Girls Rock! hits nerves of the teen psyche variety

"There's something about rock 'n' roll that's really liberating in a way that's not ideological," Johnson says. "It's not like they're there fighting for women's rights. [The camp] just directly addresses what for a lot of girls feels like an impossibility — to be uncontained." This concept is additionally threaded into a mix of fly-on-the-wall filming as the girls form their bands and write an original song, and in the confessional moments they spend talking to the camera alone in their bedrooms.

Girls Rock! was spawned from King's "intensely emotional experience" at a Rock 'n' Roll Camp showcase in 2004. From there, he and Johnson set out to discover the root of that response. The product of their labor — and the camp's labor as well — is hilarious, hopeful, and unusually moving. Post–Girls Rock!, Johnson and King say the workshops have sent Laura on a "rampage" where she corrects her teachers about stereotypes "so they don't miseducate anyone else." It's broken Amelia's Britney fandom as she embraces more misbehaving feedback. It's helped Palace beat out her aggressions on the drums. And it's made me realize that no matter how much I want to cover an industry that's moved beyond gender differences, being female is as much a part of me as my secret affection for hair metal. Although now I'd definitely rather write about a band than roll around on the hood of its car.