Are female singer/songwriters getting a fair deal?

Oink

I've just read the thread on Lisa Hannigan, and I thought one comment there deserved a whole new thread.

How come most female singer-songwriters in Dublin are so hot? Is there some sort of gene? (Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against Wallis Bird, Chiara Browne, etc. who do have that gene on top of their real talent...)

Or do girls just not get a chance if they don't look cute enough? I wonder if anyone here knows of talented girls who can't get a gig because they don't fit in that kind of mould?

Edit: In that other thread someone mentioned The Gossip. Whazzat? a program on telly? Did they have an opinion on that?

GreenHell

The Gossip, have a google but remember to include "band" in your search string.

Hot female singers have a better chance of making a name for themselves over not so hot girls. Fact of life move on.

catch--22

I beleive the Gossip's front woman are the exception to the rule because of the sheer amount of attitude she has! It must be one or the other.....good looks or to be able to talk the talk!

yevveh

There was an article in one of the supplements (probably Day & Night though maybe it was the Ticket) about her. Apparently she's been getting a lot of publicity for being (and I pretty much quote) "fat, lesbian and feminist". Despite sounding like a modern day Aretha Franklin and having a generally outstanding voice (her "wow wow wowwww" got me into the song, thats how I remembered it) she gets all this publicity for totally the wrong reason.

Another thing that article pointed out was that apparently Muse were put on the cover of NME (or some magasine) instead of the Gossip despite there being a big article about them. I can't remember what it said in the article though after checking the Wikipedia it was probably because she was no. 1 in the "cool list", yet she was denied the cover because she was a female, I believe.

In general having a female in your band shouldn't be a big deal. Female musicians are no less credible than male, Katie (the drummer) from ¡Forward, Russia! being an example (Nine official vid: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=goZC__sHYjk; Eighteen live http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wohNZSqTXkc). The girl keyboard player from White Rose Movement is awesome too (and pretty damn hot, from what I remember). Althought she doesn't seem to do too much (the band is pretty minimalist anyway) the parts she does do wouldn't strike me as any different capability wise from a man (Girls in the Back vid http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJ78MJg3UdE for example).

As for female vocalists, Andrea Zollo from Pretty Girls Make Graves is incredible. It's hard to describe their sound without mentioning At The Drive-In though they're very very different from them, especially on the final album where they replaced a guitarist who left with a keyboard player (and on one track, accordion player). Saw them at that non-EP festival '06 and was instantly converted (Speakers Push The Air vid: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0yeelwuKnCs; All Medicated Geniuses vid: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l198pVjx9ys)

Also Karen O gets no slack for being a chick, nor does be your own PET's vocalist.

I don't think a females level of attractiveness has any correlation to my liking of them though. Being able to talk the talk makes no difference to me either as I don't really read many interviews. If a band sucks, they suck regardless of gender and vice-versa. Let the music speak for itself, I say.

Howard the Duck

Yes i do think female singer/songwriters are getting a fair deal. I do think some female singer/songwriters are probably getting further on their looks rather then their talent... I'm not naming names but Gemma Hayes although that might just be my personal taste in music and i accept that.
If a talented female doesn't have the looks i believe they will make it on talent alone..the world of music isn't an x factor audition..and thank god for that.