Source: This piece was originally posted at The New Democrat
Joan Jett hasn’t been a great rocker chick for the 1970s, or the 1980s, or the 1990s, the 2000s, or today. She’s been a great rocker chick for all of those decades and times, because she has a style and brand that is of her own that she has perfected and made work for going on forty years now. She first hit it big in 1977 or 78 when she was still a teenager and has been going on ever since. And her music is about herself and her own life and what she has experienced. And is real and she isn’t someone who tries to be anyone else or has copied anyone else, or has needed to. She’s the ultimate American original.
Songs like Hate Myself For Loving You and I love rock and roll, are about her and her own life. Her own experiences and not some copycat of some other performer that has made it big, or has just made it big and trying to copy of that so they sound hot or cool as well. She’ll never be mistaken for a girl band performer, the female version of a boy bander that became popular in the late 1990s. Because she has her own act and her own style. And wouldn’t want to be part of that anyway.
Joan Jett is the ultimate rebel with a cause, because there really isn’t any other rocker chick you can compare her to. Not least as one who has been nearly as successful and has been as successful for as long as she has. I’m not a huge fan of hers, I like a few of her songs, but the thing I respect most about her is how real she is and original she is. Who does her own thing whether it is considered hot or awesome by the pop culture establishment, or not. And she’s taken a lot os risks and has been very successful as a result.
Joan Jett: Do You Wanna Touch Me
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