this post was submitted on 12 Feb 2024
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Unpopular Opinion

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At this point in history there's been a billion songs from female singers about relationships. Nearly every song revolves around that topic.

Where are the songs like:

Blue Öyster Cult - Godzilla

Blue Öyster Cult - Don't Fear The Reaper

Led Zeppelin - Immigrant Song

The Charlie Daniels Band - The Devil Went Down to Georgia

Even great songs like Rhiannon by Fleetwood Mac though about a witch is still about a witch & unrequited love.

One reason why I like Trip Hop is because there's some great female voices but the lyrics aren't always themed towards relationships. I suspect though that many of those songs are written by the guys in the band.

Everything I have stated above about female singers applies to female comedians too. They primarily joke about relationship stuff. There are no female Mitch Hedbergs joking about silly shit.

I just want to hear Shakira or Jewel or Norah Jones sing a song about mudwrestling Satan in a dive bar in 1970s Louisiana. Ladies, where is your imagination?

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[–] [email protected] 43 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

I think you're a victim of availability bias. You're thinking of all the women who sing songs about relationships and forgetting all the men who sing songs about relationships. You're remembering all the men who sing about not-relationships and forgetting all the women who do the same.

Tik Tok, Royals, I Love Rock and Roll, Girls Just Wanna Have Fun, Tom's Diner, All I Wanna Do, Anti-Hero, 9 to 5, the list can go on indefinitely.

And that goes doubly for comedians.

Mitch Hedberg did jokes about relationships. "I don't have a girlfriend, but I do know a woman who would be mad at me for saying that."

There are dozens of currently active women who do comedy that isn't just about relationships. Most probably include jokes about relationships, but comedy is about shared experiences, and relationships are fertile ground for material.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I get your point but one Mitch Hedberg joke out of all of his act is not the same as what most female comedians do. You know what I meant.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

FEMALES. You always know it's going to be a nonsensical sexist take when that word pops up over and over.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Nightwish

Amaranthe

Visions of Atlantis

Babymetal

Liliac

And those are just off the top of my head.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

Oooh yeah that’s the good stuff.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

I have heard of them, but never listened to them… Yet.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Are the females in those bands writing the songs or are the guys writing the songs?

[–] [email protected] 21 points 1 year ago

What a strange and sexist thing to ask lol

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Who's writing the love songs?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

It's probably a mix but then you have Jewel or Taylor Swift who write their own lyrics.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Your says nothing about gatekeeping the lyricists, only the lyrics. Does it matter who writes?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

My point was about creativity and coming up with ideas for songs. Women seemed geared towards relationships and never want to come up with off the wall wacky nonsense.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 year ago (1 children)

This says more about your interpretation of the world than the actual world. Congratulations, you're incorrect. Now you have the opportunity to fix that.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yeah my dude QueenB you’re working with a pretty narrow view of women that to me is past bordering on misogyny.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Is this article misogynistic?

Why Women Have Stronger Immune Systems than Men

Pointing out differences between men and women is not sexist or misogynistic.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

"Today I killed, he was just a boy 8 before him, I knew them all"

I really love nightwish.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Babymetal's very good. You'd think an idol metal group would never work, they feel like both opposites in their genres, but they work it out very well.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Cindy Lou Who has a death metal band that's relatively famous.

The music is out there, it's just never gonna pop level huge.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I always forget about her band. They are really good. ETA: the band is called The Pretty Reckless

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Try this:

Eivør - Trøllabundin

Also, “females” makes you sound like a Ferengi. It’s okay to say women, even when you’re using it as a sexist overgeneralization.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Talk to me when male singers write a modern fairy tale about a monkey and bear who escape from a traveling circus only for the monkey to coerce the bear into prostitution to support the duo until one night the bear sneaks off to bathe and the monkey follows and sees the bear turn into an angel and then into dust after she realizes she's been seen naked.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Do you have a link for that?

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago

Joanna Newsom - Monkey & Bear

Whole album Ys is a 10/10

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

That song is so fucking good. Just unreasonably good.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago

Did you take into account that most pop songs are about that topics? It's not only female singers

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

“Why yes, I only listen to the Top 100 Billboard songs. How can you tell?” - OP, probably

In all seriousness OP, broaden your horizons in music. You clearly don’t listen to enough music to know that men also sing about breakups, love, and relationships.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

I wrote in my original post that I listen to Trip Hop. Did you not see that?

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Both Spotify and apple music have massive playlists of female singers in the rock/metal genre, you need to stop looking at pop music if you want to find decent stuff

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Are the females in those bands writing the songs or are the guys writing the songs?

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Female singers only want to sing about love, relationships or breakups

Someone's moving the goalpost

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Not moving the goalpost. That's what I was originally thinking during creation of the post but perhaps I could have phrased my title better. The whole point is about creativity and using your imagination to come up with song ideas.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

Do you think that most pop singers write their songs themselves?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

I gave you a suggestion to help find new artists/bands, the research on songwriting is up to you, but I can tell you now there's a lot of bands where the front woman is writing

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (2 children)

That's truly an unpopular opinion.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago

Because it's not really an opinion.

It's a weird rant on a weird faulty assumption.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

It’s a factually incorrect one, so…

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (2 children)

@QueenB how the hell would you come to this conclusion ?? This is a troll right ?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

@tournesol @QueenB Male artists keep writing about love, and this is disgusting. Ed Sheeran's Shape of You, OneRepublic's Counting Stars, Eminem's Mockingbird (fatherly love), Snoop Dogg's Beautiful, Linkin Park's Numb... All this shit makes me want to puke, where are REAL men?? At least the ladies know how to do it, they should learn from Britney, at least she is Toxic!

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I listen to music. That's how.

I just don't see many examples like Led Zeppelin - Immigrant Song that are not only sung by a female but also were written by one.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

@QueenB OMFG like almost every Zeppelin song is about fucking or a woman that's done them wrong, driven them to drink etc.

And please don't use "female" to describe women unless you're writing a police report.

@tournesol

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

Off the top of my head:

Massively well known: Annie Lennox, Suzanne Vega, some members of Chumbawamba

More indie: Grumpster, Lynette Knackstedt (RIP), The Dollyrots, Cher Strauberry

Also, I think you're making a lot of assumptions here, especially the one where you suspect that if it's not about a relationship, then a man must have written it

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I hate it when people see the word female and instantly call someone an incel. But this reads like an incel manifesto

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

I hate it when people see the word female and instantly call someone an incel. But this reads like an incel manifesto

How narrow-minded are you? Did you ever think that I might be a lot older than you? There was nothing wrong with the word females in the 80s or before. The outrage is a new invention by the generations who have to be offended by everything. Fuck! It's just a word. And it was perfectly fine to use it in the past.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

If this is a thread to recommend kickass woman songwriters, I'll add a couple of names to the list:

  • Gillian Welch. One of the best in country music. Time (The Revelator) is my favourite album, and has a really cool song touching upon themes such as the sinking of the Titanic, the troubles of getting red clay off your dress, and how hard it is to make money as an artist these days.
  • PJ Harvey. Listen to hear early stuff for punk, or her newer stuff for all kinds of experimentation. I dig Rid of Me for the former and Let England Shake for the latter.
  • Patti Smith. Because somehow I don't see Patti Smith mentioned in this thread yet.
[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Just a note to say that PJ Harvey can send you down a dark, dark path. I can’t listen to her unless I’m able to clock out for a couple of days to recover. She’s a really powerful singer.

Also, I want to call out both Sinead (and I’m not even going to get into the character arc she was subjected to, but highly recommend her later work as well as her early stuff) and Kate Bush, if you’re into the more experimental stuff. Going further I that direction would be of course Björk and the incomparable Diamanda Galas. On the other end of the spectrum you’ve got bands like the Cranberries, with Zombies being easily if not superior to anything done by U2 on the Troubles.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

Pop songs aren't written by the singer and more of the writers are men.