Women Who Rock; My Alternative Female Group Database

After reading a post in Jezebel about the first ever all-female Pakistani rock band, Zeb and Haniya, had an urge to write about women who rock.

Zeb and Haniya are from "the Taliban-infested North West Frontier Province," like female rock bands don't have enough adversity to face. These ladies are bringing rock back to India which hasn't happened in ages. Haniya told the Times of India, ‘‘This opposition from the Indian music industry has certainly slowed down the business of Pakistani artistes, but music is something that has no boundaries. And if people like our music we will certainly come back to India.’’

I am inspired by this band because, lets face it, like most other forms of artistic expression, women are under appreciated. This is largely seen in the music world, and in my opinion there is a pretty blatant disregard for female musicians in the public eye.

Female bands are not as few and far between as some may think. To prove this I have spent the past few days compiling a database of female solo artists, songwriters, bands, frontwomen, etc. from my personal music library and friends suggestions. You may notice that most of these groups are not heard on the radio. I listen to alternative, indie-like music, some are obscure and relatively unknown, but others you may listen to yourself. I am narrowing this list down to a specific genre I enjoy, but if this catches on, maybe fellow bloggers could build a list of a genre they enjoy; folk, blues, pop (cough cough Bonnie Carlson, Lizz Mcnamara cough), heavy, ambient, electronic, etc.

This is largely a database for me, just so I can catalogue all my favorite women who rock! But I thought, why not share this with other fellow readers of our Campus Choice blog, maybe you will find something to add to your play list. This is what I have so far:

Imogen Heap/The Sounds (my favorite band)/Flyleaf/Metric/Tegan and Sara/Santogold/M.I.A./Iv in Vein/Goldfrapp/Headlights/Blue Foundation/Bat for Lashes/ Paramore/Kittie/The Donnas/Over the Rhine/The Ting Tings/Shiny Toy Guns/Jenny Owen Youngs/Lily Allen/Ani Defranco/Dirty Martini/Rilo Kiley/Meiko/Tori Amos/Mazzy Star/ Lavender Diamond/Otep/April March/The Gossip/Le Tigre/The Sundays/Sixpense None the Richer/Liz Phair/Regina Spektor...

This is what I have gathered thus far in my search. If you wanna add a group, you can post a comment or email me at zseolivo3@gmail.com :)!

Enjoy!

picture courtesy of flikr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/easybored/1240017444/