Women in rock: some things never change

Baton Rouge has a new radio station: 103.3. Well, not a new radio station but an old station with a new format. The new format is “Music for Generation X.” That’s me, of course. The old format was “Divas” — not for me.

I listened to the station for several hours today and it’s quite a Frankenstein’s monster in terms of genre. They played everything from Nirvana and Guns-n-Roses to C+C Music Factory, with pit stops at Salt – n- Peppa, and REM, not to mention mid to late 80s disco, hip hop, rock, and the weird, bad music that I forgot existed.  Funny, though, I recognized every song I heard, which demonstrates the way that our (my!) listening in the 80s and 90s was rather homogeneous despite the generic differences that existed.

Still, after about four hours of listening, guess what…no women in rock. Ok, one, Alanis.

About three years ago, I noticed that the local alternapop station, 104 the X, rarely played any women musicians, and by rarely I mean never. I emailed one of the DJs (I should have sent the email to the station manager). Now, 104 the X has made great strides in bringing music to Baton Rouge and so I appreciate them for that. I was utterly disappointed in their reply. The DJ basically gave me a tiny list of women in rock. I didn’t need the list; I need them to PLAY the list. Nothing has changed since that email. To be blunt, I really didn’t think it would.

Back to 103.3. They did play women musicians like Madonna and Janet Jackson and TLC. Great, no one ever has a hard time finding women R&B or disco singers. They are a dime a dozen. But you would think that, after the 90s, we’d have more women rock musicians on the commercial airwaves.

THE NINETIES!!! Seriously. That’s when Sarah McLachlan gathered an army of women musicians and played across the country (and even outside of it) in a music festival. You might even have heard of it:

The Lilith Fair

The impetus for this music festival was the problem that radio stations refused to play two women back to back and concert promoters refused to book a female group to open for another female band. McLachlan called bullshit on that and went on to make millions of dollars, thereby disproving the old, worn-out myth that women musicians outside R&B or disco aren’t economically viable.

So, I am listening to a Gen X radio station and no Melissa, no Indigo Girls, no Sinaed O’Connor, no Meshell Ndegeocello, no Sheryl Crow, no Liz Phair, no Poe, no Hole.

This bizarreness is not limited to Baton Rouge, either. Lilith Fair is getting minimal buzz in Rolling Stone and other media outlets. The only reason I’m up to date is Facebook. Needless to say, I’m frustrated. What the hell happened to the women’s movement? Where did it go?