Grrrl Power!: Gibson Recommends The Girls’ Guide To Rocking
If you’re a seasoned musical veteran you probably know how to start a band, book a gig and record your future hit song in your sleep, however if you’re just getting started with your musical career all of these processes can be daunting—and being a tween or teen girl can often magnify these insecurities. Thankfully that’s where The Girls’ Guide To Rocking comes in. Written by manager/publicist/writer/band member Jessica Hopper, the book is a comprehensive guide to finding your way to rock stardom that covers all of the basic information as well as answers embarrassing questions that you don’t feel comfortable asking the grizzled, goateed rock veterans working at Guitar Center.
From finding an instrument to forming a band and writing songs, The Girls’ Guide To Rocking is teeming with immensely useful information that’s not always intuitive such as how to have stage presence (advice: look people in the eyes, dedicate yourself to the lyrics and stay focused), writing lyrics (advice: don't use words you don’t know the definition of, don’t try to sound super-smart and don’t use words for the sake or rhyming) and also includes a checklist for your first show as well as a fold-out timeline called “A Superstar Century In The History Of Rock ‘N’ Roll,” which includes everything from Bessie Smith getting signed to Columbia Records in 1923 to Pink’s fifth album Funhouse debuting at Number two on the Billboard charts last year.
While much of the book is useful to anyone interested in forming their first band, the audience for the book is clearly female. (When asked why at a recent appearance, Hopper responded “because I’m not sure that boys need this book,” citing her own experiences as a burgeoning guitarist.) Correspondingly, The Girls’ Guide To Rocking is peppered with informative and motivational quotes from female artists ranging from the Pixies/Breeders Kim Deal to Sonic Youth’s Kim Deal and, yes, Courtney Love among others. “You have to kick doors open yourself. When people come up to me and say, ‘Patti, nobody wants to hear my CD and I don’t have enough money for equipment,’ I say, ‘Well, get a job, y’know?’ That’s what I did,’ reads a quote from Patti Smith in the chapter about managing your money and touring.
Smith’s words may ring true, but The Girls’ Guide To Rocking does her sentiment one better by showing you exactly how to promote your CD and come up with equipment—and Hopper also includes plenty of her own personal experiences in the narrative, which prevents the book from sounding overly academic. If you’ve always wanted to be in a band or are just trying to figure out exactly how a Leslie Speaker cabinet works, The Girls’ Guide To Rocking is essential reading for yourself as well as an excellent gift for a younger relative looking to break out of her shy shell and make her secret rock n’ roll dreams a reality. “May a thousand new bands be launched by this book,” Karla Schickele (founder and executive director of Willie Mae Rock Camp For Girls) writes on the back cover of the book. Here’s hoping it will. The Girls’ Guide To Rocking is peppered with informative and motivational quotes from female artists ranging from the Pixies/Breeders Kim Deal to Sonic Youth’s Kim Deal"?????..............someone needs to proofread these things better - the second "Kim Deal" should be "Kim Gordon"
