Women in music

By 1614 she was the court's most highly paid musician, because her musical virtuosity exemplified the idea of female excellence projected by Tuscany's de facto regent, Grand Duchess Christina of Lorraine.

In her early career, she played what was then customary, mainly bravura pieces designed to showcase the artist's technique, often in the form of arrangements or variations on popular themes from operas, written by virtuosos such as Thalberg, Herz, or Henselt.

Larsen won the Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 2000 and published her book The Concert Hall That Fell Asleep and Woke Up as a Car Radio in 2007.

Though there were plenty of female singers on the radio, women ...were primarily seen as consumers:... Singing was sometimes an acceptable pastime for a girl, but playing an instrument, writing songs, or producing records simply wasn't done.

The artists spearheading this movement were featured in Newsweek, July 1969, "The Girls: Letting Go": "What is common to them – to Joni Mitchell and Lotti Golden, to Laura Nyro, Melanie, Janis Ian and to Elyse Weinberg, are the personalized songs they write, like voyages of self-discovery.

[72] Native New Yorker, Lotti Golden, in her Atlantic debut album Motor-Cycle, chronicled her life in NYC's East Village in the late 1960s counterculture, visiting subjects such as gender identity ("The Space Queens [Silky is Sad]") and excessive drug use ("Gonna Fay's").

"[6]: 104  "Women are mainly regarded as passive and private consumers of allegedly slick, prefabricated – hence, inferior – pop music..., excluding them from participating as high status rock musicians.

[100] Rock historian Helen Reddington states that the popular image of young punk women musicians as focused on the fashion aspects of the scene (fishnet stockings, spiky blond hair, etc.)

[112] Women instrumentalists include the bassists D'arcy Wretzky and Melissa Auf der Maur from The Smashing Pumpkins and drummers Patty Schemel (Hole and Courtney Love projects) and Lori Barbero of Babes in Toyland.

Nirvana and Pearl Jam garnered a quickly expanding following, signed to major labels, and created albums that sold millions of copies by fusing guitar distortion, agonized vocals, and sincere, angst-ridden lyrics.

As a result, American department stores began carrying imitations of the flannel shirts, thermal underwear, combat boots, and stocking caps that Seattle bands and their followers favored.

[123] Additionally, Fifth Harmony is an American female group that is based in Miami and composed of Ally Brooke, Normani Kordei, Dinah Jane, Lauren Jauregui, and Camila Cabello until her departure in 2016.

"[127] According to Jessica Duchen, a music writer for London's The Independent, classical women musicians are "too often judged for their appearances, rather than their talent" and they face pressure "to look sexy onstage and in photos.

Finally, "after being held up to increasing ridicule even in socially conservative Austria, members of the orchestra gathered [on 28 February 1997] in an extraordinary meeting on the eve of their departure and agreed to admit a woman, Anna Lelkes, as harpist.

Some of the top-earning female singers since the 2000s were Adele, Angham, Beyoncé, Lady Gaga, Madonna, Kylie Minogue, Katy Perry, Rihanna, Britney Spears, Taylor Swift, Ariana Grande, Celine Dion, Mariah Carey, Jennifer Lopez, Shakira, and Sherine.

These blues women's contributions to the genre included "increased improvisation on melodic lines, unusual phrasing which altered the emphasis and impact of the lyrics, and vocal dramatics using shouts, groans, moans, and wails.

Kacey Musgraves, a recording artist, describes her experience with sexism in country music by stating that if a label fails to get a woman's song off the ground, it is immediately blamed on their personality or the fact that they are female, or that they did not make a radio station program director feel important.

In the 1960s and 1970s Argentinian folk singer Mercedes Sosa, South African Miriam Makeba, and Greek Maria Farantouri were also recognized for their engagement against the oppressive political situations in their home states.

There are many women world music performers, including: Ann Savoy, Bi Kidude, Brenda Fassie, Chabuca Granda, Chava Alberstein, Cleoma Breaux Falcon, Dolly Collins, Elizabeth Cotten, Frehel, Gal Costa, Genoa Keawe, Googoosh, Hazel Dickens, Jean Ritchie, Lata Mangeshkar, Leah Song, Lola Beltrán, Lucha Reyes, Lucilla Galeazzi (The Mammas), Lydia Mendoza, Maria Tanase, Mariam Doumbia, Nada Mamula, Ofra Haza, Oumou Sangare, Rita Marley, Rosa Passos, Roza Eskenazi, Safiye Ayla, Salamat Sadikova, Selda Bagcan, Shirley Collins, Valya Balkanska, Violeta Parra, Warda, Marta Gómez and Zap Mama.

Modern women vocalists include D. K. Pattammal, M. S. Subbalakshmi, Gangubai Hangal, Hirabai Barodekar, Kesarbai Kerkar, Kishori Amonkar, Malini Rajurkar, Mogubai Kurdikar, Prabha Atre, Roshan Ara Begum and Shruti Sadolikar Katkar.

Other women scholars include: Ethnomusicologists study the many musics around the world that emphasize their cultural, social, material, cognitive, biological, and other dimensions or contexts instead of or in addition to its isolated sound component or any particular repertoire.

"[179] When looking beyond these bandleaders and top leaders, women had many music education roles in the "home, community, churches, public schools, and teacher-training institutions" and "as writers, patrons, and through their volunteer work in organizations.

According to the UK's Radio 3 editor, Edwina Wolstencroft, "The music world has been happy to have female performers ...for a long time...[;]But owning authority and power in public is another matter.

"[208] Crawford states that "[t]he record store, the guitar shop, and now social media: when it comes to popular music, these places become stages for the display of male prowess"; "[f]emale expertise, when it appears, is repeatedly dismissed as fraudulent.

[218] She suggests that women's alienation from "areas that have a strong technological tendency such as DJing, sound engineering and producing" are "not necessarily about her dislike of these instruments but relates to the interrupting effect of their dominantly masculine delineations.

Elis Paprika also hosts the Now Girls Rule Podcast, a weekly show through Vive Latino's Señal VL channel, that features music by women artists and women-fronted acts she has met around the world while touring.

Bands associated with the movement include Bikini Kill, Bratmobile, Heavens to Betsy, Excuse 17, Huggy Bear, Cake Like, Skinned Teen, Emily's Sassy Lime, Sleater-Kinney, and also queercore groups like Team Dresch.

The feminist argument that "the personal is political" was revisited in the image that riot grrrl set forth, similarly to the culture of punk that self-actualization is not to be found in external forces but rather through an individual's true self.

The New York Times reported in 2021 that, "Three years ago, an academic tallied the performers, producers and songwriters behind hit songs, and found that women's representation fell on a scale between, roughly, poor and abysmal.

[264] The three prominent forms of subtle discrimination experienced by female singers are being mistaken for non-musicians, lack of artistic control compared to their male counterparts, and having their sexuality, age, and femininity constantly scrutinized.

Kassia , one of the earliest known female composers
Nineteenth-century composer and pianist Clara Schumann
This painting by Artemisia Gentileschi , representing Saint Cecilia , has become identified with Maddalena Casulana since 2010. Considered the first female composer to have her music printed and published. [ a ]
The Lute Player by Orazio Gentileschi , presumed to be a portrait of Francesca Caccini
Fanny Mendelssohn, 1842, by Moritz Daniel Oppenheim
Carole King , one of the most successful singer-songwriters, was included among Rolling Stone ' s 100 Greatest Songwriters of All Time and Songwriters Hall of Fame . [ 58 ]
Dusty Springfield in 1965
Baez stands behind a too-tall podium bristling with microphones, wearing a plaid sleeveless top, longish hair in a feather cut
Joan Baez playing at the March on Washington in August 1963
Ethel Merman Known as the "First Lady of Musical Theatre," Ethel Merman's powerful voice and larger-than-life presence graced many Broadway stages.
Abbey Lincoln (1930–2010), was an American jazz vocalist, songwriter, and actress, who wrote and performed her own compositions. She was a civil rights advocate during the 1960s. [ 76 ] [ 77 ]
The Bangles were a prominent part of the 1980s pop-rock scene with hits like "Manic Monday", and "Eternal Flame". They blended catchy pop hooks with a rock edge.
Stevie Nicks performing
Joan Jett is often referred to as the "Godmother of Punk". [ 95 ]
Girlschool is a British all-women heavy metal band formed in the new wave of British heavy metal scene in 1978 and frequently associated with contemporaries Motörhead . They are the longest running all-female rock band , still active after more than 35 years. [ 109 ] [ 110 ]
Courtney Love in 2012
Kathleen Hanna , frontwoman of Bikini Kill , influenced grunge with her punk and feminist approach.
Alanis Morissette signing autographs for fans, 2011
Florence and the Machine performing at the O 2 ABC Glasgow during the band's Lungs Tour
Samantha Fish known for her blues-infused rock sound guitar playing skills
Statue of Ethel Smyth unveiled in Duke's Court Plaza, Woking , in 2022
Ma Rainey (1886–1939) [ 144 ] was one of the earliest known American professional blues singers and one of the first generation of such singers to record. [ 145 ]
Nina Simone , an influential Jazz musical figure
Marian Anderson in 1940
A group of musicians, including women performers, from a Baghdad musical theatre group in the 1920s
A half-section of the Song dynasty (960–1279) version of the Night Revels of Han Xizai , original by Gu Hongzhong ; [ 164 ] the female musicians in the center of the image are playing transverse bamboo flutes and guan , and the male musician is playing a wooden clapper called paiban .
Asha Bhosle is an Indian singer best known as a playback singer in Hindi cinema. In 2011, she was officially acknowledged by the Guinness Book of World Records as the most-recorded artist in music history. [ 167 ]
Fātemeh Vā'ezi ( Persian : فاطمه واعظی ) (born 1950), commonly known by her stage name Parīsā ( Persian : پریسا ), is a Persian classical vocalist and musician.
The Japanese idol girl group AKB48 is the best-selling act in Japan by number of singles sold.
Rosetta Reitz (1924–2008) was an American jazz historian and feminist who established a record label producing 18 albums of the music of the early women of jazz and the blues. [ 173 ]
Frances Densmore (1867 – 1957) was an American anthropologist and ethnographer known for her studies of Native American music and culture.
A music teacher leading a music ensemble in an elementary school in 1943
American pop music critic Ann Powers (pictured in 2007)
Marion Lignana Rosenberg (1961–2013) was a music critic, writer, translator, broadcaster and journalist. She wrote for many periodicals, including Salon.com , The New York Times and Playbill .
Bernice Johnson Reagon (born 1942) is a singer, composer, scholar, and social activist, who founded the a cappella ensemble Sweet Honey in the Rock in 1973. She was an important figure in the womyn's music scene. [ citation needed ]
Elis Paprika , founder of Now Girls Rule, performing at Playtime Festival in Mongolia in 2019
Lilith Fair co-founder Sarah McLachlan