I've noticed that in the popular musical industry, performing females tend to fall into two categories: 1. The Crooner: Women who write and play their own music. This music tends to consist of slow ballads and weepy lyrics on guitar and piano (See 2 AM ((Breathe)) by Anna Nalick or pretty much anything Kelly Clarkson for classic examples). They're listenable, but nothing special, and don't have too much of an edge to them. 2. The Spooner: Women who only succeed cause they have a voice, and apparent sex appeal (Hence the name Spooner). They don't write anything or play anything, just dance, get surgery, and put out pre-programmed lyrics in a never-ending battle to see who can garner the most media attention and idolation while still being a total slut. (See: Christina Aguilera, Pink, Britney Spears...oh geez, the list goes on and on.) What I see a glaring deficency of, though, is the woman who can write bad-@$$ lyrics and music and play her own guitar and whatnot. We have too much Britney and not enough Joan Jett (Who is, by the way, insanely awesome.) Do you think this opinion is accurate, or no? If not, can you give some examples (And hopefully link us to their music)? If you agree, what do you think the reason behind this hard-rock-woman deficiency is? Does it have to do with unfair gender treatment, or just that you think men are, plain and simple, more born to rock? Also, are there any famous female musicians you hate or like? DISCUSS!
Ann and Nancy Wilson started somewhat of a music revolution when they hit the music scene as Heart, with blood-pumping rock and roll.
I think the not-so-commercialised talented female who doesn't insist on dwelling upon the trivial- is a very rare find these days. Such women to me seemed only visible in the late 1970’s and 1980’s then they all appeared to die off as music approached the 1990's and 2000's. Off the top of my head I can think of a few female musicians that hold a sense of difference when it comes to their physical portrayal and music. Tarja Cabuli, former lead vocalist and founder of the Finnish power metal band ‘Nightwish.’ If you’ve ever heard her voice you’d agree that it’s more or less spectacular. Amy Lee, lead vocalist and one of the founders of Evanescence. Although I don’t particularly support her new found interest in commercialism ( I continue to be interested in, pretty much, only what she produced in her early days), she is still remains something special. Chrissie Amphlett, lead vocalist from the band the Divinyles, awesome Aussie rock star of the late eighties, she was a sexy one, a sexy one who thankfully never got the word sexy confused with slutty. Cristina Scabbia, vocalist from the band Lacuna Coil. She’s got a great voice, period.
Blondie, I'm pretty sure, wrote their own music, and they were fairly good for this sort of thing. (Although, sadly, "Call Me" was not their own work. On an interesting note, did you know that song was originally meant to be sung by Stevie Nicks? Imagine how that would have turned out...*sees Nicks doing crazy twirls onstage* >.> )
Deborah Harry has a limited vocal range, and her songs are written to stay within that range. Pat Benatar performed some pretty powerful songs, although she is fairly commercial. Tori Amos is probably what Ivan would call a crooner, but her first couple albums (I am NOT counting her punk album!) were devastatingly beautiful, and her best work.
Ivan, this generalisation is pretty much correct. No two ways about it. There are the occasional exceptions, by all means, but thats all they are. Exceptions. By the same note, a similar analogy could be used in nearly all styles of music.
Lol I definately agree with these two statements, Evanescence and Nightwish remain two of my favourite bands and I think both vocalists are absolutely amazing. I'm not sure what to say about Amy Lee's new found interest in commercialism, its definately there but apparantly she's still a pretty down to earth person and genuine. A friend of mine met her near the download festival. I agree again here, great voice, although i'm only just starting to listen to Lacuna Coil after I saw one of their videos on TV a couple of weeks ago.
One type of popular music that DOES feature a strong field of talented women is R and B. Check out Rehab by Amy Winehouse, a song that I've been addicted to for the past few days. Also, recently free on iTunes was "Heal Yourself" by Ruthie Foster, a funky song which was insanely awesome and home-written. These are cool because they feature women writing (and sometimes playing) their own music and have the beats of hip-hop without being the disgusting sex idols that other pop singers have been made into.
Hmmm to be honest i'm not a huge fan of RnB, but I have to admit that like you say, it has a strong field of talented women. You tend to find that singers in this music field
