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Tailhook '99

I heard the sweet sounds of Lilith this weekend with a slightly bitter taste in my mouth.What's with all this bad -- really bad -- behavior at Woodstock? That is not what they meant by "free love."

As Ann Powers wrote in last week's New York Times (<- if link weirdness occurs, search the Times for "lewdness tinged with hate" and it'll pop right up!), "The women seemed to be reviving the role of the old-fashioned rock chick. who gained the right to be sexually expressive by running a gauntlet of degradation and scorn ..." And "Sugary romance and feminine fluttering aren't going to satisfy [the gals weaned on hiphop and hard rock]. In the early 90s, they could hear their turbulent emotions expressed in the voices of female rockers, but they will look to male performers if that is what is offered them. They relate to the frustration expressed by ... Limp Bizkit, or the strutting pride of Kid Rock. When those performers direct outrage at women, these female fans deflect it, just as their predecessors did when Mick Jagger sang 'Under My Thumb.' ... the young women, feeling free and charged with life, jump into the mosh pit. If only their confidence were not then crushed by the men they trust."

Phair enough. Or is it? What do you guys make of Rock Chicks Who Love Bands Who Loathe Them? Of the continuum of assaults with the Woodstock soundtrack? Isolated, or endemic? Hideous, but inevitable in any such hopped-up gathering? Inquiring/aging superhero minds want to know. I do know that it is far too "Footloose" to say Rock Music=Cause, Bad Behavior=Effect. But I also know that my advice column in-box is often a mosh pit of the same stuff; guys and girls are getting it from somewhere. So I don't know exactly what role this music scene plays, so how about you guys hum a few bars?

Stay tuned.

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