Fun Stuff > BAND

women and music

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Cernunnos:
I am really glad you brought brought this up! this comes up a lot in visual art (which is what i do). In the classes I've been taking of late it's been a significant part of the discussion, because the gallery art world is still, unfortunately, a boys club in a lot of ways (Consider the necessity of the work of these ladies back in the 80's). I had started to think about how this problem related to other disciplines because quite frankly It seems like Music, particularly rock music, is most definitely a boy's club. Granted, there have been some standout figures like Patti Smith and Yoko Ono but It still, like so many other fields seems to have horrible built-in prejudices.

Speaking of which, Required reading: Why Have there Been No Great Woman Artists?

This was written in 1971 and refers to visual art primarily, but the issues it brings up apply: the structural problems of attempting to be a woman in a creative field and the dismissive, condescending attitude that encourages art so long as it is merely a distracting hobby.

As for this particular band, they sound fine to me, from what I could hear. It's hard to tell what's what when it comes to music because, to be quite frank, rock music is deeply mired in petty snobbery, meanness and "authenticity".

Dimmukane:
They sound pretty genuine to me.  Is this gossip board something everyone on campus uses frequently? If not, it's likely that the guys trashing the band are just lonely dorks who wish they had the confidence to start a band and are pissed they got beat to it by girls.  He actually sounds kinda like me, circa 5 years ago, listening to nothing but death metal and looking down on any kind of music that didn't sound as complicated.  Your friends are out there doing it, and that asshole isn't, and in any case mastery of the instrument isn't a requirement for making great music. 

If the gossip board is something that a lot of students view, then tell your friends to ignore it, because there are a lot of other people out there who'd dig something like this and aren't constrained by something as petty as gender bias.

Algernon:
So I listened to the vid you posted and the sound quality on the video isn't the best, but the band sounds decent enough to me.

I saw in the vid info that your school is Wesleyan.  Which, granted, I probably don't know as much about as you do.  But I just got accepted ED as an incoming freshman next year, so I know at least a bit.  And I'm thinking the anonymous board is the ACB?

Basically, my point: from what I hear (and the little that I've seen), the ACB (or whatever anonymous board this is) is stupid, and the same goes for the overwhelming majority of the discussions that take place there.  Everyone is kind of a dick on the internet, and that inherent dickishness is multiplied by a very large number on an anonymous board, where one doesn't even have to pretend to be held accountable for one's actions.

It's possible that this specific act of dickery was motivated by sexism, but honestly, why does it matter?  It's dickish and petty regardless, and not worth paying attention to.  And, IMO, this instance probably has less to do with larger cultural mores and sexism in art and more to do with the the occasionally entertaining but wholly despicable nature of the seedy underbelly of the internet.  And there didn't to be a single mention of the fact that the band is largely comprised of women.

EDIT: Also, I just checked out the ACB and indeed found the thread in question ("WAS LONG BROWN HAIR GUDDDD?"), which could probably use a few more Ds in its name (maybe bring things up to an even 10).  Anyway, the responses overall weren't terribly negative.  There were a few positive posts and a few lukewarm/meh, but only a couple that I would classify as truly "trashing" the band.  Which is only to be expected, really.

ANOTHER EDIT: That said, I do think there is an unfortunate tendency to view all-girl (or mostly-girl) bands as a novelty, and the fact that they are all-girl can be more talked about than their music itself.

Be My Head:
I could only hear the bass guitar and the drums, and neither really impressed me. I'd have to hear a better recording to judge whether the comment was justified or not.

I disagree with the idea that women musicians have to be "hypergood" (whatever that means). They just have to be good, the same as any other musician. But maybe I'm not sexist like other people. I dunno. I know not everyone can be as good as Kaki King.

Allybee:
really disagree. I have a lot more to say but it's midterms and I need to not block the internet.

algernon, wes is great, the acb sucks, send me a message and we'll talk

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