Rock of Pages: The Girls’ Guide to Rocking

Note: This feature was formerly known as “Wrapped Up In Books.” I am an idiot and had no idea there was an Onion AV Club feature by the same name. Thus, I had people come up with a new name via Twitter, Facebook, and this page right here. The winner, by a long shot, was “Rock of Pages.” Thus it is, thanks to Kyra Sims for being clever as all hell.

The Girls’ Guide to Rocking, by Jessica Hopper, is a start-to-finish, step by step guide from picking up your first instrument and practicing all the way to publishing rights and signing a contract. It is thorough. You learn about how to make baffles and soundproof your practice space, where you can play a show, and how to write a song. No stone is left unturned, but it’s all organized in such a completely logical, linear fashion, that you could pick up the Guide without any idea of what you were doing and be playing shows inside a month.

The Girls’ Guide is a deceptively titled book, however. Were it not for a few passages regarding girl power, some female-leaning book recommendations, and the fact that every artist quoted or shown in photograph is female, the bulk of the book could apply to any young’un looking to start down the musician’s path.

Those passages, recommendations, and artists are very important, however. Music—especially rock ‘n’ roll—has long been a boys’ club. A woman writing a book about music for young girls is doing something that’s so necessary, yet you wish it wasn’t. You wish every girl out there could just grab a guitar and start playing without having to navigate a minefield of stereotypes and misconceptions.

Hopper addresses things that matter to young girls: the possibilities that friendships could be hurt and that you might be treated differently because you’re a girl. There’s positives, too, however: the fact that you can get coverage of your band because “girls in a rock band” are always news is going to buck up the spirits of any new artist.

This is a fantastic book, written with humor and and fun, yet never coming across as flip or not knowledgeable. Hopper has put together a tome that is indispensable. She’s hoping to make it to Kansas City this fall as part of her book tour.