Women Who Rock

The critics of this show are too harsh. Do they realise how hard it would be to get top rock stars, who live far and wide, to be interviewed? It would have been a logistical nightmare.

But they manage to snare a succession of great artists like Gladys Knight, Chaka Khan, Tina Weymouth, Kate Pearson, Shania Twain, Sheryl Crowe, Ann and Nancy Wilson and Pat Benatar.

That's a pretty good line-up!

You also realise just how hard these woman would have had to work to overcome the sexist culture of rock amid male musicians, producers, fans, etc.

And to be taken seriously.

Often they would have been the only woman performer in their bands. Chaka Khan tells how she would remind her band that she was boss.

I'm glad this doco recognises a very confident, brave array of women.

I started watching this series because of the intriguing title but got more and more discouraged when women who had nothing to do with rock became more and more prevalent. It's like presenting a documentary on Heavy Metal and including such influencers as the Osmonds and the Jackson 5. Doesn't make much sense, does it? That's this series in a nutshell.

Will give it a 7 cause it features many of my favourite artists, but I find it is very much of an overview with a few in debt moments. Here's hoping this was an amuse bouche and the main course of a series that features an episode delving in R&B, Disco, Indie, etc.... will come to follow. Hope springs eternal.

Typical garbage produced in America in 2022. Take episode one - rather than delving into countless deserving women, we are treated to other tangenital subjects. It's the sort of show you expect in 2022 - if you don't fit the bill, if you don't talk politics, if you don't look right, you will be omitted despite your talent and impact. The Shangri-La's, The Ronettes and The Shirelles deserve better, and that's just a small sample of those overlooked in just the first episode.

Going through the episodes and decades, we are shown some deserving women, but the problem is those who are omitted stick out. 95% of worthy women are ignored, or only briefly namechecked. The talking heads aren't up to par, either. It's all substandard - rather than being of a high standard, it's like an idiot's guide. With an emphasis on idiot.

I still give this a 6 because it does have so much. But who made these choices? How could they leave out some of the most influential women in music ever?

No mention of Buffy St Marie or Joan Baez. None of Queen Latifah or a huge figure like Lauryn Hill. No Wendy O Williams or Lita Ford or even Amy Lee of Evanescence.

Sometimes the series softens what actually happened. There's no mention of Ann Wilson and Debbie Iyall and the garbage they went through from record companies for their weight.

There's huge issues with gender in metal and rap and country, but you don't hear a thing about them in this series. Instead you get the ridiculous claim of Sinnead Oconnor as an "activist" when no one even knew what she was supposedly protesting for years and she came across as paranoid with mental health issues.

The legendary Aretha Franklin is barely mentioned. But Shania Twain gets a ridiculous 8 minutes to bloviate and put her ego on display. And there's no mention of her being long derided as pure fluff, as Steven Earle put it, just a "high paid lap dancer."

She has never done anything remotely close to rock. If you include country, why are the far more influential and talented Patsy Cline, Loretta Lynn, and Dolly Parton left out? And they were actual feminists who sang about and were activists for women's rights, not the faux feminism of Twain or Beyonce or Madonna or Whitney of monster egos but not doing a damn thing for anyone else.