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Rock music’s greatest frontwoman


Out of this list (which excludes girl vocal groups) who do think is the best frontwoman in rock music?

Amy Lee (Evanescence)
Ann Wilson (Heart)
Annie Lennox (Eurythmics)
Belinda Carlisle (The Go-Go’s)
Beth Ditto (Gossip)
Bjork (The Sugarcubes)
Chrissie Hynde (The Pretenders)
Courtney Love (Hole)
Debbie Harry (Blondie)
Dolores O’Riordan (The Cranberries)
Florence Welch (Florence and the Machine)
Grace Slick (Jefferson Airplane, Starship)
Gwen Stefani (No Doubt)
Hayley Williams (Paramore)
Joan Jett (Joan Jett & The Blackhearts)
Karen O (Yeah Yeah Yeahs)
Kate Pierson (The B­52s)
Shirley Manson (Garbage)
Siouxsie Sioux (Siouxie & the Banshees)
Skin (Skunk Anansie)
Stevie Nicks (Fleetwood Mac)
Susanna Hoffs (The Bangles)
Tarja Turunen (Nightwish)

Personally my pick would be Debbie Harry, she might not be the best vocalist on the list but in terms of charisma and influence I think she’s hard to beat.

Feel free to mention any I’ve forgotten.

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Sonja Kristina
Catherine Howe
Jane Relf
Sandy Denny
Sidonie Jordan
Janis Joplin
Beate Krause

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Janis is the only one I’ve heard of from your list. What bands are the other artists from?

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Curved Air
Catherine was a solo artist
Illusion
Fairport Convention/Fotheringay/solo
Empire
Janis also had Big Brother & Holding Company
Carol of Harvest

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I thought of Joplin immediately. Hynde is right up there and Slick wasn't really a front woman, she always had supporting players who shared the spotlight. I'm sure there are many women who deserve recognition but Joplin had whatever "it" is in spades. I'll bet even Ella Fitzgerald and Aretha Franklin admired her, and they were the best singers of their times.

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Cher
Diana Ross

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rock?

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They were both inducted into the Hall of Rock & Roll.

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Eh, rappers have gotten in as well. Ross is more R&B, and she'd be excluded if you're talking about The Supremes since the OP disqualifies vocal groups.

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The Go-Gos are a girls vocal group, too.

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They played instruments. That's the distinction from three women who only sing.

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I guess too many rules for me. LOL.

I added my two to a prior Women in Rock list.

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Both great but I wouldn’t call Sonny and Cher a band, more a vocal group, ditto for The Supremes. Cher can definitely rock with the best of them though 👍

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Those are Pop stars

not rock "frontwomen" (for one thing, that implies being part of a band)

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I thought about saying something, because I would have put Roberta Flack and a dozen other women on my list.

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Pat Benatar

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> Pat Benatar

You beat me to it. What impresses me about her, among other things, is that no matter how powerfully she belts something out and at what point in her range she's singing, her enunciation is crystal clear and easily understood. At the other extreme is Stevie Nicks who, no matter what she's singing, sounds like her mouth is full of mashed potatoes.

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LOL @ Stevie Nicks.. It seems like her lips never touch, and that she seems to only use her throat when she sings live, and singing lazily. And that witch-wannabe shit annoys me.

"Stevie, you're not deep, although the cocaine up your ass was"

What's really fucked up, is that she might still be a waitress because the Buckingham/Nicks album bombed (it did have three good songs on it, but that doesn't matter) and Lindsey was asked to join as the lead singer/guitarist, but Lindsey said they were a packaged deal, and if they didn't want Stevie, then he couldn't join.

But then when he smirked at some comment she made at an award show, she gave Mick the ultimatum of "him or me" and then he has a heart-attack a month later.

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Let's compare and contrast Benatar and Nicks:

Your love is like a tidal wave, spinning over my head
Drownin' me in your promises, better left unsaid
You're the right kind of sinner to release my inner fantasy
The invincible winner and you know that you were born to be

Vummuh moemah
Data verslay
ASS! ON! HIM!
Verblee blugh, verblee blugh blugh
Seventeen

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lol

I just "discovered" I no longer had "Edge of Seventeen" (Songs not transferring onto a new laptop) but I don't have anything by Pat - could never stand her voice or her hit. I haven't heard it in a long time, and it's pretty hard with the "Edge of Seventeen" playing right now, trying to match up or at least understand more than a few words, but there's still songs by The Doors I can't make out, because I listen to vocal as if they were another instrument. How it sounds, how its utilized, vibrato, falsetto, chest, throat, etc.

I do remember correcting my political science teacher in high school when he said Fleetwood Mac.. Now I just remembered when he played an Alanis Morrisette song (wish I remember, so I could read the lyrics, it was 1998), and a few students ridiculed it or said something that wasn't positive about it, because he turned it off, and said something like, "Have an open mind" and he was probably right. He's still there, and actually "liked" a political comment of mine.. He asked what we remembered about his class, and I still remember the first quote of the day (Bertrand Russell) and remember how he'd always play "That's The Way" by Led Zeppelin, but the BBC version.

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> I don't have anything by Pat - could never stand her voice or her hit

I don't have anything by Pat Benatar either. I like her music well enough, just not quite enough to pay for it. But Stevie Nicks just sounds like a drunken slut, IMO.

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Yeah I love Pat Benatar too and the only reason I didn’t include her was that she’s a solo artist.

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I think that's more in the name. She's no different than Joan Jett or Florence or Siouxie in relation to their bands.

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All good 🙂

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I think someone like Linda Ronstadt would be different, since her band changed a million times and didn't always play on the records. Pat Benatar and her husband, and most of the band stayed the same, and wrote and recorded with her, during the glory years. That's different from a back-up band or touring group like Ronstadt used.

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Well yeah, but I think many solo artists have frequent collaborators and core band members they tour and record with.

Anyway, I have no problem with Benatar being mentioned since she’s one of the best female rock singers of all time.

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Usually that's the distinction.

"Although billed as a solo artist, Benatar recorded and toured with a consistent set of band members over most of her career:"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pat_Benatar

The "although" suggests that the billing doesn't reflect the reality. Sometimes it's just about the arc. Benatar was signed alone, then formed a band (aka Pat Benatar Band), but kept the solo billing b/c she was already a name. Other artists blow up as a group from the start. But Neil Giraldo is Jimmy Page to her Robert Plant. Writing the hits, producing, and his playing is right upfront.

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So does that make Pat a great front woman or someone who needed Neil Giraldo to prop her up?
I have all the respect for Benatar, and I heard she puts on a good show, but what I like about Chrissie Hynde is the Pretenders were her vision of what her rock band should be: tough, gritty, genuine and original, no Svengali pulling the strings.
Benatar is such a strong singer I don't want to take anything away from her but she seemed more like someone putting out a product rather than trying to create something deep and meaningful. I'm sure she made a lot of $$ so that's at least half the job. I'm sure a lot of people think that's the whole job.

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Maybe I'm less skeptical, but I think it's the opposite. She was a thing first, and maybe she allowed more input than most artists in her position would. I don't think that makes her less of a frontwoman, the face, and obviously the voice. Maybe just more collaborative with her band than most "solo artists" or diva types would.

Also, I wouldn't put Hynde and Benatar in the same subgenre of rock, as the latter has always been more pop oriented. But I also don't think Hynde is beyond certain trappings. The Pretenders became more Chrissie Hynde and The Pretenders (including recording a "Pretenders" album with studio musicians), and I wouldn't call "I'll Stand by You" tough, gritty, or original -- but it sure was a hit. She took some heat for that b/c it bears little resemblance to the original Pretenders conception -- less rebel, more sell out.

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That's fair, totally fair. Everyone will lean in some direction for personal reasons. Both artists I probably think of in their first 3-5 years of existence, and I like woman who don't always rely on their feminine appeal. Or perhaps I should say, I don't like women who do. Chrissie almost always had a guitar slung around her neck and wrote a lot of material. Benatar can sing the roof off in terms of power and she seems like a likable person. I guess my idea of front woman as opposed to singer pushes me in a different direction.

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I think the difference comes more from the subgenre and its expectations and aesthetic. Benatar is supposed to be about her octave range, belting power ballads and pop rock tunes, and changing fashion statements, but someone like Joan Jett is about her gritty, attitude laced vocals, a guitar slung around her neck (despite not playing much besides the same three chords), and a lot of black.

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Oh, come on; let’s include Linda. I’m pretty sure many of the women on the list would put her on theirs! (Stevie is a huge Linda fan. So is Pat.)

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Without the OP's band requirement, and purely as a singer, sure. But I can't think of Pat without Neil right next to her on stage, and he wrote a lot of the stuff as well. Linda took a lot of different folks on tour in a back-up band capacity, but Pat Benatar is really the same Pat Benatar Band every time, and in the studio as well.

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I haven't seen all of those but most and I'd also go with Debbie Harry.

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I'll go with Debbie Harry (certainly the most beautiful woman in rock). Here's a cute clip of her: -
https://youtu.be/h0Hd3uWKFKY

Here's a similar post of mine from about a year ago: -
https://moviechat.org/general/General-Discussion/5f2ff4bcb1c4072abc50379f/Women-in-Rock-list-your-favourites

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Oh, you beat me to it 😣

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Yours was more specific, mine was more generic.

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A lot of legends listed.

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I'm guessing she is a lot more cerebral than what people gave her credit for, back in the day.
They had to use her looks as a draw, but I'm thinking she had a tremendous amount of input in crafting their image and choosing the material to offer a sly take on culture at the time.

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From what I can gather, she’s a smart cookie.

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Smart and foxy ! I'm surprised we never got together ! (no lol needed)

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Courtney Cox was a pretty good dancer.

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That’s very debatable.

So, no Janis Joplin?

No Genya Raven (10-Wheel Drive)? The gal who sang “Rape! Murder! Is just a kiss away”) on The Stones’ immortal Gimme Shelter?

OP, you need to define what YOU mean by rock ‘n roll, and I hope it’s not what the fucking Hall of Shame pretends that it means; otherwise, you’ll have a very unfocused discussion.

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Could be, I was mostly staring at her tits in that tight white shirt.

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You want a dancer at whom to star? Tina FUCKING Turner, that’s who, and she should be included in this discussion as a rock front singer, because Ike & Tina’s “Proud Mary” played on rock stations in the 60s.

White women CAN dance, but Cox is a chick in a Springsteen video. She’s not a woman. She’s a chick.

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Tina is around the edges of Rock Music depending on how one defines it, but she def deserves to be mentioned in the conversation. Back when I first heard of Ike and Tina Turner, as a kid I never understood why Ike was included at all, she was that much in front. She really is the essence of both Talent and Charisma. She really does Rock.

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No, I didn’t look the R&R Hall of Fame to define rock, I simply listed the women I’ve admired who have fronted a band. Of course people will have their own ideas of what constitutes “rock” and yes, some of the bands listed may be considered to cross over into other genres. That’s fine, and it’s why I made the point of asking people to add their own.

Joplin is a good suggestion. Turner too, I should have included both.

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I'll add to the list:
Dale Bozzio (Missing Persons) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80WyBxo0Hto
Martha Davis (The Motels) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohzij-eZ4sE&t=55s
Natalie Merchant (10,000 Maniacs) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1v4m4SzmA4U

As to the greatest, while I was never a Janis Joplin fan, when someone says "great rock frontwomen" she is the person that first comes to mind.

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[deleted]

I did not know that. Subsequently recorded by Berlin for the Top Gun soundtrack, winning an Oscar.

Agree about Terry Bozzio.

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Grace Slick
Stevie Nicks
Anne Lennox
Ann Wilson
Doro Pesch

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