The 90's Part 2B: Front Women
b'In 1967 during the summer of love, anything seemed possible\\u2026civil rights issues were being addressed\\u2026the war in Vietnam could be stopped\\u2026drugs and free love were in the air\\u2026and women were being liberated\\u2026\\n\\nAmongst all this was Jimi Hendrix who became a fan of an all-female rock band from San Francisco called \\u201cthe ace of cups\\u201d\\u2026\\n\\nWait a second\\u2026an all-girl rock band?...who wrote their own songs?...who had a chick out front that could shred like a man?...and a girl playing drums?...\\n\\nEven in 1967, that was radical\\u2026Hendrix was so impressed by their chops that he invited them to open a couple of his shows\\u2026it really did seem like a defining moment\\u2026\\n\\nBut then the old sexist attitudes took over\\u2026women groups did not\\u2014could not\\u2014rock\\u2026it was common sense\\u2026self-evident\\u2026everyone knew that\\u2026\\n\\nThe ace of cups gave it a good shot, but by 1972, they\\u2019d broken up\\u2026and until punk rock came around a few years later, the idea of a female-fronted rock band was considered silly\\u2026\\n\\nBut punk brought in new egalitarian values\\u2026and fans embraced groups fronted by, led by and occasionally consisting entirely of women\\u2026\\n\\nDeborah harry and blondie\\u2026Chrissie Hynde and The Pretenders\\u2026The Slits\\u2026Patti Smith\\u2026Siouxsie and the Banshees\\u2026Wendy O. Williams and the Plasmatics\\u2026\\n\\nThese amazing women did all sorts of good for women\\u2019s role in rock\\u2026and by the time generation x and the 90s started to happen, the idea of bands where the leader and most (or all) its members had extra x chromosomes wasn\\u2019t weird at all\\u2026finally\\u2026\\n\\nBut there was still work to be done\\u2026and all through the alt-rock 90s, we were influenced and inspired and entertained by some of the greatest female musicians in rock, period, full stop\\u2026this is part 2 of our series on the alternative rock of the 1990s\\u2026\\nLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices'