History Music / TheRunaways

* CulturalRebel: [[SarcasmMode What?! An all-female]] ''[[SarcasmMode hard]]'' [[SarcasmMode rock band?! Most unorthodox!]]

** Downplayed with Jackie Fox, whose stage name was just an anglicized version of her real name, Jacqueline Fuchs. After she left music entirely, she went back to using her real name.

* CoverVersion: "Rock and Roll" by the Music/VelvetUnderground.

* NobodyLovesTheBassist: The band just couldn't seem to hold onto one. In [[Film/TheRunaways the movie]], the bassist is a CompositeCharacter, Robyn Robbins, who has no spoken lines.

** Sandy West was the stage name of one Sandra Sue Pendajevo.

** Downplayed with Jackie Fox, whose stage name was just an anglicized version of her real name, Jacqueline Fuchs. After she left msuic entirely, she went back to using her real name.

%%* CoverVersion: "Rock and Roll" by the Music/VelvetUnderground.
%%* CulturalRebel: [[SarcasmMode What?! An all-female]] ''[[SarcasmMode hard]]'' [[SarcasmMode rock band?! Most unorthodox!]]
%%* InNameOnly: In 1987, Kim Fowley put together a new Runaways. None of the original members were involved.

%%* PowerBallad: "Heartbeat".
%%* PrecisionFStrike: "You're Too Possessive".
%%* SpokenWordInMusic: "Dead End Justice".

[[caption-width-right:323: Clockwise from top left: Lita Ford, Sandy West, Jackie Fox, Joan Jett, Cherie Currie -]]

The Runaways were an all-female HardRock band from TheSeventies. Despite having a very short career, The Runaways hold the distinction of being the first successful all-female rock band, thus opening the door for a ton of other similar all-female/female-fronted bands. They have been cited as an important influence on the RiotGrrrl movement.

* BadassBoast: "Cherry Bomb"
* CastFullOfGay: In her autobiography, Lita mentions that she briefly left the band after realizing her bandmates "were all lesbians."[[note]] [[SocietyMarchesOn Lita didn't quite understand homosexuality that well]] and wasn't sure how to take it.[[/note]] Sandy came out as lesbian and Cherie and Joan had a brief relationship with each other.
* CoverVersion: "Rock and Roll" by the Music/VelvetUnderground.
* CulturalRebel: [[SarcasmMode What?! An all-female]] ''[[SarcasmMode hard]]'' [[SarcasmMode rock band?! Most unorthodox!]]
* InNameOnly: In 1987, Kim Fowley put together a new Runaways. None of the original members were involved.

* PowerBallad: "Heartbeat".
* PrecisionFStrike: "You're Too Possessive".
* SpokenWordInMusic: "Dead End Justice".
* TokenMinority: Back when they began, they were [[strike:probably]] the only all-female rock band to gain major success.

* JailBait: They were in their mid-teens, but Cherie especially.

The band was initially put together by Sandy West and Joan Jett, who met producer Kim Fowley and managed to get him interested in the concept of an all-female rock band. Fowley helped them recruit the other members - Currie, the 16-year old guitar wiz Ford and, after a succession of bass players, Fox - and produced their debut album, the hard rock/glam rock ''The Runaways''. Released in 1976, ''Runaways'' became a success with critics and the record-buying public alike, and gave the band its signature song, "Cherry Bomb". Soon, the band found itself headlining shows alongside bands like Music/CheapTrick, Music/TheRamones and Music/VanHalen.

Fox left the performing side of the music business and went on to attend [[UsefulNotes/IvyLeague Harvard Law School]], where UsefulNotes/BarackObama was among her classmates. She's now an entertainment attorney, but concentrates on representing movie and TV people.

In 2015, Jackie Fox came forwards saying that she had been [[http://highline.huffingtonpost.com/articles/en/the-lost-girls/ drugged]] and raped by Kim Fowley at a party while Joan and Cherie looked on laughing and doing nothing. After she and Jett received a severe internet backlash, Cherie wrote a reply on her Facebook page [[http://pitchfork.com/news/60350-the-runaways-cherie-currie-responds-to-jackie-fox-rape-allegation-against-kim-fowley/ denying the claims]] and saying that "All I can say is if Joan, Sandy and I saw an unconscious girl being brutally raped in front of us, we would have hit him over the head with a chair." (Interestingly, Currie had said previously that she witnessed the event, spoke up and then stormed out of the room.) Jett also denied that the event had occurred, [[http://hollywoodlife.com/2015/07/14/joan-jett-jackie-fox-rape-witness-bandmate/ writing a post that said]] "Anyone who truly knows me understands that if I was aware of a friend or bandmate being violated, I would not stand by while it happened [...] For a group of young teenagers thrust into ’70s rock stardom there were relationships that were bizarre, but I was not aware of this incident. Obviously Jackie’s story is extremely upsetting and although we haven’t spoken in decades, I wish her peace and healing."

Lita Ford [[http://www.blabbermouth.net/news/lita-ford-comments-on-jackie-fox-rape-allegation-against-kim-fowley/ also commented]] on the allegations, saying "[I]f anybody knew anything, it would have been [manager Scott Anderson], Cherie and Joan, and Scott now is passed away, along with Kim Fowley. But I do know that Jackie's not a liar, and if she says that somebody was watching her, and if she says that this happened, then I believe her; I do. She's a little extreme sometimes, but still… it's not right. I really don't know what to say about it."

* TheSvengali: Kim Fowley, who basically molded the group and allegedly abused the members. [[http://highline.huffingtonpost.com/images/runaways/document-42bd50ed.jpg This picture]] provides a pretty good idea of what a scumbag he was.

* BreakupBreakout: Jett, and to a lesser extent Ford.

* PrecisionFStrike: "You're Too Possesive".

* TropeCodifier: First all-female rock band that was known by the general public (Goldie and the Gingerbreads and Fanny came before, but who remembers them?). And possibly for UnderwearOfPower in music.

* TropeMaker: First all-female rock band that was known by the general public (Goldie and the Gingerbreads and Fanny came before, but who remembers them?). And possibly for UnderwearOfPower in music.

* UrExample: First all-female rock band that was known by the general public (Goldie and the Gingerbreads and Fanny came before, but who remembers them?).
** And possibly for UnderwearOfPower in music.