From Beyonce to Rihanna to Taylor Swift to Adele, the pop music landscape is not exactly hurting for women right now. But we could always use a few more ladies killin’ it in the music scene, right?! Some of the SPARKteam came together to talk about their fave female musicians, songwriters, singers, and female-fronted bands, plus the amazing affects they’ve had on our lives. Check out their picks and leave yours below!
Britney: The Runaways are, as exaggerated as it might sound, vital to my existence and the music that I listen to now. I began listening to them when I was about nine years old; it was my transition from Disney soundtracks and bubblegum pop. I read everything I could find on them; I was obsessed with forming my own all-girl band and breaking barriers like they did in the ‘70s. Seriously, they were amazing; they formed a famous all-girl band while making superb music at the same time. Their lyrics were unlike anything that I’d heard from other musicians, especially from women; they talked about wanting to get the same amount of respect in the music industry as men and existing without restraint. Basically, they were my new idea of perfection; they had their flaws, yes, but they weren’t afraid to be themselves and step out of the box that the music industry had created for women, leading to many other girls following in their footsteps. Also, Kathleen Hanna, former frontwoman of Bikini Kill and current singer of Le Tigre, is one of my feminist idols. In fact, she is one of my idols, period. The first song that I ever listened to from Bikini Kill was “Rebel Girl”, and I loved every second of it. The way that Hanna sang was so powerful and full of emotion. When she sings, you hear a revolution behind her voice. The instrumentals had the same effect on me, as well. Bikini Kill was a huge part of the 1990s feminist movement, and are often seen as the epitome of the third stage (the Riot Grrrl stage). Honestly, I couldn’t choose a better person to lead that movement.
VIDEO: The Runaways, “School Days”
Georgia: At the age of eleven, when I got my first iPod, my big sister introduced me to Florence+The Machine. From the very first song I heard, I was hooked by not only the amazing, emotion-filled voice of lead singer Florence Welch, but also by the lyrics. I’d never really thought about how music and poetry connected, but suddenly, listening to the album Lungs, I completely understood. I love how honest Florence+The Machine’s music is, how underneath the metaphors and the pounding drums, it’s a song about something we all recognise – love, heartbreak, fury. Florence isn’t scared to make a noise, and she isn’t scared to say how she’s feeling… and for that, I absolutely love her.
VIDEO: Florence + The Machine, “Cosmic Love”
Madeleine: Lily Allen is totally obscene, and I totally love her. Women are often told that “it’s not ladylike” to be rude or mean or immature. If you ever told Lily Allen that she would first be like hell-to-the-no, and then she would write a cruel song about you and somehow manage to pass it off as upbeat. Her inability to keep her judgments on people contained is what makes her music so powerful. She sounds happy, but really she’s insulting the crap out of her ex (or something). And maybe she is happy to be insulting the crap out of her ex, and she’s not afraid to share her joy with the world. Lily lets you know that it’s okay to be vocal about your opinions, and that it’s okay to be utterly strange and cynical as long as it doesn’t make you unhappy.
VIDEO: Lily Allen, “Not Fair”
Eliana: One of the most exciting aspects of being a music lover and feminist is thinking about how many incredible female musicians are out there touring and performing and getting tons of recognition for it (at least in my world). There are a lot of groups that have emerged in recent years that appear to have been born straight out of the punk and post-punk traditions of the 80s. Grass Widow is one of them. Grass Widow’s Hannah Lew, Raven Mahon, and Lillian Maring do not shy away from the feminist label. Something that really strikes me about their music is the inclusion of themes about mental illness.
VIDEO: Grass Widow, “Celebrate the Mundane”
Ty: Kimya Dawson, Kimya Dawson, Kimya Dawson!!! Kimya Dawson is a legit feminist goddess sent from the stars. In 1976 Helene Cixous published “The Laugh of the Medusa,” which is more or less about writing the female body. How can women write their experiences when writing has developed historically by men? I’m not exactly sure how, but I am positive that Kimya Dawson is the woman closest to writing the female body/mind/experience in her music. Her lyrics are fast and crazy and sometimes seem “irrational” because they are nothing like the on-point songs that we are used to hearing on the radio– and that is why they are so great. Women get called “irrational” all of the time for the way we think and the language that we use (as if there were any one way that we all thought that could in any way be wrong). Kimya is helping us make different types of communication acceptable and appreciated by being herself and making AMAZING WOMAN MUSIC.
VIDEO: Kimya Dawson, “The Beer”
Melissa, SPARKteam coordinator: I always joke that I’m a secret misogynist because almost all of my favorite bands are fronted by dudes, but the truth is I’m actually mega bummed that I spent so much of my life listening to music by men and not even thinking about music by women. In high school I was really intent on being Really Cool and having Really Cool And Obscure Taste In Music, and women weren’t Cool. I grew up on mid-90s hip-hop and r&b and Missy Elliot was and is my queen, but that kind of music (music that got played on the radio, music by black people, music by black women especially) was frowned upon in the circles that I was trying to run in as a teen, which were mostly circles of internet jerks who read Pitchfork obsessively and had boring opinions about literally everything and I have no idea why I wanted to fit in with them so bad. “Cool” music was dudes singing about how sad they were or how many drugs they did or whatever, and it took me until just a couple of years ago to figure out how totally messed up that was, because women ARE cool and we can be sad and do drugs and write music about it, too! Since then I’ve been intentionally seeking out female-fronted bands in everything from pop music to weird underground noisy stuff and I’m having a lot of fun; I’ve even dedicated my 8tracks profile exclusively to female musicians. Right now I’m really into Thao with The Get Down Stay Down, but every day brings something new and exciting!
VIDEO: Thao with The Get Down Stay Down, “Body”
Who are some of your faves lady musicians? Leave ’em in the comments!