Girly Rock

Female rock stars are a rare breed. Sure, the 70s had Heart, Joan Jett and Pat Benatar. The 80s had Blondie, Roxette, and the B-52s. The 90s had Courtney Love, Garbage, The Cranberries and Alanis. But these groups are the exception in a male-dominated sea. Billboard's Top 25 list currently doesn't have a single band with a single female. BBC's List is slightly nicer with just three bands: The Pretty Reckless, Paramore and Evanescence. DC101's 2007 Best Modern Rock Songs of All Time had one band with a female (The Pixies) in the top 150.

But one thing can be said for female-led bands: they are awesome. The 10 most played artists of all time in the Clopper household (says iTunes, Eric since '01 and Cheryl since '04) are:

1. Evanescence

2. Paramore

3. Linkin Park

4. Ben Folds [Five] *

5. Flipsyde

6. AFI

7. Breaking Benjamin

8. P!nk *

9. The Veronicas *

10. Live

* Arguably not rock, but we count 'em. Listen to the B Sides.

Girly rock takes the top two, and four of the top ten. t.A.T.u comes in at #15 and No Doubt's at #17. Paramore should strengthen its lead this year, as would Evanescence if you could count "Evanescence with a different female lead" a.k.a. We Are the Fallen. This is way beyond their "share" given how few female-led bands there are to begin with.

(As usual) I can state the facts but not the explanation. Why does our family love women that rock? Is it because in order to sign a record in this genre (and stay in the genre rather than become pop princesses) they must be awesome to begin with? Does a higher (and in general better) voice contrast more appealingly with rock's heavy bass and drums? Do women push rock slightly towards the pop their gender is more well-known for in a mix that we happen to like (Hayley Williams crossed over for Airplanes and Carly Smithson was on Idol, but Rivers Cuomo crossed over for Magic and neither Weezer nor Idol's Daughtry made our list)? Airplanes is Ryan's second-favorite song (after "The Doo! Doo! Song," aka Uprising).

I know fellow rock-lovers are a dying breed. DC doesn't even have an alt or modern rock radio station anymore. (**Correction: DC101 does still call itself rock. But since their most-played artists are RHCP, Pearl Jam, and Sublime (this fact made up) I don't trust them as a current alt rock compass. Their recent big concert was headlined by Stone Temple Pilots and Alice in Chains. They even have a 90's show, which is remarkable for how little it has to change from the rest of their playlist.**) But for those of you still out there chime in... Does girly rock rock?