‘As a kid in the Runaways,” Joan Jett once said in an interview, “I would see the interviewers start to ask about our personal lives and what we did — and I could see the look in their eyes. They were practically frothing at the mouth.” Whether or not that aspect of the male-dominated music industry is any different than it was back in the ‘80s — chances are it isn’t — Joan Jett has definitely beaten the odds in a culture that’s consistently treated “girl groups” as disposable novelty acts. While fellow Runaway Lita Ford was subsequently ensnared in the hair-metal marketing machine — releasing albums with lurid covers and titles like Dangerous Curves and Stiletto — Jett has continued to call her own shots, dominating the charts with hook-heavy hits like “I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll,” recording 14 albums and 42 singles, and producing defiant rock bands like Bikini Kill and The Germs. Along the way, she’s justly earned her reputation as a bona fide feminist icon, and how many ’80s-identified artists can you say that about? Co-headlining boy band Styx, meanwhile, gave us “Come Sail Away” and “Mr. Roboto,” so there’s that as well.
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