The Story Behind The Song: How Joan Jett committed the ultimate act of defiance with ‘Bad Reputation’
When Joan Jett left The Runaways, she faced a dilemma. As part of the group, people had grown accustomed to her rebellious nature—perhaps too much, given the hostility she endured on stage, often covered in spit from men who saw it as an acceptable display of excitement. But now, she was on her own, trying to build a career in an industry determined to tear her down.
Jett’s story contributes to a long list of women in rock who have been treated with the kind of disrespectful hostility rarely experienced by their male counterparts. While male rockers are generally regarded as gods, celebrated for their unabashed confidence on stage before legions of worshipping fans, women in similar positions rarely receive the same treatment.
And when they do, such admiration doesn’t translate the same, with men often being regarded from a respectful distance and women approached with blurred lines. In Jett’s case, this often came in the form of audiences violating her personal space, boundaries, and everything she felt comfortable with in the spotlight. However, at the same time, her reputation as a defiant rebel left many feeling turned off by how much a woman could appear so starkly un-womanlike.
A catch-22 on the surface, it left Jett in an impossible position, pushing her to either embrace the invasiveness of the industry or remain true to her rejection of traditional femininity. A significant juncture occurred after The Runaways when Jett wanted to lean more heavily into acts of defiance, with opinions from countless lips regarding Jett as too this, or too that, to ever make it fully or make anything worthwhile.
‘Bad Reputation’ stemmed from this desire to stick a metaphorical middle finger up to anybody who ever felt the need to define Jett’s career, becoming a cheeky wink at the paradoxical nature of defying norms in the face of audiences who pleaded for something different. In Jett’s eyes, this only worked when it was on their terms, which wasn’t ever anything she felt the need or obligation to entertain.
At the same time, ‘Bad Reputation’ was a strong response to all the labels, execs, and perfect strangers who felt Jett was too much of a bad thing to ever have sway. Writing the song with Kenny Laguna, it came naturally one day when Jett was discussing the difficulty of her hard sell when they realised one casual quip about not caring “about my bad reputation” held all the answers.
“It’s about Joan having been kind of a wild woman in The Runaways, and us trying to make a record deal, going around having people say, ‘No, she’s too crazy, like the punks and Nazis.’ Joan had this bad reputation, no label would sign her – that’s why we own the records,” Lagua reflected to Songfacts, adding: “I was trying to give her the advice of an old man, but she was a teenager at the time, and she says, ‘Look, I don’t care about my bad reputation.’ I said, ‘Whoa, there’s the song.'”
While some could have felt cornered by the negative press, Jett also admitted she always “wore it as a badge of honour”, knowing that it was the main crux of her appeal. Instead of allowing pressures to turn her into something she wasn’t, she leaned into the persona, telling the world loudly and proudly that she wasn’t afraid of being the person with the fiery edge. As a result, the song became the ultimate act of defiance.
Not only this, but it re-established Jett’s significance in the scene, reminding others that shouting far and wide about challenging gender norms wasn’t just doable but necessary. At the same time, it grew a life of its own, gaining extensive radio play and becoming a staple for victorious feminism on a large scale. Jett might have stood up for herself when she needed it the most, but she also unknowingly reignited the flames of an entire movement.
