School Bus Rock – Women

In recent years there has been a lot of talk as to how women are oppressed. That sort of talk has nothing to do with actual women, but it serves to feed ideologies based on oppression. It is for that reason I created this playlist. There are many amazing women in Rock and music in general. This playlist highlights just a few. There are many, many amazing female musicians! Young girls need to know they can do whatever they want to do and should not be held down by someone else’s beliefs. There will be obstacles along the way, but we all deal with obstacles. The trick is to overcome them!

NOTABLE ARTISTS

Tracey Chapman

Tracey Chapman doesn’t have a slew of hits, but the hits she does have are amazing. When here hit Fast Care came out it created a lot of buzz for Tracey.

Kate Bush

Kate Bush was discovered by David Gilmour of Pink Floyd. If you’ve seen season 4 of the Netflix series Stranger Things then you will have heard one of her big hits from the 80s. I watch Stranger Things and now I cannot listen to Running Up that Hill without thinking about what happened to Max! Kate is one of the most talented women in the music industry and has worked with some very big names. She did a song with Peter Gabriel called Don’t Give Up.

Dolores O’Riordan

Dolores O’Riordan was the lead singer of The Cranberries and was a vocal powerhouse! One of the tunes from The Cranberries was something that had you saying ‘What was that?!!!’. When it was released it was so different than anything that had come before it. It is also a track that is exploding with emotion. The track I speak of is Zombie. Dolores was able to put that song over the top infusing it with her emotions while singing. She has a Canadian connection because for many years Dolores lived in Peterborough, Ontario before moving back to the U.K..

Pat Benetar

Pat Benetar is another vocal powerhouse. She is classically trained, but wanted to pursue a career in Rock. She team up with a guitarist who she later married. The two of them tour to this day.

NOTABLE TRACKS

Hell is for Children

The title ‘Hell is for Children‘ sounds extreme, but that is because the subject is extremely serious. It is about the abuse of children and how it can go unnoticed for years. There are children out there that are subjected to abuse from adults who threaten them with more violence should they speak out. It is so very important for those voices to be heard. A similar song was created by Alice Cooper. It is not about the abuse of children, rather its about the neglect of very young children. Its called Dead Babies and the lyrics talk about how little Betty ate a bunch of aspirin because he mother was not there to stop her.

CANADIAN ARTISTS

Amanda Marshall

Amanda Marshall‘s self titled debut album is excellent and spawned several hits.

Alanis Morissette

Alanis Morissette started out as a little pop princess from Ottawa known as simply Alanis. When her album Jagged Little Pill was released I didn’t know that Alanis Morissette was that pop princess. You’d never now based on the songs on the album. The music was rock and was something different. The first hit was You Outta Know and it was one of those songs that where you’re first reaction was ‘What is that?!!!’. Its a tune I’d love to play on the bus, but the lyrics are not suitable for that.

Avril Lavigne

Avril Lavigne exploded on the scene in the early 2000s with her tune ‘Sk8er Boi‘. She had a number of great hits after that one.

A few years after Avril hit the scene the rock music industry impoded. Many blame it on the internet and the ability to download music. Personally, I see the downloading issue as being just a symptom of the much bigger problem of Corporate Greed! The music industry tried to suck as much money as they could from music lovers which resulted in many of those people downloading everything for free. Lower prices would have resulted in more people buying the music to support the musicians, but the choice was made to maximize profits. This hurt real musicians while the industry pumped up the likes of Taylor Swift to make huge money.

The Parachute Club

The Parachute Club was an 80s band from Toronto which had a couple of hits with lead singer Lorraine Segato. This playlist includes their hit ‘Rise Up’ which I was surprised to hear on Wingham’s Cool 94.5 just a few months ago.