Cock rock
Cock rock is a term, typically used derogatively, to describe a style of rock music that emphasised an aggressive form of male sexuality. It developed in the later 1960s and came to prominence in the 1970s and 1980s.
[edit] Use of the term
Cock rock was first mentioned by an anonymous author in the New York-based underground feminist publication Rat in 1970,[1] to describe the male dominated music industry and became a synonym for hard rock, emphasising the aggressive expression of male sexuality, often misogynist lyrics and use of phallic imagery.[2] The term was used by sociologists Simon Frith and Angela McRobbie in 1978 to point to the contrast between male dominated sub-culture of cock rock which was "aggressive, dominating and boastful" and the more feminised teenybop stars of pop music.[3] Led Zeppelin have been described as "the quintessential purveyors of 'cock rock'".[4] Other formative acts include the Rolling Stones, The Who and Jim Morrison of The Doors.[5]
Since the 1980s, the term has been sometimes interchangeable with hair metal or glam metal.[6] Examples of this style include: Mötley Crüe, Ratt, Warrant, Extreme, Cinderella, Pretty Boy Floyd, Jackyl, L.A. Guns, and Poison.[7] Despite the name, many of these bands had large numbers of female fans.[8] The spoof documentary This is Spinal Tap is an acclaimed parody of the style.[9] In the 21st century, there was a revival of the visual and musical style with the sleaze metal movement in Sweden, with acts including Vains of Jenna.[10]
[edit] See also
[edit] Notes
- ^ T. Cateforis, The Rock History Reader (CRC Press, 2007), ISBN 0415975018, p. 125.
- ^ R. Shuker, Popular Music: the Key Concepts (Abingdon: Routledge, 2005, 2nd edn., 2005), ISBN 0415284252, pp. 130-1.
- ^ M. Leonard, Gender in the Music Industry: Rock, Discourse and Girl Power (Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing, 2007), ISBN 0754638626, pp. 24-6.
- ^ S. Waksman, Instruments of Desire: the Electric Guitar and the Shaping of Musical Experience (Cambrige, MA: Harvard University Press, 2001), ISBN 0674005473, pp. 238-9.
- ^ P. Auslander, Performing Glam Rock: Gender and Theatricality in Popular Music (University of Michigan Press, 2006), ISBN 0472068687, p. 201.
- ^ C. Klosterman, Fargo Rock City: a Heavy Metal Odyssey in Rural Nörth Daköta (Simon and Schuster, 2001), ISBN 0743406567, pp. 100-1.
- ^ "Hair metal", Allmusic retrieved 30 December 2010.
- ^ R. Moore, Sells Like Teen Spirit: Music, Youth Culture, and Social Crisis (New York, NY: New York University Press, 2009), ISBN 0814757480, pp. 109-110.
- ^ J. Gottlieb and G. Wald, "Smells like teen spirit: riot girls, revolution and independent women in rock", in A. Ross and T. Rose, eds, Microphone Fiends: Youth Music & Youth Culture (London: Routledge, 1994), ISBN 0415909082, p. 259.
- ^ M. Brown, "Vains of Jenna", Allmusic, retrieved 19 June 2010.
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