The Rage Playlist You Need Right Now

Earlier this week, in the wee hours of the morning, I was pulling onto my street after dropping my toddler off at day care when I heard the familiar screech of electric guitar crashing into ticking time-bomb drums at the start of Hole’s “Violet.” Granted, like so many women, I was exhausted. Did I already say it was early? Did I mention I have a toddler? Anyway, within seconds I was no longer just a Hudson Valley mom screaming “You should learn how to say NO” at the top of her lungs at 7:30 A.M., while wildly drumming the dashboard of her recently serviced Subaru Outback. I was also teen me, eyes closed, arms crossed, feet planted in the middle of a ’90s mosh pit.

It was a blessed respite from the otherwise unrelenting hail storm of alarming news that hits me from all angles, all day long. In other words, it helped. So much so that I was inspired to pull together a list of songs with similarly satisfying displays of female anger unleashed, songs that display the full range of feminine rage, from X-Ray Spex’s defiant, sax-filled 1977 screamathon “Oh Bondage! Up Yours!” to the boiling-over wrath of Beyoncé, holding a baseball bat and wondering “What’s worse, looking jealous or crazy?” Rage on, sisters. —Melissa Giannini