From Joni to Lilith: Women in Music [Featured Video - "Fully Alive" by Flyleaf]
 

Background

I have been obsessing about the Lilith Fair for… well, years. Not that I ever went to a concert during its original run. (I was young.) If you don't know what I'm talking about, Lilith was spearheaded by Sarah McLachlan, who was tired of never seeing female singers booked back to back. She, along with a few others, decided to start a music festival featuring women, both solo singer/songwriters and those fronting bands. It ran for three years, from 1997 to 1999 and featured some big names like Sheryl Crow and Lisa Loeb and Fiona Apple. These were women I heard on the radio all the time, in the late '90s and early '00s. I am nostalgic about them today.

Fast-forward to 2010. I'd been slowly working my way through the list of the '90s Lilith Fair artists, which is quite long, and finding new favorites in the midst of high school memories, when I learned that Lilith was coming back. Which was awesome. Naturally, I had to find a way to go to one of those concerts. Luckily, the one I chose wasn't cancelled due to economic issues like quite a few others, and I got to go to Philadelphia and hear… well, women I've loved listening to for years, such as Missy Higgins (the reason I chose Philly over the much closer Detroit) and Sarah McLachlan. And I found some new favorites, too, like Butterfly Boucher and Serena Ryder. (They rock! No, really, they do!)

That concert is over and done with now, but I'm still not tired of talking about -- nay, celebrating -- women in music. And I know I'm not alone.

Purpose

So, this is the forum in which to chat about our favorites. They need not be Lilith artists. (Joni Mitchell certainly isn't, and she's in the title!) They don't have to be of any particular genre. Just women whose music you particularly like! Feel free to post YouTube videos and even Last.fm profiles (like mine) if you wish. (If that gets to be a popular thing, I may list them on the second post. If people want that.)

Featured Video

http://a.imageshack.us/img801/6514/listing.jpg

Artists mentioned in this thread end up here. They are sorted alphabetically by first or band name. I gave up on the genre thing. Musical taxonomy. Yeesh.

This listing is made up of every artist and song anyone has suggested in this thread. Thank you to Soda, carzeebear, BellyButton, Wynna, Linnea, and Cherry Flavored Antacid for all of your suggestions! If you want to know who suggested what... Well, the list would get very cluttered, very quickly, if I put names next to each song. So I'll just let you use the "Search the Thread" function. Speak up if that's not okay!

Oooh cool! I like this song ^^ I'ma actually read it now.. haha.

very nice looking, cica!

Soda: Glad you do! ^_^

Thanks, Kat! :)

Hmm... Personally I'm a big fan of Brooke Fraser XD But there are lots of great women artists out there.

Haha ok, now that I've read it....

Umm band I'd like to put out there is Metric! It's not completely female but Emily Haines is their front line singer. Would they qualify? I think they've got some awesome talent. They're from Toronto Canada and I guess would be considered Indy Rock.

Another big name in my head would be Imogen Heap. I love her.


Edit : Man now you got me thinking about female artists and I realized I can think of a lot.. At least 10 off the top of my head.

Hiya, Carzee! :) I've heard of Brooke Fraser, I think. Or the name sounds familiar. Hm... Post a video? I'm curious now!

Oh, Soda, Metric definitely counts. "Gimme Sympathy" ended up in my library as part of a Lilith sampler, actually. :yes: Imogen is great, too! Keep meaning to listen to more of her...

Can't work out how to get the video to work. Here's a link
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_UIobYWSTiE

Well cica, for the hell of it I'm going to drop some big female artists I can think of. Genre will vary fairly widely for the four I'm thinking of right now. Well big might not be the word, talented. You may blame this on to much time and a mass library of female artists.

Ok here's two songs stolen from my play list just for click ability as I all ready mentioned them. Metric - Monster Hospital & Imogen Heap - Canvas. Something I'd like to add about Metric, they've had a distinct sound on each album pretty much. This is one of their older ones, but they've had a track on newest Twilight movie Eclipse and their track Gold Gun Girls from their newest album is found in the Zombieland soundtrack. Most people know Imogen from her Frou Frou days. Another big tip off for a lot of people is that she is actually behind that nice song in the credits of the first Chronicles of Narnia movie "Can't Take it In" But most people never know who it was by or the name of it.

Portishhead - Wandering Star
Ok I wasn't aware of Portishead till recently, but if there's one thing I do know. These guys have a extremely unique sound and their female vocalist has a gorgeous voice. I'm not sure if this particular song really demonstrates her voice, I think I really took notice when I heard Machine Gun by them.

Garbage - Cherry Lips
Oh man, Shirly Manson, when I think of Garbage I instantly think of how they really pushed the limit with their video's. Very androgynous, great music, great band. I figured they deserved to be mentioned.

Feist - 1234
Feist is another one I just had to mention, this song was used in an Ipod commercial I think. Feist is just cool, and I'm pretty sure I'm the only person who pronounces it "Fee-est". Oh yeah she's from Canada too and is a member of Broken Social Scene.

And here's two under dogs I doubt many people have heard of:

Ayria - My revenge on the world
Ayria (pronounced Area) is a underground artist from Toronto Ontario, she's pretty cool. I really don't have too much to comment that you can't find on Wikipedia, other then I find this music strangely addicting.

Natalie Walker - Circles
Ok Natalie is a solo artist from the USA, I forget exactly where. Last I checked she has not been signed yet but she does have two beautiful albums, I really like her.



Was that ok Cica? That's just a few after much narrowing down..

Hey Cica, this was a cool idea! *bookmarks for later*

Edit: Nm, I'm going to add one now. I hope it's okay if the genre is all over the place. :lol:


Joan Osborne - wiki - Official Website. Not a Lilith fair gal as far as I know, but saw her play just by chance once and she was awesome. She's got some serious channeling powers. Here's a decent one of hers:

Oh my gosh, I forgot the Dixie Chicks! XD I love this band.

Ohh, wow you guys! ^_^ I haven't had time to listen to all of these yet, but I will try tonight. I did like Brooke Fraser, though, Carzee! For some reason I was expecting country -- I think it's the name -- but the acoustic pop was a pleasant surprise. And you since you mentioned Dixie Chicks, well, what about the Court Yard Hounds? :) Can't forget them!

And I have heard of Feist, at least, Soda, but you have reminded me that I do need to get myself a copy of at least one of her albums. Gave one to Mom for Christmas (or maybe her birthday?) one year, but it ended up living in her car, so I never get to hear it. :gonk:

On another (heh) note, you may have noticed an artist listing with links to posted videos. The asterisks next to each name link to the post where said artist was first mentioned, but... I have this feeling that's going to get messy and distracting. So... Instead, is it okay if I take those away and add a disclaimer instead about where the suggestions come from? If anyone's curious about them, they can always search the thread. (Also, genre is always up for debate! Especially since I'm pretty much relying on Wikipedia...)

I'm not going to lie your organization confuses me! But I suppose I can pull out some more artists!

Lily Allen - 22
Lilly is a English (pop/grime/alternative pop style?) singer songwriter. I believe she's a talk show host and reasonably active for causes and charities.

The Cardigans - My Favorite Game
This a Swedish band, they're sorta on off in the past. I really don't have a whole lot to say about them to be honest.

Kylie Minogue - Better than today
Kylie simply strongly reminds me of listening to the (only) radio station packed full top pop charts music from the 90s. She's had 11 albums now says Wikipedia? Crazyness!

Soda: It confuses me, too. :sweat: Maybe I should just go with an alphabetical listing and leave out the genre thing...

Lily Allen has been growing on me. I sort of put her in the same category as Kate Nash, whatever that is. (Mockney chav pop? :p) Though Kate I took to a lot sooner. Not sure why. Lily's more mature, though. Maybe it's a big sister vs. little sister vibe... Hm. Yeah, that's it. Especially considering "Alfie."

YouTube - Lily Allen - Alfie Video

And The Cardigans! I remember "Lovefool." That got a lot of radio play once upon a time. Oh geez, nostalgia... :heart:

YouTube - The Cardigans - Lovefool (original version)

Kylie reminds me of Madonna, sort of. Why is that?

christina perri debuted on a result show of so you think you can dance cause this song was used in a dance the week before... the song was a huge hit and since then christina has climbed the charts :) love this song ... although her live performance was sucky, but the album version is decent!

Huh. Too bad about the live thing. She has a beautiful voice! Sometimes reality/talent show programs have positive effects, at least.

i heard the same of the rock group flyleaf... the lead is a chick and they sound pretty good on the radio and junk... never saw them live, just heard that second hand... it could have been an amp problem... maybe

but here are some videos for your library...
everyone's heard this one i think, it was their first song out


and these two are some of the ones i like better

Ahh, Flyleaf! I keep seeing that name around, but I've never listened to them. They seem to be big right now, though. Their sound is very... well, current. The sort of thing I'll think of twenty years from now when talking about '10s music. :yes:

Oh, and then there is SHEL. Not sure how to describe them. I still have to listen to their EP. (They don't even have a full-length album out yet.) But I was pretty taken by their single, and... Geez, what is this? I think it's pop music. (Or is it folk?) Anyway, this is them live.



And studio:



Yeah, okay, we can call them folk. :)

Edit: Oh, hey, I recognize "All Around Me." Where have I heard this before? oO

Omg cica, I didn't even connect that the Cardigans made Lovefool, now you got me all nostalgic!

I like Flyleaf on occasion, but to be honest those three songs are pretty much the only ones I care to listen to I donno! The All Around Me song I'm pretty much has been used a few times in the media so that might be it Cica.

Never heard of Shel before but I quiet like that second song!

Hee, how could you forget? XD

I'm just trying to figure out what the heck sort of media I was watching that might have had the Flyleaf song. Maybe it popped up on Pandora for me, or something...

Not sure the amateur videography does that first song justice. That's the one that gets stuck in my head. The second one probably will as well, though. Eventually. XD

Well I don't know to much about this band. But my best friend is all about Ladytron. have you ever heard of them?

@Linnea: I think Cassie was actually Flyleaf's first song. It's really good, and was originally titled Rachel. It's about some rumours about the Columbine shooting that have been disproved but are still popular theories.