Why are most female rock musicians not as good as males?

Published on August 22, 2005 By Ionolast In Entertainment

The Go-Gos, The Bangles, Karen Carpenter, Irlene Mandrell, Melissa Etheridge; none of them impress me very much as musicians. The only ones I can think of that are any good are the drummer with Lenny Kravitz (I don't know her name) and Bonnie Raitt.

I think it is one of two things, or maybe a "Combination of the Two." (Extra points for the name of that artist.) Either they don't have enough testosterone, or the fact that most females start with instruments such as piano, clarinet or violin, then when they get into a band, they take up drums or guitar.

Your thoughts?

Comments (Page 2)

kingbee

on Aug 22, 2005

Toss a few more

mother maybelle carter & sara daugherty, elizabeth cotton, joan baez, mimi farina, aretha, erma franklin, joni, the dixie chicks, sheila e, the chick who plays guitar in paul schaefer's band, the chick who played keyboards in the old snl band...

I'm not sure what you're saying.

a lotta parents (and society in general) have reservations bout letting their daughters do stuff sons do freely. touring is pretty high up that list.

mada_ecks

on Aug 22, 2005

Sarah McLachlan and Tori Amos are really good musicians.

What about Hole? Are they any good

Aw, not really. I mean, as far as influencial goes. No. I compare them to Varuca Salt.

The Donnas were a pretty good punk band a few years back, but then they ended up changing their style into a more power pop thing selling out or whatever. Seems like female artist aren't really taken too seriously because of the other songs by women singers dressed like prostitutes, crooning (rather off-key) about how they like men, tease men, e to break hearts of men, etc., etc. So thanks to these singers, actual musicians/songwriters get looked over. Sucks

BTW, Alicia Keys is really good too.

kingbee

on Aug 22, 2005

Alicia Keys

dammit i KNEW i was gonna forget her.

msladydeath

on Aug 22, 2005

Alicia Keys, Avril Lavigne, and Vanessa Carlton. In case you don't know, Alicia Keys and Vanessa Carlton are Supburb Pianists with exellent vocals to compliment their playing ability. Avril Lavigne plays the gautar. I know there are more, and quite a few local women that can just WAIL on an instrument, I just can't remember names to save my life.

BTW, Alicia Keys is really good too

Ya know, my internet connection just went to crap and I just spent 10 minutes to get it back up, while I was, you took Alicia Keys

msladydeath

on Aug 22, 2005

Link

Oh, and here is a link to femmuse.com a female musician site. Thought you might like it.

and sorry about the despicable spelling on my last post, but it wouldn't let me go back and edit it after I realized how bad it was.

ParaTed2k

on Aug 23, 2005

When the Lillith Fair concerts were going strong I wondered if the time had come for female rockers. Alas, the great support it got from the music industry and fans started out strong but quickly faded.

The women that do make it in rock music do it outside the mainstream. There are formulas to mainstream music, formulas that the music industry sells and (from what I've seen) the average listener insists on. For whatever reason, female musicians are not part of that formula.

uDigItTheMost

on Aug 23, 2005

Since you only mentioned rock I will stay in that category. So it will be tougher for me.

Shredmistress Rynata is a talented guitarist. So is Jennifer Batten. She was Michael Jackson's guitarist during his big concert days. Her style is kinda like Eddie Van Halen's. Maybe that's why she got the MJ gig. I seen her live. She was in Jeff Beck's group and even played lead in a few songs.

Carol Kaye was/is a very good studio musician. She plays bass. She played on the Beach Boys albums. Brian Wilson calls her "the best damn bass player in the business". She also played on The Mothers of Invention's first 2 LPs. She said that she was the one who played that distintive bass sound in most of those Motown classics.

If I'm not mistaken I think the female drummer from Lenny Kravitz's band is Cindy Blackman. But I could be wrong.

good article, Icono. I really don't know why more female musicians aren't in rock. Maybe it's just one of those things that men just do better. You know you probably could do another article on why are most female comedians not as good as males.

btw isn't "Combination of the Two" a Big Brother & The Holding Company song?

kingbee

on Aug 23, 2005

Carol Kaye was/is a very good studio musician

totally forgot bout her as well dammit.

kingbee

on Aug 23, 2005

You know you probably could do another article on why are most female comedians not as good as males

that'll be much easier to refute.

Ionolast

on Aug 23, 2005

mother maybelle carter & sara daugherty, elizabeth cotton, joan baez, mimi farina, aretha, erma franklin, joni,

Aren't they all mostly singers?

the dixie chicks, sheila e, the chick who plays guitar in paul schaefer's band, the chick who played keyboards in the old snl band...

I haven't paid much attention to the Dixie Chicks. Sheila E. is great. The one in Schaefer's band is pretty good. Good female keyboardists aren't a surprise because of what I wrote in the last sentence in the body of this article. So that includes Alicia Keys, but I love her song "Karma."

I haven't heard Avril Lavigne, the Donnas or Jennifer Batten.

I also forgot about Carol Kaye. I have the Beach Boys in Concert album. She is real good.

btw isn't "Combination of the Two" a Big Brother & The Holding Company song?

Yep.

good article, Icono.

Thanks.

Ionolast

on Aug 23, 2005

How about Aimee Mann?

kingbee

on Aug 23, 2005

Aren't they all mostly singers?

all were/are great instrumentalists who are also excellent vocalists: mother maybelle carter-guitar, daugherty-autoharp; elizabeth cotton-guitar ('freight train' among others); joan baez-guitar (excellent finger stylist); mimi farina-dulcimer; aretha-piano/organ (could hold her own w/the right reverend ray); erma franklin-piano (if you aint heard her doing her song 'piece of my heart' you should); joni-guitar/piano (incredible guitarist and held her own with mingus; who ever heard of her ex chuck outside of detroit and toronto?); dixie chicks-guitar, fiddle, banjo, mandolin.

i forgot buffy ste marie, christine mcvie, carole king & suzie quatro (the more talented--altho i use that word reservedly in this case--member of the family) and i'm sure i'm forgetting many others.

you can write off chix who play keyboards...i'd give my right hand to play like aretha or erma (of course then i couldn't hahahaha)

Ionolast

on Aug 23, 2005

all were/are great instrumentalists who are also excellent vocalists:

Ok. I'll take your word for it.

I think maybe that's enough for female guitarists. What about some more female drummers?

stutefish

on Aug 23, 2005

What is this "musician" crap?

First of all, the voice is an instrument for sure. It requires tuning and practice. It requires focus and control. It requires a deep understanding of its limits and how to push them.

But that's totally irrelevant, because we're talking about rock musicians. And when it comes to rock musicians, there's only one question we need to ask:

Do they rock faces?

Tori Amos can play the piano like nobody's business, but Debbie Harry rocks more faces.

The Wilson sisters are skilled and dedicated vocalists, but Heart is a great band because they rock faces.

Pat Benatar. Joan Jett. Cindy Lauper. That girl from Black Eyed Peas. These women rock faces.

And rocking faces, like the hokey pokey, is what it's all about.

Ionolast

on Aug 23, 2005

Please explain "rock faces."

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