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A review by zenaslib
Pretend We're Dead: The Rise, Fall, and Resurrection of Women in Rock in the '90s by Tanya Pearson
informative
inspiring
medium-paced
3.5
Tanya Pearson is pretty similar to me. We’re born the same year (1981) and therefore had our pivotal youth cultural experiences at the same times.
Tanya talks about coming of age to the grunge, indie rock and alternative scenes and how, our age bracket just missed the scenes middle stages - when bands like Hole, The Breeders, Veruca Salt, Belly, Liz Phair and L7 were still playing smaller venues and bars. We were there for the explosion of amazing bands coming into the mainstream, though. And our experiences were particular because it was pre-internet, and MTV/Much Music were huge influences back then. You knew what songs were big because you saw the videos play, over and over again. You also tuned in to various radio stations to tape your favourite songs if you hadn’t bought the tape or CD yet.
Tanya joined bands and recreated some of the female 90s rock sounds in doing so — something I might have badly attempted only a couple times before dodging out. And though I dreamed of being a rock journalist, too much had changed by the time I finished high school.
Suffice to say, something really interesting was happening with mainstream music in the 90s and contrary to what seems to be the belief now, this was not a rock scene dominated by men. Unconventional women, in fact, were everywhere and 90s grunge, indie rock and alternative rock was really female heavy.
And then over night all the women had vanished.
I remember all of this so well, but I didn’t have the knowledge back then to understand why women suddenly disappeared from radio and TV seemingly over night when just before it there was a huge emergence of female centred and female led alt rock bands, and even bands that weren’t indie/alt rock but fuelled this kind of rebellious energy.
Some blame a backlash within the culture, that record labels that were predominantly indie started consolidating and buying each other out, and that meant these bands were no longer being headed by people with a love for the art they were distributing, now it was record execs whose only interest were dollar signs and who were stifling after the initial wave. Some blame 9/11, that men became paternalistic and thought these strong, unapologetic women made them seem weaker to “enemies”. This book explores all the pivotal bands from this era and how these scenes started and ended.
This is my first completed ARC and admittedly the way its put together is pretty questionable. I wanted to put my editor cap on and fix a lot of how the book is laid out. I guess its not the finished copy so maybe they’ll move some things around and better organize it to highlight certain quotes and separate Tanya’s passages better from the bands she interviews, remove the repetitive statements, etc.
Apart from that I enjoyed reading so many of these people I grew up on speak about their experiences from back then. It made me miss that era and remember how amazing it was. I’ve been playing Belly’s Star nonstop for days and just discovered Kim Deal’s solo album from November(?). Also I’ve made a playlist for those who don’t know what that sound was like and for those who do & miss them (it's linked in bio)!
Rating: 3.5
Out January 28th!!!
https://www.instagram.com/p/DEPK6UaODHo/
Tanya talks about coming of age to the grunge, indie rock and alternative scenes and how, our age bracket just missed the scenes middle stages - when bands like Hole, The Breeders, Veruca Salt, Belly, Liz Phair and L7 were still playing smaller venues and bars. We were there for the explosion of amazing bands coming into the mainstream, though. And our experiences were particular because it was pre-internet, and MTV/Much Music were huge influences back then. You knew what songs were big because you saw the videos play, over and over again. You also tuned in to various radio stations to tape your favourite songs if you hadn’t bought the tape or CD yet.
Tanya joined bands and recreated some of the female 90s rock sounds in doing so — something I might have badly attempted only a couple times before dodging out. And though I dreamed of being a rock journalist, too much had changed by the time I finished high school.
Suffice to say, something really interesting was happening with mainstream music in the 90s and contrary to what seems to be the belief now, this was not a rock scene dominated by men. Unconventional women, in fact, were everywhere and 90s grunge, indie rock and alternative rock was really female heavy.
And then over night all the women had vanished.
I remember all of this so well, but I didn’t have the knowledge back then to understand why women suddenly disappeared from radio and TV seemingly over night when just before it there was a huge emergence of female centred and female led alt rock bands, and even bands that weren’t indie/alt rock but fuelled this kind of rebellious energy.
Some blame a backlash within the culture, that record labels that were predominantly indie started consolidating and buying each other out, and that meant these bands were no longer being headed by people with a love for the art they were distributing, now it was record execs whose only interest were dollar signs and who were stifling after the initial wave. Some blame 9/11, that men became paternalistic and thought these strong, unapologetic women made them seem weaker to “enemies”. This book explores all the pivotal bands from this era and how these scenes started and ended.
This is my first completed ARC and admittedly the way its put together is pretty questionable. I wanted to put my editor cap on and fix a lot of how the book is laid out. I guess its not the finished copy so maybe they’ll move some things around and better organize it to highlight certain quotes and separate Tanya’s passages better from the bands she interviews, remove the repetitive statements, etc.
Apart from that I enjoyed reading so many of these people I grew up on speak about their experiences from back then. It made me miss that era and remember how amazing it was. I’ve been playing Belly’s Star nonstop for days and just discovered Kim Deal’s solo album from November(?). Also I’ve made a playlist for those who don’t know what that sound was like and for those who do & miss them (it's linked in bio)!
Rating: 3.5
Out January 28th!!!
https://www.instagram.com/p/DEPK6UaODHo/