I love it!
Seems like a really well thought-out program, albeit - in my eyes - let down somewhat by an advert that implies it'll have much less depth than it actually has.
No, that's not what I'm saying, nor what I believe the program is saying either.
To my mind, everyone likes fun with distortion, and colouring the relevant guitars pink helps break down the "pink is for girls" gender norm, nothing more, nothing less.
Actually, being perfectly honest, I'd never even heard of "boys like distortion" as a gender norm; is that a thing?
What if boys prefer different colors then pink ? Dat oppresion.
It obviously IS a thing. Check out the predominantly buyers of distortion pedals, or the near absolute majority of workshippers of "shredding" guitarists and heavy players. Also check any magazine about those kind of things, incudings any advertisments of heavy guitar gear, amps and distortion pedals. You will of course find 2-3 counter-examples. You'd be hard-pressed to find 10, much less 50.
[1] Especially considering that women are the most sought after group by advertisers/marketeers, even more so than men.
My son is highly involved in his high school band (concert and marching), and the gender breakdown is very instrument specific. A lot more girls play flute and clarinet while a lot more boys play sousaphone, trombone, and percussion.
Part of it is physical - not that many girls can march around with a heavy sousaphone. But I do think there is a bias that pushes girls and boys at a young age when starting out towards certain instruments.
- I played in a jazz band in college: across all of the department jazz bands, probably 95% male participants.
- Attending the local symphony: approximately half and half, and I do seem to find the male/female ratio in classical music performances tends to be more balanced.
- Perusing musical instrument stores across the country: predominantly male shoppers.
- Listening to recorded music: I don't consciously (or, I think, even unconsciously) select music based on the sex of the artist. Most music I've listened to has been produced either mostly or entirely by male participants. More specifically, I listen to a lot of jazz and jazz-related genres of music; it's rare that I even encounter a female performer in those genres. (Rare, as in, maybe 5-10% of the time.)
- Playing music in local bands: most other participants have been male.
I personally suspect that high school band participation is, at least in some cases, driven by external motivators besides intrinsic musical interest. In my (again anecdotal) observations, many people who were actively involved in high school bands put their instruments away more or less permanently after high school.
Anyway, again, I have no concrete statistical data, and I certainly agree that high school participation is more balanced.
By giving the children a choice of not only sound but color, they're sticking with some good punk traditions, IMHO.
I somehow doubt that you play guitar, so I should also point out that playing a heavily distorted guitar is tremendously fun for anyone. Guitar is the toughest instrument I've ever played badly and I still think it's great fun.
> I somehow doubt that you play guitar, so I should also point out that playing a heavily distorted guitar is tremendously fun for anyone.
Wait, what? How the hell you concluded that from my simple assumption (which might be correct or not) that there's a boys-like-distortion gender norm?
I suppose we have a different understanding of what a gender norm is.
My friend Shawn introduced me to an Acid King cd the last time he was in town and I have been a fan since. I'm always glad to hear someone mention them as they're on my 'must see live' list. There's a really neat doomy stoner band called Black Moth that has come out with some good stuff. They're sort of like Sabbath with female vocals.
I'll check Black Moth, thanks for the recommendation.
And it's not just breaking "pink is for girls", but also "pink is not for boys"; something that children enforce pretty strictly.
It's a fact. Play a copy of "Sleep's Holy Mountain" for someone, then show them some Kenny Rogers. Note the results.
Citation needed.
Let's compare girl bands with heavy distortion compared to male bands as such.
Search for butt-dumb on this page as a bit of background: http://www.stylusmagazine.com/articles/weekly_article/i-love...
Most don't.
Are we making observations from the majority or from abstract principles?
Thorrs Hammer (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZ57PS-5bhM)
Kylesa (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFRirdsEDHo)
Ephel Duath (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EX9cgbNMMEo)
Arch Enemy (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBDnU382y7U)
Sigh (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KAFIuE-qm9E)
Electric Wizard (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jzem_-At6F4)
These ladies can out-heavy their male counterparts any day of the week.
E.g. one could also give 20,000 all-male metal bands...
20,000 all-male bands who don't kill as hard as Kylesa or Thorrs Hammer maybe.
It's starting to sound like you've got a pre-existing conclusion, that girls can't rock, and you're trying to find something to support that conclusion regardless of what other evidence is presented.
I say that in the Metal scene it's widely acknowledged that women can rock just as hard as their male peers. We stamped out a lot of that sexist shit a while ago.
Who said anything about "killing it"? That's about quality (not to mention subjective). Of course women can rock -- there are several example (and it would only take one anyway to prove such a thing).
We're talking about quantity -- whether women rock generally more than men, or actually, as this started, whether men like loud music and distortion more.
Shame on me!
I'm thinking of acts like Despise You, Gasp, Agoraphobic Nosebleed. Worth checking out.
The first time I saw Nashville Pussy, Corey Parks was still playing bass for them. Her brother, Cherokee was an NBA player at the time and from my place in the pit, Corey Parks looked about seven feet tall. The combination of the very tall and imposing Corey Parks playing bass on one side, combined with Ruyter Sighs playing guitar on the other was very powerful. Nashville Pussy's lead singer and drummer were both men, but Ruyter Sighs' flat out amazing guitar playing really drove the sound. Are they a girl band or a male band?
Or, what about Sonic Youth? Are they are a girl band or a male band? Kim Gordon and Thurston Moore decided they wanted to start making music, so they recruited Lee Ranaldo and eventually found a drummer. Kim Gordon was just as much a creative force as any of the men she played with and when she finally put her bass down, lo and behold, she was a damned good guitar player.
Or, how about Bikini Kill? Are they a girl band or a male band? They're most heavily associated with riot grrl and are mostly considered Kathleen Hanna's band, but Billy Karren was a straight up incredible guitar player. If there was any justice, he would be recognized as one of the truly great musicians to come out of that soon to be famous Washington scene.
Or, in a different genre, are the Cocteau Twins a girl band or a male band? I simply can't imagine that band without Elizabeth Fraser nor would I want to.
Debbie Googe and Bilinda Butcher have been members of My Bloody Valentine since the late 1980s and I simply can't imagine what MBV would sound like without those two amazing women. Their other two members are male. Are they a girl band or a male band?
Or, Slowdive? Rachel Goswell formed the band in the late 80s with a guy she knew since she was a kid. Are they a girl band or a male band?
More personally, my sister is in a thrash metal band. A woman I dated several years back used to play drums in a weird shoegaze/electronic fusion band.
A band with girls in it is a girl band, and a band with males in it is a male band. The Bangles vs the Led Zeppelin.
Mixed bands are quite fewer -- which obliterates the whole mixed counterexamples thing.
Citation needed.
[1] http://musicmachinery.com/2014/02/10/gender-specific-listeni...