Fascination, Friendship And Desire: Kathleen Hanna On The Reign Of 'Rebel Girl'

This story is part of American Anthem, a yearlong series on songs that rouse, unite, celebrate and call to action. Find more at NPR.org/Anthem.

The radio version of this story includes conversations with campers and counselors at girls' rock camps, where "Rebel Girl" has become essential listening. Hear the piece at the audio link .

There's something contradictory about the very idea of a punk rock anthem. From original snotheads the Sex Pistols to contemporary insurgents Pussy Riot, punk bands kick down norms to make space for new ideas; their music smashes through the rhetoric that often gets people singing choruses en masse. Punk is meant to clear the head, not fill it with sentimental feelings. So it's notable when a punk song survives its own explosion to become a uniting force for generations beyond its bloody birth. This is the story of "Rebel Girl," the 1993 song by the feminist punk band Bikini Kill that still echoes through the hearts of girls and women today.

Bikini Kill was the emblematic band in the early-1990s riot grrrl movement, which sought to prove that feminism could become a central element within punk and fundamentally change the music in the process. Hanna, with her alarm bell of a voice and kinetic, funny, sometimes cutting presence, became riot grrrl's most visible torch-bearer. The band stayed together for seven years, releasing a small discography full of nonstop attacks on sexism and celebrations of independence and self-love. Its breakup in 1997 and the eventual waning of riot grrrl felt to many like the inevitable demise of a dream too brilliant to last.

Twenty-plus years after riot grrrl peaked, however, its influence runs even more strongly through punk and the larger independent music world, and "Rebel Girl" is the song that most often signals its continued to carry riot grrrl's messages forward into the new millennium, even younger girls around the world learn Bikini Kill's anthem — often as part of the introduction to both music and feminism they receive at rock and roll camp.