She's a Rebel: The History of Women in Rock and Roll

the most informative book about women in rock. it made me buy many great cds and that`s what is all about: to seek new music and to find new favorites.

This book is chock full of information about women's entire history in music. It doesn't just focus on rock music, but also includes pop, r & b, and hip hop. I bought this book mainly for the 'Enjoy Being A Grrrl' chapter, which features information about the Riot Grrrl movement which really interests me. It also focuses on modern sexism in the music industry. Some are blindingly obvious like Eminem and Woodstock '99 (which ended in numerous sexual assaults) and some of them are less unknown like Blink 182 asking female fans in the audience to 'Show us your t*ts!' on the Warped Tour. It also mention groupies and how they may feel they are "rebelling against the plastic uptightness of straight American society but their rebellion only reaffirs a social system in which women are defined by the man they are aligned with." I couldn't agree more. Something I noticed is that there were some major artists overlooked, Stevie Nicks for example (like someone else before mentioned). I also noticed a tiny mistake where the author said that 'Sugar Baby Doll' wrote the songs 'Quiet Room' and 'Best Sunday Dress' when in reality it was actually the 'Pagan Babies' (another band that Courtney Love and Kat Bjelland had) who wrote and performed the songs. Not that this really matters, maybe I'm just being picky. My only major compliant about the book is that the author had to put in the Spice Girls and Britney Spears, which I think is a little uncalled for. Other than that, the book is great and I especially enjoyed reading about different bands like Bratmobile and Sleater-Kinney. It makes me want to go out and buy their albums! Interesting facts like how Big Mama Thornton originally sang 'Hound Dog' before Elvis proves that women have always been overlooked in music, and this book tries to change that.

I agree with a previous critic who complained about some of the omissions in this book. Not only are the women from Fleetwooc Mac missing but so is Chaka Khan, the most influential female R & B singer since Aretha Franklin! But except for those omissions - and the author's apparent bias in favor of those women who let her interview them - "She's a Rebel" is the basic and essential text on women in rock. At a time when the rock establishment continues to ignore women - the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame has not inducted a single woman in several years - we need an author like Gaar to remind us of the contributions that women made and continue to make to our pop music. A special salute to Gaar for including in her book the often-ignored, and mostly-unknown, "womyn's music".

While I love Stevie Nicks as much as the next person, this book is very important - even without space devoted to her. Sure she is an important figure in rock & roll, but "She's a Rebel" shines valuable light on some of the less-well-known figures in the history of rock. Don't discount a book that should be essential reading to every fan of rock music just because of an omission.