Shirley Manson, the Unexpected Godmother of Rock
Shirley Manson, the Scottish musician who has, for 31 years, been the frontwoman of Garbage, one of the most successful rock bands of the era and a major contributor to this woman-powered '90s culture, has a fascinating theory.
'Sept. 11th stopped all alternative female voices in their tracks, because when people get scared, they get conservative and what does a conservative society loathe? A dangerous woman,' she said.
'The fact is, they stopped playing alternative female voices on the radio,' Ms. Manson added, sitting in her favorite cafe in the Los Feliz neighborhood of Los Angeles this April. 'I remember someone at Interscope Records telling me KROQ [Los Angeles's alternative rock station] will only play one woman, and it's Gwen Stefani, and therefore we're putting all our marketing money into No Doubt. That literally became the dead end for that incredible explosion of female-empowered alternative voices, which were a direct result of that first incredible wave of alternative women: Chrissie Hynde, Debbie Harry, Patti Smith, Stevie Nicks. My generation was a response to that. Our careers exploded, so we were like, 'Oh, hey, everything's cool, everything has changed, the ceiling has been broken.' And then we hit 2001 and it fell to the earth.'
She shook her head, continuing: 'We've now seen two decades of very carefully managed, young, mostly solo, mostly Disney, mostly theater school kids, and they're great! It brings people a lot of joy. To make somebody dance — what a great gift. I could cry just saying that. But as a result, we've also lost the esoteric and the fragile and the dark and the spooky and the fury and all the things that a patriarchal society considers not fitting for a young woman's mind.'
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