Lady Songs

One day you’ll find yourself rocking out to some tunes, it will be just a normal day, maybe you’re on the bus, headphones on, maybe you’re doing the housework and dancing with a broom, or just chilling on your bed with some songs, anyway, whatever it is, one day you’ll be doing it, and it will dawn on you that the last x amount of songs all featured dudes. Like heavily featured dudes. Dude singers, dude instrumentalists, dude lyricists and dude DJs. Startled, you will start to flick through tracks: dude, dude, lady and a dude, lady but only as a sample on a dude’s song, dude, dude, dude.

You will stop then, and ask yourself, where my bitches at?

Or maybe you won’t. Maybe flicking through your songs will produce a more balanced mix, or even a lady heavy mix, I don’t know, maybe you’re better than me. But if you *do* have a moment, like I did earlier this year, do not despair. Because your bitches are right there, waiting for you to listen to their tunes. Despite what our itunes libraries would suggest, there are HEAPS of lady artists out there, good ones, great ones, we just don’t buy their music as often as we buy dude music. And I have got some recommendations for you!

M.I.A - Boyz

You probably remember the song that goes "all I wanna do is *gunshot* *gunshot* *gunshot* and *ca-ching!* and take your money" but M.I.As other songs are also great. It was hard for me to choose one but I ultimately settled on this one because how nice is it to see ladies singing about dudes like this? About ten. Also that film clip yo. 

Peaches - Boys Wanna be her.

No list about lady singers would be complete without Peaches. And this song is winner. 

Beyonce - Girls

Ok so you should probably know that I have a playlist dedicated only to lady singers entitled "Who Run the World?" and yes I do dance like an idiot whenever this song comes on. Sometimes Beyonce says really weird things that kind of make my feminism cringe (my feminism is a person now?) but she is still great, and this song is amazing, and my dancing is a sight to behold.

Bertie Blackman - Mercy Killer

Blogger won't let me do an embedded link but click here

Australian Lady Songs! Yes! Bertie Blackman has an amazing voice and her songs are win. This is probably my favourite though.

Kate Miller-Heidke - Sarah

I've loved KMH for some time, so it's very hard to pick just one of her songs for this list, but this one is kind of amazing and I heard it for the first time live. It's incredibly haunting and bizarre and those drums are AMAZING. Also a true story (almost - happened to a friend of Kate's), which is creepy as hell.

Nicki Minaj - Va Va Voom

I love Nicki Minaj. I mean, sometimes her music is really terrible (like if I ever hear Starships ever again I may have to pierce my own eardrums with sticks) but other times it's really good. This song, is one of those. I think what I love most about Nicki Minaj is that she somehow rides this incredible line between femininity and the "man's game" that is her style of music. Also you should youtube "Nicki Minaj bossing up" for an incredibly candid Minaj-style feminist rant. 

Kimya Dawson - Loose Lips

Kimya Dawson is a perfect human being and this song is also perfect and I know all the words and isn't it WONDERFUL?

Janelle Monae - Q.U.E.E.N.

You know this song right? Everyone should know and love this song. I'm not even going to talk about it, just watch.

If you’re asking yourself why this matters, well I get that, it’s just music right? It’s not the end of the world, why on earth should it matter? Well I don’t think you need to go away and count the ladies and dudes in your playlists and make sure you have perfect ratios or anything. But I believe that the little things we do can make a difference. That difference might just be opening your eyes to gender inequality in a particular industry, or just to new music, which is always nice. The difference can also be bigger than that. More ladies can make more music for our ears if only we actually bought their songs! It starts with us, the consumer, we can be better buyers, better humans, better song listeners. And we can listen to songs about dinosaurs.