![\"Debbie](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Debbie-Harry-Videodrome-1983-Far-Out-Magazine-1140x855.jpg\")
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(Credits: Far Out \/ Universal Pictures)<\/p>\n
Thu 1 January 2026 23:00, UK <\/p>\n
Debbie Harry<\/a> never intentionally set out to become an icon.\u00a0<\/p>\n Growing up in New Jersey, Harry considered herself a \u201ctomboy\u201d, finding solace playing in the woods that surrounded her childhood home. Her musical career began later, in the late 1960s, with a fateful move to New York City. There, she shapeshifted into a number of different acts, from singing in the folk rock band The Wind in the Willows, to joining the punk band The Stillettoes, where she would meet her partner, guitarist Chris Stein, and together, founded Angel and the Snake. Later, they renamed themselves Blondie, after the catcall often hurled at Harry by men on the street after she had bleached her hair.\u00a0<\/p>\n Blondie became a reclamation and, with Harry as their frontwoman, the band\u2019s talents were impossible to ignore. Soon, Blondie<\/a> were staples at CBGBs and Max\u2019s Kansas City (where Harry was formerly a waitress), dominating with their sound, which occupied the perfect in-between of punk and disco, while weaving influences from the burgeoning hip-hop scene; and Harry\u2019s stage persona, radiating a sheer coolness that continued the tradition of transforming how women would be perceived in rock \u2018n\u2019 roll. <\/p>\n Harry, with her signature bleached hair and captivating vocals, was a force to be reckoned with in the male-centric punk underground that was slowly surfacing in New York. \u201cSo many girls come up to me and say, \u2018Great, keep going, do it,\u2019 ya know. They say that to me,\u201d Harry told ZigZag magazine in 1976, adding, \u201cI\u2019m not making enemies of girls. I\u2019m making fans of girls.\u201d<\/p>\n From the beginning, Harry seemed privy to the ways that the media would attempt to wield her gender against her, and indeed, they placed the label of \u201csex symbol\u201d upon her as a way of commodifying her talent, turning her looks and Blondie\u2019s output into something that could be sold. <\/p>\n In retaliation, Harry<\/a> knew that her role as a frontwoman could be used to counter any sensationalising of her place as a woman in rock music. \u201cRock and roll is a real masculine business, and I think it\u2019s time girls did something in it,\u201d Harry told the New York Rocker in May of 1976. \u201cI don\u2019t want to sound like a libber, but I want to do something to make people change the way they think and act towards girls.\u201d<\/p>\n Harry continues to give credit to Janis Joplin, who paved the way for women like her to disrupt preconceived notions of women in rock, though she acknowledges that the singer\u2019s tragic legacy was one to evade. \u201cJanis Joplin did that, but she had to sacrifice herself,\u201d Harry explained. \u201cEvery time she went out on stage, she had to bleed for the audience. I don\u2019t feel like I have to sacrifice myself.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Alongside the likes of Patti Smith and Siouxsie Sioux, Harry signalled a shift in the punk era that championed women at the forefront. \u201cI was changing the way women in bands were perceived,\u201d Harry declared in an interview with Steve Pafford<\/a>. \u201cIt was a whole new era, and we were like warriors.\u201d <\/p>\n Committed to her individuality, Harry showed that femininity could be retained with a defiant attitude.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Related Topics<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(Credits: Far Out \/ Universal Pictures) Thu 1 January 2026 23:00, UK Debbie Harry never intentionally set out…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":347309,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[50195,6491,50197,96,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-347308","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-blondie","9":"tag-celebrities","10":"tag-debbie-harry","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom","14":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/347308","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=347308"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/347308\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/347309"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=347308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=347308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=347308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}