An Open Letter To Rolling Stone (Joan Jett is PISSED and I don't blame her!)

JoanJett.com ^ | Joan Jett

[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.

[Jael]

Because I got saved. My life changed. The things that the music glorified were not things I wanted in my life any longer and I didn't feel like the Lord Jesus did either.

That having been said, my flesh can still like it and be moved by it. I was in a bookstore a year ago and heard 'You Were Never Mine" by Delbert McClinton. I found a little tear trickling down my face at the memory of someone I hadn't seen in 15 years.

Hearing that song, the loss was as fresh and as painful as it was that day.

"The Song Remembers When."

[xsmommy]

so put another dime in the jukebox, dubs ; )

[Skooz]

Because I got saved. My life changed. The things that the music glorified were not things I wanted in my life any longer and I didn't feel like the Lord Jesus did either.

Ditto.

That having been said, my flesh can still like it and be moved by it.

Ditto ditto. I still like some of the best of the old stuff I used to listen to, but now I try to listen to edifying music which glorifies God.

[hoppity]

Sounds like we have similar stories with secular/ Christian music. HAve you listened to Fernando Ortega?

I don't remember McKee's lyrics being that off the wall. Some of it is just plain poetic.

[Clemenza]

"Yeah, 'don't go back to Rockville'...you may get sodomized by Michael Stipe!"

Is "nature-boy" Stipe also from "nature-girl" Jett's hometown of Rockville

No. He wrote a song called "Rockville" and that's where the quoted lyrics (by me and warslut) come from. Michael Stipe hails from Athens, Georgia.

[Clemenza]

"I am a cliche!"

Used to love hearing that song on Spermacide's "Crucial Chaos" show on WNYU in New York back in the 80s. Those were the days.

[FITZ]

valuable spotlight is wasted on the same overexposed pop princesses WHO HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH ROCK.

I have to agree with her completely also. It's amazing when you read of Madonna or Shakira referring to themselves as Rock stars when they don't have a clue what rock music is.

[Uncle Meat]

Music was fun before then, after 92, it became depressing and suicidal.

May I suggest Gov't Mule.I've kinda gotten hooked on them and started buying up all the cd's and downloading all the "Mule"I can find.They do excellant covers of War Pigs,30 Days in the Hole,Dazed and confused,Almost cut my hair and more.Their bass player just died and instead of replacing him,they invite several differant bass players,Flea,Jack Bruce,Jason Newstead,Bootsy Collins,Les Claypool,etc and also have them add some of their own influenance on each song.They put out two fantastic albums,The Deep End,Vol 1 and 2.Check them out.Music for your ass.Also check out the young Derek Trucks Band.Very talented young man.

[agrace]

I find her lifestyle distateful, but Melissa Etheridge is another one who can smoke these newbies.

I agree. When her first album came out I was blown away.

[NYCVirago]

I've never heard of Joann Jet, don't listen to Britney Spears, and have never read Rolling Stone. I read this post and couldn't find anything redeeming or important about this issue.

Thanks for sharing.

[Rockinbass]

Just wanted to clarify something.. Joan Jett herself did NOT write the letter above. It was written by a fan and appeared on her website. Alot of people agreed with what was wrote, some have opposed the dissing of certain musicians/singers in the letter.. but Joan Jett did NOT personally write that and she probably hasn't even seen it.. Please correct this when you can.. thanx peace.

[weegee]

I've seen Joan Jett twice in my life. First time was singing the national anthem at an Orioles game in Memorial Stadium (we saw her walking around by the dugout before the game but couldn't place who it was).

I got to see her put on a great show with the members of the Seattle band The Gits when they went on the road to raise money for the investigation of the rape/murder of their lead singer. Ms. Jett filled in the lead role singing their songs (in a band retitled Evil Stig, Gits spelled backwards) as well as her own material.

Good for someone to take Rolling Stone to task (they've gone even lighter in their pop coverage than they had been). Mojo Magazine (from England) and Roctober (from Chicago) are both better magazines.

[weegee]

Poison Ivy of the Cramps is one female guitar player who is almost universally ignored in "women in rock" lists.

She is one half of the steady lineup of the Cramps, together with her significant other Lux Interior, and they have been together since the early 1970s. Together they write the songs (as well as choose covers from their massive record collection of obscurities). She rarely ever sings or cracks a smile at their shows but she can be quite talkative in their interviews.

Her playing style is Link Wray reverb and fuzz meets obscure rockabilly with psychedelic garage overtones. Johnny Cash invented the term psychobilly but the Cramps (especially Ivy) gave it a sound.

[I_Love_My_Husband]

Thanks for clearing that up!

[weegee]

That cover should have had a PMRC warning label.

[weegee]

Re: Jim Ladd

Some other good programs on the radio are Little Steven's Underground Garage (recommended because it can be heard in many cities across the nation in syndication).

I also like WFMU (especially Teenage Wasteland which airs Sunday afternoons and is archived for later online playback).

[weegee]

I caught Chrissy Hynde at the Woodlands (on a bill with Royal Crown Revue and the B-52s). She asked if there were any meat eaters in the audience and then said that she hoped that we'd all "f****n' choke on it".

She said this with no harm for getting "political". Ted Nuggent played the same venue within a year, made a statement about securing the borders from illegal aliens and was banned from playing there again.

She doesn't do much for me. She almost married Sid Vicious or even Johnny Rotten to obtain a green card in England. She eventually shacked up with Ray Davies of the Kinks.

[weegee]

I met Exene when her "country" band the Original Sinners came to town. Some friends of mine talked to her when X played town last week. One of them used to have the band over to his house 20 years ago.

I know what X did but I never listened to them. I like some of John Doe's later work.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

Very cool letter. I agree with everything she says, and the Distillers are great.

Agree totally.

The author should realize that this state of affairs at RS is....simply because RS is bought and paid for by the pop music recording labels. If the 'Big Labels' ever stopped short...they'd have to spend a week digging RS out of their collective @$$hole$.

[weegee]

How about Poison Ivy of the Cramps?

Yep, I posted the same thing elsewhere in this thread. One of the most overlooked female guitarists.

Some suspect because she doesn't "lead" the band, that it wouldn't be right to acknowledge her.

Eddie Brickell was just another member of the New Bohemians when the record company decided to promote it as "her" band. Made a lot of enemies out of her former friends.