Female Singers - Halp?

[beccatoria]

Hey guys
First off I'm really, really sorry I've been so crap about posting here lately and stuff. It's been a bit of a grind-you-down kind of couple of weeks. But I still love you all!

In other news, HALP ME.

For reasons that are far to long and boring to be of interest to many of you, I find that I need some suggestions for female singers, or bands with female lead singers, that I might like. My music taste tends to be somewhere in the vicinity of indie rock with various odd jaunts toward both singer-songwriter and rap artist. I like complicated lyrics. I like when not all the songs are about being in love. Or if they are, the lyrics are complicated and interesting. I like drumming. I like "strong" voices rather than "pretty" voices.

Here are some female artists I already like:

Florence and the Machine
Joan Baez
Tracy Chapman
Pat Benatar (shut up!)
Jefferson Airplane
Regina Spektor
Tori Amos (during her early years)

Any recs welcome!

Thanks guys!

Comments

[nicole-anell.livejournal.com]

The amount of scrutiny and hate this obscure musician has gotten since she hooked up with Neil Gaiman does color this a little poorly for me, yeah. And count me as part of the non-hive who sees it as worth discussing (really discussing, not just repeating the same thing over and over and telling people who discuss it from any other angle that they're derailing/tangential/showing their privilege) but not worth treating like it's the WORST. FAIL. EVER. IN HISTORY. rather than somebody consciously drawing from the most over-the-top tropes possible.

Ugggggh, I'm sorry I invited this all over your journal, Becca. :( [/shuts up now]

All in the Family vs. Seventh Heaven?
Battlestar Galactica: The '7th Heaven' of well-intentioned cripple fail.

[beccatoria.livejournal.com]

Dude, it's cool. :) No one's eaten anyone else alive and I'm mostly not commenting cus I have no opinion but it's certainly all enlightening reading. Please don't take my silence as sullen. :)

Also I now feel the need to know what the hell 7th Heaven was... See? You're just determined to educate me in the ways of disability fail in the media aren't you? AREN'T YOU?! ;)

*uses poor sunned-Sam icon*

[nicole-anell.livejournal.com]

Heh, "7th Heaven" was a long-running WB drama about a minister and his huge family (five kids, and later seven when the mom had late-season twins). It was ultra-sincere and message-heavy and meant to promote Christian family values. Which led to a lot of unintentional hilarity in its portrayal of, for example, working mothers, sex before marriage, alcohol, and whatever else the issue of the week was.

I don't think ever specifically had disability fail (actually I'm SURE they must have at some point, I just can't remember), it's just the quintessential example of a show that had *no idea* when it was offending somebody, as opposed to a show like "All in the Family" where much more extreme sexist/racist/terrible things were being said but that was intentional and making a point.


Edit: Oh my god, in the interest of inserting some levity into this thread, I just searched for "7th Heaven" on YouTube. This is the first clip I found. Now you'll mostly notice:

1. how hilariously bad the acting is
2. how hilariously bad the writing and directing is

But in the meantime, note the fact that around 1:30, an actual argument takes place when Lucy's husband realizes someone will SEE HIS WIFE'S VAGINA while she's giving birth and he insists on delievering it himself, and the counter-argument from her brother is that he can do it rather than "two strangers" (WHO ARE DOCTORS).

[frolicndetour.livejournal.com]

The amount of scrutiny and hate this obscure musician has gotten since she hooked up with Neil Gaiman does color this a little poorly for me, yeah.

*clings* YES. It can't help but color it when it's the exact substance of at least a third of the comments I've read on the issue. And when I distinctly remember UnfunnyBusiness reacting with nearly the same level of moral outrage to her shameless desecration of the musical integrity of the Boston Pops.*g* (As a lifelong Bostonian: AHAHAHAHA!)

And count me as part of the non-hive who sees it as worth discussing (really discussing, not just repeating the same thing over and over and telling people who discuss it from any other angle that they're derailing/tangential/showing their privilege) but not worth treating like it's the WORST. FAIL. EVER. IN HISTORY. rather than somebody consciously drawing from the most over-the-top tropes possible.

Pretty much this. Sigh.

[chaila.livejournal.com]

You know, I think what's going on to a large extent, at least for me, is people typically not familiar with her reacting to this one thing? Which I don't think is entirely unfair, because when you do something over the top, you're going to get attention from new places and if you react poorly, it's going to snowball. Because I had no idea really who she was, no idea that she dated Neil Gaiman, no idea of any reactions to her based on that, and no idea of her history, either personally or musically. And I still feel like I only have the most superficial opinion about all of this, in that I find it generally distasteful, particularly with regard to sexual abuse, and don't have high expectations given that I'm familiar with only the specific things she's said about this one thing, which make me uninterested in it. And knowing that I lack context doesn't really change my opinion and make me want to CARE about this project (any more than hearing my friend go on and on about Dollhouse and identity meta made me want to watch that show), but I do think it does at least make me see that there are other issues to be discussed and it's more complicated than it looks. But mostly I don't care to actually get into it enough to be able to intelligently discuss those issues...Which then, in turn, feels like a cop-out, especially in the face of what does at least feel like implicit suppression of opposing POVs. Because I do think you and Nicole should feel safer [ETA: meaning, it's a shame and frustrating that you aren't able to feel safer, not that you should just suck it up and go feel safer! /ETA] expressing what you're saying, especially since I do find it worth knowing, even if I can't get outraged enough from either side to want to get more involved.