The Runaways were a successful all-women band who performed proto-punk heavy metal music in the 1970s.
Widely believed at the time to have been a novelty act formed by producer Kim Fowley, who thought the notion of young women dressed in leather and lingerie performing heavy metal music was highly marketable, the band released its first record in 1976. They broke up in 1979, but not before launching the careers of Joan Jett and Lita Ford, who went on to achieve substantial success as solo artists in the 1980s. Cherie Currie went on to a briefly successful career as an actress before falling into heavy drug use. Michael Steele later joined the Bangles.
The Runaways paved the way for female oriented punk bands like X-Ray Spex
and Bikini Kill and more recently The Donnas.
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