The Roots of it All Through Bikini Kill: Revolution Girl Style Now!

SCORE: 84/100

The dark and loud sound of 'Revolution Girl Style Now' is something truly unexpected - this album has a much more blunt edge than one might expect, and Kathleen Hanna's work as the leading lady for Bikini Kill is a title that has never fit anyone better. Her unique vocal range and tone suit the sound of this album exceptionally well, and the band uses just 20 minutes to make themselves more than known. It may be a bit rough around the edges in terms of sound, but it's an excellent effort that truly shows the full potential that the band has and that they would go on to expand upon before new projects came underway. 

There's a clear grit to this album that makes the anger much more potent when it is presented throughout, and the somewhat homemade sound that still clings to the surface of this album makes it an even more interesting feat - something that truly feels like a suitable skill level for a debut while still bending the curve of social commentary, especially for being released in 1991. Despite being considered to be their first album - 'Revolution Girl Style Now' is a demo project that was handed out by the members of the band through cassette copies - hence the less polished sound that this project has compared to other music from the same scene (and the band later on as they progressed and grew into something much bigger). 

Bikini Kill coined the phrase that made up the album's title, the phrase that would soon be fished upon and leeched on by the media until it was watered down into murky pink waters through the rising of "girl power", a less punk-filled, less angry, less political form of "girl power" that was shown through girl groups and popstars all around the world - but most particularly? Western American culture, the culture that has constantly and consistently controlled Hollywood and our music system since the very roots of it all - Bikini Kill were here to promote their more political stance on the lives of females in a male-dominant society, but they were soon overturned by a much different perspective; a perspective that will never beat the one found within the entirety of this album.

"Revolution Girl Style Now!" turned into "Girl Power" the catchphrase of manufactured pop superstars the Spice Girls; the Lilith Fair became one of the largest-grossing summer music festivals of the 90s; and Titanic made half a billion dollars at the box office largely from, according to the Nation's Katha Politt, 'Women-especially teenage girls-whose repeated viewings, often in groups of friends, have made Titanic the highest grossing movie in history." Yes, it was a revolution all right: Women were finally recognized as a market force that stretched into the previously male-dominated realm of entertainment. So what happened? How did "revolution girl-style now!" get turned into a marketing scheme? Two words: the media." (Sinker, Punk Planet Magazine) 

The hugely political and blunt lyrical style of this album is what makes it so incredible. The lyrics are honest and so truly potent that it feels like the largest form of speaking up and taking a massive stand for what's right - and it's clear that Hanna and the other members of the band knew exactly where they wanted to go; and most importantly, who they wanted to be - which was always, always themselves, each and every time.