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From: Renee Rosen <lilitu@cjnetworks.com>
Date: Fri, 30 May 1997 13:35:48 -0500
Subject: female genre?
To: love-hounds@gryphon.com
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
In-Reply-To: <199705301738.KAA28724@churchill.gryphon.com>
At 10:38 AM 5/30/97 -0700, you wrote: >Date: 30 May 1997 11:30:07 EDT >From: <gearnoise@VNET.IBM.COM> >To: <love-hounds@gryphon.com> >Subject: The Bush Branch; Pistils without Stamens? >Message-Id: <19970530.113007.MULVENNA@RALVM17> > >I was recently looking at local Chapel Hill, North Carolina singer- >song writer Heather Russell's website, and came across this quote from >a review of one of her performances (Hope you don't mind, Heather): > >".... a branch of rock music pretty much invented by <Kate> Bush > and plied solely by women. Like Bush and Siberry ....." > >Thinking about it, that appears to be a true statement. With my rather >limited exposure to the music scene, I cannot think of a male singer - >songwriter that would belong in the same genre as Kate Bush or Jane >Siberry or Sarah MacLaghlin. > >Any thoughts as to why that is so? >Or does someone know of a male whom one might consider in the same >classification? > Well, I wouldn't quite put Kate and Jane and Sarah in a "genre," though I would group them together as being similar. At any rate, for the sake of argument, I'll consider them a genre (though I don't know what to call it--intelligent singer/songwriter pop w/ folkish influences?). I can, however, think of male artists that could possibly be considered in the same genre. Peter Gabriel, David Sylvian, and Prefab Sprout come immediately to mind, as well as perhaps some of Sting's solo works. Dead Can Dance could also be considered in a similar category, and they have a male singer as well as a female one. Mike Oldfield has also done some works in a similar style, though many of them had female singers, so I'm not sure if that would count. The same goes for Hector Zazou (though he prob. has had more male singers). I'm sure there are others, but I can't think of any off hand (though I'm sure I'll think of plenty when I've sent this post off;). At any rate, I'll agree it's female dominated, but there are a few males who could be included--how many depends on how you define this genre. As to why it's female dominated, it could be due to various reasons, both social and "innate." Social reasons would include the perception that the style is "feminine" and the fear of male artists to break out of the standard rock mold. Innate reasons could be that more females than males have voices suited to this type of music, so they are more likely to perform them--that could also explain why some male artists (such as the aforementioned Oldfield and Zazou) bring in female singers when they work in similar styles. Also, don't forget that Kate Bush can be classified in many categories, and it depends what category you classify her in what you would compare her to. If you put her in a mellowish folk influenced category, you may come up with different comparisons than if you put her, say, in a category of intelligent pop with experimental elements. The former would put her in the same category as Sarah McLaughlan, whereas the latter would put her in a category with Danielle Dax (also female, but clearly not the same "genre" as Sarah) or Peter Gabriel. Just my thoughts on the matter. I'm curious what others think (and if others would classify any of these artists the same as I do). Renee Rosen lilitu@cjnetworks.com