there have been a number of successful girl-fronted rock bands in the past… two immediately come to mind: no doubt (of course), and the now defunct save ferris… i’ve also found a few girl-fronted rock bands lately that have caught my interest…
first is the vincent black shadow, whose video i saw on fuse one day and looked up merely cuz i thought the chick was hot… turns out their music wasn’t half bad, kinda poppy and a tad predictable at times, but the lead singer (i think her name is cassandra?) has a beautiful voice. the two songs that i really enjoy are metro and don’t go soft.
next is paramore… now, i don’t know too much about this band nor heard anything else but their current single, but i like the style and the energy the band portrays in their music video for misery business. i’m making an attempt to check out their other songs, but their single is pretty catchy.
third up is a band called flyleaf. their current single, all around me has some heavy guitar and a nice little guitar hook in the back, and the lead singer’s voice is pretty powerful. i’m trying to check out their music as well.
and of course there’s arch enemy, which may be a little too dark and heavy (and possibly frightening) for most people, but i list them because i think it’s awesome that a girl-fronted band can hold their own in the heavy metal scene, and i like their song we will rise… that’s prolly the execption in this list, and you’ll see why below…
and yes there’s evanescence and others, but let’s stick with this list for now…
the reason i mention these bands is that i’ve liked bands with frontwomen because of the melodies that i think most frontmen would not be able to make as effective if they sang it… what usually sets it apart for me are those recordings where the woman is harmonizing with herself… girls singing their own harmonies seem to work better than guys singing their own harmonies, and it may be due to a number of factors, such as timbre, range, etc… i’ve always singled out those parts in my ears and in my head, and somehow they seem to work well within these rock arrangements… in the end, listening to one specific part of a song actually draws me to like the entire thing.
there is one band in particular that i want to mention, only because the moment i was turned onto them (thanks pip!), they were no longer. that band is called estrela, and the only place you can find their songs is on myspace (when it’s working)… not only were the vocals super strong and had beautiful harmonies, the musicians were kick ass… the drums alone on surfacing got me hooked, and i’m super bummed they are no more.
anyways, if anyone out there has some other girl-fronted bands worth mentioning, don’t hesitate to post them in the comments!
-m