Feminist Rock Archive

A while back, The Guardian's Alexis Petridis linked to an online archive of feminist rock from the 70s and 80s. If you think that feminist rock and punk starts with Patti Smith and ends with Le Tigre, well, there's a whole wealth of music that directly addresses women's issues, and you've probably never heard any of it. Petridis says:

"There is a well-worn narrative about women in rock, centring on Patti Smith and Blondie; the women's liberation archive offers a parallel, alternative history. For the most part, these acts existed utterly apart from the mainstream, distributing their own music and facing their own unique challenges. "Nothing ever rhymed with patriarchy," laments one songwriter."

The site is called The Women's Liberation Music Archive, and it focuses on feminist music in the UK dating from the 1970s through the early 90s. Their mission is "to research and document the feminist bands, musicians and related projects of the 1970s and 80s, creating a collection of written and oral histories and memorabilia. This will include photographs, videos, recordings, discographies, gigographies, lyrics and musical scores, press clippings, posters, weblinks and manifestos that testify to the creativity of the Women’s Liberation Movement (WLM) of that time."


To be honest, the punk rock dilettante that lives inside me groaned a little when I heard that there was an online repository of feminist-inspired folk rock (note: it's not all folky, but a lot of the music smacks of the time it was originally released enough that it's practically encased in amber), but it's a pretty fascinating read, even if you don't like a lot of the actual music.