The Grrrls who rocked the ‘90s

MANILA, Philippines - Sheryl Crow was a game changer. Millennials probably don’t realize the gravity of what Sheryl Crow did for the music landscape, but she ushered in a significant change in the way the industry saw female rockers. She released her debut album, “Tuesday Night Music Club,” in 1993 but it wasn’t until the single, All I Wanna Do, was released in the fall of 1994 that she exploded onto the charts, peaking eventually at No. 2 and becoming one of the top-selling albums of the ‘90s (over 8 million copies all over the world).

Why is this significant? Before then, women in rock didn’t make those kinds of numbers. It was the release of “Tuesday Night Music Club” that allowed artists like Alanis Morissette, Paula Cole, Joan Osborne, Fiona Apple, Sarah McLachlan and the rest to be given as much attention as the male rockers of the time. Sure, the ‘80s had Heart and Sinead O’Connor, but while the former had been around since the ‘60s, gaining prominence in the mid-‘70s, they were more the exception to the rule, rather than the norm; while the latter was a singer from the UK and was essentially a one-hit wonder (Nothing Compares 2 U), ruined by her onstage persona and radical ideologies so that she was never taken seriously again. Stevie Nicks gained popularity with her band Fleetwood Mac and can’t be counted.

But when Sheryl Crow broke down that wall for women singers, the ‘90s landscape of rock and alternative music had just as many women on the front and center and on the top of the charts. It was anybody’s game.

Back in the ‘90s, it seemed like everyone was learning the guitar and just as people were learning the chords to the songs of Gin Blossoms, Oasis, Rivermaya and Eraserheads, they were also learning the songs of The Cranberries (Linger, Ode to My Family, Zombie), Joan Osborne (One of Us), Jewel (You Were Meant for Me), Sugar Hiccup (Moden De), Color It Red (Paglisan), and Sheryl Crow, of course.

The more sophisticated fare went to the piano-pounding, angst-ridden women of rock like Tori Amos, Paula Cole and Fiona Apple, who proved that rock, alternative and blues can just be as easily played on a piano as it could on a guitar.

Alanis Morissette then surprised everyone again in 1995 and proved that women were to be taken as seriously as men in the world of rock and alternative music when her album “Jagged Little Pill” became a worldwide hit and sold over 33 million records. It was the ‘90s and not everyone had CDs and the MP3 wasn’t even a thought yet, and everyone I knew had their own cassette tape of this landmark album. In my own home, we all had our own tape of “Jagged Little Pill” just in case we fought and couldn’t borrow it. This was a must-have and anybody semi-conscious during this period of time can probably still sing along to songs like You Learn, Ironic and You Oughta Know.

Sarah McLachlan saw this as an opportunity. Sure, the album sales were good, but tour promoters still were iffy about sponsoring a tour for women, so the Grammy winner and multi-platinum artist of songs like Building a Mystery and Angel formed The Lilith Fair. This was a traveling fair of all women artists. Imagine if Coachella or Laneway traveled to almost key cities all over the US with a consistent, rotating lineup of women artists that included many of the women already mentioned plus artists like Heather Nova (London Rain), The Cardigans (Lovefool, Been It), Natalie Merchant (Wonder, Carnival), Melissa Etheridge (Come to My Window), Shawn Colvin (Sunny Came Home), and the like. The tour was so successful it was repeated for two more years after and moved to Europe, with later additions adding female R&B and hip-hop acts like Missy Elliot and Monica.

This sudden influx of women in rock, taking front and center, expanded the musical landscape that allowed rock music to be vulnerable in a way that Aerosmith or U2 or Oasis couldn’t. Not in the ‘90s. Not when gender roles were not yet so blurred and ambiguous. Not when everything was still so patriarchal. But Sheryl Crow changed all of that. People don’t realize it, but that’s when the change happened. All I Wanna Do was the great equalizer and the new landscape allowed for acts like The Yeah, Yeah Yeahs and Feist and Florence + the Machine to be taken seriously by the record producers.

“All I wanna do is have some fun…” sings Crow in that landmark single. Because of that song, that’s exactly what women were allowed to do.