didn't see this thread before.My second favorite music artist behind the Smashing Pumpkins has been Tori Amos since high school. In fact, because she has more released material I own more of her material than SP. I love piano more than any instrument in music and I really connect to the emotion and even her sense of humor in her work. I just love the piano as a rock instrument style she's perfected. Anyway, her subject matter is definitely not aimed at me and her body of work is arguably the biggest study of what it is to be female I've ever seen from any songwriter period. Even her ventures into spirituality concentrate hugely on female figureheads in Christianity and the lack of attention to female power in Christianity. Long story short I love it, I feel it and I can only relate to it in an abstract way.
Just for a further example of Tori and my relationship to her music my favorite song by her is called:
Northern Lad
It's a very melodramatic song talking about about an old male lover with intimate details. The best line as an example is
"Girls you've got to know
When it's time to turn the page
When you're only wet
Because of the rain"
I get the emotion of this song and I feel it but when you break it down there's nothing content wise I relate to in it. Does anyone have any examples of music that's like that to them?
I relate to a bunch of female singers but its not always for the same reason.
With Tori I was a mild fan in the beginning but the more I listened to her the more I realized that just because she was a women didn't mean I didn't relate to her. Tori is the same age as me and I feel the connection. Tori also seems to sing about issues that aren't always gender specific almost to the point where she is singing as a man.
Others
Fiona Apple-Fi's lyrics on her first two albums are just too good for me to ignore. Her when the pawn album got me thru a rough patch of my life and I'll remember that album for the rest of my life.
It can work the other way too-I liked Alanis M. first two albums but after seeing her live and all the screaming girls she lost me. I couldn't relate to the music and barely ever listen to her anymore. Funny Tori's screaming girls didn't bother me-except when she sings Precious Things and those girls scream over that line.
PJ Harvey and Bjork are favorites of mine but I don't think they are such a girl only thing.
Currently, Marina & the Diamonds and Florence and the Machine are two modern favorites. Funny I don't think I relate much to what they are singing about but both have struck a cord with me.
Still love "The Used" though who were the headliners I went for! 
