The womenest of all music

 Celebrating Women in Music

    For the longest time, the music community, and utmostly the music critic community has shunned female artists like they are nothing. Just a piece of mainstream, or when they aren't, they aren't fitting the boxes we want them to fit, and when they fit the boxes they are too appealing, too sexual. We critique women based on them first, as if they are the product, rather than the songs and albums they produce. While we do see that that is wrong now, as it always was, and as we try to correct our mistakes, the after-effects are still wholely felt to this day. You scroll the RateYourMusic top 100 and you find there are only 5 female-led projects to make the list (Nico, Björk, Portishead, Cocteau Twins and Kate Bush. check all of them out). That's a byproduct of years and years of structural misogyny and that can't be ignored.

    I myself fell for the structural misogyny, and have since been looking to reobserve things from a different perspective. I still have some ways to go, I only have 5 out of my 19 10/10 albums made by women, I do review a lot of music made by women (not on purpose but I'm glad I do), and I'm hoping to one day be able to help break a bit of the prejudices associated with female led musical cultures. Given that, I decided that it would be a good topic to talk about some of the women led musical movements of contemporary musical history!

Traumazine - Megan Thee Stallion

    Starting with a prime example of a musical genre that became synonymous with strong, opiniated and controversial women, Pop Rap. Though that name may be broad and not necessarily "pioneered" by women, as people like the dead Kanye West and others do work within the Pop Rap genre. That being said, it's undeniable that the "female rap" category has developed quite the fame, with critiques often times underrating this genre as just mainstream rap made by women, but there's a lot of talent involved. Traumazine is a very strong example of just how good the genre can be. Other artists that are kind of obvious picks but do release some incredibly catchy songs with impressive rapping skills are Ashnikko, Cardi B, Doja Cat, Nicki Minaj, Ice Spice, Little Simz, Princess Nokia...

    Traumazine covers all the points of a great Female Rap album, Megan owes absolutely nothing to any other rapper in skill and delivery, the production, beats and features are all impeccable as well on top of that, and people don't give it enough credit, much of it I believe is because it's highly sexual in its lyricism without remorse, like a lot of Megan's contemporaries. Maddening the conservative public, public which Megan challenges directly. 

Art Angels - Grimes

    Art Pop is easily one of my favourite genres ever, I can't even begin to name all the amazing artists that this genre offers, in that, it's undeniable to recognize that this genre was developed on the back of amazingly creative and determined women, we have Björk, Kate Bush, Weyes Blood, Fiona Apple, FKA Twigs, Janelle Monáe all coming out with their full souls in these inventive records.

In that, I think an album to be highlighted is Art Angels. It's not my favourite from the genre, but it speaks to me in the way Pop Rap does, it's aggressive, it's happy and it holds nothing back. Grimes, like a lot of the figures in Pop Rap, is heavily controversial (though I do believe it's not uncalled for), and I think that's a type of attitude that I love to see. Regarding Art Angels, I think anyone within the alternative scene felt connected to it from moment 1. And it encapsulates a lot of the experimentalism in Art Pop, without the fear of being feminine, sometimes even chasing it.

Sling - Clairo

    Let's go lesbians! One of the biggest genres when it comes to identifying with a culture has to be bedroom pop, or more specifically, lesbian pop. It's a funny concept because a lot of the music in this genre isn't even necessarily made by lesbians nor for lesbians, like it's the case for Mitski, and sometimes it isn't even necessarily bedroom pop, sometimes it's just singer-songwriter. But you know a lesbian pop artist when you see one.

Clairo has such a great voice for this, her vibes are made for the music she makes, I think Sling is the perfect piece to encapsulate what she is and it sounds beautiful, it's simple in composition but the little sprinkles of strings, synths, percussion just make for a piece so full of life, and I could honestly say similar things about all of these albums, but most of all I think there's a certain charm in the songwriting and storytelling, it's a lot of the time very storytelling-like, not like a lot of the other genres of music. It's taking you into a deeply intimate ride into the writer's psyche, to the point where it feels like you don't even belong there.

Hyperpop

    Shoutouts to trans women! I'm gonna be honest I don't know nearly enough Hyperpop, nor will I pretend I do, but it's just such a different beast, it's electric, fiery, unhinged in every way imaginable. Even within itself you see songs that are heavy on synth-work, leaning into electronic music, and other songs that are very guitar-heavy, fitting in punk music. Check out SOPHIE for a very unique piece of art with much inventiveness, and 1000 gecs for more insane energy and punk vibes.

    Thank you god for inventing women, and thank you women for inventing good music. Keep it up!