I got an entire set (okay, a two-song set) dedicated to me by My Favorite DJ™. I’m sure the fact that I had just made a pledge in KDHX’s pledge drive had nothing to do with it…Nah, the set consisted of songs by two artists that John knows I love: “Everybody Come Down” by the Delgados and “Lying,” the song that made me a Sam Phillips fan. Literally. It was one of those rare times that reading about an artist and a song made me go out and buy the record without having heard a single note. I read some article that talked about Sam’s spirituality, her search for truth and meaning, and it quoted “Lying” at some length, noting that it was written partly in response to Sinead O’Connor’s “I Do Not Want What I Have Not Got.” Sam’s answer is: “If I said I don’t want what I don’t have/And all the answers are in love/If I said I believe in myself/And that’s enough/I’d be lying.” Made sense to me.
And the set reminded me that I’ve been meaning to ruminate about the Female Vocalist Question. I’m guessing that I have about twice as many female vocalists on my iPod as anyone I know, and I’m forever intrigued by the “issues” people have with female singers. I’m as hard on the ones I don’t like, as hypercritical of them, as anyone—the baby-voiced ones, and even more, the thin-voiced ones, the girls who really can’t sing much at all but do so anyway. (Bananarama are my canonical example of this—their three thin little voices combined didn’t even add up to one decent voice—but there are plenty of others.) And that makes me wonder about the sort of built-in sexism of our attitude toward female vocalists; they seem to be judged so much more harshly than male singers, and we have much higher standards for them than we do for men. Or so it seems to me. I have friends, both male and female, who make blanket statements like “I don’t really like female singers,” as though they all sounded the same. Or maybe as though the listeners assume that all female singers will be grating somehow.
And I do it too, I know I’m a much harsher critic of female singers than of males, and much more particular about the ones I think are great. In my case, I think that’s because female singers matter more to me, so I want them to be good. There are heaps and piles of male singers who are just fine but don’t blow up my skirt in any particular way; I’d maybe even say that the majority of male singers that I hear strike me that way. I’m also noticing a growing trend toward annoying/quirky/whiny male vocalists (Conor Oberst, the Decembrists’ singer, others), so maybe my criticisms of guy singers will begin to match the ones of female singers. A great male singer, of course, can make me melt into a little puddle, but there are relatively few of those (hardly any rock ones, either—more soul and country singers, and Nick Drake)…and even the ones I love best don’t quite affect me the way my favorite female vocalists do. There are also relatively few female vocalists in my pantheon of the truly brilliant, I guess, but those who are there are practically like goddesses to me: lots of the Celtic singers I’ve mentioned here before, of course, and needless to say, Sandy Denny, the queen of all vocalists ever, and Lori Carson, and Emma Pollock from the Delgados, and the magnificent Patty Loveless, and Sharon Jones, and even Carol Van Dijk, who’s not a conventionally great singer but makes her voice work. And the Boone/Kelly sisters from the Damnations, and of course Sam, and…lots of ‘em, anyway.
Not sure exactly what my point is here, really; it’s just something I think about a lot. It bugs me that so many people are inherently hostile to female singers, and it bugs me even more when I’m guilty of thinking that way myself.