REVIEW | Gender and Rock

Abstract

Providing a multi-levelled map of rock in its broadest conceptualisation through a discernible individual writing style, Kearney creates an extremely thick analysis of the rock scene: at times you can almost hear the music. The author shines a multiperspective, queer light brightly and loudly onto rock culture and the ways in which it has been academically understood. She challenges the patriarchally constructed nature of the genre through her own mix of analysis, exercises and questions. This book, and the voice of the author, acts as both a guide and a friend through rock music, actively contributing to a counter narrative through activities and framing. And as a visual and educational excursion, you cannot help but enjoy the journey.Kearney approachably situates rock music: its complexities; its production, imagery, emotions, legacy, language; how it is experienced and how it can be explored. Through the insightful interdisciplinary lens of gender, the author successfully sets out the myriad of interconnecting ways that gender has influenced, and continues to influence, rock music. The book's varied approach is not only evident in the theory presented and the diverse locations of study, but is also central to its ethos. This publication, therefore, embodies the nature of its critique and resonates with a desire to engage readers and to create critical rock fans, students and researchers. The book challenges and nuances narratives that have come to dominate academic and fan understandings of the genre by drawing from and highlighting a range of academic perspectives. In doing so, it provides an easy to follow format -organised into four sections -that draws the reader into the theoretical landscapes of cultural studies and the social sciences to consider and contextualise rock. A major strength of this work, therefore, is the bridging of the social sciences and humanities, achieved through its particular clarity and tone. It speaks across disciplines in a clear and visibly political voice, applying theory and constructing an engaging narrative.