Girls Girls Girls

I used to not like listening to music sung by girls. I'm not sure why, but for some reason I just did not like female-fronted bands or female singers of any variety for the most part. I used to be vaguely misogynistic despite my being a girl, so maybe that had something to do with it. Thankfully, I've grown up and out of that strange mindset and now I dig female singers as much as male singers. Yay for personal growth!

As I became less and less generalizing it seemed like female-fronted bands became more and more popular and mainstream. We grew out of our weird, awful hard rock/nouveau boy band pop punk phase and made some room for both girl singers and bands of these genres and others. Let's look at some of them, good and bad:



Paramore

This is one of, if not the single most popular mainstream girl-led band. Paramore started out back in '06-ish but hit it big with their album RIOT!, which is a pretty fun title, I must concede. People, girls and guys alike, really liked their take on the whole pop punk phenom that was starting to peter out by the time they hit it big. Lead singer Hayley seems to be the standard amongst girl-fronted rock bands these days; she's the frontwoman and really the face of the band, and groups with girls as the lead singer are generally compared to Paramore by default.

While I'm not a big fan by any means, the thing I like about these guys is while they're undeniably "emo"-tinged pop they're willing to be a bit more inventive with their sound than, say, Fall Out Boy. Check out their massively-popular single "The Only Exception" for a sense of what I mean. (By the way "That's What You Get" is not only my favorite by them, not that I know that many, but it's also one of my favorites to play in Rock Band 2. Just sayin'.)

Similar Artists: Hey Monday stands out as one that is particularly derivative. They're like Paramore-lite; they boast a girl singer, less notable than Hayley Williams with her naturally-colored hair, surrounded by a bunch of guys. The difference is that they're much less energetic; they may have a similar image but the similarities really end there. One friend compared them to Taylor Swift, which is probably not what they're going for but is, sadly for them, a pretty good comparison.

Also, Tegan and Sara have their punky energy and are even more talented -- and they're just two people! Also, I'm a twin so I'm biased. 



Best Coast

This is a niche that has recently become popular - 50s/60s-inspired surf and/or trippy pop. Best Coast stands out as one particularly notable example; they've achieved fame in the blogosphere and even had their music featured on the UK Skins, which I fangirled about a couple of posts ago. (It was Liv's episode if you want to check it out.) Much like Paramore lead singer/guitarist Bethany is such a strong central figure that you sometimes forget that this isn't a solo project. The songs have a really defined sense of character: Bethany is a bit pathetic in her misadventures in relationships. To cope she hangs out with her cat and does drugs. It's all good on the Best Coast -- okay, not literally, but all of their songs are upbeat and take you back to a simpler time. Check out songs like "Crazy For You" and "Each and Every Day" for a sense of both their poppy charm and sad sack lyricism.

Similar Artists: The Dum Dum Girls are another 60s-sounding band making huge waves in the underground these days. While Best Coast has a bit of a modern edge to them, these ladies sound like they were transplanted from the early 60s. It's pretty nifty, as the kids might have said back then. (What would I know about that though?)



Amy Winehouse

You may think that this woman is irrelevant these days. Since her 2007 album Back to Black, she's spiraled downwards, walking around barefoot until finally fading away into obscurity. So, yes, fine, I will see your "Amy is out of the limelight," but I will raise you a "Without Amy you wouldn't have Adele." And why is this important? Adele is the latest British import who has risen to the top of the charts with her soul-inspired pop, and I'd argue that we wouldn't have her without Amy Winehouse. She may have been the Charlie Sheen of her day (oh, haven't you heard? He's crazy. Maybe you didn't know, I mean, it's not like every single person in America and possibly the entirety of Europe, yes, the entirety of Europe, this includes Luxembourg, has been talking about him incessantly for going on four weeks now, no, it's not like that at all) but "Rehab" alone shows just how talented she is. She's a trendsetter, although thankfully not in the world of hair fashion.


Similar Artists: Adele aside, Duffy. Personally I don't believe either of these women are as talented as Amy Winehouse but I guess it's subjective. I don't think they're untalented, though, of course, although Duffy reminds me of Kristen Chenowith to a degree that I'm not comfortable with.




Warpaint

Okay, mostly I just love these ladies. They're young and yet they have this really mature sound, as if they've been working to perfect it for so long. Their name has been tossed around the indie scene for a year or two now, and last year they released an album of songs that mistily oozed into each other. They are shoegaze in the least-obnoxious way; they have a sense of humor, a youthful quality about them, and yet they still manage to enshroud everything they do in fog and make it work so perfectly. I wax poetic about them like crazy, and I mean that in a literal way, okay? Thank you.

These girls rock when it's necessary and then take you out of this world. It's really quite something.

Similar artists: Wye Oak is a definite contemporary. They recently released their album Civilian to great reviews, including an "A" from the wonderful AV Club. Their song "Take It In," from their previous album The Knot, reminds me a lot of Warpaint's most spellbinding songs, like "Set Your Arms Down;" it's almost cult-like in its repetitiveness (in Warpaint's song's case, the chanting; in this song's case, the drums) and it's just transcendent of all things. It pierces the inner machinations of your mind! Deep.

While these ladies stand out the most to me, they are hundreds of other examples to choose from. I had to force myself not to start ranting about how great First Aid Kit is, and I was even tempted to mention Miley Cyrus. Sometimes you have to know your boundaries.

Also I'm leaving out notable musicians and icons like Lady Gaga, Beyonce, Taylor Swift, and others, but hey, we always read about them, don't we? Once in awhile Warpaint needs a turn.

What are your favorite female-fronted bands/musicians?

P.S. Why do I always write so much about music? And by "so much" I mean the posts that I write about music always take me far longer than any other posts -- I wrote this over the course of two days, for example. (And my Beulah/Weezer "epic" took 6 hours.) Ever notice that? It's interesting.

P.P.S. The Dodos' No Color comes out today! Buy it! Expect a review sometime this week or next, whenever my copy gets here!