Posted November 24, 200618 yr Finally it's girls on top So why won't the NME make them cover stars? Kitty Empire Sunday November 26, 2006 The Observer This week saw the publication of NME's annual Cool List. Normally, the top spot goes to some sulky chap in drainpipe trousers. Alex Turner. Peter Doherty. You know the kind of guy. This year, the coolest of the cool is a woman. Not just any woman, but Beth Ditto, the Juno-esque, out-and-proud singer of blues-punk inspirations the Gossip. There are a record five - count 'em - women in the Top 10 this year, among them Lily Allen and Long Blondes linchpin Kate Jackson. Ditto, Allen and Jackson peek out of a cornerof this week's NME cover, dwarfed by a shot of prog-rock trio Muse. Lily Allen, bloggeuse extraordinaire, is in high dudgeon. Her MySpace blog (blog.myspace.com/lilymusic) recounts how she, Ditto and Jackson were supposed to have been the week's cover stars. But somehow Muse found themselves at the front, rather than the women's hip auxiliary. What happened? Well, when I worked at NME bands were robbed of their promised covers all the time. C'est la guerre. But could this be more sinister? As Allen tells it, NME bottled it. 'You thought that your readers might not buy a magazine with an overweight lesbian and a not particularly attractive-looking me on the front,' she posits. 'w****rs.' Adding clanger to injury, NME editor Conor McNicholas, apparently rhapsodised in a press release about how this year's haul of double-X chromosomed coolists were 'living proof that you can still rock a crowd when you're wearing stilettos'. Oh dear. Rock - and NME - can never quite decide about women. Do breasts get in the way of guitar straps? Can women be equal players in the boy's club? It might just be significant that in its 54-year history, the paper hasn't had a female features editor - the effective powerbroker at NME - until this year. Placing Beth Ditto at the top of the Cool List is an audacious move that shows NME is finally questioning its institutional chap-ism. It beats fawning over that Doherty boy, too. But what happened to the courage of NME's convictions? It's hard to escape the conclusion that it went down the pub with the boys. Patronising. Sexist. Sickening. Lily Allen lashes out Never shy of an opinion, the queen of cool lets loose on the male-dominated music industry By Anthony Barnes, Arts and Media Correspondent Published: 26 November 2006 In her short reign of pop supremacy, Lily Allen has achieved a reputation for sweet music and foul-mouthed rants about her rivals. Now she is directing her venom at the institutional sexism of the music industry. The singer, who scored a pair of No 1 hits this summer, has joined the ranks of high-profile stars who have lashed out at the male-dominated music world. Allen has been stung by the music bible NME, which she claims has sold her - and other women - down the river. Allen, the 21-year-old daughter of the actor Keith Allen, claims she was stitched up after being asked to pose for a cover celebrating women in rock - then the shot was swopped for one of a male band, because it would sell more copies. Her bile poured out as the paper named her the third coolest figure in the music world, ahead of Thom Yorke and Pete Doherty. Half of the top 10 of the NME's annual "cool list", chosen by the paper's writers, are female, and the top 50 is headed by Beth Ditto, the 15-stone American gay singer who fronts dance-punk act The Gossip. Allen said she agreed to take part to emphasise the power of women in the music industry. "As the context was so important (i.e. a strong female presence in music) I thought I might as well put aside my differences and do it. I did find it interesting that they wanted to put five women on the cover, and wanted to name 2006 our year." She posed for photos but was horrified to find when the magazine came out last week, the image had been switched to a main shot of male rock trio Muse. "You thought that your readers might not buy a magazine with an overweight lesbian and a not particularly attractive-looking me on the front," she wrote in her blog. "w****rs." She said the editorial team should "take [their] heads out of their arses" and "think about [their] responsibilities to youth culture and to women in general". Allen was outraged by a comment from the editor of NME, Conor McNicholas, in which he said that women "brought new energy to a scene dominated by men. They're also living proof that you can still rock a crowd when you're wearing stilettos". Allen spat back: "I mean how ****ing patronising - 'You can still rock a crowd wearing stilettos.' Is that all we are, stiletto-wearing people? Is that all he could say, that we brought a 'new energy' to the music scene? Don't make me sick, we've always been here." In the 1990s the short-lived feminist movement Riot Grrrl gathered pace in the UK and US to fight back against the sexism of the music industry, but its influence was brief. NME did not want to go into the specifics of Allen's grievances. A spokesman said: "The NME loves Lily and that's why she is number three in our cool list." On vocals: The wit and wisdom of Lily Lily on the music industry: "To a certain extent everyone expects women - especially in this industry - to sit and look pretty and do what they're told. There are a lot of women that come into this industry who are so scared of losing what they have that they just sort of sit up straight." Lily on drugs: "Between the ages of 16 and 19 is such a blur; I couldn't do a day without smoking an eighth of weed - I was ****ed." Lily on Pete Doherty: "I do think he has to be exterminated." Lily on Victoria Beckham: "I don't care how much she says that's her natural weight, that's bull." best female voice of the moment? no doubt you've seen the cool list in the nme by now. so i suppose there should be a split off in here!!! for all the people who dont give a fukkk about any of the pop muppets mentioned in the other thread.
November 24, 200618 yr Author I like different vocalists for different reasons though... Katie Jane Garside (Queen Adreena) has a completely unhinged (on the surface anyway..) vocal style, but it totally suits the music... She gives the impression that she's all over the place and has had no training (which is not true, she's done Performing Arts..), but even in all that chaos and violence she projects on stage, there seems to be an element of purpose and a sort of control to it.... [flash=450,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqVAQpuJhH4.swf [flash=450,350] will listen to these later when i wont disturb me dad!!!
November 25, 200618 yr Author Eh> taken from the original pop post, but obv thought it be better to put all the interesting stuff that Grim comes up with and which is ignored by all the Mariah fans in here than diverting the pop discussion to an indie stance.
November 25, 200618 yr Jenny Lewis, most certainly. And Juliette Lewis ain't bad either, loving their songs at the moment. Anyone but Karen O :puke2:
November 25, 200618 yr my favourite female indie voice has to jenny lewis :wub: Agreed :wub: Kate Jackson is great too ^_^
November 26, 200618 yr Katie Jane Garside gets my vote, because she's just an absolutely brilliant performer... Onstage she just has absolutely no regards for her own personal (or indeed the rest of the band's) safety.... Watching a Queen Adreena live show is incredibly cathartic.... For my money Queen Adreena are the best Indie band in the UK at the moment... And a REAL Indie band to boot, on a proper Indie record label - One Little Indian...
November 26, 200618 yr And Juliette Lewis ain't bad either, loving their songs at the moment. Juliette Lewis..? I think she's pish, she screams 'Courteney Love/Donita from L7 Wannabe'... I cannot stand these Hollywood actors who try to be 'oh-so-Alternative'.... <_< Maybe she aint as bad as the wretched Keanu Reeves band Dogstar, but sh!t, it aint far off......
November 26, 200618 yr Author Juliette Lewis..? I think she's pish, she screams 'Courteney Love/Donita from L7 Wannabe'... I cannot stand these Hollywood actors who try to be 'oh-so-Alternative'.... <_< Maybe she aint as bad as the wretched Keanu Reeves band Dogstar, but sh!t, it aint far off...... did you hear J Depp's band? how was that (mentioned on c4 yeasterday)
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