AboutAGirl
oh, be nice
- Joined
- Apr 21, 2005
- Posts
- 2,693
- Reaction score
- 11
I really don't know why.
But if I were to wager a guess, I would say it's a lot of different reasons working in tandem, and if I had to pick the reason with the most weight, I'd have to guess that it's because the rock audience, which is largely male -- especially when it comes to guitar-head type material -- isn't as receptive to a female guitar hero as they are to a male, which has a domino effect including record companies not looking to promote female guitar heroes and women not feeling encouraged to become female guitar heroes.
One person who comes to my mind is Chan Marshall. While she obviously is nowhere near a Hendrix or Malmsteen on the proficiency scale, what she does have is an unfathomably immaculate original style. She's basically Kurt Cobain combined with Varg Vikernes, she plays these simple bar chord rhythms but with a mastery of tone and reverb equal to Varg in skill and equal to Kurt in personality. And it's entirely her own, nobody else sounds anything like her.
I definitely think that Chan Marshall deserves to be considered a guitar god in the unique category Kurt and Varg fit into. The problem is, though, that, as good as Cat Power is, her music simply is not as "good" or accessible/commercial as Nirvana or Burzum. So while she may be an equally brilliant guitar player, she'll never be acknowledged as such, sort of the same way that Malmsteen and Vai get mad props from guitarheads but the general public will never consider them half as good as Jimmy Page or Van Halen.
If Chan's music was more accessible, would she be considered a guitar hero? That's something I can't know the answer to.
But if I were to wager a guess, I would say it's a lot of different reasons working in tandem, and if I had to pick the reason with the most weight, I'd have to guess that it's because the rock audience, which is largely male -- especially when it comes to guitar-head type material -- isn't as receptive to a female guitar hero as they are to a male, which has a domino effect including record companies not looking to promote female guitar heroes and women not feeling encouraged to become female guitar heroes.
One person who comes to my mind is Chan Marshall. While she obviously is nowhere near a Hendrix or Malmsteen on the proficiency scale, what she does have is an unfathomably immaculate original style. She's basically Kurt Cobain combined with Varg Vikernes, she plays these simple bar chord rhythms but with a mastery of tone and reverb equal to Varg in skill and equal to Kurt in personality. And it's entirely her own, nobody else sounds anything like her.
I definitely think that Chan Marshall deserves to be considered a guitar god in the unique category Kurt and Varg fit into. The problem is, though, that, as good as Cat Power is, her music simply is not as "good" or accessible/commercial as Nirvana or Burzum. So while she may be an equally brilliant guitar player, she'll never be acknowledged as such, sort of the same way that Malmsteen and Vai get mad props from guitarheads but the general public will never consider them half as good as Jimmy Page or Van Halen.
If Chan's music was more accessible, would she be considered a guitar hero? That's something I can't know the answer to.
