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.
I didn't see him saying that in his post all. The way you put words in his mouth to make him look stupid and unreasonable is very liberal-esque, to say the least.
Bella_Bru response: Oh, so now you speak for all Conservaitves or Christians??? YOU decide what "good" Conservatives listen too? That's a laugh. Here's a newsflash: We don't walk lockstep.
I only speak for myself; my point that Conservatives and Christians are used to being outnumbered is a fact that I think you would generally agree with.
And I didn't make a point of what was "good" or "bad" to listen to, only that to support financially those that are against "conservative" causes (gun rights, pro-life, etc.) is to give aid and resources to those who oppose those same "conservative" causes.
And it's apparent that we don't walk in lockstep. That is what makes FR great, the exchange of opinions/thoughts between conservatives regarding issues. What has pissed me off is the treatment on this thread of those who dared to express opinions against the view of the apparent majority.
I took that he or she was saying that Conservatives or Christians don't listen to such things. If you do a few searches, you will find many threads on FR where the "good" conservatives are bashing the "bad" conservatives for "funding Hollyweird".
It's a cross-section of devout Marxists and young, dumb and full of *** kids who think anarchy means being able to do drugs and have sex whenever you want without having a job. Much the same as the Vietnam war protests, the No-Nukes movement, the anti-globalization crowd, the Greens, etc, etc...
Mumia is just a rallying point for the true believers and their useful idiots. The murdered police officer is their conquest.
God bless Napster (Kazaa and WinMX, actually)....
We are on the exact same page. Listen if you want, but don't financially support those whose beliefs are opposite of your own.
Glad to hear that. She has a great voice, and she is extremely talented. I remember seeing 4 Non-Blondes on Conan O'Brien years ago, and man, Linda looked pretty rough with the tattoos and the leather.
This is so right-on-the-money!!! "Artists" today are so "Plastic Banana" it's just not funny anymore.
Definitely. She is awesome. And so is Union Station.
Joan Jett doesn't know as much as she thinks. The Donnas????? PUH LEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEZE!!!!! The Donnas are a joke band started at Palo Alto High School (six blocks from me) by a music teacher. They got novelty interest and then somehow caught on...whoa! those chicks rock! not quite.
Veruca Salt "rocks" more than Joan Jett ever did...until their lead singer went crazy and started putting out touchy feely music. (she has a good voice though)
Sounds like she is on a LOOK AT ME!!! rant, like we got from Spike Lee and Michael Jackson.
A random general search isn't going to give me any additional insight into what Power2 said. He didn't claim to speak for anyone but himself, while you accused him of trying to speak to all Conservative Christians.
As far as I could tell, he merely voiced an opinion that was different than your own. And you attempted to marginalize him through false characterizations.
If you disagree with him, that's cool, just say so and why. Don't attack him based on what other posters may have said over the course of your time here.
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