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Sex Revolts: Gender, Rebellion, and Rock 'n' Roll
Iggy Pop once said of women: "However close they come I'll always pull the rug from under them. That's where my music is made." For so long, rock 'n' roll has been fueled by this fear and loathing of the feminine. The first book to look at rock rebellion through the lens of gender, The Sex Revolts captures the paradox at rock's dark heart--the music is often most thrilling when it is most misogynist and macho. And, looking at music made by female artists, it asks: must it always be this way?
Provocative and passionately argued, the book walks the edgy line between a rock fan's excitement and a critic's awareness of the music's murky undercurrents. Here are the angry young men like the Stones and Sex Pistols, cutting free from home and mother; here are the warriors and crusaders, The Clash, Public Enemy, and U2 taking refuge in a brotherhood-in-arms; and here are the would-be supermen, with their man-machine fantasies and delusions of grandeur, from Led Zeppelin and Jim Morrison to Nick Cave and gangsta rap. The authors unravel the mystical, back-to-the-womb longings of the psychedelic tradition, from Pink Floyd, Jimi Hendrix, and Van Morrison to Brian Eno, My Bloody Valentine, and ambient techno. Alongside the story of male rock, The Sex Revolts traces the secret history of female rebellion in rock: the masquerade and mystique of Kate Bush, Siouxie, and Grace Jones, the demystifiers of femininity, like the Slits and Riot Grrl, tomboy rockers like L7 and P. J. Harvey, and confessional artists like Janis Joplin, Joni Mitchell, and Courtney Love.
A heady blend of music criticism, cultural studies, and gender theory by two of rock's keenest observers, The Sex Revolts is set to become the key text in the women-in-rock debate.
Provocative and passionately argued, the book walks the edgy line between a rock fan's excitement and a critic's awareness of the music's murky undercurrents. Here are the angry young men like the Stones and Sex Pistols, cutting free from home and mother; here are the warriors and crusaders, The Clash, Public Enemy, and U2 taking refuge in a brotherhood-in-arms; and here are the would-be supermen, with their man-machine fantasies and delusions of grandeur, from Led Zeppelin and Jim Morrison to Nick Cave and gangsta rap. The authors unravel the mystical, back-to-the-womb longings of the psychedelic tradition, from Pink Floyd, Jimi Hendrix, and Van Morrison to Brian Eno, My Bloody Valentine, and ambient techno. Alongside the story of male rock, The Sex Revolts traces the secret history of female rebellion in rock: the masquerade and mystique of Kate Bush, Siouxie, and Grace Jones, the demystifiers of femininity, like the Slits and Riot Grrl, tomboy rockers like L7 and P. J. Harvey, and confessional artists like Janis Joplin, Joni Mitchell, and Courtney Love.
A heady blend of music criticism, cultural studies, and gender theory by two of rock's keenest observers, The Sex Revolts is set to become the key text in the women-in-rock debate.
432 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 1996
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937 people want to read
About the author
Simon Reynolds
51 books488 followersSimon Reynolds is one of the most respected music journalists working today, and his writing is both influential and polarizing. He draws on an impressive range of knowledge, and writes with a fluid, engaging style. His books Rip it Up and Start Again and Generation Ecstasy are well-regarded works about their respective genres, and RETROMANIA may be his most broadly appealing book yet. It makes an argument about art, nostalgia, and technology that has implications for all readerswhether diehard music fans or not. Its an important and provocative look at the present and future of culture and innovation."
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
March 15, 2023
I really wanted to love this, but ugh. I'm so torn about it.
It thematized a lot of interesting facets of Rock'n'Roll, Metal and music in general: The sexism, the sex, the feminism, gender in general - the book has two parts, one for the guys and it's mostly about misogynie in rock songs, the "flirtation" with war related topics and facism and stuff like that. The other half is for the women in rock. There's some talk about gendernoncomformity too.
But then there's all this wannabe psychoanalysis. They should have left that out, really. It's meandering and boring and more an attempt to overanalyse certain aspects of songs. The authors also confuse schizophrenia with dissociative identity disorder, psychosis with psychopathy and use autistic as adjective. Felt like reading not well researched psychopop, but with the attempt to make it sound super grave.
They also thematise cultural appropriation, racism and gender tourism (by rock bands who used femininity as a style, but were still sexist and misogynistic af) here and there. They write about voguing at some point and about Madonna using it for her song and even about "Paris is Burning". But they are not going into these topics very deeply.
In general an okay book about misoginy, feminism, gender and sex in pop culture, but I really prefer more modern reads because they mostly let the psychoanalysis out of it - overanalysing every little aspect to appear more educated is a symptom of the time the book was written. If it's well done it's okay, if not it's a pain in the ass. Like in here.
It thematized a lot of interesting facets of Rock'n'Roll, Metal and music in general: The sexism, the sex, the feminism, gender in general - the book has two parts, one for the guys and it's mostly about misogynie in rock songs, the "flirtation" with war related topics and facism and stuff like that. The other half is for the women in rock. There's some talk about gendernoncomformity too.
But then there's all this wannabe psychoanalysis. They should have left that out, really. It's meandering and boring and more an attempt to overanalyse certain aspects of songs. The authors also confuse schizophrenia with dissociative identity disorder, psychosis with psychopathy and use autistic as adjective. Felt like reading not well researched psychopop, but with the attempt to make it sound super grave.
They also thematise cultural appropriation, racism and gender tourism (by rock bands who used femininity as a style, but were still sexist and misogynistic af) here and there. They write about voguing at some point and about Madonna using it for her song and even about "Paris is Burning". But they are not going into these topics very deeply.
In general an okay book about misoginy, feminism, gender and sex in pop culture, but I really prefer more modern reads because they mostly let the psychoanalysis out of it - overanalysing every little aspect to appear more educated is a symptom of the time the book was written. If it's well done it's okay, if not it's a pain in the ass. Like in here.
March 13, 2009
As the introduction to this book warns, you will most certainly not think about some of your favorite rock n'roll artists this same way again. It is a feminist and psychoanalytic take on the themes and tropes that run throughout the work of some the most revered bands in rock history, including The Rolling Stones, U2, The Clash, Iggy Pop and The Stooges and more. The most powerful and thought-provoking aspect of this book is identifying these themes and illuminating this oft-ignored aspect of popular music. A particularly powerful illumination includes the idea of The Rebel (always male) throughout both rock n'roll music and literature and pop culture as a whole. The argument is that The Rebel was ultimately rebelling against stultifying domesticity (identified with the female realm) and when women did make an appearance within say, Beatnik novels or in tales of young male rebellion such as Don't Look Back or Rebel Without A Cause, she was either a caregiver or something to be rebelled against. This book is most effective as an examination of these themes, but loses its ground when delving into the psychoanalytic aspects, and makes for cheesy moments when describing phallic symbols within rock and the symbol of the feminine in ambient and psychedelic music by way of symbols such as the ocean, etc.
The most intriguing aspect of the book is the second half, which considers female artists and their troubled contribution to rock n'roll and popular music.
The most intriguing aspect of the book is the second half, which considers female artists and their troubled contribution to rock n'roll and popular music.
September 15, 2022
This book is dense as hell. I read it over 8 months. Some bits weren't for me, but there are ideas I will come back to again and again.
October 28, 2011
Reynolds is one of my favorite rock scribes and I'd been meaning to read this book of his (written along with Joy Press) for over a decade. Maybe it was that anticipation and the lag between the context that it was written in and the current cultural environment that made me so disappointed. The thought of applying rigorous gender readings to rock music is an ingenious one and it seems all the more of a lost (never sustained?) form for rock criticism given the current digital media swarm surrounding music that provokes conversation, but conversation that is without the deep theoretical grounding that is attempted here. However, the application of theory feels hurried and superficial. It's not that I disagree with the authors' categorization of certain music and artists into certain gendered roles, nor do I find many of their comments uninteresting, but it feels like they excitedly applied all sorts of (then) new gender paradigms onto popular music, without carefully parsing their categorizations. Not many of their conclusions were ultimately revealing or groundbreaking, which was was what I was sincerely expecting from this work.
November 3, 2025
I found the third section a lot more compelling than the first two, though they too had their moments.
In terms of the third section, I would have liked some analysis of artists who existed within gender roles/expectations in the context they were making music a little more. discussion of 'challenging' work is interesting, but I feel misses some fertile ground for exploration. my favorite chapters in the third section were 'open your heart' and 'all fluxxed up'
the first two sections had less high-points I thought, and some analysis I didn't agree with (thought Manic Street Preachers in particular didn't get a fair shake with a lot of their work tackling gender quite directly)
maybe if you're more into psychosexual development theory you would find the second section more interesting than I did
note: some weird references to autism in the work, probably just a consequence of when it was written (I hope)
In terms of the third section, I would have liked some analysis of artists who existed within gender roles/expectations in the context they were making music a little more. discussion of 'challenging' work is interesting, but I feel misses some fertile ground for exploration. my favorite chapters in the third section were 'open your heart' and 'all fluxxed up'
the first two sections had less high-points I thought, and some analysis I didn't agree with (thought Manic Street Preachers in particular didn't get a fair shake with a lot of their work tackling gender quite directly)
maybe if you're more into psychosexual development theory you would find the second section more interesting than I did
note: some weird references to autism in the work, probably just a consequence of when it was written (I hope)
May 25, 2019
Rock müzikteki eril tavrı derinlemesine sorguluyor. İlk bölüm rock müziğin cinsiyetçi yanlarını, daha doğrusu cinsiyetçi içeriği sahip şarkı ve tavırları sunuyor, ikinci bölüm ise rock müziğin eril tavrı içerisinden kendine yer edinmeye çalışan kadın müzisyenleri anlatıyor. Sevdiğimiz şarkılarla ve müzisyenlerle ilgili olumsuz yorumlar moral bozucu olabilir ama yazarlar biz hala bu müzikleri seviyoruz, sevdiğimiz şeyi de eleştirebiliriz diyor.
Yine de erkek ve kadın müzisyenlere ayrı ayrı oluşturuldukları "kalıplar ve tanımlar" bazen bana dar ve sığ geldi.
Yine de erkek ve kadın müzisyenlere ayrı ayrı oluşturuldukları "kalıplar ve tanımlar" bazen bana dar ve sığ geldi.
May 5, 2017
The book will not appeal to everyone's taste, but to those that are attracted it offers a lot of insights and fun.
December 13, 2021
Kurz vor Ende dann doch abgebrochen. Voller anti-feministischer Aussagen und unbelegter Zitate.
January 28, 2023
So interesting!! According to the binary, men with mommy issues have a bigger d*ck...
February 25, 2024
Was ist bitte eine phallische Mutter?
January 27, 2008
I read this in college for a class and really enjoyed it. If you enjoy pop music - pop music in general, not just a single genre - this is a good read. It has some pretty illuminating analysis of various pop music forms and the way that gender is played upon in them.
July 9, 2012
Critical theory with familiar faces and a loud soundtrack, this work is perfect for college types who like to theorize their passions with semiotics.
April 27, 2017
Possibly the best book I've read about rock and gender. Possibly the only book I've read about rock and gender. Smash the patriarchy!
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews