I wrote that title, and debated if it sounded derogatory. Misogynistic. ‘Females’. It’s what the Dad in ‘Friday Night Dinner’ refers to prospective girlfriends for his son as. “Any Females?”.
In the name of equality, I don’t really understand why we have to refer to the gender of the artist at all. This current debate about the quantity of women in music seems centric on the differentiation between the sexes, and I can see why in light of the spark that ignited the flames of this argument, but is it really important?
For the uninitiated, it was pointed out that the Reading and Leeds Festival line-up was something of a sausage fest (excuse the pun. Actually don’t) and when looked at in isolation (the poster produced when all the bands with only men in their line ups were removed made scant reading) raised the issue of whether there were enough women in popular music and if there was an underhand anti-feminist agenda within the industry.
Now, I’m not anti-feminist but neither am I a drum beater for the cause. I don’t seem to have the setting where my brain identifies a female voice and differentiates it from any other singing voice as to whether or not I think “ Hang on, that’s a women singing, am I sure I like this?”.
I equally despise and love male and female voices. For example, Win Butler and Florence Welch both make me want to drag my finger nails down the nearest blackboard to cover the noise of the horrendous din emanating from their cake holes.
Conversely, Laura Marling and Nick Drake make the most beautiful noise I’ve ever heard from their honey-glazed larynx‘s.
It has, however, made me think about my own record collection and how many do I own by women, or where women are members of the band.
Admittedly, they are in the minority, especially when it comes to band members. I have albums by Joni Mitchell, Sandy Denny, Alanis Morrisette, Sleeper, Garbage, Echobelly, Giant Drag, Pulp, Ultrasound, The Subways and even more that would just start to resemble a boring, long list. But, as I said, it is less.
This year does seem to be bucking that trend though. The first two records I got this year were by Menace Beach and Desperate Journalist. The former consists of a conveyer belt of members, but the two core members consist of Ryan Needham and Liza Violet. Co-founders. Co-songwriters. In the latter, half of the four piece that make up the band are women, Jo Bevan on vocals and Caz Hellbent (what a name!!) on drums.
I can’t say, however, that I gave it a second thought that they consisted so fundamentally of women. I mean, it would have been easy to have overlooked a female bassist or keyboard player, but when the women in these bands are so front and centre, you can’t ignore them, but I was attracted by the songs first not the fact it was a high soprano or alto voice so identifiably from the mouth of a women. The fact is inescapable that Jo and Liza’s voices are stunning and perfectly complement the music but why does it have to be such a talking point.
So I’ve sat down and thought about this and it is quite apparent that there is a lot of good music being released this year by brilliant female musicians. The aforementioned Goddess who is Laura Marling released her fifth LP last month and I am incredibly excited that the vinyl of the fantastically unique Courtney Barratt’s debut album has just dropped onto my doormat this morning. I have also been introduced to the soothing but emotionally fragile voice of Anna B Savage recently.
I hope this doesn’t sound like I am in anyway diminishing the impact and relevance of women in music today, far from it, they are producing or at least participating in some of the best things being released this year.
It's where they aren't expected that is the nicest surprise. One of the stand out things about the new Noel Gallagher record is the addition of the female backing vocals and even joint lead vocals on ‘The Right Stuff’, arguably the best song on the album. The beautiful live acoustic recording that came with the new Idlewild LP is enhanced by the female vocals on the majority of the songs in the set, lifting them from the original versions to something very different and incredible.
I have to admit to reading barely any of the social comment that sprang up post Reading and Leeds announcement, as I didn’t feel it really affected me. I don’t hold men in music in higher regard than women, I don’t choose my music based on who has made it, men or women, and I’m not really concerned who makes up the members of any given band. If there is an influx of great female singers and songwriters and musicians, then great. There already is as far as I can tell. I don’t feel that the line-up of one festival is indicative of the attitudes of music lovers everywhere.
If this is about equality, who cares who makes the music. This attitude should apply to different genres too and most people would be happy to agree that it wouldn’t matter what colour the skin of the performer was, so why should it matter who is singing? As long as it’s good. And it is damn good.
This could come across as a man showing his indifference to an issue that many people feel strongly about and their perception that there is a dearth of women breaking through. This isn’t the case. My perception is that there are plenty of women making brilliant music and if the promoters of Reading and Leeds Festival cannot see that, then that is their problem. Their festival will be the worse for it. Although my point has been that it shouldn’t be the case that people should be singling out the sexes. Therefore it must be that they just have poor taste in music and aren’t recognising the great music being released.
If you’ve not heard of the bands and artists I’ve mentioned here, check out the links and videos. Be enlightened.
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