OFF:An Open Letter to Rolling Stone by Joan Jett

[Bolts of Ungodly Vision]

>>   An Open Letter to Rolling Stone
>>   by Joan Jett
>>
>>   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.