In recent years, we've seen young Black artists like Tyler the Creator, Meg the Stallion, Chloe x Halle, Steve Lacy, and many more rise to worldwide stardom in celebrity culture and the music industry. Although these artists' unique sounds are often strictly confined to historical and predominately Black music genres (other than Pop) by award shows and music charts. Why is it that young Black artists make music that can only excel in the R&B, hip hop, and/or rap categories? One could argue that Gen Z Black artists are being marketed by their record labels to produce albums and perpetuate personas that align within those three genres, respectively. But, I would argue that other genres of music have been potentially irreversibly white-washed, resulting in the inability of Black artists to achieve success and fame in genres other than R&B and hip hop/rap. To support this argument, I present Black Grrrls Riot.
Before I dive into the birth of the Afropunk collective, let's review the timeline of the punk movement starting in the mid/late 1960s. It all starts in east coast cities with bands like MC5 and The Stooges hailing from Detroit and the New York-native group The Velvet Underground. These three groups were underground experimental rock collectives that would set foundational framework for what would transform into the punk rock genre in following years. With general themes of nihilism, anti-government sentiments, and Iggy Pop's live acts of self-mutilation, we see future bands in the scene adopt similar aesthetics and push the boundaries of alternative rock music. As we segue into the early to mid 1970's, the formation of bands like the New York Dolls, The Ramones, Blondie, and the Talking Heads dominate New York punk clubs. As punk rock rises in its popularity within alternative spaces, it eventually reaches the UK with the formation of The Sex Pistols which was followed by groups like The Clash, The Jam, and Siouxsie and the Banshees in 1976. Consequently, hardcore punk bands emerged in the States with groups like the Misfits and Bad Brains who were influenced by UK punk rock collectives. This genre would quickly decline in the 80s along with punk as pop artists like David Bowie and alternative groups like Cocteau Twins topped charts in the US.
A quick google search will reveal that most of these bands leading the punk rock wave were almost always exclusively white, heterosexual, cisgendered men. With this in mind, we can infer these groups will subsequently attract mainly white, cisgendered, male crowds, a group least likely to champion inclusivity in all facets of identity at concerts or among fanbases. This is what fueled the 1990s Riot grrrl movement with debut of the group Bikini Kill. Riot grrrl is considered to be a pinnacle in late third wave feminism with songs, zines, and workshops harboring feminist sentiments, addressing racism, exploring sexuality, and vulnerable discussions around domestic violence and sexual assault. In theory, the movement would have been a necessary facilitator of spaces where alternative individuals with marginalized identities were uplifted and represented. In praxis, it was dominated not by white, male, cisgendered persons but suburban, white, female, cisgendered folks. This was even explicitly stated as a descriptor of the movement in a Newsweek article in 1992. There were BIPOC Riot Grrrls like Ramdasha Bikceem who is also the only Black woman cited in the NYU Riot Grrrl Collection. Bikceem's zine titled "Gunk" expressed her plights with not only her gender but her race in comparison to her white companions. Other riot grrrl punk zines like Chop Suey and Bamboo girl analyze Riot Grrrls exclusionary nature from an Asian American woman perspective which are of the few minority identities cited in the Riot Grrrl Collection.
As non-White Riot Grrrls like Ramdasha Bikceem and Lala Endara aimed to transform the movement from within through their personal experiences particularly involving race, the conception of Sista Grrrl Riot aka Black Grrrl Riot surfaced as an alternative space to the homogenous Riot grrrl community. The Brooklyn-bred Tamar-kali Brown was one of the founders of the alternative collective and her life experiences leading up to the group's formation was essential for its existence. According to Brown, The Black alternative rock circles in 1997 were more intimate and isolated from the prominent punk and hardcore scene in New York. She describes herself as a "tough girl", being someone growing up in New York in the 90s with crime and sexism running rampant. Brown's self-expression--a shaved head, piercings, and tattoos-- revealed the hard exterior she formed as a survival mechanism from predatory men and the dangerous realities of being Black. She was familiar with the overpowering whiteness associated with Riot Grrrl and knew the movement could never properly provide her with community she could find solace in. Around the time Brown contemplated leaving the all-male band as the lead member, she eventually met another artist like herself with electrifying talent and in the punk and hardcore music scene. This artist would be Honeychild Coleman, another founder of the Black grrrls riot collective, who shared parallels with Brown in terms of her life experiences.
Being an alternative, Black girl from Kentucky, she often found herself outcasted not just by virtue of her race but her musical interests and alternative aesthetics. The film "The Smithereens" inspired Coleman to move to New York after her undergraduate career at art school and living in California with her boyfriend at the time. Once she touched down in the Big Apple in the mid-90s, she began her career as a musician with a sound that fuses PJ Harvey and Bjork. The Kentucky-born musician eventually met Brown through her roommate during a dinner where Brown and Coleman bonded. Shortly after, Brown met the final group member of the punk group, Maya Glick. Glick did a cover of a Betty Davis song and Brown couldn't contain her excitement in finding another Black, femme artist with musical interests similar to her. Brown was eager for Glick and Coleman but Coleman has already been friends with violinist and guitarist Simi. All that was left for this network was an event which became the first Sista Grrrl Riot performance in 1997 on February 14th at Brownies (former rock club in New York). The eclectic performance included electric violins, bass guitars, and staple punk vocals. This had been the first time each member had performed to a predominately Black punk crowd and their riots continued every couple of months with other non-White women artists as their openers.
Unfortunately, Sista Grrrls Riot didn't receive as much media coverage as the mainstream Riot Grrrl movement, making it a niche portion of Black punk history in the United States. But, are we surprised? Death, an early 1970s all Black, proto-punk band, didn't receive recognition until they were rediscovered in the 2000s and are often buried in punk history recollections despite being of the first punk bands in the world. Black artists rarely acquire similar magnitudes of fame as their White counterparts in genres outside of R&B and rap/hip hop. My worry with this growing trend is the lack of representation amongst Black artists across musical genres and a potential perpetuation of negative stereotypes. Stereotypes continually place Black folk in boxes, homologizing and the deducing the Black race to what media and music portrays us as. Origins of almost every mainstream musical genre, historical and contemporary within the United States, stem from Black artists or are influenced by predominately Black genres. That being said, alternative Black music and artists deserve more recognition which ultimately will inspire young Black people to embrace their individuality and that their self-expression is limitless.