Re: Kate vs. Tori

[niall@marple.as.utexas.edu (Niall Gaffney)]

In article <m0oVuHA-000ilkC@fciad2.bsd.uchicago.edu>,
chrisw@fciad2.bsd.uchicago.edu (chris williams) wrote:

> In article <9308262233.AA17069@relay1.UU.NET> you write:
> >Chris Williams writes: "...I feel the need to compare female artists in an
> >exclusionary manner is unconscious sexism.  To insist that artist "A" is
> >brilliant while slagging artist "B" seems to be based on some notion that
> >female brilliance is somehow "limited" and that there simply isn't enough to > >go around."

>   Ok, I'll try to state it more clearly. It seems impossible for
> critics and most listeners to describe female singers without
> comparing one to another. Now this would seem reasonable enough,
> that comparisons are necessary for the listener to be able to have
> a point of reference. But look through any magazine with a large
> number of reviews, and you will notice that the male singers are
> not often compared with one another (other than obvious idolatry,
> Harry Connik and Frank Sinatra for example.) But try to find a
> review of a female singer without pigion-hole comparisons to to
> at least one other female singer. Why is this? 
> 

Perhaps it is rooted in our male dominated monogomous society.  
Especially with women who move us in such fundimentally emoutinal
ways as both Tori and Kate, many men may feel almost "unfaithful" 
if they listen to the words of another woman, and that they must
defend the ways of their own personal favorite.  It is my 
personal recoletion that most of the discussion of Tori vs. Kate
is lead by men (correct me if I am wrong, this is just my own
personal recolection and is not based on any real statistics).  
I too am a big fan of both Kate and Tori (as well as Rossane 
Cash and Mary Chapin Carpenter for that matter, though this 
discussion doesn't rage on about their music), and have been 
know from time to time to compare and contrast them, but in 
what I hope is a constructive manor, be it philosophical or 
musical.  However this is more to extend the pleasure I get 
from listening to both of thier works.

-- 
Niall Ives Gaffney          ---   Department of Astronomy
niall@marple.as.utexas.edu  ---   University of Texas at Austin