The RIOT GRRRL Movement

The “Riot Grrrl” movement reportedly started in 1991 as a movement in Washington, D.C. and Olympia, Washington when a group of women held a meeting to discuss how to address sexism in the punk scene. “Inspired by recent antiracist riots in D.C., the women decided they wanted to start a ‘girl riot’ against a society they felt offered no validation of women’s experiences.” The name itself was written as riot “grrrl,” like the sound of a growl, representing the anger behind the movement. Riot Grrrl followed the DIY punk ethic and aimed to validate women’s perspectives, with homemade, limited publications of “fanzines”, support groups that dealt with sensitive issues, and formed bands such as Bikini Kill and Bratmobile.

Riot Grrrl bands used performance and shock value as tools of protest. Like Punk, Riot Grrrl bands avoided major record labels because they were afraid that contracts could potentially threaten the integrity of the bands by forcing them to “tone down” their music and change their image. For this reason, Riot Grrrl never hit mainstream audiences.

A few years later, a similar movement emerged stemming from Riot Grrrl: the “Angry Women” of “Alternative Rock” with artists like Ani DiFranco, Alanis Morissette, Meredith Brooks, and Tracy Bonham. Women like Morsette and Brooks presented a consciously “angry” aesthetic that appealed to an uncompromisingly feminist audience; they addressed similar topics with considerable force, but they were much more commercially successful.

YOUR ASSIGNMENT

Consider the following questions: as an ignorant rock critic might have put it in the early 1990s: “What are these artists angry about anyway?” Or for our purposes: Is their anger explicitly feminist? Do their lyrics and image empower them as women or does it have the opposite effect? How does the musical context, and performance/delivery of those lyrics, impact the meanings they might have merely as words?

Compare the details of two songs from your Riot Grrrl listening list: preferably choosing one from a Riot Grrrl band and another from a more mainstream artist. While both Riot Grrrl and “Angry Women” sang about women empowerment, the way they approached their topics were different. What makes them different or similar? Is it the way each movement is packaged and delivered that distinguishes them or something else? Make reference to at least one reading—such as O’Brien (1994; unit 4) and at least one aspect of our lectures (11-15) pertaining to social and historical contexts, to support claims about specific ideas and feelings expressed within the songs, associated with specific words in the lyrics or specific sounds in the music.

Your response should be at least 500 words in length (you can go long if desired)