“Wimpy fucking boys”: The band Courtney Love thought were too whiny
When thinking of the word “wimpy”, the one person who most definitely doesn’t fit this description, and the one that a person would be most intimidated to receive it from is Courtney Love. The Hole frontwoman rose to the top of feminine audaciousness in the 1990s not by being restrained, but through her fearless backing of herself and her opinions in the alternative scene that she knows incredible amounts about.
Courtney Love began a life of music and creativity after a wild upbringing, which took her all across the globe. During the rise of Hole, and just after the death of her husband, Kurt Cobain, Hole were interviewed for the August 1995 cover story Q Magazine by Paul Du Noyer. It came a wildly difficult period in Love’s life, and it covered a lot of ground in her personal opinions of the alternative landscape at the time, which was perhaps deemed to have been dominated by male artists and groups. In his introduction to the interview, he says that even Love was bothered by how much of her work was eclipsed by the success of Nirvana.
As the interview unfolds, Love grows to be more critical of the music industry and how the more familiar she becomes with it, the more gross it turns out to be by using musicians as props for celebrity events, regardless of gender, which quickly turns to how much work it takes to make a good-selling record.
“In this female genre, we’ve sold more than anyone,” Love explained. “We’ve sold more than the metal boys. But it bugs me. I like there to be some testosterone in rock, and it’s like, I’m the one in the dress who has to provide it! These wimpy fucking boys Pavement, sitting there whining about something. That’s what Jane’s Addiction had that was good – muscle, metal. And we have too; we have some really good metal songs”.
Never one to hold back from sharing her thoughts on any subject, Love continued: “That’s why Lars from Metallica is so obsessed with our band. He cannot believe that someone with a uterus is a better drummer than him. It’s too much for him. But my feeling is not that Riot Grrrl shit of, If you don’t like my band, cos we suck, then you’re measuring us by male-centric ideas of bad and good. No. It’s just your band sucks. My feeling is, may whoever writes the best songs win. May the cream rise to the fucking top and that’s the end of it.”
It may seem aggressive, but what Love is pointing out is a true testament to how in tune with the scene she was. Her message was actually beyond the gender of the performers, but that alternative rock has a masculine energy that she could provide better than Pavement, who were mumbling about their message, while she was shouting.
In all fairness, Pavement are an indie band, and Hole are all-out grunge, so it’s not entirely honourable to pit them against each other in terms of their sound. But, Love did have a point; if the cream in question takes the shape of awards, Hole did gain three Grammy nominations, and Pavement are yet to be nominated.
