared in Death, Encyclopedia, EOAGH, Tantalum, and The Art of Touring. She has taught at girls’ rock camps in Portland and New York, has played drums and keyboards in a long string of relatively short-lived bands, and continues to instigate communal, de-skilled music making whenever possible. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Harkening out of the United State’s Pacific Northwest in the early 1990s, Bikini Kill and Bratmobile made a big enough splash that their names and songs are still recognized by many rock fans. And those of us who do recognize these bands tend to link them to a larger artistic and musical genre known as Riot Grrrl. In Girls to the Front: The True Story of the Riot Grrrl Revolution (Harper Perennial, 2010), Sara Marcus traces the first five explosive years of Riot Grrrl, 1989-1994. She convincingly shows that although some very cool music was at its core, the movement went far beyond the bands, and far beyond Olympia, WA. Marcus follows the members of Bikini Kill and Bratmobile as they travel to Washington, D.C. forming girls-only collectives, participating in nationally organized political demonstrations, writing stridently feminist fanzines, and playing gigs to audiences of outcast girls who found there was indeed a supportive place for them to express themselves freely. By ’93 the movement was international with Riot Grrrl chapters in Minneapolis, Oklahoma, New York City, Vancouver, B.C., and London to name just a few. Toward the end of the book’s timeframe, Riot Grrrl was weakened by forces that befall many social movements: the mainstream press and music industry co-opted some of its important leaders and images, infighting among members kept some chapters from realizing their goals, and strident localism kept geographically disparate branches from forming lasting network ties. All-in-all, however, Marcus convincingly shows Riot Grrrl to have been an important wave of an ongoing feminist movement in which young women and girls redefined sex, gender, and sexuality as their own. Sara Marcus writes about music, books, and politics for numerous publications, including Bookforum, The San Francisco Chronicle, The Los Angeles Review of Books, Artforum.com, Slate, Salon, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Time Out New York, The Forward, and Heeb magazine, where she was politics editor for five years; her poetry has appeared in Death, Encyclopedia, EOAGH, Tantalum, and The Art of Touring. She has taught at girls’ rock camps in Portland and New York, has played drums and keyboards in a long string of relatively short-lived bands, and continues to instigate communal, de-skilled music making whenever possible. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Harkening out of the United State’s Pacific Northwest in the early 1990s, Bikini Kill and Bratmobile made a big enough splash that their names and songs are still recognized by many rock fans. And those of us who do recognize these bands tend to link them to a larger artistic and musical genre known as Riot Grrrl. In Girls to the Front: The True Story of the Riot Grrrl Revolution (Harper Perennial, 2010), Sara Marcus traces the first five explosive years of Riot Grrrl, 1989-1994. She convincingly shows that although some very cool music was at its core, the movement went far beyond the bands, and far beyond Olympia, WA. Marcus follows the members of Bikini Kill and Bratmobile as they travel to Washington, D.C. forming girls-only collectives, participating in nationally organized political demonstrations, writing stridently feminist fanzines, and playing gigs to audiences of outcast girls who found there was indeed a supportive place for them to express themselves freely. By ’93 the movement was international with Riot Grrrl chapters in Minneapolis, Oklahoma, New York City, Vancouver, B.C., and London to name just a few. Toward the end of the book’s timeframe, Riot Grrrl was weakened by forces that befall many social movements: the mainstream press and music industry co-opted some of its important leaders and images, infighting among members kept some chapters from realizing their goals, and strident localism kept geographically disparate branches from forming lasting network ties. All-in-all, however, Marcus convincingly shows Riot Grrrl to have been an important wave of an ongoing feminist movement in which young women and girls redefined sex, gender, and sexuality as their own. Sara Marcus writes about music, books, and politics for numerous publications, including Bookforum, The San Francisco Chronicle, The Los Angeles Review of Books, Artforum.com, Slate, Salon, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Time Out New York, The Forward, and Heeb magazine, where she was politics editor for five years; her poetry has appeared in Death, Encyclopedia, EOAGH, Tantalum, and The Art of Touring. She has taught at girls’ rock camps in Portland and New York, has played drums and keyboards in a long string of relatively short-lived bands, and continues to instigate communal, de-skilled music making whenever possible. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Harkening out of the United State’s Pacific Northwest in the early 1990s, Bikini Kill and Bratmobile made a big enough splash that their names and songs are still recognized by many rock fans. And those of us who do recognize these bands tend to link them to a larger artistic and musical genre known as Riot Grrrl. In Girls to the Front: The True Story of the Riot Grrrl Revolution (Harper Perennial, 2010), Sara Marcus traces the first five explosive years of Riot Grrrl, 1989-1994. She convincingly shows that although some very cool music was at its core, the movement went far beyond the bands, and far beyond Olympia, WA. Marcus follows the members of Bikini Kill and Bratmobile as they travel to Washington, D.C. forming girls-only collectives, participating in nationally organized political demonstrations, writing stridently feminist fanzines, and playing gigs to audiences of outcast girls who found there was indeed a supportive place for them to express themselves freely. By ’93 the movement was international with Riot Grrrl chapters in Minneapolis, Oklahoma, New York City, Vancouver, B.C., and London to name just a few. Toward the end of the book’s timeframe, Riot Grrrl was weakened by forces that befall many social movements: the mainstream press and music industry co-opted some of its important leaders and images, infighting among members kept some chapters from realizing their goals, and strident localism kept geographically disparate branches from forming lasting network ties. All-in-all, however, Marcus convincingly shows Riot Grrrl to have been an important wave of an ongoing feminist movement in which young women and girls redefined sex, gender, and sexuality as their own. Sara Marcus writes about music, books, and politics for numerous publications, including Bookforum, The San Francisco Chronicle, The Los Angeles Review of Books, Artforum.com, Slate, Salon, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Time Out New York, The Forward, and Heeb magazine, where she was politics editor for five years; her poetry has appeared in Death, Encyclopedia, EOAGH, Tantalum, and The Art of Touring. She has taught at girls’ rock camps in Portland and New York, has played drums and keyboards in a long string of relatively short-lived bands, and continues to instigate communal, de-skilled music making whenever possible. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices