Chart Week: April 10, 1982
\nSongs: \u201cWe Got the Beat\u201d – The Go-Go\u2019s; \u201cI Love Rock \u2019n Roll\u201d – Joan Jett and the Blackhearts
\nChart Positions: #2, 11th week on the chart. Would spend three weeks at #2.
\n\/#1, 10th week on the chart, fourth week at #1. Would spend seven weeks at #1.<\/p>\n
A two-fer, as a tidbit I heard on this countdown connected with some trivia I had heard awhile back and was hoping to eventually write about.<\/p>\n
1982 was a huge time for women in rock. Perhaps no moment was bigger than this point in April with Joan Jett was in the top spot with the Go-Go\u2019s right behind her.<\/p>\n
\u201cI Love Rock \u2019n Roll\u201d was the first song ever by a female-led band to reach #1 on the Billboard Top 40. Which seems crazy, right? It took us until 1982 for this to happen?!?! Well, some of that is just because of the silly ways we categorize music. Women had been hitting #1 for decades, but always while listed as solo artists, halves of duos, members of groups that didn\u2019t play their own music, or as the lead singer of a band that was ostensibly \u201cled\u201d by a man. Joan Jett was the first woman ever who was not just the front-woman for a band, but was also the organizer, primary writer, and business leader of the band. The Blackhearts were her<\/em> band, not some producer\u2019s or record company exec\u2019s assembled to back her up.<\/p>\n What a song to stake this claim. \u201cI Love Rock \u2019n Roll\u201d is big, bold, and unforgettable. Those opening drum beats, those massive guitars, and Jett\u2019s growl all kick your ass from the start. She was presenting herself as the baddest woman in the world on this song. I think it worked. For seven weeks she held the #1 spot with what became one of the biggest songs of the decade.1<\/a><\/sup> She\u2019s still a badass today.<\/p>\n Behind Jett at #2 were the Go-Go\u2019s, with their first big hit. They were blocked from reaching #1 by \u201cI Love Rock \u2019n Roll\u201d for three weeks before \u201cWe Got the Beat\u201d began sliding back down the charts. While their single is also an undeniable classic of the \u201880s, the bigger news was their album, Beauty and the Beat<\/em>. It was the first-ever album from an all-female group to top the Billboard Hot 100 album chart. Which, again, seems insane. But as unique as Joan Jett was, the Go-Go\u2019s were even more unique for the moment. A band made up entirely of women? Who made new-wave\/rock music? And wrote and played it all themselves? That just wasn\u2019t happening on a large scale yet.<\/p>\n Both of these tidbits seem strange nearly 40 years later, when whole swaths of the music industry are dominated by women who are doing their own thing and totally in control of their careers. It was a brave, new world in 1982 as times were just beginning to change.<\/p>\n This was kind of a wacky week that demonstrated the state of pop music in 1982. There were two theme songs on the charts: \u201cMagnum P.I.\u201d was at #36 and \u201cChariots of Fire\u201d was at #3. There were two medleys on the charts: \u201cPop Goes the Movies (Part 1)\u201d at #35 with \u201cThe Beatles Movie Medley\u201d a slot ahead at #34. And there were two novelty songs: Bob and Doug McKenzie\u2019s \u201cTake Off\u201d at 19 and Buckner and Garcia\u2019s \u201cPac-Man Fever\u201d at 11.<\/p>\n