Apr 302013
Last weekend I was reading a New York Times piece on some punk rock fashion exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It was kind of annoying. Only that Legs McNeil guy called bullshit on the fashion world co-opting punk rock fashions.
Not really related in any way, yesterday NBA veteran Jason Collins came out of the closet, breaking a sports social barrier as the first active (if unsigned) professional male player in one of America’s 4 major sports to identify himself as gay. Some compared his act to Jackie Robinson’s breaking the color barrier in professional sports. I simply say, Bravo!
These 2 stories got me thinking for a second: Are there any social barriers yet to be broken in rock ‘n roll?
How about an all Arab-American girl rock band (à la Runaways) wearing Hijabs ? I can picture it. From the mean streets of Dearborn Michigan, here come Tala, Zara, Renata, and Farrah.
That’s what I’m talking about. Will M.I.A. be credited as a stepping stone to this glorious day?
http://wp.patheos.com/blogs/mmw/files/2010/10/105618575_10.jpg
How about breast feeding? Haven’t seen a whole lotta breast feeding in Rock ‘n’ Roll.
Chrissie Hynde broke the older woman/younger man barrier a few years ago:
http://www.amazon.com/Fidelity-JP/dp/B003T05SUK/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1367430213&sr=1-1&keywords=chrissie+hynde
I love Chrissie, but have not been able to force myself to listen to this. Anybody?
I didn’t know that existed. I love all the good music and rock ‘n roll mojo she contributed years ago, but she’s up there with Peter Gabriel for a rock ‘n roll free pass. People cut up on Aerosmith constantly for using hack songwriters. She’s been doing the same thing for almost as many years. Not that there’s anything wrong with hack songwriters, but maybe there is something wrong with using their hack songs.
True dat. Had Lennon lived a few years longer perhaps he and Yoko would have worked together to overcome that taboo.
http://www.jodijonesstudio.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/annie-leibovitz-john-lennon-and-yoko-ono-1346272241_b.jpg
I have no memory of that Fidelity album whatsoever. Hmm. Interesting.
Has Chrissie Hynde been coasting on a Lennon Pass all these years? Probably, although she at least deserves credit for admitting that the Pretenders are basically a tribute band now. Aerosmith don’t bug me because of song doctors. They bug me because Steven Tyler’s personality gets more odious with every year, and that personality is pretty much front and center in all of the band’s endeavors.
Also, I think Hynde’s song-doctor period only lasted for maybe two albums in the mid-to-late ’90s.
I thinking more of hijab, jeans and high heels rather than burkas.
Azita Youssefi’s post-Scissor Girls project, Bride of No No, was an all-girl band that performed in burkas.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqwJ0t4p2O0