Can Women Stand Tall In The Music Scene?

           With all this talk about the worlds of Comedy and Sports being predominantly populated and run by males I couldn’t help but think about a world pertinent to me personally: the music scene. I’ve been lucky enough to play in a band for the past 8 years of my life. We play in Indianapolis regularly and around other places throughout Indiana. I couldn’t help but think about the music scene I’m apart of and how it is very similar to every other facet of life: it’s pretty much a dude ranch. There are hardly any girls in the pop-punk/alternative music scene.

            I have first hand experience with this because the singer of my band is actually a female. People are often impressed on how well we match up with other heavy hitters in the music scene in Indianapolis. People or other bands that haven’t seen us before are always telling us, “Oh you guys have a chick singer? That’s awesome!” They are always somewhat surprised. Do they think a chick can’t hold her own in this scene? That seems to be the stereotype. There are quite a few bands out there that seem to be helping break this stigma. The most common and well known is definitely Paramore, but some other bands that help break the stigma are Flyleaf, IWrestledABearOnce, Veara, Skillet, Formulas, amongst others. Girls are finally seeing that they can be apart of any genre and no only the stereotypical pop or acoustic/singer-songwriter or country genre. Some of the bands listed are even heavier metalcore/hardcore bands.

            I know that there is that common stereotype that women are not as up-to-par as men in most things, and pop-punk/alternative music is no different. I will admit that being a drummer, I have had the stereotype in my mind that girls just fundamentally cannot play drums as well as boys. I had that mindset until life punched me in the face with some super talented musicians. From the Georgia-based pop punk band, Veara, Brittany Harrell kills the drums! She is one of the tightest pop punk drummers out of most of the bands I’ve heard in the genre. Then I was at an event here at Ball State and had my world rocked by the local jazz band, Trackless. Their female drummer had more soul and flavor in her playing than I could hope to have in mine. Both instances really opened my eyes and showed me that women really can do anything men can do and just as well, if not better!