Is metal still a boys only club?

[gregjohnson1229]

Metal since its existence is driven by aggression, anger, and dark themes. These ingredients that are the makeup of metal generally appeals to males. However, I have been to many metal shows over the years and I notice a heavy increase in female metalheads. Also their are an increase of all girl metal bands. Is the pendulum swinging with gender in the metal universe?

 

[LG]

No doubt about there being more women in metal than ever before, especially European metal, there are all kinds of female fronted bands these days. I don't think they'll ever supplant male artists overall, but they've been a breath of fresh air in the metal scene. I can't say how the crowds have changed, I don't do live concerts anymore so I can't comment on the demographics at metal concerts these days.

 

[gregjohnson1229]

No doubt about there being more women in metal than ever before, especially European metal, there are all kinds of female fronted bands these days. I don't think they'll ever supplant male artists overall, but they've been a breath of fresh air in the metal scene. I can't say how the crowds have changed, I don't do live concerts anymore so I can't comment on the demographics at metal concerts these days.

That's right you have an ear injury right.

 

[Magic]

Is the pendulum swinging with gender in the metal universe?

Absolutely! The aesthetics of the female voice complement metal. Female's have also infiltrated the musicianship end of metal, too. The female has proven to be almost as aggressive as the male in metal music.


What seems to be the popular arena for females at the moment is the "Beauty and The Beast" type vocals, which I find very pleasing to listen to.

Females are also better at vocalizing Gothic type lyrics.


One of the first female metal bands to make the big league back in the early 70's was Birtha......just listen to "Free Spirit" and tell me these ladies don't blow the walls down!

 

[Prime]

I can't say how the crowds have changed, I don't do live concerts anymore so I can't comment on the demographics at metal concerts these days.

I can probably shed some light here. There are a lot of women and men nowadays dressing up in black band t's, and headbanging surprisingly. I'm not old enough to really know how the demographic was years ago, but nowadays it's pretty common to see a women in a black t shirt, singing to metal and drinking beer and headbanging. At least that's what i've seen in my experience.

 

[LG]

It's distracting for sure,,,too many years of loud construction equipment without proper protection. Now you have no choice but twenty years ago no one paid much attention to it.

I still enjoy music, but at a modest SPL at home, I can't take really loud live shows anymore.

 

[AboutAGirl]

I don't think it's necessarily a new thing though, do you? I got turned on to metal in the first place by a girl. I just think the stuff they like in general (obviously there are exceptions) would skew a little bit different than what guys generally like, further from Slayer and Cattle Decapitation and closer to Opeth, Agalloch, Dimmu Borgir....

 

[Harkat]

I honestly don't think much has changed. Perhaps women can be much more open about it these days and thats why its become more noticable.
My first memories of metal include a girl who screamed, jumped, shouted and was otherwise too happy when she listened to Cannibal Corpse.
I am yet to see anyone who displays as much enthusiasm and joy as this girl did.

 

[Riff Raff]

Its good to see more and more female fronted bands, there are many that I have in my favourite song or band lists.
Arch Enemy with Angela, gees she has great growling death vocals, then you get gothic and symphonic singers like Cristina Scabbia, Sharon Den Adel, Tarja Turunen, Simone Simons etc to name a few.

 

[Peter Norway]

It's cool when a girl likes classic metal. But if a girl was into death metal that'd kinda freak me out.