The vital importance of Sonic Youth’s Kim Gordon
Sonic Youth emerged from New York’s experimental no-wave scene in the early 1980s. Initially formed by Kim Gordon and Thurston Moore, the pair soon recruited other musicians to help them bring their abrasive and unique visions to life. Gordon recalls the early days of creating music with Moore in her memoir, Girl in a Band, stating: “The first practices were us sitting in a loose circle playing with no drummer at all. It wasn’t exactly what you’d call ‘playing’, to be honest. We strummed and made droning sounds on our guitars.”
The band released their self-titled debut EP in 1982 before embarking on their first tour supporting fellow noise-rockers Swans. Sonic Youth quickly found success in Europe but not their native New York until a chaotic London gig unexpectedly bore positive reviews, resulting in a growth in popularity. From the 1980s onwards, Sonic Youth became one of the most significant and influential alternative rock bands, never shedding their experimental skin as their music became more widely known in the mainstream.
Although Gordon was the band’s bassist and sometimes vocalist, her influence was always everpresent, and Sonic Youth would – quite frankly – be nothing without her. Gordon’s prominent basslines carry each of the band’s songs, and her relentless creativity and experimentation, aided by her experience as a visual artist, pushed Sonic Youth into unexplored musical territory. However, it was her defiant exploration of feminist issues that made Sonic Youth such a special band and an inspiration to aspiring female musicians so used to seeing the alternative genre dominated by men.
Gordon’s resistance to the music industry’s demands for female musicians to cater to a specific mould was revolutionary. She contorted her voice into harsh yelps and growls, singing lines such as, “Don’t touch my breast/I’m just working at my desk/Don’t put me to the test/I’m just doing my best” in ‘Swimsuit Issue’. Gordon channelled her anger into the abrasiveness of the music, becoming a significant source of inspiration for the wave of riot grrl bands that emerged in the 1990s.
Kathleen Hanna from Bikini Kill once discussed how Gordon influenced her, stating: “She was a forerunner, musically. Just knowing a woman was in a band trading lead vocals, playing bass, and being a visual artist at the same time made me feel less alone. […] I was in a punk underground scene dominated by hardcore dudes who yelled mean shit at me every night, and journalists routinely called my voice shrill, unlistenable. Kim made me feel accepted in a way I hadn’t before. Fucking Kim Gordon thought I was on the right track, haters be damned. It made the bullshit easier to take, knowing she was in my corner.”
In a world dominated by men, Gordon provided a beacon of hope. During an interview with The Guardian, she explained, “There’s some unseen wall of faceless men that I have to climb over.” Moreover, in Gordon’s memoir, she discussed the relentless misogyny that came with being ‘a girl in a band’, stating: “[The music press] would then go home and write cruel, ageist, sexist things. I assumed it was because they were terrified of women; the whole country had a queen complex, after all. I refused to play the game. I didn’t want to dress like Siouxsie Sioux or act out the role of an imaginary female, someone who had more to do with them than with me. There was a popular look at the time – the vintage dress, the makeup – that just wasn’t me.”
Sticking true to herself, Gordon presented herself how she liked and let her music do the talking. Through her music, both with and without Sonic Youth – she has also released solo music and formed other bands such as Free Kitten – Gordon has actively channelled the obstacles put in place by a male-dominated world. In the foreword to Gordon’s book No Icon, Carrie Brownstein writes: “Thanks for being the person who helped me realise you don’t have to wait for someone else’s permission to be yourself.” Indeed, Gordon’s unwavering creativity and defiance make her one of the coolest and most inspirational figures to leave their mark on the music world.
