In a recent (well , sort of) Women Who Rock magazine there was a letter writen by New York artist Maya Price. It was in response to Rolling Stone's fall issue called "Women in rock special issue". Its about time someone wrote something like this about sexist attitudes in the media , especially in music.

" An open letter to Rolling Stone magazine:

I tried to find some cleverly worded way to express my disgust with your "Women In Rock" issue , but what I have to say is really quite simple: You guys are completely retarded.

By Rolling Stone standards , rock is no longer a style of music but a trendy costume to be whipped up by expensive stylists and slapped onto the latest pop tart Barbie doll. Give a girl some tight pants and a spikey bracelet and POOF! She ROCKS!

Maybe its naive of me to expect any glimmer of rock 'n' roll credibility OR respect for women from a magazine whose cover shot is usually a naked underweight actress. The thing is , I AM a women musician with a rock band , and as we all are , I'm STARVED for any little crumb of recognition that real women rockers might be thrown. So like a sucker , I find myself short another 5 bucks...and pissed enogh to write my first letter to an editor.Avril Lavigne gets some studded accessories from Hot Topic, so now she's "upholding the brazen tradition of teenage outrage"???!! Are you SERIOUS? And could soeone please tell me why people keep referring to PINK as rock? Wasn't she doing the white girl hip-hop thing a minute ago? Yeah , she performed on the Aerosmith tribute show-big deal. She was on the Janet Jackson tribute show before that-whatever's trendy. WHO CARES? She's a Spice Girl reject...but I digress.

Jewel and Mandy friggin Moore have pull page features as rock icons...meanwhile Joan Jett gets one line. ONE LINE. Joan Jett and the Blackhearts , who have never stopped touring and recently did 10 day in the Middle East playing for the troops in Afghanistan. In AFGHANISTAN , Joan would come onstage wearing a burkha , which she ripped off and stomped on before blazing through the purest and nastiest rock show ANYWHERE. But even in the RS WOMEN IN ROCK issue , a story like taht gets ONE SCENTENCE and the bottom of a page of random notes.

Sleater Kinney was the only rock group listed on the cover and they only got half a page. Ashanti , the R&B backup singer who cant seem to do anything without "featuring Jah Rule", has two pages.

What about the Donnas? The Yeah Yeah Yeahs? The Distillers? A mag like RS has teh power to shine inportant light on groups like these-instead they are afterthoughts , and the valuable spotlight is wasted on teh same oversexed pop princesses who have NOTHING TO DO WITH ROCK.

In your own letter to the editor you have the hypocritical balls to say "rock radio wont touch female artists , while the pop factory keeps churning out sound-alike clones, and ambitious musicians with something to say find themselves out in teh cold."

The pages taht follow those words are a blatant display that Rolling Stone is now happily working for the factory too.

If the issue had been called "Women in Music" or maybe "Some cute girls with top 10 records out right now" , I woudl have no beef with it. Corny as it may sound, ROCK is something that is still meaningful and even sacred to some of us. Use the word "rock" in bold letters next to a picture of Britney F***ing Spears , and youre turning your whole publication into a joke...and an offensive joke at that.

Maya Price
goddessmama.com
"Rock and Roll is not always a safe place for nice little girls"

three words

Joan Jett Rules!

quote:

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down with avril.

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... righteous. Anyway, Fox, I can see where you're coming from.

On another note, I really hate selling out. It happens in the little piece of hell known as high school. It's a pretty big drag.. and all this business stinks like three-month-old cheese...


eternal enemy of dubbed/cut anime,
logos

down with avril.

but anyways. i def. think people like pink and spears and all that shouldn't be titled as rock and hardcore and all that...they arent. but you know, whatever sells ;-;

-rito

Say WHAT?!?!

quote:

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Ashanti , the R&B backup singer who cant seem to do anything without "featuring Jah Rule", has two pages.

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Oooh.... nobody talks about my baby like that! Ya, shes not rock but it aint her fault shes in there! Shes pure soul R&B. And she also misspelled Ja Rule's name. JEEZ. If ur gon hate on someone, do it right! Lol... but ok im done, sorry bout that.

O ya, my grammar sucks so have fun ok bye lol.

Avril's just doing what she wants to do? Feh. More like what her label wants her to do. Starting a 'new' trend among pop artists sells- you see.

you only need to post this once, not 7 times.

I happen to be an Avril fan. I know Brittany Spears is a bit much, but not all of them are! I mean Avril is just doing what she wants to do. Give em a break! I bet you couldn't do much better as a celeb!

I agree completely.
I'm sick of seeing Avril, Pink, Britney, and all those other bubble-gum pop sensations in magazines stating that they're dripping with originality and oh, so hardcore. It's beyond disgusting... it's just sad.