Bikini Kill is a punk band originally from Olympia, Washington, and formed in late 1990. Their line-up consists of vocalist Kathleen Hanna, guitarist Billy Karren, bassist Kathi Wilcox, and drummer Tobi Vail. Together they wrote songs focusing on themes of feminism and women’s rights. At their shows, they encouraged a female-centric environment, inviting women to the front of the venue. Kathleen Hanna was known to personally jump into the audience in order to remove men harassing women.

Bikini Kill, and Tobi Vail in particular, is credited with pioneering the term Riot Grrrl, an underground feminist punk movement fueled by the circulation of independent magazines. Outside of Riot Grrrl fans, however, they were often criticized and misunderstood.

[We were] very vilified during the ‘90s by so many people, and hated by so many people, and I think that that’s been kind of written out of the history. People were throwing chains at our heads people hated us and it was really, really hard to be in that band.

–Kathleen Hanna (via Past Daily Soundbooth)

Their first demo Revolution Girl Style Now! was released in 1991 as a cassette tape, followed by their self-titled EP in 1992. Their last album, Reject All American, was released in 1996 before their breakup in 1997. Kathleen Hanna continued to create feminist music in bands Le Tigre and The Julie Ruin.

In 2017, after a 20-year hiatus, three of the founding members reunited for a one-off performance. In January 2019, Rolling Stone reported that Bikini Kill announced a reunion tour.

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