The Duality of Rockism (AFRAM Blog Post 1)

Throughout the entire history of the United States, women have be institutionally silenced. This has occurred on a multitude of levels, manifesting in legislation (anti-abortion laws, denial of voting rights, the wage gap, etc), social expectations, or gender roles. Of course, women are not the only people who have been limited by these factors; members of the LGBTQIA+ community have as well. One of the major ways in which social justice for all, and largely women, has been discussed is through music and other aspects of American Popular Culture.

Our current Popular Culture works in an interesting way. Although the current music industry provides a platform for some artists to discuss the advancement of social issues, it simultaneously silences the voices of others, and works to exploit those who do not fit a certain image at a given time; this duality is worth looking into further.

Rockism refers to the prejudiced attitude to any form of popular music that doesn't conform to the values of "rock" music. This definition originated from stereotypes about rock being made by and for white men, but can extend to any genre, any group, and any audience. Rockism can manifest in many different ways, and affects everybody in some way.

Throughout time, there have been many challenges to Rockist beliefs. Memphis Minnie challenged rockism. In his account of one of Memphis Minnie's performances, Langston Hughes writes, "looks more than ever like a colored lady teacher in a neat Southern school about to say, “Children, the lesson is on page 14 today, paragraph 2.” But Memphis Minnie says nothing of the sort. . . . [she] smiles. Her gold teeth flash for a split second. Her earrings tremble. Her left hand with dark red nails moves up and down the strings of the guitar’s neck. Her right hand with the dice ring on it picks out the tune, throbs out the rhythm, beats out the blues" (Hughes, 2). This demonstrates the ways in which Memphis Minnie's image in itself challenged the rockist belief that only white men could rock. Memphis Minnie destroyed the architectural framework surrounding the image of a "rocker," and in this way challenged gendered and racial stereotypes present in American dominant culture. Simultaneously, however, she was severely unacknowledged for many of her contributions to popular music today. Memphis Minnie was arguably the first person to play the electric guitar, however, she is not recognized or thought of as such. Additionally, she wrote and performed many songs that went on to become hits, only when they were covered by white male performers. One example of this is the song "When the Levee Breaks." Memphis Minnie's story demonstrates the duality that is present in our current popular culture: that, while challenging the status quo and facilitating a discussion of social issues, she also has be subject to the discrimination that is present in the music scene.

The "Women Who Rock" digital archive is another medium through which rockism, and thus other forms of discrimination, has been challenged. This archive challenges rockism by collecting narratives and dialogue from a very diverse pool of individuals. In the notes regarding the Women Who Rock archive, it is stated that "It is a platform for documenting and fostering the relationships and networks that drive music scenes, social justice movements, collaborative research and writing, art making, and more. The archive does not simply cast back retrospectively to tell a static story of scenes and movements past, it also documents scenes and movements in the present" (Habell-Pallan, Retman). The diversity of participants alone challenges rockism, by giving a platform for voice of communities that are underrepresented in the popular music scene. 

Old Town Road-- by Lil Nas X ft. Billy Ray Cyrus
https://youtu.be/w2Ov5jzm3j8

Cherry Bomb-- the Runaways
https://youtu.be/_EBvXpjudf8

I chose these songs, as they are both very prominent examples, to demonstrate the duality of challenging rockism, while also being very much affected by it.

In his song "Old Town Road," Lil Nas X blends "country music" sounds with "hip-hop" sounds in order to create a new type of sound and fuse two genres which are not correlated, due to rockist beliefs in our society. Lil Nas easily placed on hip-hop charts following the release of this song, due to racialized beliefs about what it means to be a hip-hop artist. He did not however, place on country charts until he added Billy Ray Cyrus, a while male country singer, to the track. Since Billy Ray Cyrus represents what dominant popular culture would consider a "country singer," the song was added to the country charts soon after. Lil Nas X challenged rockist beliefs by creating a song that fused the sounds of hip-hop and country music, and by opposing the stereotype of a "country singer." He also, however, was affected by rockism while doing so; he was essentially forced to add someone who was perceived as a country singer to his song in order to land on country music charts, and subsequently challenge rockism further.

The song "Cherry Bomb," performed by the Runaways, and sung by Cherie Curie, is another demonstration of this duality. The Runaways are one of the first all-girl bands to become famous for writing and producing rock and roll music. Joan Jett and Cherie Curie challenged rockism in their images alone. By performing in a genre which was associated only with white men, they challenged rockism. In her best-known performance of the famous song "Cherry Bomb," Cherie Curie wore lingerie, which can be associated with female sexuality and femininity. This challenged social beliefs and rockism as well. It can also be argued, however, that, to become a famous rock band, it wasn't enough for the Runaways to be talented alone (as they very much were). As many women do, they needed to be "attractive" in order to capture the attention of audiences around the world. This is a way in which they were affected by rockism as they sought to fight it.