I recently read an interesting story about women in movies and music. And it got me thinking, "How many bands can I name that are fronted by women?"

Short aside: The article talks about men minimizing women's roles outside of being pretty voices. And I guess looking for bands with women singers isn't really changing that, is it? But this was just a thought exercise, and singer is the only role where you can tell men from women by sound.

Before I get to the list, I'll just clarify that I was restricting this to bands who have songs that I know and love. What I was looking for was bands in my sphere of interest that one day I might really get into one day. And these four definitely qualify.

So here's what I came up with...

Heart

"Crazy On You"

Heart was on this list before I even started it, and they're probably the core of what am looking for. A great rock band where the clear frontman is a woman (and two women at that!).

Fleetwood Mac

"You Make Loving Fun"

I was surprised just how many songs in their catalogue I recognized, compared to how often I don't think of them.

Pat Benatar

"Heartbreaker"

I thought about putting the video for "Love is a Battlefield" here, but decided that "Heartbreaker" was a better choice. Check out that other video for a music video that tells the story of the song, even though it oozes 80's at almost uncomfortable levels.

Rough Trade

"Highschool Confidential"

Now, I've got a short anecdote about this song. "Highschool Confidential" was on the 4-CD Juno Awards 25th Anniversary Collection, a great collection that my parents had. It was great because of the huge variety in the songs. A lot of the material was stuff I would never have been aware of otherwise. Other standouts from the same CD include "I'm and Adult Now" and Roxy Roller. Hmmm...maybe I should have included Sweeney Todd...

Anyway, "Highschool Confidential". So, I heard this song as a kid the lyrics confused me; since it was clearly a love song about a girl, but a girl was singing. This was one of those eternal questions in my youth, an eternal question that did not warrant much thought. It wasn't until recently that I read some more about it, and learned that the song was purposely written to be ambiguous. Rough Trade was all about skirting taboo, and wrote the song to purposefully be interpreted both ways. The song itself is sung by a woman (suggesting a lesbian perspctive), but the lyrics can be read in whatever voice you want.

Headpins

"Just One More Time"

I know almost nothing about the Headpins, I couldn't even tell you if they had more than just this one song. But this is a great song that was on the radio the day I was making this list. So yay, they made it in!

So that's what I could come up with off the top of my head. I originally wanted to get 5 or 10, so I've included a few minor mentions. I'm not that into their music as much, but they are close enough to warrant being included.

• Avril Lavigne
• Shania Twain
• Celin Dion
• Anne Murray
• Allanis Morissette

P.S. Can anyone reading this confirm or deny whether I can embed videos? I tried a couple things but they didn't work.