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

Posted on 11/23/2002 4:57:59 PM PST by 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.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Extended News; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: joanjett; music; rock; rockmusic
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To: Boiler Plate
Well the only problem with that, is that Joan was a teen when she was discovered at a teen club in the San Fernando Valley. I am from the SFV and I *ahem* went to that teen club. She hadn't graduated high school when she was discovered.
261 posted on 11/23/2002 10:47:19 PM PST by I_Love_My_Husband
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To: section9
You know something? Here's a woman of true accomplishment,

You'll have to fill us in on her accomplishments. Lesbianism & drugs don't count.

who went to Afghanistan to entertain the troops...

And you really think Joan Jett did this out of the goodness of her heart?

If I emailed any female singers, which I won't, it'd be Reba or Allison Kraus.

262 posted on 11/23/2002 10:47:48 PM PST by jla
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To: Bella_Bru
Does KazaaLite move faster than WinMX?

I've never heard that. Just that it doesn't use spyware. It stands to reason that the lack of pop-ups and interference will result in faster, smoother transfers, but I haven't heard that specifically.

263 posted on 11/23/2002 10:47:58 PM PST by WarSlut
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To: Bella_Bru
I haven't tried Win MX. I guess it is fast enough... They way they cracked it is to make a dummy file that replaces the spyware file. There are plenty of warnings not to delte it though. I'll freepmail you a great site for non-spyware fileshare sites...have to look it up though.
264 posted on 11/23/2002 10:49:03 PM PST by KneelBeforeZod
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To: KneelBeforeZod
Okay. Well what Joan is saying is not that she objects to Britney/Shakira/Christina/Pink, but that they do NOT represent rock in any way shape or form.

At least that's how I read it.

And the Runaways were great! :)
265 posted on 11/23/2002 10:49:08 PM PST by I_Love_My_Husband
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OK not everyone likes the same stuff. but I say no matter what the music...No fade outs!!! Songs should let you know they're over... Like Social Distortion.
266 posted on 11/23/2002 10:50:02 PM PST by KneelBeforeZod
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To: KneelBeforeZod; Bella_Bru
You mean this site?

zeropaid

267 posted on 11/23/2002 10:50:40 PM PST by I_Love_My_Husband
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To: I_Love_My_Husband
zeropaid is one of them, and I'm sure it links to the others. thanks
268 posted on 11/23/2002 10:51:50 PM PST by KneelBeforeZod
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To: jla
Reba's had enough plastic surgery to just about become Cher!

Also, Reba has a problem with monogamy, and doesn't mind husband stealing a couple of times.
269 posted on 11/23/2002 10:52:21 PM PST by I_Love_My_Husband
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To: jla
"You'll have to fill us in on her accomplishments. Lesbianism & drugs don't count."

LOL

270 posted on 11/23/2002 10:52:55 PM PST by F16Fighter
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To: I_Love_My_Husband
This will date you...but only to people who know what it is... Did you ever go to The Farm? I was too young to go before it closed. Same for The Laundry Works in San Jose...
271 posted on 11/23/2002 10:54:07 PM PST by KneelBeforeZod
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To: I_Love_My_Husband
My friend was away of who she was at the time he had her in class and it seems to be local lore around here, but maybe it is simply a myth that just get bigger as it went. I just don't know why he would tell me something like that. I will have to ask him next time I see him. The first time he told me this was in 1980. I am still searching for anything else I can find out. She would have grauated from HS in 1978.
272 posted on 11/23/2002 10:54:36 PM PST by Boiler Plate
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To: I_Love_My_Husband
It's 2:00 AM now and time to sleep.
273 posted on 11/23/2002 10:55:26 PM PST by Boiler Plate
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To: KneelBeforeZod
Ohhhhh....you mentioned my dear Mike Ness. Let me add that he is a sweetheart in person.
274 posted on 11/23/2002 10:57:05 PM PST by Bella_Bru
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To: KneelBeforeZod
LOL!

Do I hafta answer that?

YES!

Debra whatshername was there, of Romeovoid, that's another person I met. Another fat, ugly, MEAN diva.

I think she's pretty broke now though. Hehehe! But, ok, I love those 2 great songs.
275 posted on 11/23/2002 10:58:16 PM PST by I_Love_My_Husband
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To: Boiler Plate
Night!

Umm, we're on the WEST coast here, not the EAST, it's only 11 here!
276 posted on 11/23/2002 10:58:54 PM PST by I_Love_My_Husband
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To: Bella_Bru
He seems like it.

Hank Rollins....NOT the cuddly MTV icon he seemed, MEAN and nasty and icky, also a girl stalker.....
277 posted on 11/23/2002 10:59:53 PM PST by I_Love_My_Husband
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To: I_Love_My_Husband
Reba's had enough plastic surgery to just about become Cher!

Also, Reba has a problem with monogamy, and doesn't mind husband stealing a couple of times.

Well, I don't know about all that, but she sure sings pretty.
Is Allison Kraus ok with you?

278 posted on 11/23/2002 11:00:11 PM PST by jla
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To: I_Love_My_Husband
how many people heard her sing "I might like you better if we--"...got all hot and bothered... then saw her and had a heart attack...
279 posted on 11/23/2002 11:00:47 PM PST by KneelBeforeZod
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To: jla; Bella_Bru
Sorry to say, but I don't know her stuff.

However, I love Tammy, and Tammy & George together were the best.

In fact, I would say they were the Sid and Nancy of their time :), really. :)
280 posted on 11/23/2002 11:01:34 PM PST by I_Love_My_Husband
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