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It is true that in the 1970s there were two very important unisex bands: Fleetwood Mac and the Partridge Family. But those were about the only coed bands around; now they are common. Even the house band on Late Show with David Letterman has added a female guitarist. The foundation of the recent trend was laid in the late '70s and early '80s by such rock heroines as Kim Gordon of Sonic Youth, Chrissie Hynde of the Pretenders and Tina Weymouth of the Talking Heads -- songwriters and instrumentalists all. Until they came along, a girl with an electric guitar seemed as incongruous as a horse with an accordion. Says Madder Rose guitarist-singer Mary Lorson: "I didn't really start playing guitar until I was 22 because it just didn't occur to me that this was something I could do with my life."
The rise of alternative rock has also fueled the boom in coed bands. Wearing their sensitivity on their sleeves, alternative rockers are probably the least testosterone-driven rock generation ever. Rachel Felder, author of a book about the alternative scene called Manic Pop Thrill, says these musicians tend to ignore gender. "Whether they are male or female doesn't really come into it. It's more like, 'Is she a good musician?"'
But some men are actually seeking out women to play with. Simon Austin, the guitarist for Frente!, says, "My other bands had been just basically a bunch of guys playing guitars. I had a real desire to have a woman in Frente! to move the music in a new direction." Austin and Angie Hart hit it off as a writing team and now compose most of Frente!'s music. Hart believes that supermasculine high-volume rock has become boring. "We want to create songs that are as strong as something a loud rock band would do," she says, "but played quietly."
More coed bands are poised to break out. Veruca Salt, a terrifically promising rock group from Chicago, will release its first album next month. "Hopefully, we're helping dispel the myth that all 'girl bands' sound alike," singer-guitarist Louise Post said at a recent concert. The Fugees, an appealing reggae-rap trio, have a single that's climbing the Billboard charts. Madder Rose is touring to support its ravishing new CD, Panic On. Even vocalist Jenny Berggren of the cuddly Swedish pop band Ace of Base says she is "definitely going to do more" on her band's next CD. Berggren says she is writing some songs and won't sing just the ones written by her male bandmates.
Women serve on aircraft carriers and on the Supreme Court, so it's striking, given rock's putative social progressiveness, that it is only now becoming routine for women and men to play together in rock groups as partners. All- male bands still dominate (and even as the Rolling Stones and the Beastie Boys remind you how tired the formula is, groups like Pearl Jam and Green Day prove the guys can still make great music), but someday coed bands could become the rule. One can only imagine what the history of rock would have been if women had played guitar in the Who or Nirvana, but a future for rock with women in the next Great Rock Band is no longer fanciful.