Through the years there has been loads of bands with females out in the front, but do they add the vocals which make them sound good, or would a male singer have worked just as well, or were they just eye candy to get the band noticed in an industry obsessed with attractive female singers.

 

Debbie Harry - Blondie

Chrissie Hynde - Pretenders

Shirley Manson - Garbage

 

All 3 I think stamped their mark on these bands and their music, but can you think of more like these or maybe some which were put there by the record company.

 

Some others I remember were;

 

Carole Decker - T'pau

whats her name from Transvision vamp??????

 

whats her name from Transvision vamp??????

 

Wendy James, but she was more the 'eye candy' category...

 

There's a few more I can think of - Within Temptation, Lacuna Coil, Arch Enemy, The Gathering - all female fronted metal bands where the women are co-writing the songs and are instrumental in the creative process. And one of the most clear examples (and one I cant believe you missed out..) - Siouxsie and the Banshees - Siouxsie is one incredibly talented, creative and artistic lady who is an absolute icon of modern music and an inspiration to countless of contemporary female artists....

 

siouxsie was of course the prime example, id argue that no other woman lead has been so influential, iconic.

 

the bint from 'echobelly'.. her vocals on 'dark therapy' were awesome. not sure about anything else though.

not too sure about shirley manson. i read online that she was the singer in another band called angelfish and that the boys from garbage only ended up with her as the singer they wanted turned them down. think that band has the stamp of butch vig the nirvana producer bloke

Don't forget Nina Persson fronting the Cardigans (from Sweden).

Gwen Stefanis early work with No Doubt was credible.

 

Courtney Love and Hole. (Dont think you could call poor Courtney eye candy. :lol: )

 

Dont know if anyone has heard of an Oz band called The Divinyls.

But Chrissie Amphlett was a great front lady for the band.

Talented vocalist and co-writer.

 

 

yeah the divinyls hit the charts here in '91 with 'i touch myself'.. twas ok :)

.... as for the original question, i think that nearly every female front person was to some extent 'eye candy', they were young, needed to be noticed, attractive, but out of the list mentioned i think all were also credible artistes... siouxsie, chrissie, debbie, gwen, suzi, etc.

There's that expression 'Sleeperbloke'- after Sleeper and their attractive singler Louise Wener getting all the attention and the lads being pretty much ignored.

 

It is true though if you get a reasonably attractive female singer then the band pretty much becomes to be seen as just her and backing musicians.

 

It was true with Catatonia- to this day I'm surprised at how many people think Catatonia was just a pseudonym for Cerys Matthews. It's true with Texas as well- most of their album covers and videos just feature Sharleen Spiteri.

Does Suzi Quatro count in this discussion ?

She was always on stage with her band .

 

There's that expression 'Sleeperbloke'- after Sleeper and their attractive singler Louise Wener getting all the attention and the lads being pretty much ignored.

 

I was going to ramble about Sleeper and Echobelly, but people have saved me the effort! :lol: But yeah, I absolutely adore Sleeper... I can't really let the whole Britpop thing go, to be honest.

 

Republica, anyone? ;)

Does Suzi Quatro count in this discussion ?

She was always on stage with her band .

 

 

of course she does. suzi q was one of the very first females to front a 'rock' style band, and was the first to have chart success. though unlike siouxsie didnt really become so iconic as her music was just good old blues based rock/pop.