We Used To Talk About Girls Who Played Guitars

Hayley Williams of Paramore performing.
Image copyright www.noisetrend.com

I would like to start this post off with a disclaimer. I don't listen to music made by girls. Now, before people start wildly accusing me of sexism, I would like to clarify this disclaimer somewhat.

My reasons for this are not because women are inherently inferior and are lacking the gift of musical ability that is so virulently apparent in men. It's not even because I think music made by women is bad, at least not any more. It certainly isn't because I am sexist, at least not consciously. In fact it is simply because the female led music I was exposed to when I first started to develop my music taste was, to put it bluntly, shit.

By the time I reached 14 or 15, the age where I started to make rational decisions about music (as my dad gleefully regales everyone in reach, I was a huge Spice Girls fanboy until I was 11) music television channels were in the ascendency and I got in to a lot of my early favourite bands through the likes of Kerrang and MTV2.

Back in my day (when all this were fields) the sort of female artists and women-led bands that were appearing on these kinds of TV stations were the likes of Avril Lavigne and Evanescence, both of whom, at best fall in to the same category as a lot of the generic tripe that Kerrang was pumping out around that time (Stain'd anyone?), and in the case of Avril Lavigne that is being VERY generous. The best that they could dredge out of the archives was 'Celebrity Skin' by professional-crack-addict-fronted grunge monkeys Hole. 

Furthermore I just didn't understand bands like Garbage, and I simply wasn't keen on the likes of Sleeper and Elastica, just as I was never really a big fan of most other Britpop artists. Literally the only song by a band whose singer was a woman that I saw on the likes of Kerrang and can remember thinking was even remotely passable whilst I was still in school was 'Take It Off' by the Donnas, and it's hardly Bohemian Rhapsody.

Adolescent me took one look at what was on offer and said “Is that the best you've got?” Of course, in hindsight, I was wrong, but at the time it was all I had. This was in the heady days when, as a young boy living in, essentially, the middle of nowhere in North Wales, my internet access was limited to dialup access and a Napster account. I remember being in awe of a friend who had 24 hours of mp3s on his PC.

As such, my only real option for new music was to buy it. Heady days indeed, but as a teenager without a job I could only afford to buy music I liked, or at least music that was similar to what I liked. Unfortunately, when I was 14 I fell in to the pitfall of grouping things in to genres, and thusly placed all female rockers and rock groups in to the same boat. The boat for music that is enjoyed by girls (that are smelly and probably have some form of lurgy).

The strangest thing is that there are a number of artists who are considered legends that at this time I wouldn't have hesitated to listen to. Nina Simone, for example, used to be (and still is) a big favourite of mine. I could happily stick on a Blondie album and go about my business, but for some reason because they were legends they transcended my image I had of women in rock at the time. It was like the rules I had for them didn't apply to everyone else.

This was equally true of other genres of course; I didn't like Fat Boy Slim or Eminem for example, so I didn't go out and buy any house or hip-hop albums either. Also, until recently I had mostly dismissed classic rock as being a genre that merited no investigation whatsoever, despite a predilection for the odd Led Zeppelin album. But none of that makes the generalisation that all female rock bands are rubbish any more right or justified. Sadly, for whatever reason, this is a stereotype that I haven't managed to shake out of my brain, at least up until quite recently.

Even today, if you look at the 300 or so artists in my iTunes library that have more than one song in their list, only 14 of them are exclusively female or have a female vocalist in a prominent role alongside a male singer. And one of them is the Black Eyed Peas, who shouldn't be counted on any list ever. That's just 4.66% of my entire music catalogue. 14 year old me would probably have worn a smug grin when hearing that statistic, but honestly, 26 year old me is just ashamed.

There have been times, in the years since when I have listened to female artists, whether because I wanted to or because I was offered no choice, and they have largely failed to change my mind. Particular examples I can remember were KT Tunstall, whom I found no better than OK, and Regina Spektor, whom I completely failed to get, and still do to this day. Of course, some artists slipped through the net and got a fair hearing like Azure Ray and Straylight Run, but I always considered them exceptions to the rule, and it was usually on the basis that they were connected in some way to another band I liked. Despite the likes of the legends I mentioned earlier, even seminal artists like Fleetwood Mac have only really recently become staples of my listening habits.

Sadly the stereotype was so firmly in place that it never once occurred to me that maybe I didn't like Tunstall and Spektor not because they were female artists but because they weren't playing the kind of music I enjoy. Subconscious sexism for the lose.

I am glad to say that, thanks to friends introducing me to new artists, and a general desire to listen to new music, my eyes, or should I say ears have been opened over the last year and this will be reflected in a couple of upcoming articles on this very blog. One even pointed out a few bands I didn't realise had prominently contributing women, such as Sonic Youth. I am, however, concerned that the image of female musicians that is being peddled by the music industry hasn't really changed that much since I was younger.

The likes of Katy Perry and Kelly Clarkson are at best being portrayed as lightweight bubbly sex symbols who rely on others to write their songs for them. The industry needs more stronger women like Rihanna and Lady Gaga to come to the forefront and change the image of female pop musicians, but in such a male dominate industry, it wouldn't surprise me if they don't, unless it becomes obvious there's a massive profit in it.

Sadly, the state of rock music isn't much better. The only band with a female vocalist that is in the mainstream rock scene today that is reaching a worldwide audience that comes immediately to mind is Paramore. While they of course are far from the first to break through, and are considerably better than a lot of what I was exposed to when I was first listening to proper music, they are one of the biggest bands to come around since the internet became a real driving force in music distribution and as such carry a large weight of responsibility on their shoulders to really change the image of women in rock for the better.

They won't be able to do it alone however. I'm hoping that the Paramore juggernaut, coupled with the rise to popularity of groups like the Naked and Famous and Warpaint, both of whom were high up the bill at last year's Reading and Leeds festivals; Flyleaf, who are making a big splash just below the surface as a screamo band to watch; and the likes of more established artists such as Tegan & Sara helps to serve as the first broadside shot at the institutional sexism that runs through the music industry.

Here's hoping, because people deserve to realise straight away that a lot of ladies are making a lot of good music out there, not twelve years too late. I'm glad I escaped the perceived image I had, and I know that others will be too. Girls are still smelly, though.