Misogyny in Classic Rock and the Genius of Greta Van Fleet
Greta Van Fleet has had tremendous success since their humble beginnings and has blown up even more recently after a clip of lead singer Josh Kiszka performing during the band’s SNL performance went viral. Although for all their positive reviews, it seems there are just as many critics. The most common slamming being that the band’s style is too similar to that of the front runners of classic rock, specifically Led Zeppelin. Whether or not we consider the band’s roots in classic rock a homage or a cheap appropriation, it’s clear that something about the band is resonating with fans.
Of course, it’s commonly known that the current younger generations have a deep appreciation for classic rock stemming from our parents’ adoration for it. Classic rock radio stations aren’t going away anytime soon for a reason. Still, I think if we loved and valued Led Zeppelin that much, we would just listen to Led Zeppelin. Nostalgia can only go so far; most modern bands owe some debt to a variety of classic rock bands, but none are imitating so clearly while still bringing something new to the table. If GVF is such a copycat, why were they able to build onto something that’s supposed to be timeless? So that got me thinking, if Greta Van Fleet is supposedly just a glorified cover band, what do they have that led them to such huge success that classic artists like Led Zeppelin didn’t?
I believe that Greta Van Fleet’s success and ever-growing fan base can be attributed to their ability to emulate a classic rock sound while writing for a more contemporary age. The following quote from a music review by The Rocky Mountain Collegian, a student-run independent print and online newspaper, summarizes the criticisms Greta Van Fleet receives pretty well: “to stay relevant in the music industry, it is essential to avoid morphing into one’s influences. If the group continues laying in the shadows of Led Zeppelin, at what point do they just become a glorified cover band?” (Henry Netherland, 2018). In simpler words: they bring nothing new to the table.
Netherland builds on GVF’s relevancy by explaining that the band makes an effort to appeal to demographics such as young women, who have a great sway in pop charts. Once again, many criticisms of the band echo this sentiment, with the overall theme being that while young bands should be able to have fun and imitate the classics, GVF can hardly be considered progressive or innovative, and appealing to these demographics is taking the easy way out. Firstly, every band on Earth attempts to appeal to certain demographics, even Led Zeppelin. Secondly, this criticism doesn’t discredit GVF as much as it discredits the value of women’s opinions as well as their ability to recognize and comprehend innovations in music.
When what we now consider class rock first emerged, women were still very much second-class citizens. Rock and roll was a reflection of a changing society, but that still meant it could be very much a boys club. Of course, there were women icons and rock helped usher in a better age for women. Still, it’s inaccurate to ignore the misogyny of rock music. Classic rock opened doors for women as it began to blur gender norms and raise class consciousness, but a great deal of it perpetuated a toxic masculine agenda along the way. At its worst, women were dehumanized and written as sexual objects: The Rolling Stones in general, but especially songs like “Under My Thumb” and “Stupid Girls,” The Beatles’ “Run For Your Life,” and “ "Good Morning, Little School Girl" by the Grateful Dead” to name a few. Many were guilty of only writing women as a sort of helpless, sort of flat characters: Bob Dylan’s “Like a Rolling Stone” for instance spends a good portion of the song explaining to a woman why she’s in the position of life she is. Others villainized women when their seemingly only ‘crime’ was not reciprocating feelings: Eric Clapton and Dominos drummer Jim Gordon’s song “Layla,” for example, is more coercive than it is romantic.
All this is to say in the past, as influential and groundbreaking as past bands may have been, pieces written in an age that still overall catered to men can hardly be called timeless and will resonate less with modern women. Of course, not every male artist in classic rock was writing these sexist songs, but enough were or were perpetuating the idea of an idealized ‘girl-next-door’ depiction of women that it’s justified to criticize this facet of the genre. Women rejecting music that was written to cater to the male gaze (which is not to say that every male artist at the time was a villain by any means, rock was very much a reflection of society) could be viewed as "not getting it” or in general not being fully immersed into a culture that didn’t always accept them. Greta Van Fleet is most often condemned for echoing class rock legends and appealing to women. Both are seen as going for low-hanging fruit, however, that's their genius as well as what does make them so progressive.
The band has thrived despite their criticism because they don't take the word of music critics too seriously; they just do their own thing (isn’t rejecting traditional values what rock is all about?). Meanwhile, they've adopted a classic sound that's nostalgic and yet more relatable and appealing than ever to women listeners. The way Greta Van Fleet respects, cherishes, and submits to writing in a way that appeals to a feminine point of view is a new perspective that is contributing to the genre. It also manages to be innovative while still possessing an evocative sound. It's giving women a new angle in classic rock, and to discredit this accomplishment would be to deny rock's misogynistic past and malign modern women's ability to cultivate a music taste as meritable and as wide in scope as men's. There are mixed feelings on whether many of Led Zeppelin’s lyrics are looking at women as sexual tools or if they’re just talking about sex in a rather crude way. Either way, is it so shocking and uncultured that women may gravitate to a band that treats women with respect and as multi-dimensional people while still maintaining that classic rock sound? Rather than brushing Greta Van Fleet off as a copycat, it might make more sense to say they’re a band that’s making classic rock what it should have been.
Now we'll take a deeper look into "Light My Love," a love song that never discusses any physical aspect of the receiver, specifically:
“Light My Love” is another standout track, less for its orchestrative properties but more because of its thematic singularity. Though songs like “Flower Power,” “Highway Tune,” and “Lover, Leaver” all feature an essence of attraction and romance, Greta Van Fleet rarely touches on typical heteronormative romantic themes, choosing to focus more on greater messages of natural and humanistic harmony. “Light My Love,” as evident from the title, suggests something inherently romantic and breaks away from the album as one of the only tracks that does that, yet “love” is still an interpretive concept in this particular piece.” - (Eason, Interview: Josh Kiszka ON Greta Van Fleet, 'The battle at Garden's gate', and the Infosonicosm 2021)
The above quote comes from an interview Greta Van Fleet did with Atwood Magazine and touched on the story behind the lyrics. GVF rarely follows strict narrative stories as much as it explores larger feelings and themes which it conveys through properties within the sound of each track. "Light My Love" pretty clearly describes a romantic relationship and in traditional GVF style, deals with abstract themes. In this song, however, these grander themes are mainly applied to the implied partner in the relationship. In many classic rock songs, as mentioned earlier, women are written as serving a role to men, even if it's in a seemingly positive way. In “Light My Love,” the partner has such an effect on the speaker of the song simply by being a fully realized version of themselves.
"Your mind is a stream of colors, Extending beyond our sky, A land of infinite wonders, A billion lightyears from here now" lead singer Josh Kiszka belts on the track. The absolute devotion that is channeled in this incredibly poetic line worships the partner’s mind and soul. The receiver is seen not as an extension of the speaker, but as an individual whose spirit is so extraordinary and above that of the speaker that their relationship brings an entirely new dimension to the speaker's life. It respectfully acknowledges the astounding effect the receiver of the line has on the speaker without demeaning them into simply a muse for the speaker. Meanwhile, the track reflects the multifaceted and complex emotions that come with utter devotion by opening with a simple piano riff and then further into the song exploding in-depth with a robust, almost orchestra-like crash of sound.
Greta Van Fleet's genius lies in fully leaning into a more feminine version of a traditionally male-dominated genre. Their carefree nature makes them one of the contemporary groups most in tune with traditional classic rock values while simultaneously still contributing something new and exciting to the music industry. GVF improves on a problematic genre while paying homage to the best parts. They take their female fans' praise more into account than the critics who learned to find fault with anything that deviates from an inherently limited standard.