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The Queens of Badass: An ode to girl rockers

Hulk_Smash

Hulk_Smash

Banned
Over the past couple of years, I've taken notice of bands that have female leads, and thanks to youtube/pandora's algorithms, it has lined up a nice little mix of similar artists and I gotta, say, I am digging it. I'm old enough to remember a time when it was more of a novelty to have a chick in a band much less fronting a band, but then the 90s hit and all that changed. Now they seem to be carrying the rock n roll torch for Pete's sake.

So, I'm devoting this thread to bands with a woman on the mic (or at least IN the band). Feel free to share your own favorites, both past and present, and peruse what others post here. Maybe you might be like me and find some new favs. I'll share a few of mine and then come back from time to time to put a new song on here when the mood strikes me.

First up, The Pretty Reckless. I've posted them before in my other rock thread. They deserve to be listed here. Just all around quality music. At lead: Taylor Momsen (formerly Jessie of "Gossip Girl").


Halestorm. Most of yall heard of them. Probably the purest hard rock band out there. No frills, just rock. They do a lot of covers, just because of the massive amount of respect they have of their rock heritage. At lead: Lzzy Hale.


Dorothy. Killin' the blues rock genre. Just got a groove I like. Reminds me of Kenny Wayne Shepherd Band. At lead: Dorothy Martin. Sounds like Janis Joplin, looks like a supermodel.


Ledger. Faith-based rocker, but I don't care. They're awesome. Plus, I love that I can take my girls to see a concert like this. At lead: Jen Ledger. Has her own band and plays drums in the band Skillet.


Joan Jett. Oldie, but a goodie. Joan at her very best. Awesome cover. (I can actually understand the words, lol!)
 
Ionian

Ionian

Member
VulcanRaven said:
Garbage


Click to expand...


Always wondered what happened to them, the first 3 albums are classics but the last two were awful.



That kinda explains it. What a shame, never went to see them live when I could have in their prime.

 
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VulcanRaven

VulcanRaven

Member
Ionian said:
Always wondered what happened to them, the first 3 albums are classics but the last two were awful.



That kinda explains it. What a shame, never went to see them live when I could have in their prime.

Click to expand...

I think the last two albums are great. I really like Not Your Kind of People. A new album should be coming this year.
 
Ionian

Ionian

Member
VulcanRaven said:
I think the last two albums are great. I really like Not Your Kind of People. A new album should be coming this year.
Click to expand...

Oh a new one, interesting.

Shall go back and check out those albums so. Just didn't hit me at the time of release but no harm in another shot!
 
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Mohonky

Mohonky

Member
n23ko9g.jpg


Sorry but you can't have a women of rock thread and miss Chrissy Amphlett!! An Australian icon and rocker gone way to soon.




Also of course;

Dolores O'riordan (also gone way to soon)
Shirley Manson
Gwen Stefani (okay she's not known for rock these days, but her Ska / Punk days with No Doubt are definitely worthy)


Skin from Skunk Anansie, this girl can fucking sing, love her aggression at times


Maria Brink of In This Moment
 
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J

jason10mm

Gold Member
niilokin said:
4690789.jpg


she played guitar in an early 90s brazilian death metal band, I shit you not
Click to expand...
Im gonna bing Syang but i cant actually tell if that is her name or not. But going by my extensive knowledge of Playboy covers and how they are formatted it seems right.

Edit- yup :)

IIRC Playboy has had female rockers before. Samantha Foxx for sure. I kinda miss those days. Now you gotta wait for a fappening leak or something but in the old days most starlets showed up in PB eventually.
 
OmegaSupreme

OmegaSupreme

advanced basic bitch
jason10mm said:
Im gonna bing Syang but i cant actually tell if that is her name or not. But going by my extensive knowledge of Playboy covers and how they are formatted it seems right.

Edit- yup :)

IIRC Playboy has had female rockers before. Samantha Foxx for sure. I kinda miss those days. Now you gotta wait for a fappening leak or something but in the old days most starlets showed up in PB eventually.
Click to expand...
Maria Brink of In this moment. I'd pay real money to see a spread of her in pb.
 
Jon Neu

Jon Neu

Banned
Hulk_Smash said:
I seriously doubt you can’t find a single female vocalist you like.
Click to expand...

A lot of them, actually.

But in the great scheme of things of the Rock & Roll history, women simply can't compete with men.

Let's take Patti Smith for example: one of her best songs ever -and probably her most succesful- is a discarded song of Bruce Springsteen.
 
Hulk_Smash

Hulk_Smash

Banned
Jon Neu said:
A lot of them, actually.

But in the great scheme of things of the Rock & Roll history, women simply can't compete with men.

Let's take Patti Smith for example: one of her best songs ever -and probably her most succesful- is a discarded song of Bruce Springsteen.
Click to expand...
It depends on what you include in the term rock n roll. If pop is an outgrowth of rock (and apparently many posters in this thread think so because there is some pop-ass sounding rock music posted here) then it’s pretty even between men and women.

And I would make an argument that a lot of these bands have been the only ones keeping the torch burning for rock music.

It was very male dominated for a long time. I don’t know if it’s because “men are better”. Not sure how you can evaluate that.
 
Jon Neu

Jon Neu

Banned
Hulk_Smash said:
It depends on what you include in the term rock n roll. If pop is an outgrowth of rock (and apparently many posters in this thread think so because there is some pop-ass sounding rock music posted here) then it’s pretty even between men and women.
Click to expand...

In Pop, men still are far better than women. I mean, just by citing The Beatles, The Beach Boys, Elvis, Queen and Michael Jackson the war is already over.

Hulk_Smash said:
And I would make an argument that a lot of these bands have been the only ones keeping the torch burning for rock music.
Click to expand...

I would love to hear which bands are you talking about. The Pretty Reckless? Halestorm?

That's hardly a torch, at the very best is a very, very small lighter.

And quality wise they aren't obviously at the same level of the greatest (men) bands ever.

Hulk_Smash said:
I don’t know if it’s because “men are better”. Not sure how you can evaluate that.
Click to expand...

You're right, we don't know if Pink Floyd were better than Yoko Ono.

Everything is subjective!
 
Korranator

Korranator

Member
Jon Neu said:
You're right, we don't know if Pink Floyd were better than Yoko Ono.

Everything is subjective!
Click to expand...

Right...........

On a seriously level I'd put Stevie Nicks, or Ann Wilson above many so called great male singers like Bruce Springsteen, Tom Petty, etc

IMO popularity does not equal talent. But hey, to each their own.
 
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Xenon

Xenon

Member

The Queens of Badass: An ode to girl rockers...​


And somebody posts Dreams from The Cranberries... :messenger_pensive:

 
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Hulk_Smash

Hulk_Smash

Banned
Jon Neu said:
In Pop, men still are far better than women. I mean, just by citing The Beatles, The Beach Boys, Elvis, Queen and Michael Jackson the war is already over.



I would love to hear which bands are you talking about. The Pretty Reckless? Halestorm?

That's hardly a torch, at the very best is a very, very small lighter.

And quality wise they aren't obviously at the same level of the greatest (men) bands ever.



You're right, we don't know if Pink Floyd were better than Yoko Ono.

Everything is subjective!
Click to expand...
I admitted that before the 90s, it was very dominated by men so you didn’t have a lot to compare it to. Now? Yes, now I would put The Pretty Reckless, Halestorm, or Dorothy above any male lead hard rock band that had gotten popular over the past 10 years.

And there are some YouTube acts that will hang with many of the best male guitarist or drummers. They are seriously fucking impressive.

I don’t think this is like the athletics thread where you can make the argument men are objectively better than women. And I just don’t think popularity cuts it as an indicator of anything.
 
Jon Neu

Jon Neu

Banned
Blade2.0 said:
Just sounds to me like you like men. No shame in that.
Click to expand...

Men are responsible for like 99% of everything we have, including the greatest art known.

Of course there is no shame in acknowledging how great men have been through history.

Korranator said:
Right...........

On a seriously level I'd put Stevie Nicks, or Ann Wilson above many so called great male singers like Bruce Springsteen, Tom Petty, etc

IMO popularity does not equal talent. But hey, to each their own.
Click to expand...

You put them above Bruce Springsteen based on what? As singers? Bruce Springsteen isn't the greatest technical singer, yet he has a pretty unique voice and absolutely demolishes those women in songwriting and charisma.

Hulk_Smash said:
I admitted that before the 90s, it was very dominated by men so you didn’t have a lot to compare it to. Now? Yes, now I would put The Pretty Reckless, Halestorm, or Dorothy above any male lead hard rock band that had gotten popular over the past 10 years.
Click to expand...

Well, that's because rock music in the last 20 years has been in an obvious crisis and there are no great bands anymore. The Pretty Reckless, Halestorm or Paramore (who their music was written by ghost writters) are not in anyway in the same universe as Metallica, Led Zeppelin, Queen, Guns N'Roses, AC/DC, Iron Maiden, etc...

But not only that, those bands aren't even better than The Foo Fighters, Avenged Sevenfold, Greta Van Fleet or Muse to name a few bands of the last 20 years.

And I don't hate those poppy rock female fronted bands, I actually enjoy them quite a lot and I think they're more than good enough, but still they are what they are. And let's face it, they wouldn't even have half the audience if their singers weren't hot.
 
Shadowplay1979

Shadowplay1979

Member
Jon Neu said:
A lot of them, actually.

But in the great scheme of things of the Rock & Roll history, women simply can't compete with men.

Let's take Patti Smith for example: one of her best songs ever -and probably her most succesful- is a discarded song of Bruce Springsteen.
Click to expand...

It was not discarded by bruce Springsteen..it was barely a song, had no vocals or lyrics either. Smith wrote the lyrics and created most of the melody...thats why shes listed as a co creator.

Its also not even her best work....





She has much better work
 
Jon Neu

Jon Neu

Banned
Shadowplay1979 said:
It was not discarded by bruce Springsteen..it was barely a song, had no vocals or lyrics either. Smith wrote the lyrics and created most of the melody...thats why shes listed as a co creator.
Click to expand...

Springsteen had the music (he normally composed that way; music first and then he added the lyrics) and he had the melody of the vocals done, Patti pretty much just added some lyrics. In the The Promise boxset, you can see the credits as this:

Composer, Lyricist: B. Springsteen
Lyricist: Patti Smith
Piano: Roy Bittan
Saxophone: Clarence Clemons
Glockenspiel, Organ: Danny Federici

And this is what Patti has said about it:

I got a tape of it from Jimmy Iovine. Jimmy gave it to me and Bruce had given it to him . Everything was completely produced, and the chorus was done. Bruce needed words for the verses, which were mumbled.

And yes, it was absolutely a discarded Bruce Springsteen song from The Darkness On The Edge Of Town album sessions that he didn't even care to finish and gave to Patti. Bruce is one of the most prolific writters ever, if not the most prolific in terms of quantity and quality. He gave plenty of songs (that would later become hits) to other artists and he even wrote songs thinking how the song would suit certain artists.

Shadowplay1979 said:
Its also not even her best work....
Click to expand...

It's her most succesful song.

An outtake song that didn't made the album and that wouldn't even fit in a top 200 of Springsteen's songs.
 
KrakenIPA

KrakenIPA

Member
X-Ray Spex, Garbage, and my fav band Siousxie and the Banshees (also the Creatures) are some beautiful bands with front ladies. Man I miss live music. There's nothing like crushing beers listening to rocking tunes at dangerous high volumes while viewing a great set of legs on stage.
 
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