Female Musicians: Eye Candy or A Whole Lot More?

First, I'd like to give my apologies for the rhetorical question in the title of this post. So, I'm sorry about that.

Anyway, onto the actual main content for this post. A list of the "Top 55 Beautiful Rock/Metal Female Singers" appeared in my news feed on Facebook this morning. It wasn't really what I wanted to see, since I now have the urge to punch seals in the face. Anyway, the list was shared by one of my musician connections on Facebook. Typically, the comments section is full of comments asking why this vocalist or that singer isn't on the list or who is hotter, blah blah fucking blah. Fortunately a few comments protested the list.

Anyway, the Page that created the list has gone onto to clarify that they made the list based on talent, the closeness between the bands and fans, as opposed to just picking them for their looks. But if that truly is the case, why did they call the list something along the lines of "The Most Beautiful Female Singers"? They could have named the list a bit better like "The Best Female Singers" or something to that effect.

Regardless of what their true intention was for the list, it does open up new realms of debate. Are female musicians just eye candy for men to stare at, the same way that they stare at topless ladies in lad mags? Or are they so much more than that?

My answer is obvious: They're more than just eye candy. Of course, I'd be lying if I said I didn't find some vocalists attractive - It's only natural to find some people attractive and I'm not going to deny being human. But to me, the likes of Liv Kristine, Simone Simons, Lena Abe, Doro and so forth are much more than just tits and ass on stage. They're also human and talented humans at that.

When I was first introduced to music by Epica and Nightwish, I had no clue what any of the members looked like, I only knew that they had female lead vocalists and I've found that to be a purer way of enjoying the music when discovering bands. Of course, everyone has their own preferences of how they like to discover bands - be it on radio, through YouTube or whatever.

But how often do we see "Hottest Rock/Metal Vocalists/Musicians" lists? I rarely see them. Actually, I can't even recall ever seeing one. Unsurprisingly, if you Google for those lists, the results for "Hottest Metal Female Musicians" outnumbers the results for "Hottest Metal Male Musicians". So, if less emphasis is put on the looks of male musicians, why do we, as a society, feel the need to put emphasis on the looks of female musicians and rate them solely on their looks, as opposed to their talent?

It's 2015. It's high time these beliefs or whatever you want to call them change.

Anyway, let me know what you think on this matter in the comments.

Also, no seals were harmed during in the writing of this post.

#Adamgate - Should age and gender be a deciding factor in band applications?

Some of you may seen a screen shot of a band's reply to a applicant recently on Facebook doing the rounds, originally posted by Lauren Hutchinson, owner of The Rock Fairy blog. For those who aren't familiar with her work, Lauren is a music writer and a DJ for TBFM. Recently, Lauren, applied to sing for a band via Gumtree that's going for the stoner vibe with their music.

Her email to the band and the main contact: Adam, reads as follows:

Hi Adam. I’ve seen your ad on Gumtree and I’d be interested in auditioning for your band. I know you said you were looking for up to age 28 but cards on the table, I’m 30. That being said, I’ve only just turned 30 so not too far off! I can’t see any links to your material so I’d love to hear it to see if it fits in with what I’m looking for rather than waste your time. If you want any links to my material then I’m more than happy to send these over too. Look forward to hearing from you. Lauren.

 And here's the email that Lauren got in return:

The reply is nothing more than blunt, rude and narrow-minded. I understand why some musicians/bands would want people within their age range but to send a reply like that is taking the absolute piss. Lauren hasn't named the band in question, which is completely understandable and the rest of the band shouldn't suffer because of Adam.

I'm not quite sure why 30 is too old - I mean look at AC/DC and Iron Maiden - All their members are knocking on in the years but they still rock pretty damn hard. Looking at female musicians, there's Doro Pesch (ex-Warlock), Liv Kristine (Leaves' Eyes) and of course Girlschool who all also rock damn hard and are no doubt at least 30 years of age or older and plenty more examples that I could list but I'd be here all day, otherwise.

So, with those musicians in mind, age shouldn't be a factor? Nor should gender, right? Well, according to Adam they are factors, though I'm not sure what evidence he has for this. I know a number of unsigned bands with female members over the age of 30, so I'm guessing that this Adam fellow doesn't get out of the house much. His ideals are very archaic and it's attitudes ;like that that contribute to the idea of female musicians being inferior to their male counterparts.

Unfortunately, this is an attitude that can be found within several areas of the music industry but it is an attitude that is dying out as there are more progressive thinkers in this day and age, compared to say 40 years ago when female musicians in rock and metal were virtually unheard of.

The thing I find most disgusting is that Adam didn't bother to request any examples of Lauren's talent.

Personally I commend Lauren on her bravery for posting the screen shot of the email and for starting the debate that's been spreading like wildfire on Facebook and hopefully this hasn't put Lauren off joining or forming an original band.

What do you think of this? Let me know down below in the comments.

"Female-Fronted" isn't a genre

I've had this argument - maybe discussion is the more diplomatic term? - on many occasions on social media and in real life. At one point, I used to use the term religiously to describe any band fronted by a lass - Be it in my reviews, when promoting my gigs and so forth. However, as I discovered more and more bands fronted by women, I began to think maybe it's time to stop using the phrase "female-fronted" as women in metal aren't as rare of occurrence as I had originally thought, although the number of female musicians is still vastly outweighed by male musicians.

Earlier tonight, just after watching the first episode of the new Game of Thrones season, a friend linked me to a Blabbermouth article which basically quotes Floor (ReVamp, Nightwish vocalist) saying that it's time to stop using the term "female-fronted".

I personally salute Floor for those comments. The term is over-used and outdated. How can bands such as Epica, Arch Enemy, Huntress and Benedictum, Paramore and so on, all be apart of the "female-fronted" genre when they each sound completely different to one another? A dictionary definition describes the word genre as meaning:

a class or category of artistic endeavor having a particular form,content, technique, or the like:
the genre of epic poetry; the genre of symphonic music.

I'm pretty sure that Arch Enemy and Epica don't have the same particular form or technique - one being death metal, the other being symphonic metal.

The "female-fronted" tag, in my opinion, makes the bands sound as if they're going to be a gimmick. More and more women are becoming musicians - not just vocalists, but drummers, guitarists, bassists and more as well. But does it really matter what sex the members of the band are? I'd sooner listen to a band for their music than whether their members have a pair of balls or a pair of tits. If you want to support women in metal, that's cool but try not bring their gender into it. Enjoy the music, not the amount of pairs of tits that will be on stage.

Hopefully, with a vocalist as well known and as established as Floor Jansen stating that it's time to get over using the "female-fronted" tag, more people will take heed.