25 Musical Women Who Rock
Women Who Rock (or Do Another Genre of Music Really, Really Awesomely)
My brain has been a little mushy in the writing department lately (though I’m making headway on my ship-swap at least, yay!), and Real Life is hectic and weird and upsetting and sometimes okay and…weird enough that I haven’t even processed it well enough to write about it. So, I thought it was time for a fun and not-so-thinky post.
This isn’t meant to be a list of the 25 best female musicians, or my 25 favorites. This is just a list of 25 women who rock-and by rock, I mean who rock at music, though not necessarily rock music. Actually, most of it isn’t. It’s a mix of a lot of things, though I have a feeling it has folky leanings (as do I, so not such a huge surprise, I suppose). Each links to one track that I think exemplifies why I think said musician is cool. Anyway, here it goes…
1. Neko Case, “This Tornado Loves You”-Unique lyrics, beautiful voice, and a really interesting sound. I don’t know much about Alt. Country, but I really think I could get to like it a lot.
2. Sixpence None the Richer, “Loser Like Me”-Remember her from the late 90s? I think I heard their two popular songs too much, but they’re still pretty darn enjoyable. This song is my favorite, in part because it wasn’t so over-played. Also, I was sure this was the song that they were going to sing on Glee when they put track titles out, before they announced it’d be an original song. Especially because Sixpence would be a great fit for Tina, and I’d love some more Tina solos.
3. Diana Krall, “East of the Sun”-Diana Krall is my go-to gal when I’m in the mood for vocal jazz. I chose this song for the logical (ha) reason that the title comes from one of my very favorite folktales, and also it’s really, really good.
4. Janelle Monae, -Many Moons-I love “Cold War” and “Tightrope” more than this track, but I had to use it for the video/short film that goes with it. Not only is she a great singer and compelling performer, but Janelle Monae composed a whole freaking sci-fi concept album featuring a story about androids. How cool is that?
5. Imogen Heap, Hide and Seek-I’m not usually a fan of electronica, especially when the synth is this heavy, because usually it gets in the way of feelings for me. But not Imogen Heap. There’s not just humanity and emotion under all the synth-it’s there in part because of it, which is something you won’t get me to admit often.
6. Sarah Jarosz, “Annabelle Lee”-You may not have heard of Sarah Jarosz yet, but boy, that’s a shame. She’s incredible. She’s a talented songwriter who also does great covers (check out her “Shankill Butchers” on her first album, also free on her website-way better than the original), she’s a great singer who also plays several instruments, and oh yeah, she got nominated for a Grammy before she graduated from high school. I picked “Annabelle Lee” because I can’t pass up a cool reinterpretation of a classic poem, though it’s one of the more grassy songs on her second album.
7. Lily Allen, “The Fear” (explicit version)-Gotta have a little Brit Pop on the list, right? I love the mix of retro and sarcasm Lily Allen’s music has. They’re the kinds of songs that if you didn’t speak English, you’d think they were about something completely different than what they are. “Alfie” is an even stronger example of that archness, but I kind of love the Twiggy/Marie Antoinette spoof in the video for this one, too.
8. Patti LuPone, Anything Goes-Gee, I wonder why she’s Kurt’s idol… :) I’ve never actually seen the whole musical, have no clue what the plot is, but I’ve always enjoyed this song. And Patti belts the hell out of it.
9. Lea Michele and Dianna Agron, "I Feel Pretty/Unpretty" Mash-Up-While I’m on the Glee theme, might as well throw this one in. Definitely my favorite duet of the season, even though Dianna Agron is far from one of the strongest singers on Glee. The two songs work so well together. Throw in the relevance to the two characters’ arcs and relationship, and it was a perfect fit.
10. The Wailin’ Jennys, “The Parting Glass”-The first group of awesome women on the list! They may sound great here, but there’s nothing like hearing The Wailin’ Jennys live. Their tuning is so perfect that it’s almost like you feel it more than hear it. (Or maybe that’s me. I’ve noticed I get my senses mixed up if I encounter something that bowls me over. Like how the best description I can come up with for hearing a particular orchestra play a suite from “Romeo and Juliet” is that it was like being hit by a bus, but in a good way. Anyway. Back to the list).
11. Adele, “Someone Like You”-Phenomenal voice. This is my favorite song of hers, which is saying something, because I do love “Rolling in the Deep.”
12. Eva Cassidy, "Songbird"-Gotta admit, I know almost nothing about Eva Cassidy except this song, and that’s because I had a phase where I listened to the Love, Actually soundtrack obsessively. But, this is my very favorite version of a very, very good song.
13. Lady Gaga, “Edge of Glory”-Amazingly enough, there is a good voice under all the makeup and crazy costumes. I got her album for 99 cents, and I liked it a lot more than I thought I would. Like I said, sometimes it’s hard to get through all the crazy packaging to the actual music, but this one especially is fun and upbeat and very enjoyable. Though I do give her credit for being so creative when it comes to the crazy trappings.
14. Mirah, “Cold Cold Water”-I love Mirah because she’s so inventive. Who would think to write a song as a Spaghetti Western? I mean, it’s a pretty obscure genre of movie, let alone music. And yet it works. I have So You Think You Can Dance to thank for introducing me to Mirah; I came for “The Garden” and found a heck of a lot more.
15. Charlene Kaye, “Mad Tom of Bedlam”-Another musician I discovered in an odd way. I like her as a singer (I think her upper range isn’t as developed as her lower range, but still enjoy it), but I really love her as a songwriter. Why choose the one song that she arranged rather than wrote, you ask? Well, one, I’m a sucker for re-imagined folk music, and two, all her other music videos involve Darren Criss (hence how I discovered her), and though “Skin and Bones” is my favorite song of hers, this is a Girls Rock post. :)
16. Nicole Atkins, “Neptune City"-She’s kind of a one-hit wonder for me, but I really like this song. It’s my musical touchstone for that monster Kurt/Blaine fic set in mary_flanner’s “Scholars and Gentlemen” ‘verse. (Any takers on beta’ing that, by the way?)
17. Sarah McLachlan, Possession-Yes, Sarah M., I forgive you for making me all teary with your animal rescue PSAs. :) This song, and this version of the song, has always been my favorite of hers. It plays a very prominent role in a TV show I love, Due South. (For the BSG fans, Callum Keith Rennie plays a very significant part in Season 3. Season 3 is also a particularly good year for the slash fans among you-not canon, but you don’t have to squint much at all.)
18. Amy Winehouse, “Back to Black”-Wow, what a loss. It’s hard to say I’m sure she would’ve made a lot more amazing music as she got older, because let’s be realistic, there was a fair chance she would’ve self-destructed but not died. But still. Bittersweet song to say the least.
19. Annie Lennox, “Into the West”-You know, for a movie with five hundred male characters and, like, five female characters (and one of them is a big ol’ spider), the soundtrack has a great variety of female vocals. This is my favorite. Love, love, love this song. The passage from the books it’s based on is probably my favorite in the whole trilogy.
20. Ella Fitzgerald, “They Can’t Take That Away From Me”-I know, I know, it’s supposed to be a Girl Power list, but this is my favorite Ella Fitzgerald song-I can’t help that Louis Armstrong is in it, too. :)
21. Dixie Chicks, “Lullaby”-I tend towards the folky side of country when I dip my toe in that pond, but I do love the Dixie Chicks. This song is the song for “Picture Perfect” for me, the way “House of the Rising Sun” is for “Sanctuary” and “Neptune City” is for that fic I haven’t finished yet called “Cemetery Song for Spring.” It’s just perfectly it. It just conjures pictures of all sorts of different bedtimes in Louis’s life, and it’s lovely.
22. Regina Spektor, Samson-You have no idea how hard it was to pick one Regina Spektor song. Her library is so diverse, and my favorite of hers changes often. This was my first favorite. The lyrics say something really clearly without being literal or cliché, and the music is gorgeous. (And those skips aren’t easy to sing. I’ve tried singing it in the shower, and it’s hard to get it to work.) She’s got a lot of funny songs and sweet songs, too, so don’t let the somberness of this one put you off.
23. Norah Jones, “Turn Me On”-I love Norah Jones independently of my period of obsession with the Love, Actually soundtrack, but it is the reason I picked this particular song. So mellow and beautiful and soulful.
24. Yoko Kanno and Mai Yamane, Gotta Knock a Little Harder-Yoko Kanno is currently tied with Bear McCreary as my favorite TV composer. I like her for a lot of the same reasons I like Bear, even though their music is worlds apart: her music uses a lot of different cultural influences and manages to mix them together in a compelling way, and her music fits the characters and story so well. Mai Yamane is the vocalist here, and I love a good rich, deep voice.
25. Florence + The Machine, “Howl”-Ah, Florence Welch, how have you come to recently take possession of a sizeable piece of my musical soul? Because you’re awesome, that’s how. I don’t know how someone can be both ethereal and powerful, but she does it. As for song selection, it was a hard choice between this and “Bird Song,” but I already have “Songbird.” Yeah, they don’t sound anything alike, but whatever.
And that’s it! Hope maybe you found some old favorites here, and maybe some new favorites, too. Who would you put on your Women Who Rock list? I know I left out a ton of really obvious ones, and there are so many unsung geniuses out there, too.
My brain has been a little mushy in the writing department lately (though I’m making headway on my ship-swap at least, yay!), and Real Life is hectic and weird and upsetting and sometimes okay and…weird enough that I haven’t even processed it well enough to write about it. So, I thought it was time for a fun and not-so-thinky post.
This isn’t meant to be a list of the 25 best female musicians, or my 25 favorites. This is just a list of 25 women who rock-and by rock, I mean who rock at music, though not necessarily rock music. Actually, most of it isn’t. It’s a mix of a lot of things, though I have a feeling it has folky leanings (as do I, so not such a huge surprise, I suppose). Each links to one track that I think exemplifies why I think said musician is cool. Anyway, here it goes…
1. Neko Case, “This Tornado Loves You”-Unique lyrics, beautiful voice, and a really interesting sound. I don’t know much about Alt. Country, but I really think I could get to like it a lot.
2. Sixpence None the Richer, “Loser Like Me”-Remember her from the late 90s? I think I heard their two popular songs too much, but they’re still pretty darn enjoyable. This song is my favorite, in part because it wasn’t so over-played. Also, I was sure this was the song that they were going to sing on Glee when they put track titles out, before they announced it’d be an original song. Especially because Sixpence would be a great fit for Tina, and I’d love some more Tina solos.
3. Diana Krall, “East of the Sun”-Diana Krall is my go-to gal when I’m in the mood for vocal jazz. I chose this song for the logical (ha) reason that the title comes from one of my very favorite folktales, and also it’s really, really good.
4. Janelle Monae, -Many Moons-I love “Cold War” and “Tightrope” more than this track, but I had to use it for the video/short film that goes with it. Not only is she a great singer and compelling performer, but Janelle Monae composed a whole freaking sci-fi concept album featuring a story about androids. How cool is that?
5. Imogen Heap, Hide and Seek-I’m not usually a fan of electronica, especially when the synth is this heavy, because usually it gets in the way of feelings for me. But not Imogen Heap. There’s not just humanity and emotion under all the synth-it’s there in part because of it, which is something you won’t get me to admit often.
6. Sarah Jarosz, “Annabelle Lee”-You may not have heard of Sarah Jarosz yet, but boy, that’s a shame. She’s incredible. She’s a talented songwriter who also does great covers (check out her “Shankill Butchers” on her first album, also free on her website-way better than the original), she’s a great singer who also plays several instruments, and oh yeah, she got nominated for a Grammy before she graduated from high school. I picked “Annabelle Lee” because I can’t pass up a cool reinterpretation of a classic poem, though it’s one of the more grassy songs on her second album.
7. Lily Allen, “The Fear” (explicit version)-Gotta have a little Brit Pop on the list, right? I love the mix of retro and sarcasm Lily Allen’s music has. They’re the kinds of songs that if you didn’t speak English, you’d think they were about something completely different than what they are. “Alfie” is an even stronger example of that archness, but I kind of love the Twiggy/Marie Antoinette spoof in the video for this one, too.
8. Patti LuPone, Anything Goes-Gee, I wonder why she’s Kurt’s idol… :) I’ve never actually seen the whole musical, have no clue what the plot is, but I’ve always enjoyed this song. And Patti belts the hell out of it.
9. Lea Michele and Dianna Agron, "I Feel Pretty/Unpretty" Mash-Up-While I’m on the Glee theme, might as well throw this one in. Definitely my favorite duet of the season, even though Dianna Agron is far from one of the strongest singers on Glee. The two songs work so well together. Throw in the relevance to the two characters’ arcs and relationship, and it was a perfect fit.
10. The Wailin’ Jennys, “The Parting Glass”-The first group of awesome women on the list! They may sound great here, but there’s nothing like hearing The Wailin’ Jennys live. Their tuning is so perfect that it’s almost like you feel it more than hear it. (Or maybe that’s me. I’ve noticed I get my senses mixed up if I encounter something that bowls me over. Like how the best description I can come up with for hearing a particular orchestra play a suite from “Romeo and Juliet” is that it was like being hit by a bus, but in a good way. Anyway. Back to the list).
11. Adele, “Someone Like You”-Phenomenal voice. This is my favorite song of hers, which is saying something, because I do love “Rolling in the Deep.”
12. Eva Cassidy, "Songbird"-Gotta admit, I know almost nothing about Eva Cassidy except this song, and that’s because I had a phase where I listened to the Love, Actually soundtrack obsessively. But, this is my very favorite version of a very, very good song.
13. Lady Gaga, “Edge of Glory”-Amazingly enough, there is a good voice under all the makeup and crazy costumes. I got her album for 99 cents, and I liked it a lot more than I thought I would. Like I said, sometimes it’s hard to get through all the crazy packaging to the actual music, but this one especially is fun and upbeat and very enjoyable. Though I do give her credit for being so creative when it comes to the crazy trappings.
14. Mirah, “Cold Cold Water”-I love Mirah because she’s so inventive. Who would think to write a song as a Spaghetti Western? I mean, it’s a pretty obscure genre of movie, let alone music. And yet it works. I have So You Think You Can Dance to thank for introducing me to Mirah; I came for “The Garden” and found a heck of a lot more.
15. Charlene Kaye, “Mad Tom of Bedlam”-Another musician I discovered in an odd way. I like her as a singer (I think her upper range isn’t as developed as her lower range, but still enjoy it), but I really love her as a songwriter. Why choose the one song that she arranged rather than wrote, you ask? Well, one, I’m a sucker for re-imagined folk music, and two, all her other music videos involve Darren Criss (hence how I discovered her), and though “Skin and Bones” is my favorite song of hers, this is a Girls Rock post. :)
16. Nicole Atkins, “Neptune City"-She’s kind of a one-hit wonder for me, but I really like this song. It’s my musical touchstone for that monster Kurt/Blaine fic set in mary_flanner’s “Scholars and Gentlemen” ‘verse. (Any takers on beta’ing that, by the way?)
17. Sarah McLachlan, Possession-Yes, Sarah M., I forgive you for making me all teary with your animal rescue PSAs. :) This song, and this version of the song, has always been my favorite of hers. It plays a very prominent role in a TV show I love, Due South. (For the BSG fans, Callum Keith Rennie plays a very significant part in Season 3. Season 3 is also a particularly good year for the slash fans among you-not canon, but you don’t have to squint much at all.)
18. Amy Winehouse, “Back to Black”-Wow, what a loss. It’s hard to say I’m sure she would’ve made a lot more amazing music as she got older, because let’s be realistic, there was a fair chance she would’ve self-destructed but not died. But still. Bittersweet song to say the least.
19. Annie Lennox, “Into the West”-You know, for a movie with five hundred male characters and, like, five female characters (and one of them is a big ol’ spider), the soundtrack has a great variety of female vocals. This is my favorite. Love, love, love this song. The passage from the books it’s based on is probably my favorite in the whole trilogy.
20. Ella Fitzgerald, “They Can’t Take That Away From Me”-I know, I know, it’s supposed to be a Girl Power list, but this is my favorite Ella Fitzgerald song-I can’t help that Louis Armstrong is in it, too. :)
21. Dixie Chicks, “Lullaby”-I tend towards the folky side of country when I dip my toe in that pond, but I do love the Dixie Chicks. This song is the song for “Picture Perfect” for me, the way “House of the Rising Sun” is for “Sanctuary” and “Neptune City” is for that fic I haven’t finished yet called “Cemetery Song for Spring.” It’s just perfectly it. It just conjures pictures of all sorts of different bedtimes in Louis’s life, and it’s lovely.
22. Regina Spektor, Samson-You have no idea how hard it was to pick one Regina Spektor song. Her library is so diverse, and my favorite of hers changes often. This was my first favorite. The lyrics say something really clearly without being literal or cliché, and the music is gorgeous. (And those skips aren’t easy to sing. I’ve tried singing it in the shower, and it’s hard to get it to work.) She’s got a lot of funny songs and sweet songs, too, so don’t let the somberness of this one put you off.
23. Norah Jones, “Turn Me On”-I love Norah Jones independently of my period of obsession with the Love, Actually soundtrack, but it is the reason I picked this particular song. So mellow and beautiful and soulful.
24. Yoko Kanno and Mai Yamane, Gotta Knock a Little Harder-Yoko Kanno is currently tied with Bear McCreary as my favorite TV composer. I like her for a lot of the same reasons I like Bear, even though their music is worlds apart: her music uses a lot of different cultural influences and manages to mix them together in a compelling way, and her music fits the characters and story so well. Mai Yamane is the vocalist here, and I love a good rich, deep voice.
25. Florence + The Machine, “Howl”-Ah, Florence Welch, how have you come to recently take possession of a sizeable piece of my musical soul? Because you’re awesome, that’s how. I don’t know how someone can be both ethereal and powerful, but she does it. As for song selection, it was a hard choice between this and “Bird Song,” but I already have “Songbird.” Yeah, they don’t sound anything alike, but whatever.
And that’s it! Hope maybe you found some old favorites here, and maybe some new favorites, too. Who would you put on your Women Who Rock list? I know I left out a ton of really obvious ones, and there are so many unsung geniuses out there, too.