Women in Pop Music

HeY-bEaRDo

I'm doing some research on the topic below:

How have successful women in popular music coped with the continual criticism that they are "inauthentic" as musicians?

Any comments would be cool.

Doctor DooM

HeY-bEaRDo wrote: »

I'm doing some research on the topic below:

How have successful women in popular music coped with the continual criticism that they are "inauthentic" as musicians?

Any comments would be cool.

You mean as opposed to the men??

Doesn't make much sense.

Pop music isn't about making music. Its about making money. They simply don't care about being musicians.

Britney Spears - Gone Insane

Kerry Katona - Works In Iceland Now

Rigsby

HeY-bEaRDo wrote: »

How have successful women in popular music coped with the continual criticism that they are "inauthentic" as musicians?

Britney Spears, The Spice Girls, Madonna.......... musicians :rolleyes:

There are very few women (or men for that matter) in popular music today that you could call musicians in the true sense of the word. Entertainers- yes, musicians - definitely not.

SxE Punk

Pop puppets, regardless of gender, are tools used for their pretty faces by major labels to sell mass amounts of merchandise and catchy music written by professionals hired to do so.

And thats all they do and all they're good for.

DonnaD

u try and get up on stage in front of thousands and thousands of ppl - singing and dancing! Most(not all) have been in the music industry for years before they get their lucky break, trying their hand at everything. Ye pretty faces sell - Get over it ppl like you are just jealous.

Rigsby

DonnaD wrote: »

u try and get up on stage in front of thousands and thousands of ppl - singing and dancing! Most(not all) have been in the music industry for years before they get their lucky break, trying their hand at everything. Ye pretty faces sell - Get over it ppl like you are just jealous.

Your damn right I'm jealous I'd love to know how I could become a millionaire(ess) by singing a song like the one that goes "na-na-na, na-na-na-na-na" :rolleyes:

SxE Punk

DonnaD wrote: »

u try and get up on stage in front of thousands and thousands of ppl - singing and dancing! Most(not all) have been in the music industry for years before they get their lucky break, trying their hand at everything. Ye pretty faces sell - Get over it ppl like you are just jealous.

What does that have to do with anything?

has nothing to do with anything. all you need to be a popstar is to be good looking and have songs written for you.

blow69

Actually Britney does write a good bit of her own music or at least co-writes it.On her album before her latest one, she wrote/co-wrote almost all the songs. And most people will argue that that album was definitely her best.Although people are saying that her latest is very good too!

As does Madonna

damonjewel

HeY-bEaRDo wrote: »

I'm doing some research on the topic below:

How have successful women in popular music coped with the continual criticism that they are "inauthentic" as musicians?

Any comments would be cool.

The example of Britney is one of someone who hasn't coped well, but look through the ages and their a plenty of Girl pop acts to check out how they have coped, the supremes, 3 degrees, bananarama etc

Rigsby

damonjewel wrote: »

The example of Britney is one of someone who hasn't coped well,

Read the first post again damon We are talking about women coping with criticism for being "inauthentic" as musicians.

Whatever else Ms. Spears has to cope with, being a musician ("inauthentic" or otherwise) is not one of them.

damonjewel

Yes I seem to be having difficulty understanding the question, especially the phrase inauthentic as musicians. Does the OP mean

A) A woman who plays a musical instrument but actually cant and has received criticism for it (The only person I can think of is Andrew Ridgeley)

A woman who is a star but actually didn't perform at all on the tracks and has received criticism for it(e.g like MIlli Vanilli)

C) A person who is a famous star but doesn't write their own material and has received criticism for it

D) Something else entirely

Any chance of some clarification OP?

Rigsby

damonjewel wrote: »

Any chance of some clarification OP?

I agree that would be necessary.

To me, a musician is someone who is proficient at playing a musicial instrument and/or writing (as in scoring) a piece of music. A woman who immediatly springs to mind would be Joni Mitchell (not really pop music I admit ).

biko

"How have successful women in popular music coped with the continual criticism that they are "inauthentic" as musicians?"

Is that so? Can you elaborate? Who do you refer to? Which magazine do you work for?

grumpytrousers

Rigsby wrote: »

I agree that would be necessary.

To me, a musician is someone who is proficient at playing a musicial instrument and/or writing (as in scoring) a piece of music. A woman who immediatly springs to mind would be Joni Mitchell (not really pop music I admit ).

right - but carol king would be actually the kind you're looking for. She wrote honest to god pop songs like 'I feel the earth move', 'The Loco-motion' and 'Will you still love me tomorrow' and also did more 'serious' stuff on albums like Tapestry. Whether she 'coped' with the criticism the OP levels, i dunno. It seems like rather a supposition by the OP that it's almost axiomatic - you are a woman in music THEREFORE you will face criticism, and I don't think that's the case.

If, however, you choose to be a pop-star nowadays, one of the surefire ways to get noticed is to live a lot of your life in the public eye, and it IS axiomatic that you will get a lot more attention paid to you, warts and all. Whether women are better or worse equipped to deal with that then men, I don't know though!. I'd suspect not, but if that lands me into the bucket marked 'sexist pig' then i'll withdraw the opinion!

biko

Anyone - male or female - that don't write their own music can be criticised as being fake these days. Boy/girl bands both sucks. Young 16yo nymphets that sing about life's hardships, well maybe they need to live a bit first.

damonjewel

biko wrote: »

Anyone - male or female - that don't write their own music can be criticised as being fake these days. Boy/girl bands both sucks. Young 16yo nymphets that sing about life's hardships, well maybe they need to live a bit first.

Why these days? There has been manafactured pop since the dawn of pop. Could Dionne warwick, or Cilla black be criticised for singing songs by Bacharrach and David, Lennon and Macartney?

I agree that modern boy/girl bands suck but they obviously have an appeal to a lot of people somewhere; unfortunately.

biko

Most songs sung by Tamla Motown artists was written by Holland-Dozier-Holland. The Supremes's hits was all by HDH.

They were the chewing gum pop stars of their time and was probably criticised (I guess, wasn't around then )

It might be down to that some people listen to the meaning of the song (the lyrics) and other listen to the melody (the whole as a package).

Rigsby

Some interesting points made by everyone. Another slant on the topic might be this : if you are a pop star (musician or not) man or woman, coping with criticism comes with the territory. How do they cope with it ? I could n't care less to be honost

MoominPapa

Rigsby wrote: »

if you are a pop star (musician or not) man or woman, coping with criticism comes with the territory. How do they cope with it ? I could n't care less to be honost

I'd say they roll around on king sized water beds tossing handful after handful of large denomination bills into the air all the while making "Wieeeeee" noises

Rustar

There are plenty of women who are actually talented musicians, singers and songwriters, and are respected as such. Some are wholly pop, others are in other genres but occasionally delve into pop.

Off the top of my head -

Joni Mitchell mentioned, one of the greatest singer/guitar player/songwriters of the century

Bonnie Raitt, lovely voice and plays some of the meanest blues slide you'll ever hear

Rickie Lee Jones, "The Duchess of Coolsville!"

Ann & Nancy Wilson from Heart, both extremely talented, and Ann has one of the biggest voices ever

Let's not forget Grace Slick, Joan Jett, Lita Ford, Aimee Mann, Amy Lee and others.