“Typical Girls” by The Slits
The punk movement of the late 70’s is often associated with a wave of boy bands that made hyper-aggressive, testosterone fueled music for young, mostly white men disillusioned with government and popular culture. The Slits, however, out-punked the punks at their own game and found a voice for their punk ethos from a completely different source of musical inspiration — dub reggae. They refused to be packaged and sold as sexy punk rock girls by record labels, and navigated their way through the music industry on their own terms with their unique brand of punky reggae and an emphatically provocative and irreverent public image that reflected their disdain for sexist gender norms which, as Poly Styrene says, tell women that they should be “seen and not heard”. The single, “Typical Girls”, from their debut album, Cut, describes the type of conforming, complacent women The Slits frown upon and vehemently refuse to be.
The track features a dissonant, atonal guitar intro, a swingy reggae verse and an ironically sugary anthem of a chorus all within the first minute and fifteen seconds of the recording. The music’s frequent and dramatic shifts in mood and feel provide an oddly effective accompaniment to Ari Up’s incensed, yet playful vocal performance. Lyrics damning toxic stereotypes of femininity are sung with a light-hearted, satirical air that sugar coats a poignant condemnation of archaic gender norms with a lovably mischievous tone (buy ma-a-a-a-a-agazines!). It’s bold, rebellious and fiercely unique music that’s completely punk rock in spirit without employing any of the cliches that are generally associated with punk rock music. This track is still just as fresh and politically relevant today as it was when it was released over forty years ago(!).
Also, the drum sound on this recording is straight up delicious. I can only dream of getting snare drums to sound this beefy and full of personality on my own shit.
