Female lead singers ... Where were they before the millennium ??

You guys all forgot Culture Club...

 

All the Motown ladies, Fleetwood Mac, Carole King, Grace Slick, Eurythmics, Heart, Janis, The Pretenders...etc

Yup - where did they go??

 

Even with the revised criteria, I think we need to give the OP a newsflash: It ain't so.

Male bands may dominate, but going thru my own collection as a baseline, I see no shortage of lead female singers in bands. And this course is putting aside all of the great female singers who front themselves (and their own house or sessions band) as "solo" artists. I found 25 acts that meet the criteria, all of whom have charted well - and prior to the 90's:

Grace Slick of Jefferson Airplane/Starship
Janis Joplin of Big Brother & Holding Company
Mary Travers of Peter, Paul & Mary
Cass Elliot and Michelle Phillips of The Mamas & The Papas
Diana Ross of The Supremes
Judith Durham of The Seekers
Elaine "Spanky" McFarlane of Spanky And Our Gang
Susan and Barbara Cowsill of The Cowsills
Pattie Santos of It's A Beautiful Day
Tina Turner of The Ike & Tina Turner Revue
Linda Ronstadt of The Stone Poneys
Karen Carpenter of The Carpenters
Christine McVie and Stevie Nicks of Fleetwood Mac
Juice Newton of Silver Spur
Anni-Frid Lyngstad and Agnetha Fältskog of ABBA
Ann and Nancy Wilson of Heart
Deborah Harry of Blondie
Chrissie Hynde of The Pretenders
Martha Davis of The Motels
Pat Benatar of the Pat Benatar Band
Joan Jett of Joan Jett & The Blackhearts
Annie Lennox of Eurythmics
Terri Nunn of Berlin
Katrina Leskanich of Katrina And The Waves
Rindy Ross of Quarterflash

 

Julie Driscoll of Brian Auger and the Trinity
Minnie Riperton of The Rotary Connection

 

Smith (gaye mccormick) Shocking Blue ...seems like there were a lot in the 60's, 70's....

 

I always wonder the same thing when I make a 70's playlist.

 

This^ + Tracey Thorn

 

Indeed. I especially recall female lead singers being very common during the 80s, a handful of whom are on your list.

 

I think the OP has the direction of change right, even if the magnitude of that change is overstated. There have always been important women artists in rock music, but there's a substantially greater presence of women in rock music now than there has been in the past, even if the genre as a whole continues to be primarily male. For example, I typically find about twice as many women rock artists in the top twenty of the Village Voice's Pazz and Jop polls from the '10s than I find in polls from the '70s or '80s.

I suspect it is probably primarily the result of broader social and cultural changes. There have been increases in the representation of women in lots of different fields. I can't really identify a convincing reason for greater participation of women in rock music that is special to rock music.

 

Nice list, but in defense of the OP, this is figure is out of how many total artists in YORK collection pre-1990's?

 

Well sure, and as I put it directly above, male bands dominate. But "relatively rare until the 90s"... I can't buy that. Think if we were to add to this list all the female solo acts who nonetheless fronted bands either in the studio and on stage, or both. The list would then become HUGE.

As for the OP adjunct "now they dominate," I don't buy that either, because that too is an overstatement.

 

Chrissie Hynde is the lead singer of The Pretenders. What band is Madonna the lead singer of?

Madonna is a solo artist and always has been.

 

Understood.

 

What, we're just going to ignore those amazing bands she was in, namely The Breakfast Club and Emmy?

 

I would add Susan Christie. Here is a link to the song "Rainy Day".
Her album came out in 1970. I should also add the work of Wendy and Bonnie Flowers and their album "Genesis". Wendy & Bonnie - "By The Sea" , but not least, The Daisy Chain are worth a listen, if only for the excellent Farfisa work of Camille Orosco. 02 Daisy Chain - All Because Of Him (1967)

 

This comes up occasionally in Country Radio circles as well. In that case, it's not as "sexist" as one may conclude. There appears to be a different set of biases in play, for a number of particulars of Country. Bottom line is, no there are plenty of female country singers in Country, just more than a Country Radio audience is willing to accept. In the case of fewer opportunities to please an audience with a female singer, the stations opt for established stars, of which they also have more than they can use. So aspiring young singers get even less opportunity for a slot on the playlist. But, don't worry, they're still out there...and probably waitressing 35 hours a week.

Now, these are not hard and fast "rules", but they do apply. Country audiences are more interested in relatability, "realism", whatever that is, and empathy. Moreso than a pop or rock audience. (remember, not hard and fast rule, just demonstrably accurate) Pop and rock listeners will go for the hook, the swagger, and the attitude first, in general.

Country audiences start from a different place. Legible lyrics train listeners to listen carefully for them. Listeners trained to listen more carefully keep doing this after the song is over: they relate more to the jocks and the artists, and like to think these people could be their friends and live in their world. They even listen to the commercials more carefully! Not to say in all cases, but for the pop and rock audience, the listener's first concern is: "wow" me. Taken to the extreme, when you're a pop star or a rock celebrity, you are on a pedestal. The songs are not about you, they're about them, even if it's a relatable situation. Aren't Country stars put onto a pedestal? Yes...but at an angle, so you can look 'em in the eye.

Oh, Country does try to help women break through. You don't see the tight network of label-to-morning-show, artist-to-audience, fake-grassroots-level marketing used to this extent with other music formats. Country understands, if they're gonna shut an artist off from exposure because all the're interested in is their established stars, then they have to work harder to help their next meal ticket overcome that imbalance...without knocking the bread and butter off their own pedestal in the process. Pop and rock: throw 'em to the wolves, let them sort it out.

 

Previous century - A long history of talented female singer/songwriters.

This century - One autotuned, talentless, copy/paste pop-tart after another.

 

Female lead singers were pretty popular when I was in grade school. Girl groups were huge in the early 60s.
Female instrumentalists in rock are something else entirely, however. They were always around, but
were viewed as a "novelty" until the late 60s when Maureen Tucker, Grace Slick and a select
few others began to break through. Thank the late Kim Fowley for the "all-girl rock band" concept.
Despite his questionable motivations...he's really the one that made that happen on an international scale.

 

If you're talking about all of pop music, there's always been a ton of female singers.

If you're talking about rock n' roll, well that's a genre that was defined early on by agressivity, loudness and predatory sexuality. So it was by its very nature a manly kind of music. Women could do it, but organically, it had to come from men first.