Female element in Prog Rock

Has anyone mentioned Frida and Agnetha from ABBA? 

The Truth wrote: Wait you have Gilli Smyth is the poll, wouldn't she be considered insignificant in your book being Canterbury and all?

As I´ve written above, I´ve eliminated some subgenres with a few excepts. One of this ones is e.g. Gilli... 

I didn't like the comment of the marginal female artists suggestions either. I understand that the job of creating a poll and think about all the different options takes its time and it NEVER EVER  satisfies everyone here, and that can piss someone off. No matter what options you include, you will ALWAYS receive some complaints. Some people may complain because they truly believe that the option they are suggesting deserves to be on the list, and some others just for the sake of complaining. Anyway, these are just different opinions, and we should try to respect all of them. In my case, I voted for Haslam, and suggested Mariela Gonzalez from Nexus (only because one of the options on the poll read: "Whom have I forgotten, gosh?"). If you didn't want the people to express their different thoughts you could have posted "just stick to the artists on the list", or something like that. I don't know if my suggestion fits in your "marginal female artists" label (maybe because she's not so well known, I don't know). I hope not, because she really is a very talented vocalist. And I'm sure that plenty of us who expressed our different points of view towards your list didn't do it just to bring your poll down. As I said before, these are just opinions.

Edited by Morningrise - July 25 2010 at 13:48

Mr. Maestro wrote: Chloe Alper from Pure Reason Revolution and Rachel Cohen from The Reasoning each deserve a mention.

PRR second album dissapointed me very much. It´s Pop (maybe Prog Pop?). That´s a reason. The Reasoning is Crossover, therefore it haven´t included here. (And I didn´t know Rachel before, I´m not a weisenheim...)

Gandalff wrote: Mr. Maestro wrote: Chloe Alper from Pure Reason Revolution and Rachel Cohen from The Reasoning each deserve a mention. PRR second album dissapointed me very much. It´s Pop (maybe Prog Pop?). That´s a reason. The Reasoning is Crossover, therefore it haven´t included here. (And I didn´t know Rachel before, I´m not a weisenheim...)

Several comments on this thread from me.

First off, it's nice to know that you're the expert on influential/important female vocalists on this site and most other people are not. It's all subjective anyway, so calm down a bit. It's just a matter of opinion.

Secondly, you say you don't like Krause's voice because it's too dissonant. You're certainly entitled to your opinion, but just because an instrument (or in this case a voice) is dissonant and lacks melody doesn't mean it's inferior by any means. Some of my favorite bands (Meshuggah for example) are incredibly dissonant or have a completely different take on traditional definitions of "melody" and "rhythm" in rock music.

As for Chloe Alper, while she isn't one of my favorite female vocalists, I find it very hard to refer to Amor Vincit Omnia as merely pop music. While definitely not as much in the vein of "traditional prog" as The Dark Third is, I hear influences from many influential electronic groups, such as New Order, Depeche Mode, and Kraftwerk (who I believe are on this site under Progressive Electronic ). So it's certainly "progressive", but ultimately probably not "prog".

As for my vote, I'd go for Anneke van Giersbergen as well. She's one of the best overall rock vocalists I've ever heard. And while she has worked mostly in metal, she has the kind of voice that can cut through heavy music and still make it sound really beautiful. I can't think of another female vocalist that is any better at it than her.

I was listening to Loudest Whisper's The Children of Lir yesterday and quite liked the female vocals, I don't know who they belong to though. 

The Quiet One wrote: Oh! I got one!   The female vocalist of The Decemberists! (sorry forgot the name)

Jenny Conlee.

Aranis is excellent, based on what I've heard.  I just ordered Songs from Mirage, it'll be my first Aranis album. 

SaltyJon wrote: Aranis is excellent, based on what I've heard.  I just ordered Songs from Mirage, it'll be my first Aranis album.

Songs from Mirage is my least favourite from Aranis (I don't include the Basta one), but it rather grew on me. I still haven't spun it much.   Aranis II, and then I, I loved from first listen.

Marcela Bovio goddamnit! She's the one that made The Human Equation the great album that it is (well Arjen helped out a bit ). She's also the only reason to listen to Stream Of Passion. Every time I listen to her magnificent voice I have goose bumps. I only pray that she will finally find a band that wolud fit her talent.