Exile in Girlville. via hector torres @ flickr
In the spirit (hopefully!) of PhDork’s earlier Friday fun thread, I thought I’d open up the comment boxes for our dear readers to share their picks for those women singers/songwriters/musicians who always seem to strike the right chord when you listen to them. (It’s Friday; I’m allowed to make bad puns.) About 90% of the 700 songs stored on my computer are performed by women. I’ll confess that I’m not exactly sure why my taste in music is so centered around women singers. Maybe it arose out of a frustration that the only really popular rock-type music I heard on the radio was all by male-only bands when I first started my music collection in the early nineties, and so it was infinitely refreshing to discover Hole and L7 and Babes in Toyland — I could listen to women singing about their anger in a way that never made it into the bland, mass-marketed pop songs that surfaced on New York’s behemoth station Z100.
15 years after I started listening to Courtney Love & Co. (Live Through This is still one of my favorite albums), my collection now features a lot of Kim Gordon, Exene Cervenka, Fiona Apple, Ani DiFranco, Annie Lennox, Chrissie Hynde, Tori Amos, PJ Harvey, Beth Orton, Sinead O’Connor, Veruca Salt, Kim and Kelley Deal, Jill Sobule, and Liz Phair. I’ll add a special mention for a terrific and unfortunately defunct Canadian band called Cub, that introduced me to the notion that pop songs could handle lesbian romances with humor and pathos — and not in a Katy Perry way. Sure, my collection features the odd track by Iggy Pop and Lou Reed and Pearl Jam and Chris Cornell and Tchaikovsky and The Lord of the Rings soundtrack thrown in the mix, but they’re anomalies. The women hold the majority, and I don’t see that changing anytime soon.
So, it’s your turn. Who are the women who make music that you love listening to over and over? (Or do you rarely listen to women musicians, just as I rarely listen to men?) Share whatever thoughts you might have in the comments, and Happy Friday to all!
I am embarassed to be completely unfamiliar with this Neko Case person. I have heard so many other feminists mention her but I would not recognize her music if I heard it. I don’t have an iPod and in the car I listen to NPR. I have not been “into” any particular music since college. Maybe we need to organize a CD exchange.
sarah.of.a.lesser.god, yeah, I didn’t want it to sound like I was brushing aside the ones that are on smaller labels but I guess I did anyway. Honestly for some I simply didn’t know, so thank you for the clarification.
Thanks for letting me know that my links worked, too.
Johnette Napolitano and Lisa Germano.
@maisnon
I can’t believe I left Eva Cassidy off my original list, she’s definitely a favorite.
And I’m suddenly feeling the urge to hit iTunes and go on a music-buying binge. So many great names that everyone has mentioned here!
@waxghost: I mentioned Thea Gilmore, and she’s very anti-mainstream…Hell, one of her songs is even called “Mainstream”
“Are you gonna swim the mainstream….or are you gonna make like lightning….”
If you don’t know her, check her out. Many of her songs criticize the mainstream music business…and she’s absolutely fucking brilliant. One of the best lyricists I’ve ever heard.
Kate Bush and Kate Miller-Heidke.
janis joplin never bores me. I remember watching woodstock with my parents when I was 9, and was blown away by her performance and personality. and music, of course
Her songs aren’t particularly feminist, but there is something about ‘maybe’, or ‘get it while you can’, that combines both female suffering with consciousness of that suffering, and the will to freedom, etc… (I’m getting lyrical, hehe – bad puns are allowed, no?)
and I adore siouxsie and the banshees, early 80ies new wave/punk. Siouxsie Sioux (female front singer) has an amazing voice; the music itself is daring and interesting and energetic; and, I like her style..!
(and, ella fitzgerald. what a voice)
Wow, last week I was looking in archives of the blogs I read for posts about feminist music, and now there’s this thread! Perfect
I do listen quite some female singers, but as I’m quite new to recognizing things as feminist or not, and lyrics are not always automatically clear to me, because English isn’t my mother tongue, I have no idea if their texts are especially interesting because they contain feminist thinking. However often I feel inspired by their songs or some lines in particular.
I think I will love forever:
)
Tegan and Sara, Shea Seger, Heather Nova, Tori Amos, Norah Jones, Kate Nash, Lilly Allen, Ani Difranco, KT Tunstall, Lisa Loeb, Meredith Brooks (the first cd ever that I bought! I was 12
And some really good Dutch and Flemish singers (they sing in English) I love: Anouk, Ilse de Lange, K’s Choice/Sarah Bettens, Stevie Ann. If you’re interested you should definitely check them out, I’m sure they are on youtube
(a little bit of support to your own national artists never hurts 
)
And I really like the German singer Juli, too, listening her cd ‘Ein neuer Tag’ (a new day) as we speak
I’m all about all-girl bands/bands with female vocals; mostly indie I suppose. I barely listen to anything with male vocals. I wrote about Riot Grrl for my undergrad degree and Bikini Kill, Sleater Kinney, Huggy Bear etc are old favourites, but at the moment it’s lots of Santigold (previously known as Santogold; her album from last year is super), Scout Niblett, The Organ (very sadly defunct after one album), Marnie Stern, Electrelane, Bonde Do Role, Be Your Own Pet, Saint Etienne… and of course CSS, MIA, Le Tigre and The Gossip who’ve already been mentioned. I’m excited about the new Gossip album which is out in a couple of weeks.
A couple of recommendations: Peggy Sue are two girls from Brighton who don’t have an album yet; I think they’re playing a few gigs in the US at the moment: http://www.myspace.com/peggysueandthepirates, and Those Dancing Days are five teenage girls from Sweden with super-sweet indiepop songs: http://www.myspace.com/thosedancingdays.
I just want to leave a huge thanks to everyone who put in their two cents here! Whether your tastes range to jazz, pop, rock, or more undefinable genres, it’s great to see all the different women artists who have touched us.
God, I use a lot of smileys. (And wanted to use yet another one here – I’m an addict!)
I just remembered an all-woman black metal band from Greece, Astarte. I only have their first album, but I thought it was similar to Burzum. Also not on a major label… obvs
I don’t know if it’s too late to post this or not. But, Amanda Palmer of The Dresden Dolls is amazing. She has her own album out now “Who Killed Amanda Palmer” http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw_0_10?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=who+killed+amanda+palmer&sprefix=who+killed That I haven’t had the money to buy yet, but hope to eventually. But I do love The Dresden Dolls themselves. Yes, I am cheating a bit since a man is in the group, but I don’t think Brian would mind being lumped in this category. I recommend them not only because they are amazing but because of their message. Amanda writes all of their songs and you can find out the stories behind them in the companion books that go along with their C.D.s http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw_1_8?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=the+dresden+dolls&sprefix=the+dres They do things like tour with the True Colors Tour and teach music to kids. Amanda is a voice of feminism. She has songs about abortion, being by herself and utilizes her own style of beauty which includes shaving off her eyebrows and replacing them with drawn on designs http://farm1.static.flickr.com/96/270568027_6560a56d18.jpg to not shaving her armpits. She does and says what she wants and that’s why I love her.
On a lighter side I also love Regina Spektor http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=regina+spektor&x=0&y=0 Who while,not as edgy and political, still gets her message across.
I was relieved to see someone finally put Regina Spektor, she’s definitely the woman I first thought of for this comment thread.
@Mireille: Astarte is pretty cool.
I am a metalhead. Not that many ladies in the world of underground metal but there are a few female-fronted metal bands out there that are pretty awesome… I think it’s neat that Bolt Thrower’s bassist is a woman and they’ve been around since forever…
As for not-metal… I really like Hole, Siouxsie and the Banshees, the Dresden Dolls/Amanda Palmer, the Cranberries, Loreena McKennitt.. kind of a weird variety of stuff.
When it comes down to it though I’m mainly into black metal, and you don’t see a lot of women performers in that particular subgenre (which makes it all the more exciting when you do find one!).