The Feminine Musique: The Linda Lindas and How Young Women of Color are the Life’s Blood of Punk

The foundation of punk culture is contradicted by the voices it has historically publicized, but as genres evolve, so do the people that represent them.

The Feminine Musique is a series where writers analyze portrayals of women in music.

Written by Charlotte Keene

Photo courtesy of Krista Schlueter 

At its heart, punk is a rejection of the social norm. It builds a community more than other genres, or at least it did in its heyday of the late ‘70s. Oftentimes, its music is more political than technical, where a powerful message is more important than a pleasing sound. Punk is usually fueled by anger to engage the audience — and it works. This unfiltered emotionality is part of the reason punk bloomed following the counterculture movement. There was not just internal anger but an overpowering social upset. However, punk did not lose its audience in the ‘80s. It remains relevant outside of the mainstream in the way it embodies adolescence and yearning for rebellion, capturing the frustration that remains even after the days of childish stubbornness. For people plagued by systemic injustices, that never really goes away — and what they have to say needs to be heard.

Punk intends to be a place for diverse voices universally connected by anger to vent. However, in British and American music, the industry popularized white men, even when someone outside that archetype has something relevant to add to the conversation. Despite the long list of punk rock bands with racial and gender diversity, the white, male voice dominates the genre — a misrepresentation of what punk stands for.

The riot grrrl scene broke this male mold, but not without diversity issues of its own. White women dominated most punk girl groups, with X-Ray Spex being the first successful punk band to be fronted by a woman of color. Pinkshift, fronted by Ashrita Kumar, is a multicultural contemporary band that loudly fights the cishet agenda. Alicia Armendariz aka Alice Bag, a Chicana queer woman known for her activism, was the lead vocalist of The Bags and is currently a solo musician. Armendariz is one of many that use music as a form of advocacy. Punk and activism goes hand-in-hand, and subsects that highlight bigotry — like riot grrrl — are a step in the right direction. People of color in these spaces grow as times modernize, with diverse groups finally getting the recognition they deserve..

Acceptance of everyone and freedom of expression ground the genre, albeit more performative than actualized. This false notion of inclusivity makes The Linda Lindas crucial to today’s spin on the genre. Though they are better understood as pop-punk, they perfectly represent punk’s foundations. Forming as preteen girls, the quartet’s music is centered around growing pains, sometimes dealing with the unique challenges that come with being a kid, a woman, or a person of color. The Linda Lindas are half Asian and half Latine. While their backgrounds do not influence every song, they create a space to be yourself and challenge the social norm, in that characteristic furious riot grrl way.

Mila de la Garza, the band’s drummer and youngest member, hadn’t even hit double digits when the Linda Lindas first performed together in 2018. A family affair, de la Garza is the sister of guitarist and vocalist Lucia de la Garza, as well as the cousin to bassist Eloise Wong. Their close friend Bela Salazar, the oldest at only 19, completes the group. Mila was also the songwriter behind “Racist, Sexist Boy,” which she based on an interaction with a classmate who told her he was keeping his distance from Chinese people, like Mila, leading up to the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. The hit went viral after a 2021 performance at the Los Angeles Public Library. The song has an youthful nature, with lyrics like “You say mean stuff” and “Jerkface,” but it holds an empowering message: “We rebuild what you destroy.” Despite its juvenile overtones, the song comments on closed-mindedness, criticizing the action rather than the person. More so, the uncomplicated vocabulary simplifies the complicated concept that connects preteen annoyances to systemic social issues.

It is common to see women’s skills underestimated. Bands like The Linda Lindas, who have less experience and represent diverse populations, oftentimes have more factors working against them, but their anomaly status has not held them back whatsoever. The band members’ ages prove that they are a force to be reckoned with. Sitting at five years active, they performed in the Netflix original “Moxie!”, opened for Paramore on their 2023 tour, performed with the iconic riot grrrl band Bikini Kill, been on the soundtrack for films “Champions” and “Joy Ride”, and released their album Growing Up in 2022 — all while living a (mostly) regular life. They maintain the DIY spirit by creating graphics, applying unique makeup looks, and sometimes wearing pieces from guitarist and vocalist Salazar’s fashion line, La Rosa de la Esquina. To be a true punk, you have to be creative, and these young women do not fall short.

The Linda Lindas’ carefree approach to their music exemplifies why punk still thrives today: their intense emotional expressions still have a childlike idealism. At one moment, you can witness Mila confronting ideas much greater than herself, and the next, her bandmate Bela is performing “Nino,” a tune about her “savage cat / Killer of mice and rats.” Off of the same album, Growing Up, the titular tune expresses excitement about getting older together: “we’ll whisper in each other’s ears / We’ll share our hopes and dreams, and all our other greatest fears.” More so, the track represents what The Linda Lindas hope to be: “We’ll sing ‘bout things we don’t know, we’ll sing to people and show / What it means to be young and growing up.” Most of their discography deals with personal frustration and self-deprecation, like their songs “Why” and “Oh!” but their single “Resolution/Revolution” is a cookie-cutter anarchic anthem. The band knows they have much to learn but also realize the charm of their music: it serves the adolescent experience they encapsulate. Even better, they do so with a positive but relatively realistic attitude.

The Linda Lindas are boundless in ways that only young women like them could imagine. Their close-knit dynamic fuels their performances with incredible chemistry. Seeing them make music together, it is evident that their art thrives on the support system they have built together and the space they fostered to experiment without fear. They understand that for punk music to be truly punk, it should come from a place of fun and not be taken too seriously. Part of punk’s intrigue is the vulnerability of producing such a raw, unabashed sound, but also knowing that it may not sound polished because of its unrestrained nature.

Punk may have always highlighted young adult and teenage musicians, but the Linda Lindas defy several expectations by being a successful band of minority women that formed before anyone hit fifteen. Success stories like theirs are not commonplace even as the entertainment industry diversifies in general. Young women entering the mainstream, in a genre once consisting of a stereotype they do not fit, sets an empowering example to their audience. The Linda Lindas have a widespread fanbase, but many of them are their age or younger — demonstrating to listeners that their dreams are accomplishable. No matter who you are, your voice matters, especially if you are historically marginalized. Punk is the genre for the nonconformist, and even though many people equate the scene to men, women and women of color in the genre, are often more compelling because of their unique perspectives.