cock rock

Cock rock is a musical genre.{{cite journal |last=Burton |first=Jack |date=Spring 2007 |title=Dude Looks Like A Lady: Straight Camp and the Homo-social World of Hard Rock |url=http://www.forumjournal.org/article/download/580/865 |journal=Forum, University of Edinburgh Postgraduate Journal of Culture & the Arts |publisher=University of Edinburgh |volume=04 |page=10 |access-date=February 9, 2014}}{{Cite thesis |last=DeLane Doktor |first=Stephanie |title=Covering the tracks: exploring cross-gender covers of the Rolling Stones' 'Satisfaction' |date=May 2008 |access-date=February 9, 2014 |publisher=University of Georgia |url=https://getd.libs.uga.edu/pdfs/doktor_stephanie_d_200805_ma.pdf |page=24 |url-status=dead}}{{Cite thesis |last=Ramirez |first=Michael |date=December 2007 |title=Music, gender, and coming of age in the lives of indie rock performers |url=https://getd.libs.uga.edu/pdfs/ramirez_michael_e_200712_phd.pdf |url-status=dead |publisher=University of Georgia |page=1 |access-date=February 9, 2014}} Philip Auslander uses Simon Frith's description of cock rock characteristics:

[C]ock-rock performance means an explicit, crude, 'masterful' expression of sexuality ... Cock-rock performers are aggressive, boastful, constantly drawing audience attention to their prowess and control. Their bodies are on display ... mikes and guitars are phallic symbols (or else caressed like female bodies), the music is loud, rhythmically insistent, built around techniques of arousal and release. Lyrics are assertive and arrogant, but the exact words are less significant than the vocal styles involved, the shrill shouting and screaming.{{cite book |last=Frith |first=Simon |author-link=Simon Frith |date=November 1981 |title=Sound Effects: Youth, Leisure, and the Politics of Rock 'n' Roll |location=New York |publisher=Pantheon Books |page=[https://archive.org/details/soundeffectsyout00frit/page/227 227] |isbn=978-0-394-50461-2 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/soundeffectsyout00frit/page/227}}
Cited in {{cite journal |last=Auslander |first=Philip |date=28 January 2004 |title=I Wanna Be Your Man: Suzi Quatro's musical androgyny |journal=Popular Music |volume=23 |issue=1 |page=2 |location=United Kingdom |publisher=Cambridge University Press |doi=10.1017/S0261143004000030 |s2cid=191508078 |access-date=31 January 2014 |url=http://lmc.gatech.edu/~auslander/publications/quatro.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130524032035/http://lmc.gatech.edu/~auslander/publications/quatro.pdf |archive-date=24 May 2013 |url-status=dead}}

The meaning of the term cock rock has changed over time. It was first mentioned by an anonymous author in the New York–based underground feminist publication Rat in 1970T. Cateforis, The Rock History Reader (CRC Press, 2007), {{ISBN|0-415-97501-8}}, p. 125. to describe the male-dominated music industry, and became a synonym for hard rock, emphasizing the aggressive expression of male sexuality, often misogynist lyrics and use of phallic imagery.R. Shuker, Popular Music: the Key Concepts (Abingdon: Routledge, 2005, 2nd edn., 2005), {{ISBN|0-415-28425-2}}, pp. 130-1. The term was used by sociologists Simon Frith and Angela McRobbie in 1978 to point to the contrast between the male-dominated subculture of cock rock which was "aggressive, dominating and boastful" and the more feminized teenybop stars of pop music.M. Leonard, Gender in the Music Industry: Rock, Discourse and Girl Power (Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing, 2007), {{ISBN|0-7546-3862-6}}, pp. 24-6. Led Zeppelin have been described as "the quintessential purveyors of 'cock rock'".S. Waksman, Instruments of Desire: the Electric Guitar and the Shaping of Musical Experience (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2001), {{ISBN|0-674-00547-3}}, pp. 238-9. Other formative acts include the Rolling Stones, The Who and Jim Morrison of The Doors.P. Auslander, Performing Glam Rock: Gender and Theatricality in Popular Music (University of Michigan Press, 2006), {{ISBN|0-472-06868-7}}, p. 201.

In 1981, Frith described the characteristics of cock rock in a way that could apply to female performers, not just male ones. In 2004, Auslander used this description of cock-rock characteristics to show that Suzi Quatro (the first female bass player to become a major rockstar) is a female cock-rocker.{{cite journal | last = Auslander | first = Philip | date = January 28, 2004 | title = I Wanna Be Your Man: Suzi Quatro's musical androgyny | journal = Popular Music | volume = 23 | issue = 1 | pages = 1–16 | location = United Kingdom | publisher = Cambridge University Press | doi = 10.1017/S0261143004000030 | s2cid = 191508078 | access-date = February 12, 2014 | url = http://lmc.gatech.edu/~auslander/publications/quatro.pdf | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20130524032035/http://lmc.gatech.edu/~auslander/publications/quatro.pdf | archive-date = May 24, 2013 | url-status = dead}}

Since the 1980s, the term has been sometimes interchangeable with hair metal or glam metal.C. Klosterman, Fargo Rock City: a Heavy Metal Odyssey in Rural Nörth Daköta (Simon and Schuster, 2001), {{ISBN|0-7434-0656-7}}, pp. 100-1. Examples of this genre include: Mötley Crüe, Ratt, Warrant, Extreme, Cinderella, Pretty Boy Floyd, Jackyl, L.A. Guns, and Poison.[http://www.allmusic.com/explore/style/hair-metal-d2693 "Hair metal"], Allmusic retrieved December 30, 2010. Despite the name, many of these bands had or have large numbers of female fans.R. Moore, Sells Like Teen Spirit: Music, Youth Culture, and Social Crisis (New York, NY: New York University Press, 2009), {{ISBN|0-8147-5748-0}}, pp. 109-110. The spoof documentary This Is Spinal Tap is an acclaimed parody of the genre.J. Gottlieb and G. Wald, "Smells like teen spirit: riot girls, revolution and independent women in rock", in A. Ross and T. Rose, eds, Microphone Fiends: Youth Music & Youth Culture (London: Routledge, 1994), {{ISBN|0-415-90908-2}}, p. 259. In the 21st century, there was a revival of the genre with the sleaze metal movement in Sweden, with acts including Vains of Jenna.M. Brown, [{{Allmusic|class=artist|id=p847945|pure_url=yes}} "Vains of Jenna"], Allmusic, retrieved June 19, 2010.

• Arena rock
• Heavy metal
• Hard rock

{{reflist}}

• {{cite news|last=Tringali|first=Juliana|title=Love Guns, Tight Pants, and Big Sticks. Who Put the Cock in Rock?|url=http://bitchmagazine.org/article/love-guns|access-date=December 10, 2012|newspaper=Bitch}} (Female cock rockers from an American feminist point of view.)

{{Rock music}}

Category:20th-century music genres

Category:21st-century music genres

Category:Rock music genres

Category:Men and sexuality