PRETEND WE'RE DEAD

When music was no longer a man’s world.

Feminist musicians who either performed as solo artists or were part of high-profile bands played significant roles in the indie music scene that dominated the last decade of the 20th century. But nearly all female ’90s rock luminaries, including Hole lead guitarist Courtney Love and Garbage singer/songwriter Shirley Manson, had largely faded from view by the early aughts. Writing from her perspective as an ex-indie-musician-turned-academic and director of the Women of Rock Oral History Project, Pearson offers insights into the women and forces that shaped the world of indie music. Much of her study takes the form of interviews with women who consciously broke gender stereotypes in their work. Some, like Manson, created edgy, “100 percent opinionated” personas; others, such as Liz Phair, wrote and sang explicit songs that addressed taboo subjects like female sexuality. Others whom the author did not interview, like Alanis Morisette, unabashedly raged against gender injustice. Regardless of how they approached their art, Pearson argues that these women revealed a deep consciousness of the misogyny that dominated the “boy’s club” of rock until the advent of grunge in the early ’90s. This movement, along with the more accepting environment of the pre-corporatized music industry, celebrated female musicians for their innovation. But a late-’90s media backlash that culminated with an “anti-feminist, nationalist sentiment” in the wake of 9/11 once again buried female musicians in obscurity. As probing as it is intelligent, Pearson’s book will appeal to fans of ’90s music and beyond.

A refreshing and much-needed contribution to the male-dominated history of rock ’n’ roll.