All The Single Ladies

The Grammy’s a week ago was a high point for women. Beyonce broke the record for Grammy’s won in a single night by a woman (6). Pink was by far the greatest performance of the night. Taylor Swift took home coveted Album of the Year (total crap to give it to a flat singer who sings about the woes of high school. Also she is gorgeous and was making cash from writing songs for other artists, how hard could high school have been?). Regardless, 2009 in general was a great year for the ladies. Lady Gaga may have lost best new artist, but she was without a doubt the artist of 2009. However, even with all this success it should be pointed out that these are all solo artists. Where are the female led bands? It seems like for every one female fronted band there are fifty all male assembles. I can only think of three commercially successful examples from the 90s; Hole, Garbage, and No Doubt. The Donnas were there but I would hardly call them commercially successful. The 80s had the Bangle, Go-Gos, and Joan Jett was singing with the Blackhearts. Finally the 70s had Fleetwood Mac with Stevie Nicks, and then there was Joan Jett again with the Runaways. However in comparison with the male bands it’s dismal.

Also, once a femme rocker reaches a certain success level within their band, there seems to be a huge amount of pressure to go solo, the Diana Ross syndrome. We have seen this in the small amount of girl power bands that have made an impact in popular culture. Joan Jett left both the Runaways and the Blackhearts for a solo career. Stevie left Fleetwood Mac. Gwen Stefani has had two successful albums sans the rest of her band mates. And Fergie, who helped Black Eyed Peas to be one of the most successful bands globally, gained so much acclaim from her solo album I think most people were surprised to see her return to BEP. I don’t have any theories or answers, but why is it that it’s easier to except women alone as artists than part of a group?

Hopefully this is changing a bit with the rise of the Tings Tings, Shiny Toy Guns and La Roux. But it should be noted these bands are their infancy, and nowhere near the global recognition of the others. Well maybe the Ting Tings, who were also nominated for best new artist. With that success, who’s to say that in five years we won’t see Katie White release her first solo album?