Daughter says musical instruments are for men in pop music - how do I prove her wrong?

[mids2019]

My daughter play a the guitar and electric guitar.

I was trying to think of really good female electric guitar players to act as role models and actually struggled (my bad). Men however, Clapton, Hendrix, Marr etc. The list goes on. In fact when I watch bands it always seems to be be men on supporting instruments generally.

Modern pop music seems to equate women with good looks/sex appeal/ singing and there isn't much variation. Taylor Swift, Sabrina Carpenter , Arianna Grande, Tate McRae etc. etc. However the more heavy weight bands in pop cukture, The Beatles, Stones, Queen, Bowie are all male.

I am now seeing classical music as the genre where you have true gender equality and opportunities so I am trying to get my daughter to see at least a classical concert for this reason (as well as the music being brilliant). Am I wrong in this view??

Boy genius are good and as suggested by a PP Kim Deal. Billie Eilish plays guitar, Gracie Abrams plays piano and guitar , Taylor Swift plays guitar. Lola Young is someone I've just discovered too.

Marnie Stern is the kind of technically adept guitarist who features in the guitar magazines. She's got a unique style that's worth checking out.

https://www.radiox.co.uk/features/x-lists/are-these-the-most-iconic-female-fronted-bands-90s/
Lot’s in the 90’s!

Six the Musical has an all female backing band I'm sure - not what you asked for but worth noting

Sorry just seen others have said the same!

Don't forget Tina Weymouth, bass player in Talking Heads

Alicia keys - piano

Oh for goodness sake just let your daughter enjoy what she does and stop trying to force her into other types of music on some feminist bullshit.

Not everything has to be a feminist point. Don’t make it one.

Cindy Blackman Santana (Lenny Kravitz’s Drummer) Absolute Kickarse!!! Also fashion icon and dead sexy.

Joan Jett - played her own guitar

current ones I can think of:

Haim - all female band
Last Dinner Party - all female band
chappel Roan
Lady gaga
Nita Straus guitarist with Alice Cooper
I think Emily Armstrong new singer in Linkin Park plays Guitar
avril Lavinge
Hayley Williams from Paramore

Taylor plays guitar and piano on the Era's tour. Understandably in some Era's she focuses on the dance/performance which I think you have to when playing venues the size she is- she's creating a spectacle as well as just playing music.

However, if you watch her Miss Americana documentary there is lots of footage of her early career playing guitar and also a lot of her both songwriting on the piano, producing the in the studio including giving direction to male counterparts, as well as the parts where she's running a business/ directing the video!

The Long Pond Sessions also has her playing piano for the majority of songs.

Watch Sophie Ellis Baxter New Years Eve programme, just around midnight the whole band is female. And Jake Shears is duetting with Sophie.

If you watch Olivia Rodrigo's tour on Netflix most of her band are female (and she plays guitar herself)
There's also a whole bunch of solo indie acts out there to explore, Rianne Downey, Harriet Rose etc etc.

Boygenius - all female band and also all have solo careers.

Oh and the brilliant Katie Lloyd on bass for the Lottery Winners

Tina Weymouth from Talking Heads is the coolest bass player of all time.
Don't Haim play electric guitars? They are very cool.
Look at Belly too. Great music and their guitarist is so cool.

• The Anchoress, pianist and singer.
• Liz Buckingham, guitarist, Electric Wizard.
• Moe Tucker, drummer, Velvet Underground.
• Amy Love (guitar and vocal) and Georgia South (bass) who together make up Nova Twins.
• Patricia Morrison, bassist, Sisters Of Mercy.
• Peaches.
• Joana Brito, guitar, vocals, and principal songwriter of The Black Wizards.
• Tanya O'Callaghan, bassist, Bruce Dickinson Band.
• Veronica Bellino, bassist, Life Of Agony.
• Kim Gordon, bassist, Sonic Youth.
• All members, past and present, of Girlschool.
• The Runaways. All of them.
• Meg White, drummer, The White Stripes.

What kind of genre is she into?

Savages (all women) were PHENOMENAL and LOUD but I think they’ve packed up now.
Hattie Moran is a session guitarist who plays with some big names, she’s fantastic.
Charlotte Hatherly for Ash then went solo.
Big Thief are current and brilliant.
Tash Sultana is current but quite old school sounding. Multi-instrumentalist.
Sierra Ferrell is amazing (country) but find some live performances on YouTube cos the studio recordings are really sanitised!
The Screaming Females, indie rock
LA Exes are fun, all women.
Samantha Crain - indie folky, Choctaw nation.
Niamh Regan - indie folky, Irish
Nadine Shah - kooky dark indie pop.

Finding a Riot Grrrls playlist on Spotify (or whatever) for some old school stuff might be good?

When I was a teenager I spent hours online hunting stuff down, I hate the way TikTok etc spoon feeds everybody the same music these days, because it makes kids think there isn’t more out there. I think once your DD finds a few that she likes it will just snowball from there, there are so many out there but because the dominant genres don’t reflect that it feels like there aren’t any!

That is not a good recommendation considering it was embarrassingly shit 😆

When we saw Harry Styles at Wembley in 2023, he had a mostly female band.

• Babes In Toyland.
• Bikini Kill.
• Cradle Of Filth usually have a female keyboard player.

Brandi Carlisle
Generally country adjacent music seems to have more prominent female instrumentalists as well as singers

Shout out to the fellow creeper fan!

Coming mention a few others. The Zutons have a female sax player in the band. And Amy Lee from Evanescence plays piano and guitar.

I watch bands fairly regularly, mostly rock/metal. In the last few years I have come across more bands and support acts with women either as lead or part of the band.

This year I have seen both Olivia Rodrigo and Avril Lavigne both of whom played guitar and olivia the piano too. They both also had female musicians as their support.

I saw the zutons earlier this year, she was fucking awesome.

I cane on this thread to mention them!