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What percentage of your music collection features female vocalists?

F

foidulus

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jan 15, 2007
904
1
As I was listening to my music collection the other day, I came to the realization that less than 15% of my music collection features female vocal leads. Though it seems that I am not alone in this. I was talking with a co-worker about it and she said that she, "doesn't like the sound of women singers."

There are some female vocalists that I really like(CSS and Tori Amos come to mind) but maybe its just that I am only into "male-dominated" genres.

I was just wondering if we are anamolies or not. How much of your music collection(as a percentage of the tracks that feature vocals)?
 
I don't know as a percentage, but it's the same for me. I don't have very much with female lead singers because I generally don't like the sound of female singers. However, the few that I do like, I really like a lot, so it's certainly not a universal thing.
 
I couldn't begin to even fathom a guess, my music collection is just too big. Off the top of my head, I listen to amy winehouse, carole king, billie holiday, the Muffs, Bjork, fiona apple, lauryn hill, indigo girls, and many more. It's just too hard to estimate. But if you really pressed me to take a guess, 15% does sound like it'd be about the ballpark.
 
The (bands with) female vocalists that have more than 3 songs in my collection:
Aretha Franklin
CSS
Lily Allen
Macy Gray
Nina Simone
White stripes
Zero 7

I guess the reason that its so small for me is partly because I love music I can listen to live, and in my experience, men perform so much more energetically on stage than women usually.
 
Not much at all. The bands with a female sing I have in my collection are: Architecture in Helsinki, Be Your Own Pet, Bjork, CSS, The Dresden Dolls, The Distillers, The Grates, Horror Pops, Ladytron, Massive Attack, Robots In Disguise, Sarah Blasko, Sonic Youth, and Young and Restless.

Thats 15 out of about 180 artists :eek:
 
That is sort of an interesting question... for me it seems to be about half and half.

I listen to music for a number of different reasons, and who or what I listen to has a lot to do with why I'm listening to begin with.

For example, most of the music I workout to is sung by male artists, while most of the music I sleep too is sung by female artist. I'm more likely to stay focused and aggressive to a male voice, and I'm more likely to enter a state of calm and peacefulness while hearing a female voice. I don't know if that is unique to me or not, but a female presence (even just that of a female voice) has the effect of subduing aggressive impulses within me.

Additionally, it is easier for me to envision a male singer's song as my own, while a female singer's song is more easier imagined as being sung to me. That isn't to say that I don't ever empathize with a female singers position, it is just that in large part it is easier to replace my inner voice (which is male) with that of a male singer's voice. But the plus side of listening to female singer's from an empathetic stance is that it allows for a glimpse into a realm which I am forever outside of... the female psyche.

I learned a long time ago that you can learn a lot about women by just taking the time to listen to them. I listen to my wife, to all my female friends, and to songs sung by women. I can't imagine loving women and ignoring such a valuable resource as listening to them. :eek:
 
Lets see, I have Natalie Merchant, Bjork, Portishead, Bebel Gilberto, Cat Power, Collins Kids, Fiona Apple, Fleetwood Mac, Joanna Newsom, June Carter, Loretta Lynn, Rose Maddox, Lucinda Williams, etc... I'd probably close to 30 to 35%.
 
0%, sorry i just dont like the sound. Not really sure why. I don't think its the high pitchedness because I've got James Blunt, Cold War Kids, and Franz Ferdinand which are all way up there.
 
Aretha Franklin
Carole King
The Supremes
Heart
Janis Joplin
Loretta Lynn
Patsy Cline


not very much. and i just got the Aretha and Supremes albums last week.
 
Let's see...

x1 Aly and AJ (it's a Christmas song we used the Christmas before last)
x1 The Corrs (a song I used for Year 9 RE)
x1 Dido (another Christmas song)
x4 Emma Grace (a local high school graduate)
x1 Puffy Amiyumi (cover of Basket Case by Green Day)
x1 Sheryl Crow (Real Gone)
x22 Shiny Toy Guns
x8 t.A.T.u.

Can't tell you percentage.
 
The best new female vocalist that I know of is amy winehouse. Her songs are about how ****ed up she is, and telling people not to smoke all her weed, and how she won't go to rehab. The music sound is like pure old school soul from the 50s and 60s, but with a few modern twists. It's cool stuff.

Listen to the song samples on amazon. (actually I just listened to a few of the excerpts they used as the sample sections and they somehow managed to use the most lyrically clean and musically boring sounding sections of all the songs. So you don't get to hear her nasty lyrics and killer choruses in these samples. Oh well, at least you'll get a taste of her flavor.)

http://www.amazon.com/Back-Black-Am...bs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1202113889&sr=1-1
 
As an Amazon Associate, MacRumors earns a commission from qualifying purchases made through links in this post.
Man that's a messy thing to have to compute, no tags at the ready to say who's female, have to go through them all by name, my eyes are gettin' bleary!

well i excluded all classical and opera, sacred etc. stuff, excluded jazz instrumentalists

left in alt rock, rock, blues, jazz vocal, folk, gospel, latino, french, reggae, country, R&B, club, pop.

89 female vocalists or bands with one or more female vocalists (CSS i count as one, Christine McVie and Stevie Nicks as one)

out of approximately 518 bands, groups or solo vocalists

is 17 percent. I was surprised it was that high but I'm happy it is!

I listed them in a text file
 

Attachments

  • FemaleVocalistsList2008Feb03.txt
    1.3 KB · Views: 162
Erm, I think >50% of my songs have female vocalists.

Who wants to listen to some bloke sing when you could listen to a beautiful woman (<3 Kylie)? And I take an immediate dislike to anybody who doesn't own Spirit by Leona Lewis :D
 
About 20% of my collection is female artists. I would have thought it would be higher, since I enjoy female artists more than male artists in most cases.
 
I have a lot of music, and I'm going to guess around 1 to 5% of my music has a lead female vocalist, or one that shows up significantly in an album. I'm not counting the lone, individual mp3 that's done by a female I have on my computer. Usually, I either have complete albums or not.


Anyway:

- Bats for Lashes
- Bjork
- Portishead
- Beth Gibbons (same as Portishead, I guess)
- Camille
- Feist
- The Go! Team (listen really carefully......she's there all the time)
- M.I.A (not great)
- Madonna ("Confessions On A Dancefloor" = gross)
- Mother Mother
- Nelly Furtado
- New Young Pony Club
- Sons and Daughters
- Stars
 
miniConvert said:
Erm, I think >50% of my songs have female vocalists.

Who wants to listen to some bloke sing when you could listen to a beautiful woman (<3 Kylie)? And I take an immediate dislike to anybody who doesn't own Spirit by Leona Lewis :D
Click to expand...

It's weird because I was JUST thinking about this the other day, the fact that I much prefer female singers. I listen to very, very little rock music. Most of my music consists of female vocalists, R&B male vocalists (who sing closer to a female style than say, a John Mayer), and hip hop music, which isn't so much singing.

This is where I shamelessly point out my username. And avatar. And signature. :D

If you're curious, those who currently top my list: Mariah, Beyonce, Jenny Lewis, Lara Fabian, this woman (Lisa Lynne Mathis), P!nk, Leona Lewis, Martina McBride
 
The past few years, I've gravitated more towards artists/groups with female vocalists...don't know what it is. I've been listening to a lot of Rilo Kiley/Jenny Lewis, Hem, Patty Griffin, Gillian Welch, Lucinda Williams...stuff like that.
 
A few, off the top of my head:

Otep
The Distillers
Arch Enemy
Jack Off Jill
Girls Aloud
Tatu
Madonna
Kylie
Dido (With Em. if that counts)
Lily Allen

There are lots more, but I can't think right now.
 
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