Now that I look again, whereas I was rising up within the late ’90s and early 2000s, I was desperately seeking to media for any semblance of feminine illustration to replicate my internal self. Though that’s an period from simply 20-ish years in the past, it already looks like issues had been a lot completely different again then. A lot of main ladies had been fantasies that confirmed me I was imagined to be comfortable, fairly, excellent, and bold, with life centered across the males in my world. When I was watching Freakier Friday, I realized that whereas that was all true, its predecessor, Freaky Friday was a uncommon exception.
The 2003 Disney film was one of many first exposures I needed to ladies in punk rock bands (earlier than changing into an enormous fan of the style), and I wish to discuss why seeing the sequel really made that component of it even higher.
Freaky Friday Was One Of The First Occasions I Noticed A Feminine Rock Band
Clearly, ladies and punk rock have been collectively for the reason that Nineteen Seventies, however as a result of I was a hardcore Disney child when Freaky Friday first got here out, I notice now that influences prefer it actually opened my eyes to a special facet of womanhood, which I would fall extra in love with afterward. One the place ladies could possibly be offended or messy and that was OK – celebrated, even.
It appears a bit foolish now given it’s a enjoyable Disney comedy about physique swapping, , however Freaky Friday is a kind of motion pictures from my childhood that caught with me. I see now (sure, I lately rewatched it) that it is due to how real and relatable its relationships are, particularly between Lindsay Lohan’s Anna and her mother, Jamie Lee Curtis’ Tess. Within the first film, crucial factor to Anna on the time is her storage band, Pink Slip, which predominantly consists of feminine musicians, with Anna being the star guitar participant.
Certain, Pink Slip is most positively a Disney model of a storage band, however “Take Me Away” is sort of the proper introduction to why I love punk music. The track, which I lately came upon was written by the Aussie punk rock band, Lash, has lyrics like “I’m too skinny, too fats, you ask why,” which questions why a norm exists and speaks to the female rage of by no means successful in relation to one’s look. Freaky Friday was one gateway drug for me within the musical style!
When Freaky Friday Got here Out The Punk Scene Was Male-Dominated
Paramore would finally turn out to be the punk rock group of my upbringing with a feminine voice when their first album got here out two years later, and I first heard the angst of their hit track “Distress Enterprise” on a bus journey to high school and formally began to shed my Disney icons and department out my music style.
Pink Slip’s Portrayal In The Sequel Exhibits How Far The Scene Has Come
Minimize to Freakier Friday, which is out twenty-two years after the unique, and is already having a superb run on the field workplace together with being properly reviewed by critics (resembling in our Freakier Friday assessment). Whereas some variations of the sequel might need glossed over the Pink Slip plotline and made it merely a interest of her teenage years, the film makes it canon that Anna and her band discovered success after we final caught up with them, and Anna has since transitioned into managing and empowering artists together with the fictional feminine pop star named Ella (performed by Maitreyi Ramakrishnan), who seemed as much as Pink Slip when she was rising up.
In recent times, I’ve watched the brand new era of punk-influenced bands take inspiration from the ladies who paved the best way within the early 2000s. For instance, when I noticed the band Meet Me @ The Altar cowl “Take Me Away” in entrance of a crowd, and audiences freak over the Freaky Friday tune being sung. I’ve seen acts like Willow, Olivia Rodrigo and Billie Eilish and so forth cite Paramore as a band that meant the world to them, and influenced their very own once-garage bands.
Pink Slip finally will get invited to Ella’s present on the Wiltern to play “Take Me Away”, which seems to have turn out to be successful of the early 2000s. As a lifelong punk fan at this level, who has watched the scene develop immensely to the purpose the place I might identify beloved band after band of mine who’re widespread proper now and have a feminine entrance girl and/or a number of feminine musicians, Freakier Friday actually displays how the instances have modified for the higher within the music trade for ladies.
Oh, and eventually, the soundtrack is packed stuffed with feminine acts, from The Seashores, Chappell Roan, The Linda Lindas, Tegan and Sara and the Asteroids Galaxy Tour being featured within the film. Whereas I genuinely assume each are nice motion pictures (and the primary film of a franchise will all the time get a leg up for me), Freakier Friday was higher for the way it not solely made a callback to Pink Slip, however the way it confirmed how ladies in music have actually leveled up previously 20 years.
These days, there are a ton of 2025 motion pictures with sophisticated roles for ladies, together with for younger ladies, such because the phenomenon that’s KPop Demon Hunters, for instance. There’s one thing, although, about checking in with one which was an early favourite of mine in life, and seeing its personal storyline progress to replicate the expansion of one thing I love through the years, that actually made the film all of the extra wonderful.
