this post was submitted on 12 Feb 2024

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Unpopular Opinion

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Female singers only want to sing about love, relationships, or breakups. They need to sing more about Godzilla, Vikings, The Grim Reaper, or making a bet with the Devil for a golden fiddle. (lemmy.world)

submitted 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

56 comments fedilink hide all child comments

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] 6 points 7 months 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 7 months 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] 6 points 7 months 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 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months 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] -1 points 7 months ago

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

[–] [email protected] 5 points 7 months ago

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

[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months 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] 11 points 7 months ago

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

[–] [email protected] 16 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

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] -2 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Women singers legit sounds like cave people speak as in “grug go hunt”. It’s so grammatically jarring.

Women of London - Normal
Female of London - Ferengi/Incel

Women Journalist- Caveperson
Female Journalist - Normal

Men of London - Normal
Male of London - Weird

Men Journalist- Caveperson
Male Journalist - Normal

Etc. I don’t know where this grammatical shift came from, but its only really popped up in the last 5 or so years and feels chiefly American.

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

For future reference:

Male/female is chiefly used to refer to biological contexts. “Female spiders in some species tend to devour their male mates” is a perfectly acceptable description.

Men/women is chiefly used to refer to human-centric sociological contexts. “Women in technology roles face hurdles that men in similar roles do not.” is also a perfectly reasonable description.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 7 months ago (1 children)

@SatanicNotMessianic @Deceptichum I think that's somewhat fair, but linguistically "female" is an adjective and "women" is a noun. The noun in that sentence is "singer" and female is a classifying adjective.

The original post IS stupid and has sexist overtones, but I don't think they come from word choice.

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

I think I’m going to have to disagree on the basis of such usages as “women singers/songwriters.”

The differentiation is socio-linguistic, because “female” is often used in a dehumanizing context in English. Sociology-linguistically, it’s similar to referring to “blacks” as opposed to “black Americans” or “deafs” as opposed to “deaf people.” The problem is specifically substituting a noun that historically been used to dehumanize the people to which it refers, because it is exclusionary of the “default” status (male, white, hearing).

I am on the side of the linguists who take a descriptive rather than a prescriptive approach to the analysis of language, but part of being a descriptivist is recognizing the subtext potentially if subconsciously involved.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago

@SatanicNotMessianic can't say any of that is wrong or unreasonable, but I still do find the expressed intent of the post more misogynistic than the use of the word female in context.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months 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] 5 points 7 months ago (2 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 4 points 7 months 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] -1 points 7 months 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] 2 points 7 months 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 7 months ago (1 children)

Have you heard anything by 4 Non Blondes, Veruca Salt, or Hole?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 7 months ago (2 children)

That's truly an unpopular opinion.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago

It’s a factually incorrect one, so…

[–] [email protected] 8 points 7 months ago

Because it's not really an opinion.

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

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