Music's Bad Girls - from Bessie Smith to Lady Gaga

Popular music has always had its fair share of bad girls, and today's petulant pop princesses seem tame compared to some female singers of the past. Singing legends Bessie Smith and Billie Holiday lived wild lives, and had chilling personal stories to tell. Bessie Smith was once stabbed by a man, then chased after her attacker - with the knife still embedded in her. Billie Holiday's life was famously ravaged by drink and drugs.

The Rise of the Rock Chick

Fast forward to the 1960s, and a hedonistic decade helped along by the contraceptive pill. Strong women like Grace Slick of Jefferson Airplane were not to be messed with, as the rock chick was born. Even sweet, upper class English girls were turned, as seemingly innocent songstress Marianne Faithfull fell into the clutches of Rolling Stones Lothario Mick Jagger. The British tabloids had a field day with tacky tales of Mick and Marianne, though Marianne Faithfull later claimed that she wasn't quite so innocent, and that Mick wasn't quite so bad.

Japanese conceptual artist Yoko Ono was blamed for not only luring John Lennon away from his wife Cynthia, but for instigating the Beatles demise, and she was even seen as muscling in in on Lennon's musical career with some avant-garde creations. Tina Turner probably wished someone would take her away from brutal husband Ike, the cool and Teutonic Nico of the Velvet Underground entertained a young Iggy Pop in a way no doubt he appreciated, and country star Tammy Wynette made her personal troubles very public on D.I.V.O.R.C.E. As the new decade dawned, Janis Joplin, the hard drinking, frenzied 'queen of rock 'n' roll', died aged just 27.

1970s - Girls with Attitude

Blonde Deborah (then Debbie) Harry, with Blondie, and the dark haired Chrissie Hynde with the Pretenders, were two 'rock chicks' who emerged in the punk era in the 1970s. Both had attitude - a toughness about them, but, paradoxically, a vulnerability also, which came out in their songs, which were a mix of rock and pop. Debbie Harry had been a Playboy bunny girl, and hung around with the Andy Warhol crowd in New York, and Chrissie Hynde was a student at Kent State University, Ohio, at the time of the infamous killings of four anti-Vietnam War protesting students by the Ohio National Guard in 1970. It seemed as if all successful women in the entertainment industry had seen the seedy or dark underbelly of humanity. It somehow seemed almost a requisite experience to cope with the harshness of struggling to succeed, for dealing with rejection, and for dealing with constant sexual innuendo. It also helped to be as good looking as Debbie and Chrissie.

Stevie Nicks of Fleetwood Mac was a very gifted singer and songwriter in the 1970s, who ended up tortured by the deluding aspects of fame and fortune, and under the spell of fame's insidious 'friend' - drugs. Other successful singers of the period such as Joan Jett and Siouxsie Sioux seemed to come through relatively unscathed.

Madonna Teases Her Way to the Top

The 1980s was a decade where Madonna soared to fame. Dressing and acting provocatively and singing songs Like a Virgin, young males everywhere felt tormented and confused. Madonna seemed to imply that women had more power than they often realized. Any battered wife or girlfriend would disagree, but Madonna did really launch the more overtly sexual female singer, even if disco star Donna Summer had flirted with eroticism on I Feel Love in the mid-1970s.

Madonna was happy to tease millions of males on her way to a massive fortune. The Material Girl meant what she said, and legions of female fans were inspired by her. Cyndi Lauper stated that '80s girls just wanted to have fun, but Pat Benatar reminded us that love was a battlefield.

The Divas Make It Big

In the 1990s we saw the birth of the diva, as Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey sang in an emotional way, which either touched your soul, or was as appealing to one's ears as a pneumatic drill a few feet away.

Also in the '90s, controversial Irish singer Sinead O'Connor ripped up a photo of the Pope on TV - she later became a priest. Young Canadian singer/songwriter Alanis Morissette was seen as the next big thing, Courtney Love's husband Kurt Cobain committed suicide, and it seemed futile to try and shock us anymore - but she tried.

When Shock Tactics Become Passé

In the 21st Century we have the media obsessing over Beyonce and Jennifer Lopez's derrieres, all the fuss about Janet Jackson's 'wardrobe malfunction', and the Dixie Chicks being slated by many for protesting about the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq. We have almost seen the rock chick take the power away from the guys, they are now so prevalent - either as solo singers, or fronting bands. Katy Perry, Pink, Amy Winehouse, Lady Gaga and Britney Spears may try and shock us, but, sorry ladies, we've seen it all before.

Sources

Jazz.com - Bessie Smith

NPR - Janis Joplin: The Queen Of Rock

USA Today - 1970 Kent State shootings are an enduring history lesson

Yahoo! Music - Madonna Biography

BBC News - O'Connor becomes a 'priest'

Personal Knowledge