After ten years of silence, Sleater-Kinney has returned to the headlines, releasing their newest album No Cities to Love. Despite their  break-up of 2005, the three members of the all-girl band, Carrie Brownstein, Corin Tucker, and Janet Weiss, secretly collaborated on this new album and released it within a box set containing all of their previous albums. No Cities to Love has opened the door for further analysis of the band’s overall impact on the music industry and the legacy this feminist band has left behind them.

Sleater-Kinney first hit the music scene at a time when the  rock portion of the music world was dominated by males, and the only female competition was Bikini Kill and the like, leading the Riot grrrl feminist movement. “…Sleater-Kinney eventually became riot grrrl’s answer to the Clash— a band that cupped the flame of the movement from which it sprung, kept it flickering over an impressively sustained period, and used it to spark daring, unpredictable sonic experimentation” (Zoladz). With the band’s impact on the rock music scene clearly categorized as “feminized”, the question may be posed as to if Sleater-Kinney is hailed for their music alone, or rather, the fact that this music was produced by women. When will members of bands such as Sleater-Kinney be able to call themselves musicians without having to precede it with the title of “female”?

Since the beginning of their careers as musicians, the members of Sleater-Kinney have sought to break the mold of rock music being categorized as “for boys”. “Into that world strode Sleater-Kinney, a band of all women dominating its own section of the indie-rock scene, decidedly not there to be a ‘girl band.’ To Sleater-Kinney, boys just didn’t matter. The band was great, and it didn’t give a fuck what the boys were doing” (“How Sleater-Kinney”). Brownstein, Tucker, and Weiss challenged the traditionally male-led rock scene by producing music which rivaled their opposing bands. Even within their lyrics, they ripped on the dominating male musicians in the industry saying “I won’t suck your big ego and then swallow all my pride / I’m just spitting out the memory and stains you left inside of me”.

Within ten years, Sleater-Kinney produced seven albums, opened for Pearl Jam, and was even recognized by music critic Greil Marcus as “the best band in America”. This newest album release by the band is a reminder that the music industry still needs feminism, and women are still not getting the respect they have earned for their accomplishments. “And as much as sexism continues to run rampant in the music industry, the unqualified respect that Sleater-Kinney received from listeners, critics, and peers continues to point toward something hovering on a (one hopes) not-too-distant horizon— a time when ‘female musicians’ will just be ‘musicians'”  (Zoladz).

 

Citations:

“How Sleater-Kinney became one of the last great rock bands.” Vox.

        Vox Media Inc., 20 Jan. 2015, Web. 16 Feb. 2015.       

 

Zoladz, Lindsay. “Riot Women.” New York Magazine Jan. 26—Feb. 8,

2015: 85—87. Print.