{"id":1826857,"date":"2026-03-12T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-03-11T21:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1826857"},"modified":"2026-03-12T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2026-03-11T21:00:00","slug":"using-female-fronted-now-as-a-genre-is-just-as-lazy-as-it-was-30-years-ago","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1826857","title":{"rendered":"Using Female-Fronted Now As A Genre Is Just As Lazy As It Was 30 Years Ago"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>[analyse_image type=&#8221;featured&#8221; src=&#8221;https:\/\/cdn-p.smehost.net\/sites\/7f9737f2506941499994d771a29ad47a\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Metal-Injection-Headers-1.png&#8221;]<\/p>\n<div class=\"zox-post-body left zoxrel zox100\">\n<div id=\"6106\"><\/div>\n<p>Just out of curiosity \u2013\u00a0does <strong>Courtney<\/strong><strong>LaPlante<\/strong> of <strong>Spiritbox<\/strong> sound in anyway similar to say, <strong>Kiarely<\/strong> &#8220;<strong>Kia<\/strong>&#8221; <strong>Castillo<\/strong> or <strong>Janel<\/strong><strong>Monique<\/strong><strong>Duarte<\/strong> (formerly) of <strong>Conquer<\/strong><strong>Divide<\/strong>? Do <strong>Lizzie<\/strong><strong>Hale<\/strong> of <strong>Halestorm<\/strong> and <strong>Fernanda<\/strong><strong>Lira<\/strong> of <strong>Crypta<\/strong> share some common characteristic that defines what they <em>sound <\/em>like? Or are all of the bands just lumped together because of their gender? Do <strong>Babymetal<\/strong> and <strong>Jinjer<\/strong> belong in the same &#8216;<em>female-fronted<\/em>&#8216; genre when that description does absolutely <em>nothing<\/em> to describe what any of these artists sound like. Do &#8216;female vocalists&#8217; carry more weight than say, female guitarists, bassists, drummers, songwriters, producers, or engineers?<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Spiritbox - Live @ Rock am Ring 2025\" width=\"880\" height=\"495\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/RcfTAPeCakQ?feature=oembed\" frameborder allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>Kawaii metal, progressive metalcore, melodic death metal, deathcore, symphonic doom metal \u2013\u00a0<em>those<\/em> are genres that actually <em>define <\/em>what an artist sounds like. So fucking what, it&#8217;s a &#8216;female-fronted&#8217; band. <em>Tell me what their music sounds like<\/em>. We don&#8217;t say &#8216;male-fronted&#8217; or &#8216;male vocalist,&#8217; so if we&#8217;re talking about equality here, in its true theory \u2013\u00a0gender shouldn&#8217;t be mentioned. It&#8217;s not a factor in how a band sounds. <strong>Courtney<\/strong><strong>LaPlante<\/strong>, <strong>Daniela <\/strong>&#8220;<strong>Dany<\/strong>&#8221; <strong>Villarreal V\u00e9lez<\/strong> of <strong>The<\/strong><strong>Warning<\/strong>, <strong>Fernanda<\/strong><strong>Lira<\/strong>, and <strong>Cristina<\/strong><strong>Scabbia<\/strong> of <strong>Lacuna<\/strong><strong>Coil<\/strong> and their vocals don&#8217;t have a whole lot in common except for the fact that they often fall in women&#8217;s normal range \u2013 but that&#8217;s about it.<\/p>\n<p>Zines like <em>Sonic<\/em><em>Cathedral<\/em> trace the roots of not only the word &#8216;female-fronted,&#8217; but metal&#8217;s own variation &#8216;femme-metal,&#8217; all the way back to the 50s with the &#8216;doo-woop&#8217; girl groups because, you guessed it \u2013\u00a0<em>they&#8217;re all trailblazing women<\/em>. But, &#8216;femme-metal&#8217; became used to not only describe, but lazily market, symphonic doom metal bands like <strong>Nightwish<\/strong> or <strong>Within Temptation<\/strong> that started emerging in the late 90s, early 2000s, the actual description of the technicalities of the all-encompassing, gloriously skin-crawling structures that any one of the &#8216;femme-metal&#8217; produced, reduced to a mere description of what society deemed to be feminine. The new genre description notably became prevalent with record-labels and magazines as journalists ran with this sensationalist story-angle, sectioning women off from the genre, suggesting that metal is inherently male at its default. Sensationalism and selling records \u2013\u00a0obviously \u2013 became far more important than the innovative nature of bands like <strong>Holy Moses<\/strong>, <strong>Theatre of Tragedy<\/strong>, and <strong>Lacuna Coil<\/strong>, further separating them from the &#8216;metal&#8217; genre they were actively contributing to.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"LACUNA COIL \u2013 In Nomine Patris (LYRIC VIDEO)\" width=\"880\" height=\"495\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/HPjDkrseprc?feature=oembed\" frameborder allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>The sectioning-off of women from the metal genre not just suggested, but reinforced the subconscious \u2013\u00a0or conscious \u2013\u00a0belief that metal belongs to men, and &#8216;femme-metal&#8217; and &#8216;female-fronted&#8217; rock bands were merely variations and not naturally members of a genre, without prejudice, and yet, we still find ourselves cycling through the same terminology and the same conscious exclusion and belief that metal is masculine. But it&#8217;s a tale as old as time, women have existed in the same space as men since the beginning of Homo sapiens \u2013 females and males have existed since the beginning of life. So, <em>why <\/em>is it surprising or sensational that a woman is doing the same thing as a man? Why does a genre have an inherent gender?<\/p>\n<p>But it&#8217;s a relevant question for the consistent highlighting of a vocalist&#8217;s gender when it is a woman behind the microphone. And then where do women like drummers <strong>Denise Dufort<\/strong> [<strong>Girlschool<\/strong>] and <strong>Meredith Henderson <\/strong>[<strong>VCTMS<\/strong>], guitarists <strong>Nita Strauss<\/strong> and <strong>Diamond Rowe <\/strong>[<strong>Tetrarch<\/strong>], and bassist <strong>Jo Bench <\/strong>[<strong>Bolt Thrower<\/strong>] fall in this entire conversation? Just straight up not apart of it because they aren&#8217;t the lead singer? Well, that is until they&#8217;re asked &#8216;<em>What it&#8217;s like to be a woman in a band?<\/em>&#8216; with expectant eyes from a male interviewer they&#8217;ve never met before, then women are apart of the equation. Men have never had to justify or highlight the fact that they were a man in an interview, an album, at a festival \u2013 yet there&#8217;s an expectation that women should not only be highlighted, but almost\u2026 (patronisingly) praised. &#8216;<em>Ah, yes, you can be a part of this too. Look at you! Good job.<\/em>&#8216; There&#8217;s a certain diminishing and chauvinist nature to this kind of labelling that is honestly more destructive than productive.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"CRYPTA - The Other Side Of Anger (Official Video) | Napalm Records\" width=\"880\" height=\"495\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/WESOssx4e-k?feature=oembed\" frameborder allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>For the most part, women don&#8217;t give a fuck if it&#8217;s a male vocalist. It&#8217;s never been a point of comparison \u2013\u00a0&#8220;Yeah, he&#8217;s pretty good for a <em>male <\/em>vocalist&#8221; \u2013\u00a0rather, it&#8217;s &#8220;Yeah, he&#8217;s pretty good.&#8221; <em>Why<\/em> is it necessary to point out that &#8220;she&#8217;s pretty good for a <em>female <\/em>vocalist.&#8221; It&#8217;s an irrelevant, unnecessary, and quite honestly, lazy, description of any &#8216;<em>female-fronted<\/em>&#8216; artist. <strong>The Warning<\/strong>&#8216;s melodic hard rock \u2013 as well as contributions from bassist <strong>Alejandra<\/strong><strong>Villarreal<\/strong><strong>V\u00e9lez<\/strong> and drummer <strong>Paulina<\/strong><strong>Villarreal<\/strong><strong>V\u00e9lez<\/strong> \u2013 is overshadowed by the fact that they&#8217;re a <em>young<\/em>, &#8216;female-fronted&#8217; band; <strong>Crypta<\/strong>&#8216;s soul-crushing death metal in which vocalist <strong>Fernanda<\/strong><strong>Lira<\/strong> serving also as the bassist is overlooked; <strong>Within Temptation<\/strong>&#8216;s pioneering steps into symphonic metal forfeited to be described in favour of a marketing ploy; <strong>Jinjer<\/strong>&#8216;s progressive metalcore that doesn&#8217;t entirely set them apart from a rather legendary status, and <strong>Kittie<\/strong>&#8216;s heavy metal become reduced to a mere three word description that doesn&#8217;t tell the listener, a potential fan, anything about the band except for their damn gender.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"JINJER - Green Serpent (Official Video) | Napalm Records\" width=\"880\" height=\"495\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/637ER6dlGDg?feature=oembed\" frameborder allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>Calling bands &#8216;female-fronted&#8217; doesn&#8217;t actually include women in metal spaces, rather it separates them, and creates a divide between how bands are categorised and identified sonically \u2013\u00a0women become commodities and inclusion becomes something to be &#8216;praised.&#8217; Then, introducing that level of commodity leads to objectification, sexualised, and the oppression of women in heavy metal and rock spaces as their actions are then dictated by what sells \u2013\u00a0and we all know what sells. Instead of lauded for their accomplishments in their respective genres, women are pinned against each other, held to unrealistic beauty standards, taught that they can&#8217;t respond to others in the same way their male counterparts can, and reduced to visual entertainment rather than artists performing or promoting their artwork.<\/p>\n<p>So, when you&#8217;re inevitably about to hit &#8216;post&#8217; on that Instagram story, sharing one those &#8216;female-fronted&#8217; playlists on streaming platforms on Spotify, Apple Music, Tidal, <em>whatever<\/em>, for this Women&#8217;s Month \u2013 don&#8217;t. You&#8217;re perpetuating the very same issue that you may find abhorrent. Instead, close the Instagram app and start adding those artists to your playlists that fit their genre, their &#8216;vibe.&#8217; Do some research on what they&#8217;re about. Don&#8217;t rely on the word &#8216;female&#8217; to be a tagline that is commodified and exploited for the sake of making men money. Go to your local record shop, buy a record from that artist. Support them directly \u2013 not because they&#8217;re women, but because it&#8217;s good music and you like it.<\/p>\n<p><em>Pictured: <em><strong>Arch<\/strong><strong>Enemy<\/strong><\/em><\/em>, <em><strong>Babymetal<\/strong>,<\/em><em><strong>Calva<\/strong><strong>Louise<\/strong>,<\/em><em><strong>Conquer<\/strong><strong>Divide<\/strong>, <em><strong>Crypta<\/strong>,<\/em><em><strong>Evanescence<\/strong>, <em><strong>Halestorm<\/strong>,<\/em><\/em><\/em><em><em><em><strong>Lacuna<\/strong><strong>Coil<\/strong><em>, <strong>Jinjer<\/strong>, <strong>Kittie<\/strong><\/em>, <\/em><strong>Spiritbox<\/strong>, <strong>The<\/strong><strong>Warning<\/strong>, <\/em><strong>Within<\/strong><strong>Temptation<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"zox-post-body left zoxrel zox100\"><strong>Want More Metal? Subscribe To Our Daily Newsletter<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Enter your information below to get a daily update with all of our headlines and receive The Orchard Metal newsletter.<\/p>\n<div id=\"main-newsletter-form\">\n<fieldset>\n<p><button id=\"mc-embedded-subscribe\" class=\"submit\" name=\"subscribe\" type=\"submit\">Subscribe<\/button><\/p>\n<\/fieldset>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>[analyse_source url=&#8221;https:\/\/metalinjection.net\/womens-month\/using-female-fronted-now-as-a-genre-is-just-as-lazy-as-it-was-30-years-ago&#8221;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[analyse_image type=&#8221;featured&#8221; src=&#8221;https:\/\/cdn-p.smehost.net\/sites\/7f9737f2506941499994d771a29ad47a\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Metal-Injection-Headers-1.png&#8221;] Just out of curiosity \u2013\u00a0does CourtneyLaPlante of Spiritbox sound in anyway similar to say, Kiarely &#8220;Kia&#8221; Castillo or JanelMoniqueDuarte (formerly) of ConquerDivide? Do LizzieHale of Halestorm and FernandaLira of Crypta share some common characteristic that defines what they sound like? Or are all of the bands just lumped together because of their [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[226,55],"class_list":["post-1826857","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-crawlmanager","tag-metalinjection-net"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1826857","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1826857"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1826857\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1826857"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1826857"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1826857"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}