Do You Like or Dislike Women in Bands/as Singers
 

Due to my disturbing discovering of many people not liking female singers/bands, can people please tell me if you follow the same sort of opinion?

How can you dislike and entire gender for their vocals?

I like a lot of female vocals, then again, I am female.

I don't really like a lot of female rock vocals, though - they don't often embody what I feel is more in the "spirit" of rock and roll, and sound too controlled and classic or something. Not entirely sure what it is. There are exceptions to this rule of course, but most female ROCK vocalists really aren't my cup of tea.

Folk singers, though, I prefer women.

Make a poll :).

Dislike. I like my music to be solid, sound solid.
Female music usually sounds a bit... Whiny, and then I mean the music itself.
The extreme example of this is Coco Rosie. But Björk (altough I actually can't help but have a lot of respect for what she soes) is a good example too. I sometimes want to tell to them 'stop thinking and make music that has some feel'.
That's one part of the story.
On the other hand, I just like a voice to sound solid. Female vocals usually don't.
And when they do, they usually sound too rough/brutal.

I have always been very picky about my music. I like a lot of genres but I am very quickly distracted/annoyed by something in music. It's really a miracle that I have such a huge record collection :D

I have three records where a female singer does the lad vocals
No doubt - Tragic Kingdom. Out of youth nostalgia
Janis Joplin - Pearl. Because... Well she's as much as a woman singer as Tom Waits is
Earth & Fire - Self Titled. I don't listen to it all that often, but musically it's nice and the best song of the album, Seasons, is sung by a man, mainly :D.

By the way, I don't very often like high pitched male vocals like Bon Iver or Bonny 'prince' Billy. I don't dislike those two, but usually I get annoyed by vocals like that. I also dislike overdramatic (theatrical) vocals like Marillion's, Peter Gabriel's or Arcade Fire's.
Somehow I like Muse. Well, their first two albums. Strange thing.

^ Yes, because women are incapable of making music that has legitimate emotion without being whiny.

:rolleyes:

srry I only like Kim Gordon and Cheryl Cole and the girls from Strawberry Switchblade and The Primitives (UK)

s_k, you need to start listening to opera. The depth, range, and emotion in women's voices in opera is just amazing, it will blow your mind.

I do have a tendancy to listen to a lot of female-fronted bands. Female vocals work remarkably well in certain styles of music, such as shoegaze or dream-pop where they can add this soft, ethereal quality which makes the music really appeal to me. A lot of the time it's just refreshing to listen to female-fronted bands rather than a constant stream of male-fronted bands. In other cases I do admit that I develop some kind of emotional connection with female vocalists.

I don't see any to dislike based on a big generalisation across many different types of music.

I don't like any opera voice, male or female.
I think it's abuse of the ability to sing.
Overtechnical.

Well it sure sounds like they do.
I'm sure it's just me, but I just cannot stand it, most of the time.

Hell no! I just wish there were more female vocalists who vocalized with more of an edge. Female voices sound fantastic when used this way, though unfortunately it doesn't happen often enough.

Some examples of what I mean:

Katherine Katz:


Brody Dalle:


Lady of Rage:


Poly Styrene (R.I.P. :()


Wendy O. Williams (Also R.I.P. :()

oh yeah Liz Fraser too

and older women - Aretha, Mahalia Jackson, Loretta Lynn

You're entitled to your opinion.

opera's cool

My favorite band is probably 1/4 women, my second favorite band occasionally has female singers, and my third favorite band is 3/4 women.

I ADORE Martha Argerich, Zeena Parkins, Carla Kihlstead, Diamanda Galas, Jarboe, and Suzenette Lewis.

I adore female sung bands: Thinking Plague, Unexpect, Koenji Hyakkei(well, mixed vocals), Magma(also mixed), Art Bears, etc.

Sounds like ****load of good No Wave is also female led(A genre I've only seen the tip of the iceberg of). I adore opera, as well.

Women are very VERY capable of writing, and being involved with good music. The problem is that we have a very clearly chauvinist music industry that requires chicks to either:

A) Dance around in a thong.

B) Using femininity as a gimmick in order to sell CDs.

It's one of the main reasons I loathe people like Lady Gaga. There are worlds and worlds of extremely talented serious female musicians out there. In fact, open up your local newspaper in ANY city, and you'll probably find tons of advertisements for violinists, pianists, and serious female musicians of all variates.

I mean just cause you had to at one time endure this excruciating pain:



...shutters.

It doesn't mean you have to hate women. Blame the industry which is so based of cult of personality aesthetic it doesn't let an artist truly be him, or herself. Especially, if she is a chick who just wants to be treated like a serious musician, not specifically under the banner of "Hey, I got a vag. I got a vag.. see! No penis! I'm female, and that's all I think and sing about! Watch me shake my tits!"

Cause, underneath the surface there's some amazingly soulful serious female musicians out there, really. You just have to look.



/\ See, brilliance, personality, style, sophisticated advance melody. Notice, no thongs, no "Yeah! Grll Pwer!" Nonsense. No "Damn, I just wish I had a non-thinking drone of a hunk to be my husband" idiocy. Intelligent music, created by a woman, performed by women, and proof infinitely that it's unfair to stereotype or pigeonhole.

I don't like most female singers. There's loads of exceptions, but generally all the bands I listen to have male vocalists.

Why? Just personal taste. I wont disregard female singers, but I have a real tendency to find them uncomfortable to listen to or something... I don't judge based on gender, or talent, just based on what I like to listen to.

As for bands and band members, woman can play and instrument just as well as men so I don't know why I would care...

For a while last year all I wanted to listen to was female fronted bands. I got really into female fronted indie pop. I once had female vocals described to me as a drink of cold water in the desert. I tend to agree.

Male vocals do dominate most of music, but I don't think it should be that way. Certain music would be way better with a female in my opinion.

Well, I gotta be honest. I don't listen to a whole lotta bands with female singers. I'm pretty sure it's an identity issue, since I like to think of myself being able to perform whatever it is I'm listening to and being male I naturally can't identify with a female singer.

On the topic of female singers, this is pure awesome:

Depends where and maybe even when you are talking about. In Japan for example there has been quite a strong tradition of women as vocalists.

I have to say I am a big fan of patti smith, karen o, liz harris and kate bush. I think male vocals in general are a little more to my liking but there are some female singers I love.

it's more of an issue of timbre and range only

much prefer men's

s_k, you don't like women in bands either? So female instrumentalists are out?

I'm not sure I like this question. I'm no radical feminist, but it's a bit demeaning, no? Not just to women but to musicians? To imply that something like gender influences talent? I agree with you, Burning Down. Do people just discredit bands that have female musicians?

Yes, probably they do. Unfortunately. I only discredit bands that don't have any talent :laughing:

This bothers me. Beyond female, and male. Isn't a tad foolish, and close minded to lock yourself into a set ranges of timbre?

I like women in bands/as singers. They are just as capable as men and it is sexist to think otherwise. I do not really get the point in this thread or poll if I am being honest.

I think it's because s_k was in another thread saying that he hates all female vocals except for apparently No Doubt and Janis Joplin or some similar foolishness. I don't know.

If he wants to generalize, that's his issue.

I agree it does come off that way. Maybe the question should be do you dislike women in rock? In all fairness, men really have dominated that scene. However, females seem to dominate pop and both men and women seem to get fair treatment in maybe soul.

i prefer a more guttural low range

women tend to sound shrill

The music must be good as a whole, just like with anyone else. Florence Welch has a great voice, but her music is boring as fuck because she uses it in the same manner in every song, and the songwriting just isn't up to par. Beach House on the other hand, are fantastic musically as well.

I think the fact that few women are respected in music comes down to the fact that fewer women take part in music as a whole. Naturally, as with anything, there are more poor artists than great ones, but for some reason instead of looking at these figures and considering the sample size, people perceive women as having little musical talent.

I'll take Sarah Cracknell, Trish Keenan & Laetitia Sadier over any indie dreck that's fashionable this week.

I'm also mystified by what the word "solid" is supposed to mean in regards to vocals. Someone shed some light on that?

I'm a huge Broadcast fan. I was legitimately sad when I found out she passed away. I'm hoping to see at least one posthumous album.

I was wondering that myself, actually.

Well, why not like both? I adore both.

I don't get it either, but to each their own, I guess.

Yeah I was always into them before she died, but ever since then I've really been listening to them a lot more than I used to.
I find it strange that they always seemed quite a prolific band and yet after Tender Buttons in 2005 hardly anything at all.
I'm hoping they have something lying around.

I don't think it's a question of talent for most people. More a question of taste. Someone was talking about whether or not the could identify with the vocals or something - which I think holds true with me also to some degree.

There probably are some people who are basically sexist about which bands and performers they like, but to confine yourself to one gender of singers would be just moronic.

At the same time to call someone sexist because they have a tendency to prefer male singers would also be moronic (depending on the reasons that person has)

And also, shouldn't singers and instrumentals be totally different questions? Gender influences a singers voice greatly, but as far as I can tell has nothing to do with a persons ability to play any instrument.

They always had a lot of internal band drama. It eventually got paired down to just Trish and James Cargill. Have you heard Broadcast and the Focus Group Investigate Witch Cults of the Radio Age? It's really damn good.

yeah no:





Also, s_k, women often do better vocals then men do. Kindly educate yourself, or **** off.