And they yell out the inspiring, secretly deep lyrics to 'Rebel Girl' in instrument classes and at camp showcases, to instructors and parents who loved it back when and hear it reborn in the voices of the girls they love.īikini Kill's members found other ways to do the work they pursued in that band. Thousands of kids aged 8 to 18 - mostly girls, though a few coed sessions aim to educate boys and welcome non-binary children - form their own bands, write their own songs and encounter riot grrrl's feminist, anti-racist, LGBTQI-positive principles. Since the first rock camp for girls was founded by women directly inspired by riot grrrl nearly 20 years ago, these summer enclaves have multiplied around the world the Girls' Rock Camp Alliance includes members from Buenos Aires to Pittsburgh to Tokyo. As younger artists from Lucy Dacus to Lizzo carry riot grrrl's messages forward into the new millennium, even younger girls around the world learn Bikini Kill's anthem - often as part of the introduction to both music and feminism they receive at rock and roll camp.

Twenty-plus years after riot grrrl peaked, however, its influence runs even more strongly through punk and the larger independent music world, and 'Rebel Girl' is the song that most often signals its continued relevance. Its breakup in 1997 and the eventual waning of riot grrrl felt to many like the inevitable demise of a dream too brilliant to last.

The band stayed together for seven years, releasing a small discography full of nonstop attacks on sexism and celebrations of independence and self-love. Hanna, with her alarm bell of a voice and kinetic, funny, sometimes cutting presence, became riot grrrl's most visible torch-bearer. This is the story of ' Rebel Girl,' the 1993 song by the feminist punk band Bikini Kill that still echoes through the hearts of girls and women today.īikini Kill was the emblematic band in the early-1990s riot grrrl movement, which sought to prove that feminism could become a central element within punk and fundamentally change the music in the process. So it's notable when a punk song survives its own explosion to become a uniting force for generations beyond its bloody birth.

Punk is meant to clear the head, not fill it with sentimental feelings. From original snotheads the Sex Pistols to contemporary insurgents Pussy Riot, punk bands kick down norms to make space for new ideas their music smashes through the rhetoric that often gets people singing choruses en masse. There's something contradictory about the very idea of a punk rock anthem.

A Good Girl Gone Bad by Kathleen Hope