Decibelle (formerly Estrojam) is a 501c3 NFP music and culture festival that promotes equality and was established in 2003. Past headliners have included, Wanda Jackson (First Lady of Rock who toured with Elvis in the 1950s and 1960s), Nina Hagen, Concrete Blonde, Cat Power, The Gossip, Peaches, Amy Ray of the Indigo Girls and Margaret Cho. The hip hop, post punk, disco, and dance-punk band ESG played their final show on Friday, September 21, 2007, at Chicago's Abbey Pub, during the Decibelle festival.
In 2006, Decibelle was featured in the Chicago Historical Society's "History of Women's Music" event. In 2008, Decibelle founder T. Khyentse James was awarded the "Outstanding Community Leader" Award from the National Organization for Women (Chicago) for Decibelle's work.
Decibelle has also presented workshops in healthcare, finance, entertainment business, do-it-yourself car maintenance, independent publishing and donates proceeds to beneficiaries that promote social change, human rights, non-violence and cultural arts. Past beneficiaries have included Burma's Shan Women's Action Network, National Organization for Women and Girls Rock Chicago. In 2006, a rock band of 12-year-old girls from the Chicago Girls Rock Camp opened for 1970s punk artist Nina Hagen. In 2005, The Shan Women's Action Network and the US Campaign for Burma spoke on stage about their efforts to end brutality against women in Burma.
Indigo Girls are an American folk rock music duo from Atlanta, Georgia, United States, consisting of Amy Ray and Emily Saliers. The two met in elementary school and began performing together as high school students in Decatur, Georgia, part of the Atlanta metropolitan area. They started performing with the name Indigo Girls as students at Emory University, performing weekly at The Dugout, a bar in Emory Village.
Kathleen Hanna is an American singer, musician and pioneer of the feminist punk riot grrrl movement, and punk zine writer. In the early-to-mid-1990s, she was the lead singer of feminist punk band Bikini Kill, and then fronted the electronic rock band Le Tigre in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Since 2010, she has recorded as The Julie Ruin.
Catharina "Nina" Hagen is a German singer, songwriter, and actress. She is known for her theatrical vocals and rise to prominence during the punk and Neue Deutsche Welle movements in the late 1970s and early 1980s. She is known as "The Godmother of German Punk".
Become You is the eighth studio album by American folk rock duo the Indigo Girls. It was released on March 12, 2002 by Epic Records.
Swamp Ophelia is the fifth studio album by the Indigo Girls, released in 1994.
Amy Elizabeth Ray is an American singer-songwriter and member of the contemporary folk duo Indigo Girls with Emily Saliers. She also pursues a solo career and has released six albums under her own name, and founded a record company, Daemon Records.
Touch and Go Records is an American independent record label based in Chicago, Illinois. After its genesis as a handmade fanzine in 1979, it grew into one of the key record labels in the American 1980s underground and alternative rock scenes. Touch & Go carved out a reputation for releasing adventurous noise rock by the likes of Big Black, the Butthole Surfers, and The Jesus Lizard. Touch & Go helped to spearhead the nationwide network of underground bands that formed the pre-Nirvana indie rock scene, and helped preside over the shift from the hardcore punk that then dominated the American underground scene to the more diverse styles of alternative rock emerging at the time.
The Butchies were an all-female punk rock band from Durham, North Carolina, that existed from 1998 to 2005. They reunited from their hiatus to tour with Amy Ray of the Indigo Girls promoting Ray's new album in 2010. The frequent focus of their lyrical content concerned lesbian and queer themes.
Melissa York is a rock drummer noted for her work with iconic lesbian bands such as Team Dresch, The Butchies, and Amy Ray. She lives in Durham, North Carolina.
Marianne Joan Elliott-Said, known by the stage name Poly Styrene, was an English musician, singer-songwriter, and frontwoman for the punk rock band X-Ray Spex.
Rites of Passage is the fourth studio album by American folk rock duo the Indigo Girls, released on May 12, 1992, by Epic Records.
Holly Beth Vincent is an American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and record producer.
Bloodletting is the third studio album by American alternative rock band Concrete Blonde. Released on May 15, 1990, the album marks a shift for the band toward gothic rock. It features guest appearances by R.E.M.'s Peter Buck and Wall of Voodoo's Andy Prieboy.
The Shams were an all-female New York folk pop trio in the 1980s and early 1990s, featuring Amy McMahon Rigby, Sue Garner, and Amanda Uprichard. Some critics have credited the band with pioneering elements of what would later become known as the Americana and No Depression movements in American music. Others have described them as "queens of urban folkdom" or "riot grrrls unplugged." Punk rock musician Richard Hell has labeled their music "beauty parlor soul."
ROCKRGRL was the first national publication for female musicians in the United States. Created by Carla DeSantis, the magazine purely focused on women in music and highlighted the artistic diversity of women musicians, often overlooked in mainstream culture. The magazine ran for eleven years, and the strength of its message inspired two pioneering ROCKRGRL conferences that showcased, celebrated, and addressed the state of the music industry for female artists.
Come Away with ESG is the 1983 debut album by American rock band ESG. Released by 99 Records, the album incorporates songs from ESG's first EPs, ESG and ESG Says Dance to the Beat of Moody.
"White Punks on Dope", abbreviated as "WPOD", is a 1975 song by San Francisco-based rock group The Tubes from their debut album, produced by Al Kooper. The song was written by the band's dual lead guitarists, Bill Spooner and Roger Steen with Michael Evans. It has been called an "absurd anthem of wretched excess", ridiculing the rich and famous offspring of Hollywood elite. The song became the group's rock anthem and spectacular closing number to their elaborate stage shows. The band developed a cult-like fan base that has followed them for decades.
Women have made significant contributions to punk rock music and its subculture since its inception in the 1970s. In contrast to the rock music and heavy metal scenes of the 1970s, which were dominated by men, the anarchic, counter-cultural mindset of the punk scene in mid-and-late 1970s encouraged women to participate. This participation played a role in the historical development of punk music, especially in the US and UK at that time, and continues to influence and enable future generations. Women have participated in the punk scene as lead singers, instrumentalists, as all-female bands, zine contributors and fashion designers.