What are your thoughts on bands that consist of one female amongst males?
 

Hi,
I'm writing a piece on the role of women within music, especially on the popular band member line-up of a single female amongst a number of guys and would like to know your thoughts on the topic.

Bands such as Paramore, No Doubt, Evanesecence and The Black Eyed Peas have all adopted this line up, although are the women in these groups seen as equal to the men? Seen as an object of male attention/ in a sexual way? Or are they truly valued for their talent, regardless of specified instrument? Also any attitudes on feminism?

Would love to hear your thoughts on this.

Thanks
Andy

Its usually pretty obvious where a female has been crowbarred into a band to add s€x appeal (see Irish band "JJ72").

Patti Smith asks you to **** off.

I think that all of those artists are crap, but it has nothing to do the presence of a woman.

I have nothing against it, personally. I prefer bands with a male singer though, even if there's other female members. As a straight girl, men's voices are sexier to me ;)

Does google go back that far into the past?

Hayley Williams and Gwen Stefani are pretty much considered the leader of those bands and Fergie is well known outside the Black Eye Peas. Why wouldn't any one see them as equals?

I don't see this as an issue. Indie darling Jenny Lewis is the face of Rilo Kiley; Amanda Palmer the face of The Dresden Dolls (all right, that's just two people, get off my jock), and Grace Slick WAS Jefferson Airplane.

If you're not a diehard Jefferson Airplane fan, try and name one member of the band who wasn't Grace Slick? Yeah, nothing? I thought so. I mean, I guess Jorma was a girl, but seriously. Grace Slick...

Esben and the Witch. Black Box Recorder...I could go on and on.

Its subjective to the band. Blondie & Siouxsie and the Banshees were great bands. Music, visuals the whole image.

No Doubt utter utter ****e mainly cos Gwen Stefani is a complete tool!

Granted there are bands out there that have a female member as eye candy more so than for musical reasons.

If you take musicians like Kim Gordon of Sonic Youth and Kim Deal of Pixies, they were an important part of the band both in sound and spirit regardless of their gender. In a different way, Alison Shaw of Cranes and Elizabeth Fraser of Cocteau Twins were both the focal points of their respective bands because of their unique vocal capabilities and the ethereal feminine qualities they brought to their bands on a musical level. This had nothing to do with how they looked. In both cases the sound of the band would just not have worked with a male vocalist as their voices define their bands on a musical level.

You also have all-female or mostly female bands to take into consideration, such as The Slits, Sleater-Kinney, Throwing Muses and Tiger Trap for example, who are fantastic, highly influential bands in their own right regardless of their gender.