I counted 13 artists in the Overall Top 100 that are either female solo artists or bands that have, or had, at least one female member (for example, the Velvet Underground had Mo Tucker and Nico, Arcade Fire have Régine Chassagne, Talking Heads had Tina Weymouth, etc.). That's still pretty bad though, and yes, I'm just as bad myself — In my case, I think you'd have to go all the way to 2013 or so in my year charts to find one that has majority-women (going by this looser definition) in that year's Top 10. Whereas in the last 5 years or so, I think all of them are.
With the all-time lists though, the male bias is probably unavoidable because pop music was so male-dominated up until the 2010s. Older albums have had far more time to gain fan support, the bias reflects that, and the only way around it would be to weight more-recent releases... which nobody is going to be in favor of.
Hi madhattanjack. Yes, agree with all of that. I was only going for all female solo or bands. 13 is still not a great number though.
Male bias has been around for decades at all levels of the music industry. Just thought that I’d try to highlight some great female led music and I’m really pleased with the response to this thread. I’m going to be doing some posts about individual artists or albums and see where it leads.
This is my initial attempt at a chart of my favourite albums by female artists.
I’ve included female fronted bands as well ie Cold Blood who were fronted by the phenomenal Lydia Pense.
Early days and will change a bit over time. I’m also going to endeavour to enter notes again each album so going to become a bit of a labour of love I think
From my collection: either female artists or bands with female members:
# / A
10,000 Maniacs (Natalie Merchant, Mary Ramsey, Teri Newhouse, Debbie Heverly, Leigh Nash)
4 Non Blondes (Linda Perry, Christa Hillhouse, Dawn Richardson, Shaunna Hall, Wanda Day)
Ace Of Base (Linn Berggren, Jenny Berggren, Clara Hagman, Julia Williamson)
Ryan Adams & The Cardinals (Cindy Cashdollar, Catherine Popper)
Adele
The Adverts (Gaye Advert, Laurie Driver)
The Alarm (Jules Jones Peters)
Alvvays (Molly Rankin, Kelli MacLellan, Sheridan Riley, Abbey Blackwell)
Amadou & Mariam (Mariam Doumbia)
American Music Club (Lisa Davis)
Tori Amos
And All Because The Lady Loves… (Nicky Rushton, Rachel Collins)
Laurie Anderson
Antony & The Johnsons (Julia Kent, Mazz Swift)
Fiona Apple
Arcade Fire (Regine Chassagne, Sarah Neufeld)
Jann Arden
India Arie
Joan Armatrading
Arrested Development (Dionne Farris, Nadirah Shakoor, Astrid Maure, Nyasa Sullivan, Tasha Larae, Nicha Hillyard)
Asleep At The Wheel (Chris O'Connell, Maryann Price, Cindy Cashdollar, Barbara Lamb, Elizabeth McQueen, Katie Shore, Emily Gimble, Chloe Feoranzo) _________________ I'm leaning on the threshold
Of her mystery
And crashing through the walls
Of dying history
We have listed a few great female artists and one area that I feel deserves attention are guitar players. There are some phenomenal female guitar players out there, and one of the absolute best is Samantha Fish
I think that her albums are fine but it’s when you see and hear her play live that you really appreciate what a phenomenal guitar player she is. Having said that her album with Jesse Dayton
A great (predominantly) blues, but I’d also argue heavy blues artist, Having said that she also brings elements of rock, a smattering of country and a bit of funk into her playing.
Fish has cited Bonnie Raitt, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Tom Petty and the Rolling Stones as her influences# and you can totally see that in her playing especially SRV
There’s a story that in 2013, Fish was called up on stage to play with a sceptical Buddy Guy who was so impressed with her playing, he declared with a beaming smile to his audience, "When this kind of shit happens, I'll play all night!” That pretty much sums up my feelings of seeing Samantha play live.
The last two times that I've seen her play live she kicked off her set with Kick Out The Jams and never let up. She’s kick ass brilliant and incendiary. She just doesn’t let up for the entire gig. Love her and love her playing.
Going to post videos separately to prevent this post getting toooooooooo long
From my collection: either female artists or bands with female members:
B - Big
The B-52's (Kate Pierson, Cindy Wilson)
Babble (Alannah Currie)
Babe Ruth (Jenny Haan, Ellie Hope)
Babe The Blue Ox (Rose Thomson, Hanna Fox)
Babes In Toyland (Kat Bjelland, Lori Barbero, Clara Salyer, Maureen Herman, Jessie Farmer, Michelle Leon, Cindy Russell, Kris Holetz)
Susana Baca
Erykah Badu
Joan Baez
Sibylle Baier
Anita Baker
Bananarama (Sara Dallin, Keren Woodward, Siobhan Fahey, Jacquie O'Sullivan)
Band Of Susans (Susan Stenger, Alva Rogers, Susan Lyall, Susan Tallman, Page Hamilton, Karen Haglof, Anne Husick)
Sara Bareilles
Courtney Barnett
Baroness (Gina Gleason, Summer Welch)
The Be Good Tanyas (Frazey Ford, Samantha Parton, Trish Klein, Jolie Holland)
Beach House (Victoria Legrand)
Beirut (Heather Trost, Kristin Ferebee)
Belle & Sebastian (Sarah Martin, Isobel Campbell)
Belly (Tanya Donelly, Gail Greenwood)
Pat Benatar
Berlin (Terri Nunn, Virginia Macolino, Toni Childs)
Best Coast (Bethany Cosentino)
Beyonce
Big Brother & The Holding Company (Darby Gould, Kate Russo Thompson, Janis Joplin, Kathi McDonald, Cathy Richardson)
Big Thief (Adrianne Lenker) _________________ I'm leaning on the threshold
Of her mystery
And crashing through the walls
Of dying history
From my collection: either female artists or bands with female members:
B - Big
The B-52's (Kate Pierson, Cindy Wilson)
Babble (Alannah Currie)
Babe Ruth (Jenny Haan, Ellie Hope)
Babe The Blue Ox (Rose Thomson, Hanna Fox)
Babes In Toyland (Kat Bjelland, Lori Barbero, Clara Salyer, Maureen Herman, Jessie Farmer, Michelle Leon, Cindy Russell, Kris Holetz)
Susana Baca
Erykah Badu
Joan Baez
Sibylle Baier
Anita Baker
Bananarama (Sara Dallin, Keren Woodward, Siobhan Fahey, Jacquie O'Sullivan)
Band Of Susans (Susan Stenger, Alva Rogers, Susan Lyall, Susan Tallman, Page Hamilton, Karen Haglof, Anne Husick)
Sara Bareilles
Courtney Barnett
Baroness (Gina Gleason, Summer Welch)
The Be Good Tanyas (Frazey Ford, Samantha Parton, Trish Klein, Jolie Holland)
Beach House (Victoria Legrand)
Beirut (Heather Trost, Kristin Ferebee)
Belle & Sebastian (Sarah Martin, Isobel Campbell)
Belly (Tanya Donelly, Gail Greenwood)
Pat Benatar
Berlin (Terri Nunn, Virginia Macolino, Toni Childs)
Best Coast (Bethany Cosentino)
Beyonce
Big Brother & The Holding Company (Darby Gould, Kate Russo Thompson, Janis Joplin, Kathi McDonald, Cathy Richardson)
Big Thief (Adrianne Lenker)
I think that these lists, which I really like, put into perspective that there are a fair few female artists in our collections and actually your educating me on some of these bands for example, I don't own anything by Berlin but I do own a could of Toni Childs albums. I never realised that she was in the band so it's peaked my interest in checking a few of these out.
Also interesting that theirs are actually three Susans in Band Of Susans!
Do we have a bias against women in music? I do not think so. 17 female voices in the Top 100 does seem quite right. I have 21 in my own Top 100. There are just not that many women in music or at least there were not in the sixties and seventies (the defining decades). But that is a different thing. We are maybe a bit too quick to accuse ourselves of racism or bias in general these days.
Do we have a bias against women in music? I do not think so. 17 female voices in the Top 100 does seem quite right.
Not to be picky, but how are you counting them? If you're counting actual female singing voices that can be heard on albums in the BEA Top 100, I'm only coming up with 11, and that's assuming we count Clare Torry on Dark Side of the Moon, and Fleetwood Mac counts as two. I'm even counting Kim Deal on Doolittle, even though she doesn't take a solo lead vocal on any of the tracks.
I admit, I did not count. I thought someone in this thread mentioned 17 but I was wrong there. So, okay, there are not enough female voices in the BEA top 100. _________________ When the stewardess is near do not show any fear.
From my collection: either female solo artists or bands with female members:
Bjork - Bush
Bjork
Black Country, New Road (Georgia Ellery, May Kershaw)
Black Rebel Motorcycle Club (Leah Shapiro)
Black Uhuru (Puma Jones, Jennifer Niyah)
Blackfoot (Stacy Michelle)
Blake Babies (Freda Love, Juliana Hatfield)
Carsi Blanton
Bloc Party (Louise Bartle, Sarah Jones)
Blonde Redhead (Kazu Makino, Toko Yasuda)
Blondie (Debbie Harry)
Blue Mountain (Laurie Stirratt)
Bon Iver (Jenn Wasner)
Karla Bonoff
Boston (Beth Cohen, Kimberley Dahme)
The Breeders (Kim Deal, Kelley Deal, Josephine Wiggs, Tanya Donelly, Carrie Bradley)
The Brian Jonestown Massacre (Sara Neidorf, Miranda Lee Richards, Vanessa Hopkins)
Edie Brickell & New Bohemians (Edie Brickell)
Phoebe Bridgers
Sarah Brightman
Broken Social Scene (Ariel Engle, Leslie Feist, Jo-Ann Goldsmith, Emily Haines, Jill Harris, Lisa Lobsinger, Amy Millan, Julie Penner, Elizabeth Powell)
Jonatha Brooke
Alison Brown
Bryndle (Karla Bonoff, Wendy Waldman)
Built To Spill (Melanie Radford)
Kate Bush
(the purpose of this ongoing list is to recognize that, indeed, there are a lot of women making the music we love. they aren't all singers...women play many instruments on albums we listen to. and this list is nowhere near a complete one.) _________________ I'm leaning on the threshold
Of her mystery
And crashing through the walls
Of dying history
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who were fronted by the phenomenal Lydia Pense.
Romanelli
Liedzeit
MadhattanJack
