A no-nonsense woman who challenged stereotypes to achieve rock n’ roll fame

By Krista Golia

Photo Courtesy of Scott Gries/Getty Images

In the 1980s, Jett emerged into a male-dominated, sex-appeal-driven industry, causing a stir for being female and knowing how to command a guitar. Her road to fame led her down a path of all-girl-rock bands, controversy, and a do-it-yourself solo career. By fighting media-imposed-stereotypes and continuous rejection, Jett established herself as a celebrated female rocker. UCLA professor Brenda Johnson, who specializes in women studies, believes in Jett’s staying power. “Like David Bowie, Elton John, and other transgressive rock icons, Jett successfully mixed the conventional with the nonconformist,” she says.

Jett no longer causes mayhem in Japan like she did in 1976, but with the release of the movie “The Runaways” in 2010, a greatest hits CD and continuous solo touring, Jett has kept a steady following and presence in the music industry for 36 years.

Joan Marie Larkin was born on September 22, 1960 in Philadelphia, Pa. Her family moved to California in the early 1970s and Jett began collaborating with record producer Kim Fowley at the age of 15. They started The Runaways, five girls singing about sex, drugs and teenage rebellion. Fowley and the girls played local shows, gaining attention before signing to Mercury Records. They were the first all-girl rock band to be successful with hits like “Cherry Bomb” and “Dead End Justice.” The Runaways toured for four years in the States, Europe and Japan. Unfortunately, the pressures of fame became too much, so they officially called it quits in 1979. According to MTV, relationships between group members began to “fray” which was in “thanks partly to substance abuse problems and partly to unconcerned negligence on the management’s part.”

Cherrie Currie, lead singer of The Runaways, detailed the rise and fall of the band in her 2010 memoir, “Neon Angel: A Memoir of a Runaway”, and credits Jett with much of the group’s success. “When it comes down to it, Joan was the backbone of the group,” she wrote. “Sure, there were others who could shout louder, who could stomp their feet harder, but Joan had that certain something that set her apart from the rest of us.”

Dale Sherman, author of “20^th Century Rock & Roll-Women in Rock,” agrees with Currie. “Joan showed that the idea of a girl band or even a girl guitarist didn’t have to be a gimmick to sell records,” Sherman says in an interview. “The Runaways would have had one album if all they were, were a bunch of pretty girls playing rock music.”

Jett was a talented guitar player and listeners recognized that. Sherman describes it as a “style of stripped-down rock.” “There were several artists that went for that style,” says Sherman. “Joan was one of the few women doing it at the time.”

In 1979, Jett began her solo career in England, but it suffered when she only released singles in Holland. During this time, she met record producer Kenny Laguna and they began a stronger initiative for Jett’s solo career. Jett released the hit “Bad Reputation” in 1981, which is hailed by Rolling Stone magazine as a true “pop-punk anthem.”

Jett’s fame peaked as a solo artist. With her band the Blackhearts, she had a string of top ten hits in the 1980s and 1990s, with covers like “I Love Rock And Roll”, which is one of Jett’s most recognized songs. Billboard claimed it to be the 56^th greatest song of all time in their “Hot 100: 50^th Anniversary.” The album, I love Rock N’ Roll, has sold over ten million copies to date, according to Jett’s official website. She finally solidified a spot in mainstream pop culture. Ted Droszdowski, a veteran music journalist, calls Jett’s cover songs, “perfect meetings of musical and lyric directness that tell a clear story everybody can relate to.”

Jett was one of the first women to release her own album on her own label. Maria Raha, author of “Cinderella’s Big Score: Women of the Punk and Indie Underground,” describes this as what “set Jett apart.” “I think having her own record label was a pivotal point, and probably left the record labels kicking themselves, because she could release what she wanted without answering to record executives,” says Raha.

By the late 90s, Jett’s fame began to dwindle and her glory days of Billboard hits, 10 in total, were a thing of the past. In 2006, Jett appeared in the line-up for Warped Tour, representing acts of the past that have influenced the present. Los Angeles Times reporter Susan Carpenter attended and commented how Jett is “a sneering badass who proved estrogen wasn’t an impediment to guitar virtuosity.”

In 2010 the fame floodgates opened once again for several months. Currie’s memoir was made into a movie and Jett helped produce it. With widely popular actresses at the helm, including Kristen Stewart as Jett, the project began to gain media attention, which brought Jett back into the limelight.

Melissa Maerz, a Los Angeles Times reporter, covered the premiere in April and noted Jett’s influence. “Lots of people have copied her my-leather-jacket-shrunk-in-the-laundry fashion sense, her heavy-down-stroke rhythm-guitar style, and that what’re-you-lookin’-at snarl,” says Maerz. “And you can see those things reflected in everyone from Siouxsie Sioux and Poly Styrene all the way up to the riot grrl bands of the 90s.”

Perhaps everyone wants to be Lady Gaga nowadays, but for the select few that don’t, Joan Jett can be seen as an inspiration for achieving fame while staying true to an individual identity. As Raha puts it, “Considering the turn pop music has taken–away from raw rock and toward highly produced songs and images–Jett can inspire a whole new generation of girls to pick up guitars and scream.”