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Is heavy metal sexist?
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There aren't enough women in the heavy metal industry. Maybe they don't get into the genre because they feel threatened? Or feel that they won't be accepted into it? I struggle to list many off the top of my head, Halestorm, Nightwish, Within Temptation... Now I'm out of bands! Is this an issue or are the female- fronted metal bands just less well known? It's definitely a male-dominated genre and this needs to change!
Check out this podcast which has an insight into this: http://mhm.hud.ac.uk/MusicRadioHud/node/577
Check out this podcast which has an insight into this: http://mhm.hud.ac.uk/MusicRadioHud/node/577
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Or because they are not interested?
There are loads of bands these days that feature women and here is an excellent blog that writes about them
http://www.femetalism.co.uk/
Why does it need to change, unless for the better, in which case it will.
Have a look at the Wikipedia page for Symphonic Metal bands, that will add plenty to your list!!
It could be said that every genre of popular music is male-dominated but with the rise of Symphonic Metal, especially in Europe, it could be argued Metal is leading the way with female-fronted bands.
It's not even just symphonic metal either. There are some brilliant doom, stoner, folk and power metal bands featuring women.
There are also black and death metal bands with women but I can't comment on those as I am not into black or death metal.
There is also;
Doro
Lita Ford
Girlschool
Joan Jett
Pat Benatar
Heart
Battle Beast
Zed Yago
The Pretty Reckless
The Runaways
I think it may be getting better but these are nearly all female-fronted bands not all-female bands. And how many male-fronted (female) bands are there?
I mean I like The Pretty Reckless but put the band name into google and search on the images and see what you get.
I suspect there are more mixed bands than in previous years but Alt Rock is probably ahead on that one.
I agree that the wider industry still suffers from sexism on the technical and business side, so how many female heavy metal producers or managers are there? I think those would be better measures and it may well be that there are improvements in that regard.
Those aren't all metal artists.
I won't be checking it out.
Here are some all-female metal bands:
Cyntia
Destrose
Mary's Blood
Aldious
and a few that do grindcore/cookiemonster vocals:
Gallhammer
Flagitious Idiosyncrasy In The Dilapidation
Galmet
A list of Japanese bands of course doesn't strictly answer the question. What proportion is this in relation to all Japanese metal bands for example? And does the existence of such bands actually mean there is no sexism in metal music?
For example from an another area of work, there are women who work in football as physios and officials but they remain subject to sexist treatment.
All I'm getting at is it isn't enough to just say there are more women in metal music than there used to be therefore it isn't sexist. Has the way women are depicted in metal music imagery changed or do they have more control over the way they are depicted? Having looked at the images of the Japanese girl groups it looks like they do present themselves in a less sexist way. The music seems a little formulated to me but I'll leave that to the metal experts.
The Gathering,
Lacuna Coil,
Sirenia,
Tristania,
Evanescence,
Leaves Eyes,
Theatre of Tragedy,
Mortal Love,
The Sins of Thy Beloved,
The 3rd and the Mortal,
After Forever,
Nightwish,
Edenbridge,
Within Temptation,
Kidneythieves,
The Birthday Massacre,
Darkwell,
Trail of Tears,
Penumbra,
Draconian,
Epica
And I've probably forgot quite a few. I could also name at least that many again that I know of, but don't listen to.
I also don't understand why people think something is sexist just because a certain group aren't doing it as much. People can choose not to do something. You seem to presume they are being excluded rather than just not going into it out of choice.
Having said that, I'd say the female fronted metal scene in Europe is very strong right now. If you could only name a couple of bands, that just shows how little you know about it. There are even many female fronted festivals, my brother is going to one in just over a week and has also been to one in Belgium.
As for full bands, I'm not sure why it matters to you but it could just be the case that more women want to sing than want to play guitar, drums, bass etc... In fact you could almost argue the reverse- that there are so many female fronted bands out there, you could say there is a lack of bands with male leads who actually sing properly, rather than growl and get the balance just right- bands like Amorphis and Tool, for example, are far too rare.
Pretty broad church R n'B I would suggest.
Also apart from the OP, no female contributors to this thread.....surprising?
Probably not.
Metal isn't really sexist anyway, is it not essentially homoerotic? With all these sweaty, men dressed in leather with their phallic guitars..not an obvious place for the feminine. ;-)
Of course
My current favourite. They have at last signed a european record deal and album to be released in UK 1st June with 2 bonus tracks and DVD of 6 videos
I believe they are also releasing a DVD of their gig at the Brixton Academy last November.
This is a great point. Another point to consider is maybe there seems to be a lack of women in metal because it's more of an acquired taste and less likely to be as big as Metallica, Motorhead ect, as it's a lot of operatic metal which isn't for everyone. Even though metal is not necessarily considered as 'mainstream', male-fronted metal is certainly more popular amongst the masses.
Please, take your Social Justice back to the morons at gamergate, metal has no need for your worthless drivel.
Its worthless because clearly you have done zero research, and I find your dismissal of the large number of talented female "metal heads" to be insulting. You named a few weak as shit bands, two of which are barely even metal at all. Come back when you have actually looked into the scene more than what kerrang has told you, or what Floor was banging on about.
Most bands that appeal to young girls are fronted by females, SEXIST!!! Or maybe its just that it has less appeal to men, so its not that females are barring males from entering, its that males are not as drawn to that type of music.
I'm sorry but this is the "worthless drivel" metal has no need for.
I've been in to Metal since the mid-70s and Metal has always encompassed a very wide range of genres, with a lot of cross-over appeal to a number of other similar genres as well.
For you to suggest, I would assume, both Nightwish and Within Temptation are "barely even Metal", shows your ignorance. Within Temptation are headlining the Saturday of Bloodstock Open Air this year which, I seem to recall, is very much a Metal festival and Nightwish headlined Wacken Open Air a couple of years ago, another Metal festival. They may not appeal to you but to suggest they are "barely even Metal" is ridiculous.
To suggest female-fronted Metal bands mostly appeal to young girls and that males are not drawn to that type of music is equally ridiculous. I've seen all three bands mentioned, on numerous occasions, and I can tell you for a fact that isn't true.
Given how many different styles there are in metal, it is pretty much a worthless descriptor as it doesn't indicate what kind of metal the band plays. Also, it doesn't include the bands where women are not the voice of the band but take a different prominent role.
As a tag on Last FM or a similar site, it probably does have it's uses in conjunction with another tag where you are looking to discover a band female vocal. By itself, though, it is useless.
I would also like to see the end of words like "queen" or "goddess" when describing women in music, not just metal.
I would agree, although it does serve some purpose as it allows a potential listener to get an idea of what a band is likely to sounds like and some people do use it to search out Symphonic Metal bands with a female singer, for example.
The problem is it falls down when it comes to bands such as Lacuna Coil, Epica, Leave's Eyes, etc, who use both male and female vocalists.
I fully agree with terms such as "Queen" and "Goddess", though.