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Sometimes the best man for the job isn't
Jun. 21st, 2004 | 10:58 am
A friend of mine doesn't like female vocalists or women singers or girls that sing or whatever term you want to use. Does this mean he's a misogynist or is it just a matter of personal taste? Some would say the former (and most of them would be women) and a few would say the latter (all of which would most definitely be men). As for me, I'm on the fence. I think he's got some respect for old blues/soul/jazz vocalists like Billie Holiday, Aretha Franklin, etc. But when pressed to name singers he likes in rock n' roll, punk or any other contemporary rock genre, he can only come up with Exene Cervenka, Chrissie Hynde and Natalie Merchant. Respectable choices I guess, but considering all the great female voices out there it's a really puny list.
I've decided to give my potentially sexist friend the benefit of the doubt and assume that the problem is just that he hasn't heard all the great stuff out there. He's certainly not going to hear it on commercial radio or MTV or on the jukeboxes in 99% of the bars I've been to in my life. To be honest, I partially blame myself. I've made this friend many mixes and I've rarely if ever given him a song with a woman singing. I do this because I know of his bias and figure it might take away from his overall enjoyment of the mix. I now realize that this was cowardly on my part. I should've been challenging him to like music that he might be predisposed to dismiss. So in the spirit of making up for past mistakes, I've made him a 22 song mix that has absolutely no male vocals on it (with the exception of the occasional background vocal).
For the curious, you can check out a tracklisting here. I put it together quickly, perhaps too quickly. I also didn't have the use of my records, which might've improved the mix considerably. Still, I think it's a pretty good mix of songs and vocal styles. If my friend doesn't enjoy at least 1/3 of the songs here, I may have to give in and start calling him the M word.
If anyone else is interested in a copy of the mix, let me know. I'd be happy to send you one.
I've decided to give my potentially sexist friend the benefit of the doubt and assume that the problem is just that he hasn't heard all the great stuff out there. He's certainly not going to hear it on commercial radio or MTV or on the jukeboxes in 99% of the bars I've been to in my life. To be honest, I partially blame myself. I've made this friend many mixes and I've rarely if ever given him a song with a woman singing. I do this because I know of his bias and figure it might take away from his overall enjoyment of the mix. I now realize that this was cowardly on my part. I should've been challenging him to like music that he might be predisposed to dismiss. So in the spirit of making up for past mistakes, I've made him a 22 song mix that has absolutely no male vocals on it (with the exception of the occasional background vocal).
For the curious, you can check out a tracklisting here. I put it together quickly, perhaps too quickly. I also didn't have the use of my records, which might've improved the mix considerably. Still, I think it's a pretty good mix of songs and vocal styles. If my friend doesn't enjoy at least 1/3 of the songs here, I may have to give in and start calling him the M word.
If anyone else is interested in a copy of the mix, let me know. I'd be happy to send you one.