And the thing is? They sing in one way: Pretty. It was initially defended by the fact that the uniqueness of symphonic metal and opera metal was coming from the juxtaposition of heavy metal music and delicate vocals. But, as it's been almost 15 years since the most popular symph. metal bands have gripped audiences, things are becoming more and more clear that there's still a huge double standard about singing.
To explain the whole thing would be time-consuming, and I cannot say it any better than this post. It explains excellently how men have the privilege and freedom in music to do whatever they want, to not be confined to one genre or subjected to rigid standards, while women are only allowed to be one thing: The sexy, sweet-sounding frontpiece.
"The prettiness problem excludes women from rock ‘n roll in a three-phase process.
1. The prettiness imperative is self-inhibiting. I can only speak from personal experience here, but I’m guessing a lot of women agree: not-pretty is hard. I’m a trained singer with an incredibly versatile voice. I can imitate just about anyone’s singing style. But my own voice, my own sound? It’s pretty, and therefore boring. I can imitate non-prettiness, but I can’t come up with it on my own. Making music is a physical act, and it’s very difficult to let your body do things that aren’t pretty when you’ve spent your entire life trying to make your body be as pretty as possible. Especially because (and I can’t find a link for this, so you’re gonna have to take my word on it) women artificially raise their voices around the time of puberty, limiting their vocal range and depriving themselves of full use of their from-the-gut voice. Ever known a woman who seemed to find it literally impossible to speak loudly enough to fill a room? It wasn’t a physical problem. Also, the thing that teens start doing where you are constantly sucking in your stomach? Not good for talking loud and singing in interesting ways.
2. Defying the prettiness imperative gets you punished. If you can manage to do something that’s experimental, interesting, and against the prettiness imperative (or, even crazier, subvertsthe prettiness imperative, see, e.g. Joanna Newsom) then, you are ridiculed, your music is weird, and you are a fairy/witch/slut/whore/weirdo. Or it’s just simply not good. Because people don’t like the way it sounds, since they are not used to women doing things that are not-pretty, and they don’t like it.
3. Not defying the prettiness imperative is boring. See how that works? You’re damned if you do, damned if you don’t. Because if you violate the standards, go outside your comfort zone, and do something really new and interesting, people don’t find it palatable. But if you don’t, then what you’re doing isn’t noteworthy."
I actually can speak to that artificial voice-raising thing: Having been in choir all my life, when I turned 11 and was finally recognized by those around me to actually be in puberty (I had been in it for about a year and a half, actually, but no one had noticed until then), my choir teachers immediately threw us all into higher music. In warmups, we stopped going below a middle C, and went up to treble As regularly. Despite my status as an alto-verging-on-contralto, I was just told to go higher, go sweeter, go prettier, go softer, stay away from those ugly masculine low notes. I was the only girl to step up and say "I'll do this solo", that went down to a (*GASP*) G, and the teacher repeatedly told me "You're crazy!". People told me that singing too low "hurt my vocal cords". (I know: What? I can't see how singing in my natural range would hurt any more than going unnaturally high for myself.) And now, two years later, I realized something. I was looking at a baritone solo in our choir (that I was told would be too low for me to sing.) It went down to a low E, generally staying above the F mark.
When I first tried singing all of it, I couldn't. My voice sounded to quiet and weak.
So, I threw it all out. For those minutes, I threw out the "sweet" tone I had been taught to aspire to, the "feminine" voice quality I was supposed to "naturally" have. I sang as naturally as I possibly could.
And guess what? It was easy. I reached the E with no problem. I sounded like a singer, as opposed to just "a woman".
So yes, there is definitely an inhibiting value instilled in female singers that prevents us from singing in our natural ranges.
Anyway, back to the prettiness in metal thing. It's incredibly frustrating to me to see how the metal is left to the guys, and the prettiness is left to the one woman. There are a couple bands that have harsh female vocalists (the best known are probably The Agonist, Arch Enemy, and Cadaveria), but there are two problems with them: The musicians are still all male, and the women still have to be pretty - if not vocally, then physically.
Look at the singers of these bands:
They are still conventionally sexy. And they promote their image too, not personally - their advertisers do it. Because hey, who cares if they're good unique vocalists, so long as they're hot, right?
There are two bands I have found which break this all-male except the singer mold: Astarte and Kittie. (Very awesome) all-female black metal bands. However, still...they have to promote their images in order to be taken seriously. Because these groups refuse to do this as often as other bands, they have reached virtually no popularity.
And on singing "not pretty" - so far in metal, I've seen the two opposites: The pretty symph. metal vocalists, and the growlers. There seemed to be no in between - and that is what guys can get away with doing. They can whine-sing, shout without growling, nasally drawl, sing however the hell they want to and still be considered good.
However, I discovered a band recently. Ebony Ark. The musicians are all male, which of course disappointed me. But, the vocalist actually has a strong, aggressive, unique voice that is awesome, while not being conventionally pretty. Ebony Ark is not perfect in this regard - she often switches to a "pretty" voice in the middle of songs. But still, they're a step ahead.
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