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  #1  
Old 11-05-2007, 04:07 PM
Kimbell175113 Kimbell175113 is offline
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Default Female Singer/Songwriter Thread

When choosing music, I often gravitate toward female artists, and from discussion on these forums it seems that I am not alone. This thread will focus on

- possible causes and attributes of this phenomenon. Is it also true for women listeners? Is it just about the voice, or do the lyrics and personality of these artists play the bigger role? etc.

- critical discussion of albums, songs, lyrics, performances, or careers that are particularly memorable.

- other relevant topics that may come up in the flow of discussion.

Some guidelines:

- don't just throw out a name of an obscure artist and expect us to learn everything about her. Write a review, provide youtube links, discuss related music. Or better yet...

- don't add another artist to the mix when you still have things to say about ones we're currently discussing. This thread'll still be here tomorrow, and the best way to ruin it is to have too many disparate discussions starting up and dying.

- don't just say "X is hot" or "[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] X" unless you are adding this at the end of a 500-word post (1500 if you are Blarg).

Okay, let us gogogogo. I'll start my first addition soon, but I didn't want it to be part of the OP.
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  #2  
Old 11-05-2007, 04:09 PM
Dominic Dominic is offline
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Default Re: Female Singer/Songwriter Thread

I will definitely be contributing to this thread.
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  #3  
Old 11-05-2007, 05:03 PM
MrWookie MrWookie is offline
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Default Re: Female Singer/Songwriter Thread

For me, when it comes to "modern" music, I overwhelmingly favor male singers. That's not only because there have been more male bands out there. If you look at my playlist, I'll have many albums' worth of music for my favorite male bands, but I'll only have a few select tracks from the likes of Heart, Fleetwood Mac (actually mixed voices singing), and others. I don't have a good way to explain it, but in general, female rock singers just don't hit me in the same way the men do.

If you look at my jazz and blues playlist, though, the ratio of male to female singers is much closer to parity. There's a chance it favors the women, really, if you look strictly at the vocalist and vocal music and disregard the strictly instrumental stuff, but I haven't done any actual accounting. There are some songs I've heard done by both men and women, and many times I prefer the women. I again don't have a great explanation, but I think that in general, I women singing in this style suits me much more. Depending on how this thread goes, I might find myself contributing a fair bit or very little.

I suppose some of this might be exposure -- having heard more jazz ladies than rock ladies, but I've also gone out hunting for jazz ladies, but I haven't bothered much for the rock ladies. I'm curious if you guys will highlight a rock lady I latch onto.
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  #4  
Old 11-05-2007, 05:11 PM
daveT daveT is offline
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Default Re: Female Singer/Songwriter Thread

Sara Brightman.

Anyone who has ever stood in Front of the Fountains of Bellagio in Las Vegas has probably heard what many people confuse as their theme song: It's Time to Say Goodbye. The song features Sara Brightman and Adreas Bocelli, the worlds two most famous pop-opera singers. Sara Brightman was born in Hertfordshire, England.

After gaining fame in dance troupes such as Hot Gossip, she turned her attention to musicals, ultimately landing a role in Cats, where she met and married Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber. Lloyd Webber wrote music to showcase her talent, and Phantom of the Opera was born. She later divorced and began working pop-opera, cementing her success in yet another genre.

Her later albums are more poppy. It is hard to explain her voice and style. She has a high ethereal voice, fitting to the music she sings over, which at times is pure opera, other times lite-rock, and at other times electronic.

Discography:

Dive (1993): Excellent album featuring some of her best music. A water themed album featuring "Captain Nemo."
Fly (1995):
Time to Say Goodbye (1997): A fine collection of songs, featuring the title song.
Eden (1998):
La Luna (2000): I enjoy some of this album.
Classics (2001): A terrible album. Poorly produced featuring covers of classical music. A rare attempt at pure opera. If there was better music behind her, this album would have reached it's potential.
Harem (2003): I would suggest to any beginning listener to start with this album. It is featured and easily accessable on any music service, including Rhapsody and iTunes. It shows her range and interests, easy on the ears, yet energetic enough to keep you engaged.

wiki info

main home page

“Tell me more about Sarah ...”

It's a casual and simple enough request. However, attempts to respond invariably begin with a prolonged pause… as one tries to formulate a response that can meaningfully encapsulate the longevity, diversity and mystique of Sarah Brightman....

Time to Say Goodbye Video

Phantom

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  #5  
Old 11-05-2007, 05:14 PM
Dominic Dominic is offline
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Default Re: Female Singer/Songwriter Thread

nice Sara Brightman post, and i love her work in Phantom...so I guess we'll let it go that she's not a "singer/songwriter." [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]
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  #6  
Old 11-05-2007, 05:15 PM
daveT daveT is offline
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Default Re: Female Singer/Songwriter Thread

Wookie, I hope you follow this thread closely. Almost everyone I do will be lesser known, and many of them will be rarities that never got their fair exposure. I was going to post a punk band to start, but decided to wait on them until I could compile something better.
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  #7  
Old 11-05-2007, 05:20 PM
Kimbell175113 Kimbell175113 is offline
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Default Re: Female Singer/Songwriter Thread

daveT,

awesome. A model post for future entries.
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  #8  
Old 11-05-2007, 05:25 PM
Hey_Porter Hey_Porter is offline
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Default Re: Female Singer/Songwriter Thread

I'll be the first (of what I assume will be many votes in support) to mention Eva Cassidy. Purely a singer (as far as I know), her voice is simply haunting and beautiful. I'm usually a big lyrics guy. Most songs I love I gravitate towards because of the lyrics. If I like a song because of it's melody, it's the melody of the song and not necessarily the singers voice (in fact, I can't think of any examples). With Eva, all the love is in the voice.
Fields of Gold
Over the Rainbow

I'm also a huge fan of Diana Krall. I'm not doing that great at naming singers/songwriters, as I'm pretty sure Diana doesn't write much of her own stuff (at least on her older recordings). I played piano forever and everything I did was classical. When I saw Diana play jazz piano, god, ten years ago when I was in high school, it made me extremely jealous and pissed that my teachers never opened the door to jazz. Specifically, this song. That got me to listen to her recordings, and her vocals just blow me away. Not gonna lie, most of it is because I think her voice is sexy as hell. Plus, her version of Joni Mitchell's A Case of You is defintely in my top ten songs to listen to.

If we were focusing on songwriting and not singing (or singing/songwriting), Joni Mitchell would be number one, but while I can stand her voice, it isn't my fav.
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  #9  
Old 11-05-2007, 05:32 PM
Kimbell175113 Kimbell175113 is offline
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Default Re: Female Singer/Songwriter Thread

I'll start with my favorite artist evah, someone who's sure to generate discussion (by which I mean disagreement and irrationality).



Björk

I avoided this girl for a long time, for all the common reasons: her songs seemed weird and counterintuitive, her albums covers were off-putting, and she had a reputation for being totally insane. Fortunately for me, she also had a reputation for quality music videos, and after I had watched a few I was intrigued.

(this is one from each of her first three albums to show you some variety. or just pick one randomly if you want.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EOepheinkCM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8Z1MpcyqQU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5nNfbTS6N4

So this got me interested and I went through her albums chronologically. And it doesn't feel like I'm exaggerating when I say it was the music I had been waiting for my entire life. I was amazed to see that songs from 15 years ago could sound like they were from the future. Then of course, as happens with all albums, I started to focus less on the immediately catchy songs and more on the slower or stranger ones. Even better.

I realize I'm just saying this all without saying why, so I'll try to explain:
- Björk's voice is unique. And I'm talking old school 'unique,' one-of-a-kind, no adverbs needed. In ability and in performance.
- but it's not just the voice. She acts as writer and producer as well, and though you can throw most of her songs under the category of 'electronica' or 'alternative,' they're always one step ahead or above or sideways of everything else on this planet.
- most importantly, her music is unusual but it's not weird for the sake of being weird. Once you get into it, you can see moments of beauty and intelligence; you can see that it all makes perfect sense, just a different kind of sense than standard pop or electronic or 'alternative' music.

For the unitiated listener, I wouldn't recommend any special starting point besides just going through her albums chronologically, starting with Debut. It's a great introduction, and Post, Homogenic, and Vespertine are the real meat; each in a different style, and your favorite will be one of these. The later stuff is good, but not totally necessary.

I could write a lot more, and I will if anyone is interested, but this seems like enough for one post...

edit: whoa, can't let this go without a live performance: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KVbR3g3Y7BA
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  #10  
Old 11-05-2007, 05:39 PM
MrWookie MrWookie is offline
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Default Re: Female Singer/Songwriter Thread

Porter,

These are two women high on my list, although I have them in my jazz category. Admittedly, Eva Cassidy does branch into some modern songs, but my favorites are her jazz and blues tracks.
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