Great music by women

[IAmAmy]

This may not be the right place or forum for this thread but just in case: I feel music is far too dominated by men. What great songs are there by women? I know most of my favourite songs are by women, I'd love to hear more.

wargasm wargasm 1,2,3,
tie a yellow ribbon round the amputee

Fucking amazing band.

Hole are too but I don't think appropriate for this thread.

Don't think anyone has mentioned Joni Mitchell yet.

L7 are frighteningly current and insightful.. even though the released like 25 years ago. .. Wargasns is like a perfect 'now' barrative

Hole with 'don't make me over, i'm all i wanna be..a walking study in demonology' is soooo sneering about "oh if I m not magazine i'm evil' its A1 for now.. which is scary that it still feels correct and fresh..20 years later

oh man bluegrass is amazibg. the odd harmonies pull your heart out from your chest and play with it in front of you...i think jolene is an amazing female song. .clicjed as it may be... hear it slow by a bluegrass female singer..like jypsi and its so deliciously painful. men rarely get even close ti that exquisite horror

There's SO MUCH bluegrass/country with female vocals that's just indescribably amazing,

Alison Krauss! Dolly! Shania! Mandy Barnett! Laurie Lewis! The Cox Family!
Etc etc etc!

So many many many actual women producing incredible beautiful music

Glad someone else is questioning Wolf Alice as a fem. band.

I love

DD is younger than OP and really into this as well.

I found out that if you start a brand new Pandora account and only choose female artists you ONLY get female artists. Then I started a second station and added some male artists, and now the fuckers are all over all my different 'stations'. DD and I dislike any male artists who appear on our 'wominz' station.

KissAssAngel that video is FUCKING GREAT!! I love it! I'd never heard of her so thank you! What a total babe. We should have heart-eye smiley on MN.

Bluegrass:

Live Through This is actually a stunning piece of work by a real female-led band.

Claire Lynch

TBF, the OP is about great music by women, not specifically feminist music.

User147, did you mean to accuse Amy of trolling? As that's against guidelines.

Emily Portman often has songs with a feminist perspective based on folk tales and myths - try 'Hide' or 'Hatchlings'.

Joni Mitchell :)

If you like classical music - there are lots of great female pianists - Martha Argerich perhaps the most famous one still alive, she's incredible.

What a total babe. We should have heart-eye smiley

Said User147 whilst making accusations about Amy.

Are people suggesting that Wolf Alice isn't a feminist band, or that it's not female led?

I can ask Ellie what she thinks...

2 posters are questioning its credentials. It is female led- whether it is a feminist band I neither know nor care.

I do however think anyone who can describe a female musician as a "total babe" is a "total prat"

Agreed.

Not sure what the problem is with their credentials. Not asking you to explain Lass, merely wondering aloud.

Elle King
Grace Potter
Gin Wigmore
Missy Higgins
Brandi Carlile
Ani Difranco
Sia

As Yonic said I don't think I ever said "feminist" bands but great music by women. I don't want to derail the thread as there's so much great music by women/female artists here I'm looking forward to listening to and looking up but as far as I'm aware Wolf Alice think of themselves as feminists (doesn't mean their music is "feminist") and have rightly supported the "Girls Against" group which was set up by a group of girls to combat sexual harassment/groping at gigs.

I think that when talking about bands and wanting to hear music by women, then a band with one female member and three males is questionable. Of course, if the main vocalist is also the main writer that counts more as 'by' a woman. But if it were a band where the men write the music and the woman just sings their words I would think it probably doesn't count.

I'm saying this as a general comment, rather than arguing about any particular band. I'm sure we can all think of more mainstream examples of female artists who have songs written for them, produced for them etc and they are just the pretty bit at the front of stage, rather than their music being 'by' women.

This playlist that Lauren Laverne put together for Woman's Hour is a lovely place to start:
www.bbc.co.uk/music/playlists/zzznnc

She's the frontwoman, guitarist and songwriter. I wouldn't have included them otherwise, it's nothing like a female vocalist who has songs written for her to perform. She's the key member of a band playing songs she's written.

I'm here!!! And I fucking love these threads!!

(Hit post too soon!)

Currently listening to Tanya Tagaq who is an Inuit singer. Did just have on Bratmobil and Azaledia Banks whose album in incredible and I remain utterly bereft at the destruction of her career. She behaved appallingly but that's never stopped men before.

Wooo!