The Daily Swarm

Jessica Hopper has been writing about music, with a laser focus on feminism and punk, since she was in middle school. She self-published the influential ‘zine Hit It Or Quit It for 14 years, and as a publicist, worked with literally hundreds of indie, emo, and punk rock bands. You can now find her by-line in such publications as the Chicago Reader, Chicago Tribune, LA Weekly, Spin, and others, and her writing has been included in DaCapo’s Best of Music Writing 2004, 2005 and 2007. She music supervises Public Radio International’s This American Life and blogs at Tiny Lucky Genius. Her first book is out this week.

The Girls’ Guide to Rocking is the best how-to in a fast-growing market for young girls starting out in music. The book looks past the routine “you can do it” empowerment, and goes deep, diving into what sound is, how a recording studio works, how to choose the right instruments (and who plays them), alongside with intensive reading lists, timelines, and historical information about all the important female musicians who paved the way for this new generation. Hopper treats her readers like adults, talking to her girl readers in a wise, sisterly voice.

The Daily Swarm is proud to present an exclusive section from the book The Girls’ Guide to Rocking. This one about how to put on your own shows.

Special thanks to Workman Press.

You can buy the book here.

And here’s a web commercial with the author and Josh from Flosstradamus.