An Open Letter To Rolling Stone (Joan Jett is PISSED and I don't blame her!)

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[I_Love_My_Husband]

An Open Letter to Rolling Stone

This letter was written to rolling stone after their "women in "rock" issue was published, but was not printed by their editors. Please forward it to all the rocking people you know!!!!!

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 RS 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 spiky bracelet and POOF! She ROCKS!

Your poor choice of cover girls and featured artists brings to mind the Sports Illustrated swimsuit editions. There is nothing necessarily wrong with the breast-baring models inside..but we all understand that they have NOTHING TO DO WITH SPORTS--Which just might be offensive to women who are interested in sports or who might even be (gasp) real athletes.

Yes, Britney has a talented stylist and yes, somebody gave Shakira a Guns & Roses t-shirt to wear..but they ARE NOT NOW NOR WILL THEY EVER BE ROCK.

Maybe it's naive of me to expect any glimmer of rock'n'roll credibility OR respect for women from a magazine whose cover shot is regularly a naked underweight actress. The thing is , I AM a woman musician with a rock band, and as we all are I am STARVED for any little crumb of recognition that real women rockers might be thrown. So like a sucker I find myself short another five bucks ..and pissed enough 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 someone please explain to me why people keep insisting on 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 just before that--Whatever's trendy. WHO CARES. She's a Spice Girl reject...but I digress.

Jewel and Mandy friggin' Moore have full page features as Rock Icons...Meanwhile Joan Jett gets one line. ONE LINE. Joan Jett & the Blackhearts, who have never stopped touring, recently did 10 days in the Middle East playing for the troops stationed in Afghanistan. In AFGHANISTAN, Joan would come onstage wearing a birkha, 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 that gets ONE SENTENCE on the bottom of the last page of Random Notes.

Britney's Rock credentials? Well, she butchers the song "I Love Rock'n'Roll" on her latest record, and when asked about it the genius replies "Well, I've always loved Pat Benatar." And SHE is your Rock issue cover girl?? You should be REALLY embarrassed.

Sleater Kinney was the only rock group listed on the cover..and they got only half a page. Ashanti, the r&b back up singer who can't 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 the power to shine important light on groups like these--instead they are afterthoughts, and that valuable spotlight is wasted on the same overexposed pop princesses WHO HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH ROCK.

In your own letter from the editor you have the hypocritical balls to say "rock radio won't touch female artists, while the pop factory keeps churning out soundalike clones, and ambitious musicians with something to say find themselves left out in the cold."

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

If the issue had been called "Women in Music"..or maybe "Some Cute Girls with Top 10 Records out Right Now"..I would have no beef with it. Corny as it may sound, ROCK is something which is still meaningful and even sacred to some of us. Use the word "rock" in bold letters next to a picture of Britney Fucking Spears, and you're turning your whole publication into a joke...and an offensive joke at that.

[WarSlut]

Four words. Lorne Greene,William Shatner.

Point taken. But at least there's some entertainment value in that junk. Britney's entertainment value comes in the form of whatever it is she's wearing, not the songs she butchers.

The girl's as talentless as she is cute. And she's damn cute.

[Physicist]

Point taken. All I can say is that I was resisting the strong impulse to throw her entire oeuvre at spycatcher.

[sneakypete]

Thanks,I'll try to get one of her CD's.

[WarSlut]

The day I saw R.S. editor give a "Beasty Boy" c.d. a 5 star rating {highest possible}, was the day I began to ignore R.S.

I began to ignore R.S. the day P.J. split.

But you're right, their reviews are an absolute joke.

BTW, anybody remember Kurt Loder apologizing to Bono on MTV for giving "The Unforgettable Fire" only three stars in R.S.? Truly pathetic.

[sneakypete]

Well, since NOW totally supported Klintoon's "Women as throw-away sex objects,"

The way I see it,when somebody does good,you throw them a couple of "atta-boys!" to encourage them to keep it up. When they screw up,you criticise them. This is regardless of their past behavior in either case.

[abigkahuna]

I cancelled my subscription to Rolling Stone in the mid-late 70s when they moved from San Francisco to New York. THey also changed the format from the fold over to stapled rag sheet. Back in the old days the journalism, though liberal was cutting edge and politically relevant. Reading H.S. Thompson at the time was great.

I remember that mojo article, "Scum Also Rises" about the resignation of RN...heady days indeedy....

[Physicist]

I said: the strong impulse to throw her entire oeuvre at spycatcher

spycatcher ==> sneakypete

D'oh! Getting my threads confused.

[Arkansawyer]

The Daughter says:

Bjork!! :: giggles :: Erm, okay, just had to get that out.

Nobody I know likes her. I like her, even though I've only heard one of her songs. Will find CDs later, 'cause I thought her songs were really, really good.

Has anyone here mentioned Alanis Morisette pre-"Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie"? And has anyone heard of Switchblade Kittens? Gotta love their song "All Cheerleaders Die". They're awesome (they've got one guy in their group, but they're still considered a girl group), and they absolutely ROCK.

And I agree that Bonnie Raitt plays slide greatly. All bow before Bonnie, for she is the Queen...

[nonliberal]

If such a feat is possible, Courtney Love has even less talent than her late husband, one Kurt Cobain.

if they truly want women who rock check out Doro Pesch and early Lita Ford.

[WarSlut]

What's truly scary is that I can almost guarantee you that some idiot producer is probably thinking that Britney can do a new version of "Stairway to Heaven". If they would let her mangle "I Love Rock'n Roll" and mutilate "Satisfaction", I shudder to think of what she would do to Led Zeppelin's alltime classic.

In my perfect world, Britney would be forced to do a cover of "The Battle of Evermore" before she was granted studio access ever again. My money says she would pass out or throw a hissy fit before she got halfway through it. And we would be rid of her music (for lack of a better word) forevermore.

In my perfect world...

[sneakypete]

Let's talk about a set of pipes:

I don't know about that Alison,but Alison Krause is about as good as it gets.

[WarSlut]

BTW,check out the woman singing the soundtracks in the movie "The Gladiator".

Go get yourself "The Insider" and "Black Hawk Down" soundtracks. And pick up some old Dead Can Dance stuff while you're at it.

Lisa Gerrard is nothing short of amazing. One of the best vocalists of our time.

[angry elephant]

Go get yourself "The Insider" and "Black Hawk Down" soundtracks. And pick up some old Dead Can Dance stuff while you're at it.

The soundtrack to Blackhawk Down is great. I'm going to check out the Insider. You should look into Passion by Peter Gabriel. It's the soundtrack to The Last Temptation.

[ChadGore]

Re: "If they would let her mangle "I Love Rock'n Roll" and mutilate "Satisfaction", I shudder to think of what she would do to Led Zeppelin's alltime classic."

And when asked about what inspired her to remake the song Britney will say < hair toss> "I love the Greatefull Dead" </ hair toss >

[WarSlut]

The way I see it,when somebody does good,you throw them a couple of "atta-boys!" to encourage them to keep it up.

That's exactly right.

[nonliberal]

Avril is marginally talented. Some of her songs are catchy and stick in your head for a few hours.

Besides her abuse of English syntax, the only problem that I have here is with her fans. These kids who listen to her act as though her album is the seminal record of the punk movement. NOFX, TSOL, the Dead Boys...that was punk.

[nonliberal]

meat--Good call on Girlschool. They did a couple of songs with the icon himself...Lemmy.

[Arkansawyer]

The Daughter says:

I'm not saying she's a punk movement. Okay, well, maybe she is. Of this day and age, maybe.

I really need to listen to more 80's punk, but I don't have money for the CDs. Will go out and find MP3s... And yes, I am taking recommendations. (My friend Whitney's got me hooked on the Ramones. Go Whitney.)

[WarSlut]

You should look into Passion by Peter Gabriel. It's the soundtrack to The Last Temptation.

I've checked it out and then some. I spent much of the late-80's, early-90's burning out my eardrums listening to it on my first pair of Koss headphones. Hands down, it's Gabriel's best work (and I'm a big Genesis fan).

When you get the "Insider" soundtrack, check out "Tempest". It's the song that opens the film with Pacino being escorted to his meeting with a Hezbollah leader. It's amazing.

[general_re]

spycatcher ==> sneakypete

I was wondering about that. Let he who is without sin, etc. ;)