Criticism as punctuation in the riot grrrl backlash

Abstract

This article argues that music criticism from the early 1990s was central to media backlash against feminism in this period. As Daphne A. Brooks has noted, music criticism remains widely untheorized, despite being so entangled with the sustainability of popular music. In this article, I give focused attention to a small body of critical writing, exploring the relationship between recordings and the reviews that describe and evaluate the music. I present a reading of backlash against the riot grrrl band Bratmobile from 1993 to 1994, including reviews from the zines Cake, Snipe Hunt, trust kill and Genetic Disorder as well as from Artforum, SPIN and Option. I apply Janice A. Radway’s concept of ‘rhetorical containment’ to this set of criticism, highlighting shared critical manoeuvres evident in the reviews. This builds on Peter Szendy’s idea of ‘punctuation’ as that which shapes phrasing in a dialogue; on one level, criticism of Bratmobile punctuated the musical releases by legitimizing them and by reinforcing key themes in the music. But the critics also undermined the band in ways both subtle and explicit. I conclude by suggesting that critical backlash against riot grrrl can be understood as a matter of power and solidarity, with every critical utterance containing elements of both.