In 1999, the alternative rock scene flooded into Woodstock for a massive concert that was supposed to be the biggest thing since the original Woodstock. The lineup had an mix of rock musicians, along with an eclectic mix of hip-hop, electronic and musical legends. In theory, this would have been an amazing experience connecting modern music back to the previous generation’s Summer of Love.
What ended up happening was not amazing, it was horrifying. The most testosterone filled crowd-goers and musical acts dominated the scene, and literally destroyed everything. The fatal blow came from Limp Bizkit’s performance of “Break Stuff.”
The breakdown of the destruction, violence and rapes and everything can be read here, but there is no need to share that all here. What I want to share, for everyone who cares about the games industry, that GamerGate might be our Woodstock ’99 moment.
The saturation of angry, misogynistic, destructive, entitled men at Woodstock ’99 created an environment that was unsafe, particularly to women. The result commercially was devastating. Many articles (ex. 1, 2) have been posted over the past 15 years trying to understand why rock music has been declining since the 1990’s. My argument is that Woodstock ’99 told the world that rock music was only for angry men. The anger and disaffection in early grunge rock was about consumerism, alienation and the absurdity of modern existence. We also had quite a few female rock musicians that were a critical part of the scene and movement such as Sleater-Kinney, Tori Amos, P.J. Harvey, Garbage, Republica, No Doubt, Cranberries, Veruca Salt, Elastica, Hole, 4 Non Blondes, etc. If you go to Wikipedia, you won’t find an entry for anything after 2000 for female bands.
Since 1999, rock music has not told a story that was universal – it has been the story of aggressive men complaining about what aggressive men do.
Woodstock ’99 told the world who rock music was for, and it wasn’t for women. It is no wonder that since this time, women have looked outside of rock music for their musical icons. Nicki Minaj and Beyonce are examples of women embody the power that once could be found in rock music, without clear examples of strong females in rock music to idolize and emulate and with the clear message that rock music is a male realm – we haven’t seen new, popular female rock artists. It could be argued that marketing plays into this vacuum, but there is always a cyclical nature in the death of an industry.
We’re now half a year in to the GamerGate phenomenon. It has clearly demonstrated itself as being geared toward making games the place for masculinity just as we saw in Woodstock ’99 for rock music. This is where we all need to be careful.
Do not underestimate the damage that GamerGate can do to the games industry. Do not underestimate what the droves of women flocking out of the games industry and tech might mean for the future of games. Rock music still hasn’t recovered and may never will. The games industry has already proven to be volatile, GamerGate could truly be a catalyst of an unknowable amount of financial/commercial damage to games.
While the fight against GamerGate is ongoing and more efforts are being made than ever to discuss inclusion and diversity in games, the fatigue and alienation caused by these people is real. If GamerGate gets what they want, the games industry is going to lose for it. The writing is on the wall, rock music shows what can happen.
oddguest 