20 Years Later, “Josie & the Pussycats” STILL has a special place in my life.
Yesterday marked the 20th anniversary of Josie and the Pussycats, the live action movie, hitting theaters across America. The movie, based off the 1970’s comic of the same name, follows the story of an all girl rock (or pop punk band) band who just want a shot at being real rockstars. Their dreams finally come true one fateful night when they meet a snarky A&R named Wyatt who turns into them superstars for a special price. The movie is a little silly at times. And there are times when the product placement obsession gets a little like, okayyy we get it... But it’s not the silly stuff that makes this movie a classic — it’s the fact that the fictional band, The Pussycats, drives the plot.
Josie and the Pussycats is a movie that puts the band at the front and center of the movie. This is their story. The band (played to a tee by actresses Rachel Leigh Cook as Josie, Rosario Dawson as Val, and Tara Reid as Melody) tell the story entirely from their perspective- as to what it was like to be a struggling rock musician in an all female band in the year 2001. If your music was slightly pop music, no matter how punk it was, you were going to be marketed as a glittery popstar. So the only way to make it to the top was to let the label literally manufacture you, or in the case of the movie, literally manufacture the band for the movie. But putting that slightly disturbing fact aside, it was so easy to fall in love with Josie’s band at the time the movie came out. Trust me, because I did.
I was 13 when Josie came out. Being a teenager in the early 2000s was definitely musically restricting, especially if you were a girl who liked punk, or pop punk music. Like, sure, you had male pop punk bands. And there was Garbage and No Doubt (both bands fronted by iconic women who I love to pieces) and Alanis, but aside from that, that was kind of it. The Disney infused, squeaky clean (almost manufactured) pop punk girl bands like Paramore, The Veronicas, Hey Monday, and the strew of all those female fronted/female pop punk bands that followed in their footsteps did not exist in 2001. Avril did not exist. So when a movie like Josie came out, it was very eye opening to me. It was almost like seeing aliens land on earth. You just sit there mesmerized by what you are witnessing. It was like, wow, an all girl pop punk band that isn’t hardcore, or riot girl inspired, or like Courtney Love, or hardcore, like that. It was like, these chicks are like Disney stars!! They’re like if Britney Spears went punk for a day and fronted a band with her backup dancers on guitar and bass. And as someone who was all of 13 I thought that was so cool and I loved that! I needed that. I yearned for that. It’s probably why I went a little nutzo when Paramore came out in 2005 — the kids who got to grow up with Paramore and had them as a go-to a band are all so lucky and they don’t even know it — I had to wait until I was 17 to experience Paramore! But this post isn’t about Paramore. It’s about Josie and the Pussycats.
So that’s the thing. When this movie came out it filled a musical void I needed in my life. I needed very poppy girl pop punk music in my life and it wasn’t there in 2001. It didn’t exist. During my middle school years, pop music was in its glittery golden age. Britney, Christina, Destiny’s Child, Mandy Moore, Jessica Simpson, NSYNC, 98 degrees, and the Backstreet Boys were all at their peak. All my friends were Backstreet Boys fans. I didn’t even know what Warped Tour was.
It was definitely a different life being a teenager in the very early 2000s. People don’t really talk about growing up (as in being a pre- teen or a young teen) in that era and what it was really like if you were into rock music. You didn’t have much choice, especially if you wanted a band that was female fronted, or you wanted an all girl band that was fun to listen to. Your choice was next to zero which is why Josie was a big, big deal.
Josie filled this musical void in my life. It was like an all girl poppy punk band!! OH MY GOD!! Literally every song performed by Josie and the Pussycats both in the film and on the soundtrack has that pop punk vibe to it-the very vibe I wanted to hear from someone, anyone, but didn’t exist yet. All of the songs on the soundtrack are driving and in your face, but at the same time they’re melodic and catchy as hell — these cats were light years ahead of their time.
I quickly became as obsessed with this movie and the movie band as much as some of the fans in the movie were! I ended up buying Josie posters (I’m so sorry I got rid of those in college), cutting out the TV guide pics (thank God I saved those) and seeing the movie a total of 15 times in the movie theater! I bought the cd almost immediately and jammed out to that like 9x a day. I even had a Josie themed birthday party. And of course, I bought the dvd as soon it came out. I even wrote a fanfic about what if Josie and the Pussycats became an actual band you could see in real life! Crazy stuff, I know? I was obsessed. But this movie. You do not understand how this movie affected me so much. And to think it’s 20 years old now. That’s insane!
For years, the soundtrack to Josie and the Pussycats was a staple on my ipod. Until Paramore hit the scene in 2005, this soundtrack was literally the closest thing to an all girl, Disneyfied pop punk band in my life. There were just no bands like that in the early 2000s, sad as that is. In 2004, I learned that Rachel’s vocals were actually fully dubbed by Kay from Letters to Cleo. It was disappointing finding that out because somehow I believed Rachel actually sung. But once I learned that immediately checked out Letters to Cleo and quickly found myself sooo into them. They are amazing and way underrated and I highly recommend them to anyone. Eventually, all that died out and I discovered Paramore in 2005. And they became my obsession. But my love for the music from Josie and the Pussycats always remained in the background. Even now, there are days when I still blare Spin Around, 3 Small Words, Come On, You’re a Star, and Pretend to be Nice in my car — they are just jammin’ good, radio ready, fun, catchy, driving, awesomely modern pop punk songs, even if they only existed for the sake of the movie.
I feel like the younger generation has very little appreciation for this movie mainly because they don’t know it, and also because they don’t understand what it was like to live in a world pre- Avril, pre — Paramore, pre 100 million all girl pop punk bands existing in every corner of the universe. But there was a time that was so. It was pretty crappy living in that time. Pretty like, damn, I don’t have a teen rockstar idol! In 8th grade I always yearned for a band I could look up to, and legit relate to. I felt that a little bit with Garbage and No Doubt, but they were so much older than me at the time, that at the end of the day, they just weren’t relatable. I wanted a teen girl pop punk rockstar. But she wasn’t there. She didn’t exist. And that’s why this movie was like, the answer to my prayers. FINALLY an all girl pop punk band!! Finally!! If you weren’t there, in that time, you wouldn’t understand. You had to live through 2000 and 2001 to get it. Wow, I feel like someone’s parent saying that, but it’s so true. 2001 was not a rockin time for manufactured all girl pop punk bands. And so when Josie came to life, it was movie magic. Especially with that concert scene. Oh My God if only J& the P had actually toured!! I so would have been there. So would have been there jumping up and down like the extras in that movie scene. Like, totally.
But, sadly, Josie and the Pussycats weren’t a real band. They were just a movie band. But you can’t stop me from dreaming. And watching this movie like I’m watching some real all girl pop punk bands’ biopic. Rockin’ out to the songs. And feeling their story completely.
