Music and Gender

I've been reading Michael Azerrad's Our Band Could Be Your Life, about several bands in the punk/indie scene of the 1980s.

It's funny how gender does and doesn't make a difference in music. Not to mention how we define gender.

Azerrad finds it worth noting that Sonic Youth's Kim Gordon was one of the few women in the indie scene at the time SY started. He's entirely correct to do so, too.

The scene featured a lot of loudness, a lot of aggression, and fair amount of anger. In part, that's because the bands were all reacting to the world around them, which was definitely anger inducing. But it's interesting how the anger and aggression dovetail with the fact that the scene was so heavily by men and for men, too.

Azerrad notes that Bob Mould and Grant Hart (of Husker Du) being gay was an open secret in the indie world, but it didn't matter because a) they played loud, and b) they didn't foreground their sexuality in their music (at the time). What if they'd played loud and foregrounded being gay, though? Would it have been as bad as being .... straight and quiet and not angry?

Azerrad also notes that one interesting thing about Steve Albini's Big Black was that although drum machines were not new, most bands used them in ways that made them sound wimpy. Whereas Albini made them sound .... not wimpy.

It's hard not to read all of this as: don't be "girly." Even if you're gay, be a tough guy. Worst thing you can be is soft. If you're a girl, be one of the tough ones.

I have almost half of the book still to read. The bands Azerrad profiles are all interesting and different from each other; maybe when we get to Beat Happening, it'll be okay to be "soft."

Every now and then Azerrad talks ultrabriefly about production techniques various bands used, and I make mental notes for future reference.