Serious female singers harder to find on the charts

It has been 10 years since a young female singer/songwriter named Sarah McLachlan organized Lilith Fair, the festival tour that came to symbolize the increased visibility enjoyed by female artists in the mid- to late '90s.

Launched in 1997, Lilith was pegged by some as a showcase for tender, earnest folk-pop minstrels. But over its three seasons, the tour also featured a variety of rock, hip-hop and alternative acts, old and new. Radio playlists reflected a growing interest in a variety of creatively autonomous female musicians, as did seemingly countless articles on "women in rock."

Listen to top 40 radio these days, though, and you're not likely to find as many of these artists -- or their would-be successors. Some suggest that commercial success has become a more elusive goal for women with strong, singular voices.

Recent weeks have seen a few such women re-emerge on the Billboard 200 pop albums chart, where hip-hop/folk/world music fusionist Nelly Furtado and neo-soul songstress India Arie are, respectively, at No. 2 and No. 3. Furtado, whose Loose topped that chart previously, also has a No. 1 top 40 single with Promiscuous. But overall, the current Hot 100 boasts fewer women in the top 10, especially women who play dominant roles in crafting their tunes, than the July 20, 1996, top 10, which was led by Alanis Morissette and Tracy Chapman and included other songs by Morissette, Jewel and Mariah Carey.

On the chart for July 22, 2006, Furtado, Beyonce and Shakira are the only female solo acts also credited as writers in the top 10, and their songs each feature at least three additional co-writers.

Certainly, superstars such as Beyonce and Gwen Stefani offer strong, singular presences. But their singing and their songwriting -- which tends to be heavily collaborative -- rely less on idiosyncratic expression than savvy, splashy production, executed with the same high style as their dance routines and fashion statements. Kelly Clarkson, praised as the most independent-minded American Idol grad, also depends on vocal flash and experienced co-writers.

Other young female icons include those alluded to in the video for Pink's recent single Stupid Girls, which features apparent parodies of tabloid regulars -- and major-label recording artists -- Jessica Simpson and Lindsay Lohan.

"Right now, the cultural emphasis is more on our bodies than our minds or talents," Pink says. "The media has absolutely pushed that. Respected artists, like Sheryl Crow and Melissa Etheridge, are older."

Women 'run into a bit of a wall'

Linda Ronstadt, who earned recognition decades ago for both her vocal prowess and her pulchritude, agrees. "The women's movement has run into a bit of a wall," says Ronstadt, who teamed with Cajun star Ann Savoy for Adieu False Heart, due July 25. "You almost can't be successful now if you're not a babe."

Says Fiona Apple: "A pretty face always sells, but now it matters more, for everybody."

Like Apple, who as a teen newcomer was marketed as much for her Lolita-like sexuality as for her prodigious talent, many of the new female singer/songwriters being trumpeted are notable not only for their comely looks but also for their extreme youth.

At 18, the silver-throated Kelly Sweet, whose debut We Are One is due Sept. 12, already has three years on blond MTV star Cheyenne Kimball, whose new CD, The Day Has Come, arrived Tuesday.

The past few months have brought albums from more mature singer/songwriters, admired under-the-radar voices and rising favorites such as Allison Moorer, Jen Chapin, KT Tunstall, Anna Nalick and Corinne Bailey Rae.

Lilith alumnae such as Apple, now 28, and McLachlan, 38, sustain the interest of core fans and media who discovered them in the '90s.

But Moorer, whose new CD Getting Somewhere has garnered good reviews but little commercial airplay, feels that commitment was short-lived. "After Lilith, there was a big backlash in the music industry. All these guys understood for the first time the power that women have in speaking to other women; then you had all these angry boy bands like Limp Bizkit come along. It was a total 180."

That trend toward testosterone-driven rock and rap was followed by a tidal wave of bubblegum pop, led by Britney Spears. But as the new millennium settled in, it seemed for a while that a fresh crop of more independent-minded, creatively engaged role models was emerging.

Artists such as Arie, Furtado, Pink, Michelle Branch, Alicia Keys, Norah Jones, Shakira and Dido earned significant sales and airplay, though not without confronting some of the same obstacles faced by generations before them.

"Many male producers or executives often brushed me off, or were more concerned with the possibility of a personal relationship than a working one," Keys recalls. "That's when I knew I had to write, produce and arrange for myself to even get anywhere."

Arie notes that her first single, Video, "really was an affirmation I wrote for myself, to introduce myself and to make a lane for myself in the music industry. I knew I didn't look or sound (like what was) the popular taste, but that I had something very beautiful to offer." On her new album, Testimony Vol. 1: Life and Relationship, "I have gone even deeper into expressing myself exactly the way I choose."

Keys, Arie and others acknowledge that the freedom they have enjoyed was built on precedent. Pioneering singer/songwriters such as Joni Mitchell and Carole King were followed in the '70s and '80s by women from post-punk poet Patti Smith to lyrical folk-rocker Chapman.

Furtado also nods to the hip-hop/soul stars who preceded Keys. The title of Furtado's new CD was inspired by the trio TLC, whose members would adorn their clothes with condoms. "They were taking back their sexuality, showing they were complete women," Furtado says. "There was such a freshness to artists like them, or Mary J. Blige, who has such a strong voice and image. I miss that."

Some argue that the dilemma of the troubled troubadour isn't gender-specific. Many allude to the dismantling of artist development at major record companies, and what Rosanne Cash calls "the American Idol consciousness" -- an emphasis on culling quick hits from malleable young artists rather than nurturing long-term careers.

"I don't think women are being singled out," Cash says. "It's a difficult time in the business. It used to be that a label would sign an artist and stick with them through three or four albums. That so seldom happens now, if at all."

Jewel, whose latest album, Goodbye Alice in Wonderland, entered in the top 10 in May but has since slipped to No. 142, says: "You don't have a lot of kids now saying, 'I want to grow up to be a songwriter.' It's 'I want to be famous.' Kids will sell their right arms to be famous, and the industry enables that and is happy to make money off it."

Granted, female artists confront certain gender-specific issues. Motherhood can be a complicating factor, particularly for those who tour, as McLachlan acknowledged when she brought Lilith to a close, citing a desire to start a family.

Branch, who followed up her solo success by forming The Wreckers with fellow singer/songwriter Jessica Harp, says she "felt a lot of pressure" after giving birth to a daughter, Owen, last August. "Though no one from my label came out and said it, it was: 'You're going to lose the baby fat, right?'"

Like Cash, a mother of five, and that most ferocious multitasker, Madonna, Branch and McLachlan have managed to continue recording and performing. Furtado, who credits her 2 1/2-year-old daughter, Nevis, with adding extra energy to her new CD, echoes many female artists raising children when she describes the experience as "empowering. A woman can have her cake and eat it, too."

k.d. lang uses fertility as a metaphor in assessing the challenges and opportunities facing "both our sexes. The focus has shifted to fast food, fast culture. But cultural oppression can cultivate great, great art. In the street, at any drastic time, things are incredibly fertile, and I think there's a tremendous opportunity right now."

Alice Peacock, whose CD Who I Am was released July 4 on her own Peacock Music label (distributed by Universal Music Group), is trying to seize that opportunity. "Being on an independent label, I have more freedom," says Peacock, who had previously recorded for a major. "Women can have more impact if we have time to grow."

Kim Buie, vice president at Lost Highway, a smaller label that is home to roots mavericks such as Lucinda Williams and Mary Gauthier, believes that more options exist for women with the initiative, and patience, to pursue them. "Someone like Lucinda, whose career has been built as a songwriter, can always tour successfully and consistently builds an audience," Buie says. Buie points to other iconoclasts such as indie heroine Ani DiFranco and Aimee Mann, who despite repeated label struggles has sustained an enviable track record as tunesmith and soundtrack artist.

Moving to Nashville

But many others seeking wider exposure find the available channels, literally and figuratively, limited. The dearth of tunes by female singer/songwriters on pop radio "was one of the main reasons" that Branch decided to relocate to Nashville and form The Wreckers. The duo titled its recent debut, with obvious sarcasm, Sit Still, Look Pretty.

The country music capital has bred a number of relatively feisty female acts in recent years, from the Dixie Chicks to earthy superstar Gretchen Wilson.

"I never wrote a song before I moved to Nashville," Wilson says. "I had tried to write one or two, but then I came here and started working with the Music Mafia and Big and Rich. And there are many talented female songwriters here."

More experienced artists are similarly hopeful that, drawing on both new media and old-fashioned camaraderie, sisters will keep doing it for themselves.

"There's a lot of exciting mentoring going on, with people showcasing other artists," says Bonnie Raitt, citing Emmylou Harris' support of longtime cult favorite Patty Griffin. Raitt has championed Maia Sharp, and can list a number of aspiring female musicians she admires, including some who send her their demos directly.

Raitt, who is now touring, has thought about starting a new trek modeled after Lilith Fair.

"The mix of styles and generations was great, and there was a palpably different vibe backstage, with no pecking order or jockeying for position. It was the cool part of what women do for each other. I hope to do something with a brand name, and that kind of camaraderie and fellowship, that might happen every summer. Something inspired by Lilith Fair, because that's one of the things I'm proudest to have been a part of."

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