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Linkspam: Diverse women’s voices in rock

original entry is here with astonishing no. of recs in the comments. As usual, be not an asshole.

I read all of these which are about the experience of white, cis, ablebodied women for the most part, and was inspired to do a post featuring vocal diversity among women rockers. .LADYPALOOZA PRESENTS: I Went To Your Concert and There Was Nothing Going On, or, A Meditation on Dude Music

LADYPALOOZA PRESENTS! The World At Large: How Privilege works in Rock Music

(NOT REALLY A) WEEKEND ARTS SECTION: Manic Pixie Songwriting Dream Girls, A History in Youtube and Published Slur

TORI AMOS

ACCOMPLISHMENTS: Classically trained pianist; frequently constructs songs in complex, non-standard time signatures (9/4? Is that even a thing?) and uses more than one of said time signatures over the course of a song; said songs also feature carefully worked-out, highly complex piano-vocal melodies and harmonies, often referencing classical pieces or styles of note, with unusual chords, non-standard voicings and keys, and frequent key changes; improvises substantially on and/or re-arranges those highly complex songs on every tour; can play piano, synth, harpsichord, Hammond, and basically anything else with a keyboard on it; on last tour, switched between four keyboards, often playing two simultaneously, on nearly every song.MORE

The Lost Women of Rock and Roll

I was able to do a bit of correcting for WOC rockers, but came up blank on disabled and/ or transwomen rockers. If you have any recs, put em in the comments! Albay Philippines I – How Albay Makes A Scene which while a bit off topic, I found interesting.

Also: Asian American women in rock

Shonen Knife: 23 years since forming, the groundbreaking group asserts control over its affairs

Yoko Ono:In a recent Tokyo visit, the septuagenarian sounds off Which reminds me that I need to repost this: Yoko Ono: A Feminist Analysis (Introduction: Oh Yoko!), Yoko Ono: A Feminist Analysis (Part One: The Ballad of John and Yoko), Yoko Ono: A Feminist Analysis (Part Two: Don’t Let Me Down), Yoko Ono: A Feminist Analysis (Part Three: Woman), Yoko Ono: A Feminist Analysis (Addendum: Just Like Starting Over)

In addition to which: Rock On: Saudi Arabia’s All-Girl Rock Band, 2nd article The Accolade: An All-Female Saudi Rock Band

New generation of Latin rockers earns points for artistry and Layin Women Rockers: Artists Redefining Images of Hispanic women and rock n roll

Where Are the Black Female Rock Stars?

And finally, Black Women Who Rock Links to:

Anti-Divas

The black female rock singer is invisible. By rock, I don’t mean popular music, as the two terms are often injudiciously interchanged, but the loud, guitar and drum-driven energy of the actual genre. Though black music—rhythm and blues—is essentially the DNA of rock music, social and industry barriers confront black female artists who embody the aural and visual aesthetics of the rock idiom.

What leads to this invisibility is the way black female vocalists in pop are consistently relegated to specific genre categories created by the music industry and the media that exclude them from rock music. In the post-Woodstock landscape of popular music, these categories essentially consist of soul (Aretha Franklin), pop (Dionne Warwick), dance (Donna Summer), R&B (Anita Baker), hip-hop (Lauryn Hill) and rap (Missy Elliot). Because of these rigid parameters, black female singers who pursue rock are often met with opposition, confusion and commercial disappointment. Nona Hendryx, for example, is essentially a rock singer whose palette is diversified—not determined—by R&B and dance music. Her first solo album rocked as hard as any record released in 1977, but radio (and Epic Records) was puzzled by the supposed incongruity of her racial identity to the music. Donna Summer, who fronted a rock band in the late 1960s (The Crow), has often stated that were it not for disco, she would have steered towards a career in rock music. As disco retreated to the underground in the early 1980s, Summer released a rock-oriented album, The Wanderer. Rock-formatted radio was hesitant to embrace Summer, even though her songs were not stylistically dissimilar to the songs of white female rockers like Pat Benatar.

So black women in rock have existed, but have been by and large invisible, with the exception of the anomalous Tina Turner. Her indisputable talent notwithstanding, the support of British male rock artists such as Rod Stewart and David Bowie were still necessary to facilitate her comeback in the mid-1980s and reintroduce her to rock audiences. A rare combination of forces enabled Turner, a middle-aged black woman, to achieve mainstream success with rock music—a unique combination ultimately impossible for her black female peers to replicate. But that doesn’t mean they are not out there. The galvanizing voices of Betty Davis, Joyce Kennedy, and Sandra St. Victor are but a few who have electrified rock music over the last four decades, but remain relatively obscure to mainstream audiences.
MORE

So we start with JD Natasha’s Plastico The IDIOT Music Company EMI has disabled embedding. I cannot STAND these freaking dumplings, but moving along.

THE ACCOLADE – PINOCCHIO


Yoko Ono: "Yes, I’m A Witch" (1974)

Skunk Anansie – Twisted (Everyday Hurts)

Shiina Ringo – Sakuran

BJORK HUMAN BEHAVIOUR

Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Skeletons

Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Kiss, Kiss

ELY GUERRA – PELIGRO

Aterciopelados – El Estuche

yui – cherry

ARCH ENEMY – My Apocalypse (OFFICIAL VIDEO)

Nina Simone – Ain’t Got No…I’ve Got Life (yes I know she isn’t rock, I love this song and how her voice sounds here)

Otep "Confrontation" Official Video

Deerhoof – The Perfect Me

Joanna Newsom – Peach, Plum, Pear

The The Empty – Le Tigre

Apocalyptica/Nina Hagen – Seemann

Noiseaux – Cessation

Tori Amos – Welcome to England

FlyLeaf – I’m so Sick

Shonen Knife – It’s a New Find

Orphan Hate – Circus

"You Will Remember" by Lumaya

Straight Line Stitch “Black Veil”

ETA: HOW COULD I FORGET: Tanita Tikaram!
Twist in my sobriety

ETA2: Tessanne Chin Black Books

Anyone else ya’ll wanna rec?

9 thoughts on “Linkspam: Diverse women’s voices in rock”

  1. Denis says:

    I’ve enjoyed Stolen Babies, this is their song Push Button. More female metal rockers.

    1. unusualmusic says:

      Thanks for the rec, I love that song too!

  2. Jetse says:

    Won’t comment on the original Dreamwidth link, as they require me to get a *paid* Dreamwidth account before I can. I know spam is evil, but this way they also shut out interested outsiders.

    Anyway, there are a lot of female /fronted goth & metal bands, especially in Europe and even more especially in Holland.

    From the top of my head:

    –The Gathering (Holland, Anneke van Giersbergen: they were a frontrunner in the goth metal with female vocals scene);
    –Détente (USA, forerunner of the metal-with-grunting-female-vocalist that Arch Enemy is doing now: originally with Dawn Crosby, now with Tina Teal);
    –Fear of God (USA, Dawn Crosby, who died prematurely: the “Within the Veil” album is a forgotten classic);
    –Nightwish (Finland);
    –Lacuna Coil (Italy);
    –Theatre of Tragedy (Norway);
    –Within Temptation (Holland);
    –After Forever (Holland);
    –Epica (Holland);
    –Evanescence (USA);

    There are at least a dozen more female-fronted metal bands in my home country, and at least the same amount across Europe. This is just from the top of my head.

    1. unusualmusic says:

      Actually you can use openid to comment as well. And last i heard, they do have free accounts…. And thanks for the recs!

  3. Rajiv says:

    Hm, epic HTML fail on my last attempt to comment, so just a list of more awesome women in rock:

    – Gen (Genitorturers)
    – Lucia (KMFDM)
    – Meg Lee Chin
    – Lesley Rankine (Silverfish/Ruby)
    – Diamanda Galas
    – Toni Halliday (Curve/Chatelaine)

  4. Jen says:

    Thanks for these links. There’s an amazing diverse greatness here, and I have to admit to ignorance of many of these women. I’ll give them a fair listen 2-4 times each, and let you know what ends up being my faves…and my kiddo’s as well…

    BTW — Sooj Tucker gets played ALOT in our house. The kiddo really likes “There’s an Alligator in my House” and “Storm” best thus far.

  5. Cara says:

    Just stopping by to say thanks for the links to my series on Yoko! :)

  6. LDR says:

    One word: Fanny.

  7. Stina says:

    I love Shiina, but I don’t think the English version of Sakuran is one of her best.

    Shiina Ringo – Honnou (Classic Shiina)
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aU4wtCyco1o

    Here she is with Tokyo Jihen: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anJU1or6_L8&feature=related

    Gibbs
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5U5zLvDAhM&feature=related

    Other female rock artists en español: yeah two are listed above in one of the links but I thought I would post some songs.

    Amaral – Te Necesito
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0ZLTm3rnsw

    Bebe – Malo
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBu5l8W8SCk

    tu silencio
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDOo2uskHMA&feature=related

    Soraya – Llévame
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=riNHR26qTGM&feature=related

    English stuff
    Exit Clov – Violent Berries
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CiISPjgtDuc&playnext_from=TL&videos=nI7pzLdYf0c

    Paperdoll – Anything at all

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