COVER STORY : Women Rockers--the Sound and the Fury : Why female artists are finally smashing the narrow confines previously set for women in rock

“I wanna be mesmerizing, too,” sings Liz Phair in a declaration that symbolizes the ambitions of a new generation of women who have finally gained respect in male-dominated rock ‘n’ roll.

Phair’s line is from her debut album, “Exile in Guyville,” which was named the best album of 1993 in a poll of the nation’s pop music critics--defeating such young male rock giants as Nirvana and Pearl Jam.

Worlds away from Phair’s folk-accented rock, the similarly acclaimed PJ Harvey unleashes cathartic torrents of flailing emotion that baffle MTV’s Beavis and Butt-head. “This chick’s weird,” comments Butt-head, just before Harvey unleashes another guttural growl in the video for her song “50-Ft. Queenie.” Her lyrics about menstruation and the power struggles of sex blend with her oddball dress--everything from ‘50s-style bikinis to sequins and boas to a simple wrap of cellophane.

Sharing the critical limelight with Phair and Harvey are the Breeders, an Ohio-based quartet that doesn’t deal in confessional or cathartic works, but in an impressionistic, groove-conscious rock that is more likely to make Butt-head twist his tiny hips than drop his jaw.

Though there have been women stars before in mainstream rock, they always seemed isolated figures cast in a strictly defined, specialized role: from the blues-mama force of Janis Joplin in the ‘60s to the poetic folk sentiments of Joni Mitchell in the ‘70s to the giddy exuberance of Cyndi Lauper in the ‘80s.

But it’s a different story today. The critical breakthroughs of Phair and the others are noteworthy because they--and dozens of other new female artists--are smashing the narrow confines previously set for women in rock. The roles of disco diva, stealth seductress or rocker tomboy--which correspond with the roles of Madonna, whore or girl next door--don’t even begin to cover the diverse appeal of today’s multidimensional artists.

Women now can shun those ghettos, which stifled predecessors who might have had ideas just as creative. As a result, female artists making more challenging music have infiltrated rock from every angle, representing the many facets of their own personalities. They’re coming in as individuals, and winning points for it.

“It used to be as if female was a genre in itself--(whether) it was blues, rock or dance,” says Nancy Jeffries, senior vice president of artist relations at Elektra Records.

“When I first started out in this business (in the late ‘70s), certain people at labels would say, ‘Oh, we can’t sign any more females because we already have three,’ and each of those women would be doing something entirely different. It was a perception that if you had X number of females, you had enough. Now, I don’t hear the percents.”

Evelyn McDonnell, a New York-based rock critic and a founding member of Strong Women in Music (SWIM), an activist group supporting women on all music-industry levels, agrees. “All these intelligent, strong, different women couldn’t be squeezed into these molds, and popped out on their own,” she says. “They’re doing harder, more thoughtful and weirder music.”

The new female bands, which now number in the hundreds, are climbing up the scales of commercial success. The pat sound of Whitney Houston still outsells groups like the Breeders, but the sheer number of bands and the strong critical support shows record companies that the parameters are changing.

Independent labels have been more responsive in signing women at the start of the ‘90s, and are responsible for supporting a number of unorthodox women artists, including “riot grrrl” leaders Bikini Kill. The band was able to spawn a whole underground movement of radical feminism through a homemade fanzine and the tiny K label in Washington state.

But major labels, which have picked up acts such as Nirvana from small labels, are catching on. Following Hole’s earlier move from Caroline to Geffen, 7 Year Bitch has just gone from tiny C/Z to Atlantic Records and Babes in Toyland from Twin/Tone to Warner Bros., among others.

“The Breeders are up over 800,000 (sales), and that signals a positive commercial response,” Jeffries says. “The public reaction is definitely reflected in sales, and they’re increasing.”

The number of women artists alone now is too great to pass off as some hype or fad. Among the ‘90s contenders and their competing musical styles: the experimental hip-hop mutations of Luscious Jackson, the crushing rock of 7 Year Bitch, the surreal lilts and growls of Bjork, the trance hum of Stereolab, the gruff pop of Hole.

Others include Come, Scrawl, Tara Key, Cranberries, Me’Shell NdegeOcello, L7, Juliana Hatfield, Belly, Tori Amos, Spinanes, th Faith Healers, Ethyl Meatplow, Bratmobile, Sarah McLachlan, Kristin Hersh, Melissa Ferrick, Frente, the Muffs, Shonen Knife and Curve, not to mention hip-hop’s Queen Latifah, Salt-N-Pepa and Yo-Yo.

Courtney Love, singer and guitarist of Hole says, “There’s more baby-boomer and hippie children--like, I’m one--who are going to play more instruments. So this is just to be expected and it’s gonna happen more and more.”

Not only will more women continue to infiltrate rock, Liz Phair predicted in a Times interview last year, but they’ll be coming in from even fresher angles. “I bet you a million bucks you’re going to see more women doing it in offbeat ways, more so than men. I think that women are gonna find since there is no history, they can kind of rewrite it.”

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Names like the Runaways, Janis Joplin, Patti Smith, Chrissie Hynde, X, Sonic Youth, the Raincoats, the Slits, X-Ray Specs and Bush Tetras will come up when asking women (and men) about their influences. But considering that rock has been thriving for nearly four decades now, that’s a short list.

While the presence of strong women in rock in the ‘60s and early ‘70s was minimal, the late ‘70s found Patti Smith and the rise of punk rock to be more inviting to women, spawning such offbeat artists as Lydia Lunch, Siouxie Sioux, Alice Bag and Exene Cervenka. But one of the ‘80s’ key underground movements, hard-core, largely excluded women from its testosterone-drenched stages. The more commercial “new wave” scene welcomed women--if they were willing to fill goofy roles, as Cyndi Lauper did in “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” or Toni Basil with “Mickey.”

The encroachment of spandex hard-rock was worse, using females as video-images sprawled half-naked on top of Lamborghinis.

But the ‘90s brought reactions against the preceding decade in the form of Babes in Toyland and Hole. They screamed full-bore, with no heed to prettiness or melody, kicking off the current slew of outspoken and daring bands.

“This was inevitable,” says Selene Vigil, lead singer for Seattle’s 7 Year Bitch, about today’s wave of female bands. “Women aren’t putting up with it anymore and they’re stepping out. They’re not doing what they should be doing, but rather what they want to do.”

Jeffries puts it on an even broader sociological level. “It’s changing but it’s a matter of evolution. This is a worldwide, cultural, evolutionary thing because the suppression of women has been so historically universal. This is the musicians’ expression of this particular period of human evolution.”

If there is one common factor other than gender between these bands, it’s that they are offering a new viewpoint toward rock.

“In general, women see the world differently than men, and we’re not all the same,” says Jill Cunniff, 27, who shares the duties of producing, singing, and playing everything from bass to keyboard with the rest of the New York-based group Luscious Jackson. “Because we haven’t been in a position of power in society, women have a really different perspective. It’s a lot more sensitive.

“Honest female expression in any art form is refreshing because before it was usually filtered through men: ‘This one’s OK, this one isn’t.’ Women just look at things in less constricted ways and ignore genre boundaries. They are contributing a more fluid element to rock, and that’s a good thing.”

“I think women are contributing songs that are based in real life in an artistic way,” says McDonnell, who alongside her involvement in SWIM is currently working on a book chronicling rock criticism by women. “These people are articulating their own thoughts and emotions when so much of alternative and pop is just ironic and obtuse.”

Adds Vigil: “It gives rock a little more emotion. That whole bad boy, rock ‘n’ roll image--there are girls that are as nasty as the boys, but with the Breeders and PJ Harvey, the music’s good and powerful, and there’s a lot more of an emotional quality to it.”

With more lyrical and musical honesty comes a more individualized look. Instead of men dressing up women to sell records, women have taken control of their own images and are marketing themselves more accurately.

“In the old days, everyone was so concerned with, ‘What are they wearing?’ ” says Jeffries. “They all had to have a stylist. Now, everybody comes in as who they are.”

“Women are not trying to be a formulated Motown thing,” Vigil explains, “with whipped-up hairdos and tight dresses. They’re doing their own thing and don’t feel they have to be a Barbie doll or have a rock slut image.”

While women are appearing more as themselves, McDonnell sees it causing confusion elsewhere in the industry. “PJ Harvey’s album could have done a lot better, but I just don’t think people know how to market a women like this.”

There is still a lot of progress to be made if PJ Harvey, or her peers, are to be accepted by their record companies, let alone a larger audience.

“I don’t want to over-romanticize how well things are,” warns McDonnell, “because most of these artists are not selling as much as the guys. Sexism is so entrenched in all levels of the industry, I still think there are gut reactions that are afraid of seeing women voice certain things, that are resistant to it.”

There’s a certain kickback that can also be expected by men and women threatened by the increasing power of women--in rock, and otherwise.

“We get flak all the time,” says Vigil, whose band plays an ultra-aggressive form of rock with brazen lyrics. “People can accept seeing an angry man a lot quicker than they can seeing an angry woman. It’s like, ‘These women must really hate men,’ but do you ever hear that about an all-male band who rags about some girl in their song?”

Cunniff says, “I like funky beats, I like to dance and I like to hear inspirational lyrics that don’t degrade me, so I’m really happy when women like our music. It’s like a bonding thing that men can enjoy too.”