A musical idiot talks about music

[trinityvixen]

What to do about this blog post? On the one hand, yes, the "girls can't play in bands" phenomena is so very clearly a problem. It's pervasive. I remember thinking I couldn't play drums as a kid because I was a girl. That, and the band director was like, "I let ONE person play drums. Try another instrument if you want to play. I only take the best

Comments

[six_demon_bag]

This is a fantastic post and I'm surely going to rant and rave in a comment later when I have more time, but two minutes left on lunch at work is not that time. With any luck, my internet at home will finally be up and running again today.

[trinityvixen]

I liked the points she made on the blog post. I just don't like the tediousness of "OMG ME TOO" in this particular regard. It doesn't help solve the problem they're addressing.

[ivy03]

there are music snobs, the worst of which are rock music snobs

Clearly you don't spend enough time with classical musicians. The elitism is totally different, though. Wouldn't say not gender based, even though women are welcomed and prominent musicians...of some things. There are still incredibly few women conductors. But there's also the whole female diva baggage.

Man, the collision of my choir and the professional choir at the Mahler concerts last year? Not pretty. Not pretty at all.

Also, this is why I've always loved Heart. In my vast collection of classic rock, they're the only women. And they're really good.

[trinityvixen]

I know that people can be snobs about music in any genre, but it always seems as though they're worse in the indie rock genre because they specifically try. Snobbery about classical music seems to arise, naturally, out of artists who perform it being competitive. But they actually are involved in the making of it. Indie rock people just think they are.

[lithoglyphic]

And also the vocabulary being complicated.

[mephistakitten]

Arg, you were at PaxEast too and I missed you too?! =P

I tend to like the male singing voice more, but women making music is really awesome, and I think highly of bands who have female members!

[trinityvixen]

Yeah, I was there, I posted about way back when. It was fun, but unless you have a homing beacon already attached to somebody, you couldn't find anyone in a crowd of 60,000. No worries.

[six_demon_bag]

Nothing's more annoying to me than music snobs and elitists. I'm not saying I'm in capable of being one myself -- I think we all get a little snobbish with our interests from time to time -- but seriously

[trinityvixen]

It does seem like you can think of more female-lead groups that were better back when, doesn't it? I mean, even No Doubt has been around almost long enough to be eligible for Hall of Fame status. That's just it. There's not enough new female-led/female-having groups out there. It's good that the old ones have continued success, but it's a tricky narrative or something because you don't see many of them.

And you don't see them ANGRY in quite the same way that hard core male rockers can be. Only very rarely do you get that sort of edginess breaking through to common or even specialist, music-snob popularity. I have to believe that part of that is because of the pervading stereotype that good girls don't behave that way, and bad girls behave, well, slutty not shout-y. And? They do. Even the female-led bands like No Doubt and Garbage? Gwen Stefani is a sex object, no matter her ska-ish beginnings or incredible athleticism (THAT WOMAN'S ABS!!). And if she is a sex object, model-thin, model-pretty, frequently-actually-a-model Shirley

[six_demon_bag]

Yeah, it's definitely easier to find good female artists in generations past than it is in the current generation. In fact, I can't even really think of any current generation female rock stars. Lady Gaga's more of a pop star. Then you've got Paramore and Flyleaf, who aren't quite my cup of tea, but who I do have to admit have talent. Oh and there's Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and one of my favorites of the past year, Florence + The Machine

[lithoglyphic]

Nothing wrong with women's voices:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rle2mphq-2g