What Happened: Sleater-Kinney’s Words of Empowerment

Carrie Brownstein and Corin Tucker of Sleater-Kinney in 2019

By Leila Abdul-Rauf

Groundbreaking women have sculpted rock's sound and energy from the very beginning. Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Grace Slick, Tina Turner, and Janis Joplin represent just a handful of the genre's pioneers. By the 1970s, punk turned rock and roll upside down on its head, giving it an fresh outspoken edge – and again, women led the rebellion: Poly Styrene of X-Ray Spex, Wendy O. Williams of the Plasmatics, Siouxsie Sioux of The Creatures and Siouxsie and the Banshees, The Slits, The Runaways powered by Joan Jett and Lita Ford – all at the punk forefront.



Joan Jett live in 2010

In the early 1990s, punk fused with feminism and leftist politics to create the Riot Grrrl movement. Bands including Bikini Kill, Bratmobile, Heavens to Betsy, and Excuse 17 personified the most organized underground music movement fighting sexism. Riot Grrrl bands also dealt with the wider issues of sexual assault, racism, classism, and patriarchy by speaking out at shows and writing fanzines on these topics.



Kathleen Hanna of Bikini Kill in 2016

In 1994, Heavens to Betsy guitarist Corin Tucker and Excuse 17 guitarist Carrie Brownstein formed Sleater-Kinney in Olympia, Washington and, unlike many of their peers, rose to commercial fame in the early 2000s. Sleater-Kinney has no bass player, and both guitarists frequently tune to D flat, one-and-a-half steps below standard tuning (Db Gb B E Ab Db). Tucker's tone and style fills more of a bass guitar role while Brownstein handles most of the leads.

With progressive lyrics that are both personal and political in nature, Tucker's vocals play front-and-center. She sings with an intentionally harsh voice to get across the band's messages of female empowerment. A recent example is the band's 2019 song "Broken," which addresses Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh's accuser Christine Blasey Ford: "She stood up for us when she testified…Me too, my body cried out when she spoke those lines."

Sleater-Kinney and Bikini Kill unapologetically spoke out against the mistreatment of women in underground music scenes decades ago; their mainstream success and the strength of the Riot Grrrl movement in general helped pave the way for the #MeToo movement and celebrities using social media to speak out about their experiences of sexual assault.

Leila Abdul-Rauf is a multi-instrumentalist and composer based in Oakland, CA. A private guitar and voice teacher, Leila has recorded and performed locally and internationally for two decades in countless music projects.

"S-K 2019" by Ikeadams12345 is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

"Joan Jett @ Bluesfest" by ceedub13 is licensed under CC BY 2.0.

"Kathleen Hanna 2 Dec 2016" by Paul Hudson is licensed under CC BY 2.0.