It's no secret that I love all-girl bands, but I wasn't always that way. After all, my first musical love was Heavy Metal, in all it's machismo and glory. Now, even someone who never listens to Metal probably knows it well enough that they can often say one thing with certainty: that the women involved in the scene are vastly outnumbered by the men. That would certainly seem to be the case, but then again, people often claim that it's actually not exclusive to Metal; they claim that women are excluded from the scene because Metal is simply an evolution of Rock, and Rock has
always shut them out. If you haven't already figured it out, this statement is complete b
ull****. Women were
very involved in the development of every form of Rock that you can imagine. For example, most people cite early rockers like Little Richard as the main progenitors of the modern Rock sound, but there wouldn't have even been a Little Richard if it wasn't for Sister Rosetta Tharpe, and I mean that literally; it was at one of her shows that Richard Penniman decided that he wanted to become a furious R&B hero, after she heard him singing and let him open the concert for her. And there are other influential women in early Rock 'n Roll as well. Wanda Jackson, Sparkle Moore, Margaret Lewis... the list just keeps getting longer the deeper you dig. In fact, one of the most important figures in Rock, Muddy Waters, who heavily influenced everyone from the Rolling Stones to Led Zeppelin, got one of his most popular songs from a woman; "Got My Mojo Working" was originally performed by Ann Cole in 1956, the same year that McKinley Morganfield began to record the version that would later become a Blues staple in the 1960s.
So even though Women were outnumbered in the world of Rock, and often treated unfairly compared to their male counterparts, they still rocked on as hard as they could, and had a very definite presence and influence. As the years rolled on, and the 1960s arrived, there was a
massive wave of all-girl bands, playing every type of genre you can imagine, including Rock. If you're reading this journal, then you've probably already read about all of the amazing female Garage Rockers from that time period, and you know very well that the girls could get just as heavy as the boys. They got down with the Psychedelic sound, blasted out Garage Rock, put on their go go boots and stomped to the mod Beat music, and hit hard with the Electric Blues.
But as the 1960s came to a close, the Psychedelic and Progressive scene started to change. Vocalists became more extreme (opting for the sharp range of shrill highs and deep lows rather than the more mellow and natural vocals of the 60s), distorted guitars were tuned lower than before, and beats became more complex as the simple "Riff Rock" of the mid-60s was left far behind. These bands were dubbed as "Heavy Metal", famously being named after a line from Steppenwolf's "Born to be Wild" ("I like smoking lightning, a heavy metal thunder!"). It was a new and exciting form of Rock, and yet oddly enough, there were fewer women than in any of Rock's previous forms. Finding a female early Heavy Metal band is seemingly like winning the lottery; it's amazing when it happens, but it's also incredibly rare. So my question (and the purpose of this entry) is this: Where did all of the women go? What happened between the carefree days of 1966 when you couldn't go five steps without running into an all-girl Beatles or Stones cover band, and the formative years of Metal in the early 70s when it became a complete sausage festival?
The strangest thing about it is that there actually
are many women who helped to develop the Metal scene, but they didn't really appear until the New Wave of British Heavy Metal came around. It's just very odd that woman seemingly stopped making heavy music
only for the years between 1969 and 1976, when they for some reason kept mostly to lighter Progressive and Folk Rock rather than the growing Heavy Metal sound. Still, I don't believe for a second that there weren't
any female bands in the scene, and it's been my mission lately to find as many as possible. I want to know what happened between this...
...and this:
And you know what? Normally i'm kind of nervous when I make an entry, because there's always the chance that I could get something wrong, and someone would call me out on it. But in this case, I actually
hope that happens. I would
love for someone to come in here and completely shatter the idea that women were rare in early metal by throwing dozens of awesome bands and songs at me. Please, by all means, throw to your hearts content. As I keep on with the search, every now and then I'll make an entry about any cool individuals, bands, and songs that I find. And it goes without saying that recommendations are more than welcome.