asc85 Review of Women Who Rock

Women Who Rock (2022– )

Should Have Been Called, "Women Who Rock AND Participated in Our Documentary"

[5/10 · 2 August 2022]

Since I'm a big music fan, I can enjoy much of what was shown in this four-part series. The problem is that it was presented as paying, "homage to the legion of women pioneers in music...", and they didn't do a very good job paying homage to many, many of the great female rock/pop stars. Aretha Franklin, Linda Ronstadt and Donna Summer are name-checked only. Diana Ross and the Supremes - one of the most successful groups of the 60's, male or female - are barely shown. Carly Simon, Martha Reeves and the Vandellas, Janet Jackson, Mariah Carey and Lady Gaga (among others) are not mentioned at all. I understand that you want to reward the artists who agreed to participate in your series. I get that. I love Heart, so if you want to spend more than 10 minutes on Heart because you got Nancy Wilson to participate, I think that's great. But when you're not spending any time on female superstars because they won't give you the time of day, and instead are spending all this time on Chaka Khan (who ridiculously asserts that she deserved to be paid as much as The Rolling Stones, but wasn't because of her gender), Sheila E., Jody Watley, etc. Because they agreed to participate in your series, well, you're just not being objective. It is clear to me that if artists like Diana Ross, Linda Ronstadt, Janet Jackson, Mariah Carey and Lady Gaga agreed to participate in this series, there would have been much more of a focus on them, which would have totally made sense, as they were huge during their time. Instead, the producers ignore them, which is a disservice to a series that is ostensibly supposed to be about the most important women of the rock era, not just the ones who agreed to appear in your documentary.