Why are there fewer women in heavy music?

[tekla]

well known in the underground metal scene

Yeah, all three of the people there know them.

/well-known and underground are not exactly complementary ideas
//nothing commercial is underground

[Gretchen]

I find it easier to listen to the above ground Metal bands, I don't have to break out a shovel.

[tekla]

Half of the people in metal bands would be in Starland Vocal Band revival acts if they thought it would pay better and/or get them laid more and/or didn't require knowledge of 4th chord and/or anything outside of 4/4 time signatures.

[Bird]

I think the violence aspect as something to do with it, considering the metal styles with less violent overtones have more women in their fan base. Also, I noticed, I am listening much less to this type of music after I began HRT.

[tekla]

Sorry, there is nothing 'underground' that is up for sale at the same time.

[tekla]

You are confusing 'underground' with another 'u' word: unpopular.  Your example gets 7.5+ MILLION hits on Google.  How is 7.5 million an 'underground'?  So really neither world is correct.  It's just using 'underground' as some sort of hip patina to cover the commercialism.

They put 3 LP/CDs in the top 100, that's hardly unknown.  And I can't find the Grateful Dead or Frank Zappa at Target either - but that does not make them 'underground' it just means they don't sell the required number of units every week.  Find me bands that The Last Record Store doesn't stock.

And I do sit around with these people.  And you know what they talk about?  The Metal Lifestyle?  no.  The Metal Underground?  no.  Money, record sales and tickets sold - just like any other band.  In the end they are not much different from Tony Bennett, different music - same business. 

[schism]

hm... production-wide, it's clearly more of a male-dominated genre, but as far as the fans go i've always seen a near 50/50 divide.  i spent about five years hanging out in the metal scene and there were so many girls, varying from goths, emos, punks to moshers. 

i don't know enough about band politics to really comment on why people want to be rock stars.  i only know that nearly every musician i've known has been in love with the genre and their art, passionate about creating music and spreading it to the world.  those who are focused on the popularity side haven't gotten very far.

[Julie Marie]

Most heavy metal bands are composed of only men

Not nearly as much as the fan base is.  It's a long standing joke that the shortest line for a female bathroom anywhere in the world is at a Rush concert, and when we do Dream Theater next week I'm sure it will be the same -  80% men, 19% women humoring their BFs, 1% women who actually care about Dream Theater.

When I need a hit of live Rush, I go to YouTube to watch some of their live stuff.  The first time I did, I was surprised not only to see women there but women mouthing the words to the songs and not missing a word, even with their lesser known songs.  Now if we're talking serious head banger stuff, yeah, no waiting line in the women's bathroom.

To answer the OP, I think the head banger and really hard rock requires a certain amount of testosterone to handle the beating your body takes at a concert.  There were times I'd walk into the concert and feel the sound reverberating through by body.  I had my first ultrasound at a rock concert.

[Bird]

@Laura

It did change my musical taste a bit (HRT). I'm not sure why, and I don't want to imply it would be because of hormonal changes per se, but it could be consequences of those changes. I am simply relating less to themes of violence and destruction, Slayer just doesn't rings a bell like it used to. It could be due to growing older, moving on, or it could be because HRT helped me solve issues I had which in turn lead me to relate to those themes.

It is complex!

[Princess Rachel]

music hasn't been the same since L7 split up

[joannatsf]

Girls, there are lots of female fronted metal bands!  Just few in the US.  Evanescence is the only American band that comes to mind.  Europe is full of them in the goth metal and symphonic metal genres.   Bands like Nightwish, Within Temptation, Tarja Turunen and Epica sell out soccer stadiums from Moscow to Normandy and the songs are all in English.  Many of thes women have classically trained voices and can make a.song soar into the stratosphere.  This is a new song by an Italian guitarist and an American. Vocalist.  They are unsigned nut availlable on SoundCloud.
http://soundcloud.com/vklynne/vita-nova

[Bird]

Those are styles derived from melodic metal, and yes, there are plenty of women in such bands. However, trash metal, death metal and all the heavier bands are formed mostly by guys. It is fairly dominated by males.

[joannatsf]

I had pretty much stopped listening to rock until 4 years ago.  Classical and opera were my mainstays until quite accidentally I discovered Tarja.  Not a lot of lyric sopranos out there doing rock n roll.  They're more in the tradition of the music of my youth, Led Zepplin, The Who, Deep Purple, etc.  I love the multilayered texture, complexity and dark themes of the lyrics.  Symphonic is really goth metal, they changed the name to broaden the audience.  But hey, it's got me playing air guitar on commuting trains!

[Gretchen]

I was just thinking, what if Janis Joplin was alive today and in her twenties would she be a Metal head? I think so, and with a voice like hers Death Metal. She surely would not be doing anything like Nightwish or Within Temptation. Take a little piece of my heart and smash it with a spiked boot if it makes you feel good.

[joannatsf]

Wow.  What would Janice be doing?  She was unique and a star.  It's hard to.imagine her her sharing the stage with a hot guitarist.  I think her roots in the blues and country (she was after all a Texas gal) woul have pushed her in a singer/songwriter direction.  Like Rosanne Cash, she dosn't fit nicely into any genre.

[Gretchen]

Maybe so, but here's a possibility. A cross between Shooter Jennings and MotorHead.

[joannatsf]

I'm pretty limited when it comes to metal.  I know female fronted symphonic/goth metal really well but beyond that...  I have no idea what that combination would sound like.  Ask me about French impressionist composers with Tarja, now that sounds nteresting.  Nightwish did a rousing.performance of Sibelius's Finlandia with metal flourishes and pyrotechnics.   A national anthem hasn't sounded so good sine Jimi Hendrix's Star Spangled Banner on the Rainbow Bridge LP.

[tekla]

Oh gosh who knows, if she gets to stay alive so does Jimi, maybe they would have recorded together.  Or she could have other bands back her up.  Blues requires both vocals and instruments - half of the near eternal goodness that is those early Janis records is Big Brother & the Holding Co.  So she'd need a hot guitar player, or a hot harp player, or a whole bunch of hot players.  Her bands kept getting better - Full Tilt Boogie Band was tight.  Or she could have picked up hot young bands to back her up.  Imagine Janis with a young Pearl Jam, a young Nirvana, or a young Black Crows (that would rock) - or backed up by old Jerry, or old Neil, or Stevie Ray Vaughan.

Of course she could have just retired (lots did), or wound up on the county fair circuit, or a low level Vegas show - show biz is a very bitchy mistress.

[Gretchen]

low level Vegas show

HA

[joannatsf]

Maybe she'd have a club in Branson, MO :-)