Notes

Notes __Quotes about mass media from the Brittanica Online Encyclopedia__
 * On the effects of mass communication:
 * (In the twentieth century...) "the uniformity and conformity bred by the press, radio, and television threatened—albeit passively rather than directly—the pluralism and diversity on which liberal society prided itself and which it regarded as its chief security against totalitarian challenge."
 * "Many sociologists follow the theory that mass communication seems to influence attitudes and behaviour only insofar as it confirms the status quo—i.e., it influences values already accepted and operating in the culture. Numerous other analysts, usually oriented to psychological or psychiatric disciplines, believe that mass communications provide potent sources of informal education and persuasion. Their conclusions are drawn largely from observations that **many, or most, people in technological societies form their personal views of the social realities beyond their immediate experience from messages presented to them through public communication**."

These links might also be helpful: Public opinion and the formation of attitudes, News agencies & journalism

__Notes & Quotes on the Riot Grrrl (and post-Riot Grrrl) bands, with a focus on their relationship with the media.__

Sleater-Kinney: Bikini Kill:
 * Sleater-Kinney fused “radical feminism with challenging, fiery punk.”
 * “mostly unknown in the mainstream and has shown little interest in recording for a major label.”
 * “… for S-K rock ‘n roll is more about empowerment and community than stardom.”
 * “Tucker's searing wail was set against the band's minimalist rock (just drums and two guitars), with lyrics that confronted sexual abuse and inequality while rebelling against the sexist traditions of rock & roll.”
 * From the Rolling Stone bio
 * “S-K guitarist Carrie Brownstein [was] pinwheeling her strumming arm like Pete Townshend's upstart kid sister”
 * “In Sleater-Kinney's hands, raw, startling blasts of expression… became more than just songs. They became imperatives.”
 * From Rolling Stone’s “Live Report: Helium/Sleater-Kinney”
 * ‘Touring is gross, sweaty, smelly, etc’
 * From the Rolling Stone interview with Brownstein
 * “They stayed true to the Pacific Northwest riot grrrl ideals that inspired them, but they didn't waste time critiquing the mainstream--instead, they seized their own independent vision of freedom, acted it out, lived it out, gave that vision a sound. That's why they never sounded like anybody else, and that's why their music remained intensely moving while other bands ran out of gas.”
 * From Rolling stone’s “Ten S-K Songs that Make them the best American punk band ever. Really.”
 * [Sleater-Kinney] is “already becoming their generation's Ramones.”
 * “Providing more female role models was one of the objectives of the feminist rock movement called Riot Grrrl, according to manifestoes from the fanzines that circulated in punk circles in the early 90's. When the mainstream press discovered those fanzines about a year later, Riot Grrrl (a term coined by young punks in Washington and Olympia, Wash.) became big news for media outlets from The L.A. Weekly to "Nightline." Unprepared for the attention, and disturbed that their effort to define themselves was being undermined, Riot Grrrls called for a news media ban.”
 * “While Ms. Morissette turned female angst into big pop and big bucks, independence for artists like Bikini Kill means, in part, freedom from media conglomerates that they see as peddlers of sexual stereotypes”
 * “…critics have ignored their music while scrutinizing their ideologies.”
 * “Sleater-Kinney's desire to be rock-and-roll heroes is refreshing; Riot Grrrl's rejection of the mass media at times smacks of college-girl elitism and stereotypically female fear of success. Yet the goal of these artists is not to make the stage a place of envy but to make it one of inspiration -- to create a music that empowers rather than alienates.”
 * From NYTimes “Riot Grrrl Returns, With a Slightly Softer Roar”
 * Joan Jett had “faux independence” in her music career– her tough, powerful (and female-empowering) songs were “packaged by men.”
 * Jett’s type of rebellion is “based more on cosmetic contrivances than on real conviction,” the latter of which is what Riot Grrrl is all about (presumably)
 * “[Louise] Post (of the band Veruca Salt) best summed up the spirit of the evening when she responded to the small audience's enthusiasm with the announcement, ‘Tonight, we're helping dispel the myth that all 'woman bands' sound the same.’"
 * From NYTimes “Polar Opposites Make Rebellious Music Together”

Bratmobile:
 * (When asked why the band broke up in ’94): “Things just got so out of control with riot grrrl, grunge, punk rock, whatever. No one expected the kind of media onslaught we all experienced-or the backlash that followed. None of us were professionals, none of us knew how to process things, how to do good "business," or even how to benefit front the press. It was frustrating to feel so out of control of our own images and words.”
 * “…the media scrutiny of what we were doing really seemed to cloud our own vision”
 * From “Punk Planet” Interview, Spring ‘99