Band: Taylor Swift
Album: Red
Best song: “I Knew You Were Trouble.” is strong. Very strong.
Worst song: “Everything Has Changed” stinks.

I know it’s the least important thing in the mountains of things that women are up against, but I really don’t listen to enough female musicians. I’ve been making a concerted effort since March of this year to try and explore more female singers and female-led bands. It is not that easy.

Looking over my last.fm all-time listening profile, it’s almost entirely male. My top all-time artists have 2.5 women in the top 20: Cat Power, Chelsea Wolfe and Mark Lanegan & Isobel Campbell. Part of that is because men tend to dominate the types of music I like (post-rock, progressive rock, metal, classic rock, etc.), but mostly it’s because men dominate all types of music. Great rappers are almost all dudes because little girls aren’t told that they can grow up to be great rappers. Young guitar players look up to guitar gods — Clapton, Van Halen, Hendrix, etc. — and they’re all dudes.  Continue reading →