Thank you, Kathleen! Tho I'm probably 2 generations older than you, we guys have indeed been bob-boarding gals since Freewheelin'. Nice to get honest--and funny--pushback. By the way, I'm still obnoxious enough to include my own geezer fanboy take on bob's nobel

https://letdandoit.com/2016/11/01/masked…

As I knock on the door of being a 50 year old man I can honestly say that whilst I can appreciate Dylan and his place as a music icon, I still can't stand most of his music. The covers are very often better. Don't get me Started on feeling pretty much the same way about Springsteen.

I know this is supposed to be funny, but the whole stereotypical premise makes me cringe. It's kind of like reading a Cathy comic.

Kathleen, have you ever considered that you might just have shitty taste in music?

Don't stop writing this column. I freaking love it, and I have lived it as well.

@4
I don't think the music has anything do with @3s complaint, its the 'pretended to like for boys' that is the cringe.

@6
retract please. I misread where @4s comment was directed

@1-@7 yes but do all really *understand* where she's coming from?

here's a link to one of her older articles that might help give you a little context: http://www.thestranger.com/music/2016/11…

I feel the same way about marijuana as Kathleen feels about Dylan.

I'd probably enjoy pot if it weren't for all the goddamned pot smokers.

This is great. Funny to read some adults pushing back the same way. There's a certain age where boys can get just a little too excited about and a little too sure of the importance of their interests. With luck, they grow out of it.

Also, this:
http://pitchfork.com/news/69151-kurt-von…

Funny. I am a male in your position. I have never really been much of a fan. I can't stand his singing style. Yet I have had several women in my life (starting with my mom who named my brother Dylan) try to convince me of his greatness. Not a single guy ever has though. I'm a professional musician too..

I love this column in both its concept and its execution.

@3 I believe the stereotypical reality is meant to make you cringe.

This series is starting to read more like "a woman tries to paint her unique experiences as generically exasperations of all women because *men*, right??"

@10 and the ones that don't grow out of it go on to work for pitchfork ;)

I think this says more about the author's taste in men than it does about a singer-songwriter, iconic or not.

20 year stranger reader. Tried to stay onboard after the sale and death of last days. This article is the last straw. Horrendous mindless satire drivel. Won't miss the lame ass judgement of regular seattle folks (full page I saw u? Wtf?) Thanks for birthing dan savage he is a saint. Bye forever. Hope they still hire intelligent people at the mercury

@17 This may be the only column that keeps me coming back every day. It's sweet and funny.

@14, Nailed it, actually. I feel like this is an "Am I right, ladies? We've all been there..." kind of article we are supposed to relate to, but my girlfriends and I were serious teen music snobs, and while I've read a million stories from women with this author's perspective in basically every woman's magazine, it would be more interesting to hear from those other women, especially in an alternative paper.

Not joking: As a man, this column makes me feel like the author is condescendingly "womansplaining" at me -- and what did I ever do to her to deserve this?

That's OK, I pretended to like Joni Mitchell more than I do, for girls,
so we can call it even.

One of the advantages of liking strange genres like vaporwave is that no woman in her right mind would ever fake being into it.

Of course old Bobby loved using the word "faggot" too (google "Webeman tapes").

Love that man!

Kathleen,
Fascinating piece. I too, believe Bob Dylan overrated. I think he is peer in songwriting talent and age with at least, Van Morrison & Joni Mitchell (Mitchell is vastly underrated). Granted, he has more songs written then either but some are just awful. Dylan's voice is good but never great and sometimes, it's just terrible.

Clearly, he's eccentric. He didn't acknowledge receipt of the Nobel Prize for Literature until days later. And, he didn't show up for the reward! I don't hold that against him.

But no, he isn't a "voice of a generation". He deserves most of his rewards but he's human like the rest of us.

Unasked for Deep Cut throw-down: "Moonshiner." Nuff Said!

@3 @20 @21 Yes

when this series started, I was expecting that most if not all of the bands foisted upon a woman by dudes would be all male bands. Looks like that's holding up so far. I think most dudes are unaware of the fact that they mostly listen to music made by dudes and are definitely most comfortable idolizing and gushing over male musicians. So when they insist that the music they like is superior, the implication is that men are better at music then women. This is a great column and I hope you keep writing it til every band experience is documented.

@28, what a ridiculously baseless, unhelpful stereotype (that, just like this series and "The Stranger" in general of late, seeks to exacerbate divisions between types people, rather than emphasizing unifying characteristics)

I'm currently listening to a mix cd I made last month and, without planning it to be, it happens to have exactly HALF female singers and HALF male. (A couple are male/female duets, but it's still about even):

1. Beautiful Now/The Waterboys (M)
2. One Way Love/Robin Gibb (M)
3. I Was Doing Fine (Then a Few People Died)/Craig Finn (M)
4. Wrecking Ball/Griffin House (M)
5. California Bloodlines/Dave Alvin (M)
6. On the Level/Leonard Cohen (M)
7. Peggy-O/The National (M)
8. Let Me Down Easy/The Stranglers (M)
9. Broke Me in Two/Joan As Policewoman (& Benjamin Lazar... on instruments) (F)
10. You're Mine/Phantogram (F & M)
11. Small Bill$/Regina Spektor (F)
12. Where Do We Go/Solange (F)
13. The Clown (feat. Pedestrian)/Maribou State (M)
14. Violent Dove/Joan As... (ibid) (F)
15. Diamond Heart/Lady Gaga (F)
16. Freedom! '15/!!! (M)
17. The Other Boys/Kylie Minogue & Jake Shears (F & M)
18. Trouble/Neon Jungle (F)
19. Semantics/The Mymabirds (F)
20. This Is the Hour/Who Is Zoe? (F)

I think this column is genius. But yes, we all pretend to like the things that the people we like are into. I have no other excuse for that Aimee Mann CD still cluttering my shelf, nor my pretending to be into L7.

i like this column a lot, keep up with your womansplaining, these dudes need it.

Band I pretended to like for girls: 10,000 Maniacs

I don't know which is more troubling, that you're failing to recognize exactly how good this series is, or it's importance.

Perhaps you're just not that into writing? No, those silly little pop tweets don't count! I'm talking about REAL writing.

Have you tried actually reading it in the paper? You can't really have an opinion unless you've experienced the curve of each serif and not some digital approximation of it. Also, the quiet rustle of the paper is a fundamental part of the whole of the piece.

Look. Just go back and try again; eventually you'll GET IT.

Band I pretended to like for girls: GoGos.

@15 Touche! I wish I'd linked to that Vonnegut quote elsewhere.

Let's not forget JOAN BAEZ MADE HIM FAMOUS. Then he was ungrateful and dismissive in return. Because he is a sociopath. We would have no idea who the fuck he is if it wasn't for her. I'm thankful for her because coincidentally I'm obsessed with that silly little genius dickhead of a man. And you're right that Antony's version of "Knockin on Heaven's Door" is 6000% better than the original and better than HEAVEN ITSELF will be unless the afterlife is BEING JOHN MALKOVICHING the fuck outta Bob Dylan's eyeholes during that 1965 tour in England. Then heaven might be pretty tight. But if that's heaven then I hope there's a higher plane of heaven where Joan Baez goes because that would most likely be a painful simulation of an afterlife for her and she unilaterally deserves better.

And I thought I'd also mention that the second coming was Bob Dylan (that whole Judas! moment and him sneering back "I don't believe you" is identical to "get behind me Satan") and his lyrics are the new NEW Testament and "Inside the museums, Infinity goes up on trial Voices echo this is what salvation must be like after a while" is Bob Dylan's magic seer ability to self-reference an afterlife he already has seen because he is God and that's why he can teleconference the fuck outta the Nobel Prize show.

I know I'm the asshole mansplainy trope you're highlighting for writing this but you had to bring HIM up instead of Ryan Adams or something. I'm thankful for you writing this column because we all need something enjoyable right now instead of MR.TRUMPASS. So thank you and please don't stop, just go on tinder or something when you run out of examples to keep this SLOW TRAIN A'COMIN till we all die.

I can hardly wait for part four:Jimi Hendrix. Or are there a few sacred cows left?

Wow, this is really good. And for the commenter who said there have been no girl bands yet - remember we are at week 3. There's plenty of time to talk about pretending to like Dead Can Dance and The Sundays.

...girl bands or bands with female members.

@33 nailed it.