Call it a disappearing act: Why did the successful female alternative rock performers of the 1990s vanish from the mainstream by the early 2000s? Tanya Pearson (Why Marianne Faithfull Matters) handily solves the mystery in Pretend We're Dead: The Rise, Fall, and Resurrection of Women in Rock in the '90s. Assisting with the detective work are Liz Phair, Tanya Donelly, Tracy Bonham, and a dozen other 1990s alt-rock high-fliers whom Pearson has interviewed for her Women of Rock Oral History Project.
The backlash began in the late 1990s, as the feminism of male musicians like Kurt Cobain was supplanted by, as Pearson sees it, "overtly misogynist male rock stars, nu metal, teen pop stars, and boy bands." Shirley Manson, vocalist for alt-rock darlings Garbage, identifies another turning point: "It's a blanket fact that after September 11, nonconformist women were taken off the radio," a response to what Phair calls a "patriarchal patriotism" that sidelined girl rockers. What's more, the mid-1990s saw the beginning of the music industry's corporate consolidation, which hobbled college radio and other stations committed to playing female artists.
Pretend We're Dead is fiercely persuasive and should enlighten even readers who came of age with '90s alternative rock. Pearson, a historian born in 1981, frequently touches on her youthful delight at witnessing her subjects' musical ascendancy, and she toggles easily between academic observations ("Throughout American history... marginalized people are blamed for the collapse of American values thought to keep the country safe") and earthier formulations ("I fucking hate Limp Bizkit"). --Nell Beram, author and freelance writer