Women in Front

Only a few months old, Crimson is an all-genre band. Aditi Sharma, all of 20, is main vocalist and plays the keys. She has been praised for covering male vocals and doing a good job at it there8217;s been criticism too, from quarters that think rock is still man-to-man. 8220;Seeing a female cover male vocals certainly makes the crowd sit up and critically notice, but once justice is done to the song, the audience knows I mean business,8221; says Aditi who has performed an array of covers like Incubus, Guns n Roses GnR, Maroon5, Aerosmith and Nirvana. 8220;I have had to counter some guys who seem to have taken offence to a girl singing GnR,8221; confesses Aditi.

Rock enthusiasts, however, believe the beginning is in place and the trend will only go forward with the times. 8220;There are great female singers but not many are a part of bands in the country and I can8217;t reason why,8221; says Amit Saigal, editor of Rock Street Journal. 8220;But for a band to be promoted, it should be good. Whether a guy or girl, they get the same treatment.8221;

It8217;s been a tough climb, from the days when rock experiments ended in college and 8220;good girls8221; went on to a 8220;respectable8221; career and marriage. 8220;Travelling with the band requires them to stay out of their homes for long periods of time and things weren8217;t so flexible in the past. But with time, it is changing and now women are joining bands not only as vocalists but also as drummers or bassists,8221; says Subir Malik, manager and band member of the evergreen Parikrama that had a female vocalist way back in 1992-93 alongside Nitin Malik. She had to leave though, as the family wouldn8217;t stand for it.

Jayashree Singh of Kolkata8217;s Skinny Alley, however, married into rock. Her husband, Gyan Singh, is the bassist of the band that she fronts. 8220;It8217;s all about music for me and my band is my family and that only makes it easier,8221; she says. Skinny Alley has defined its sound as rock with the undertones of jazz and funk and Jayashree has been at the front of it all for the 11 years that the band has been around.

Having played originals and covers like Led Zeppelin, Bob Dylan, The Doors and Soundgarden, 8220;the tendency,8221; she says, 8220;is always that of comparing the style of singing with certain foreign artistes. But I have been lucky since the crowd has welcomed our shows and not been critical of a woman fronting a rock band.8221;

Whether it8217;s Red Hot Chilli Peppers under the bridge or Doors8217; Light my Fire, Jayashree believes the pressure has been to perform as a frontperson as much as a woman. 8220;Women of extra calibre plunge into a genre like rock and from thereon, it becomes all about music and not gender,8221; says Amyt Datta, Skinny Alley8217;s guitarist.

Sonia Saigal, who fronts Mumbai-based band Kromazomei spans across jazz, rock, funk and R038;B. 8220;There has been feedback that people think our band was formed to imitate a rock band,8221; she says but that has not bothered her. She continues to sing everything from Police to Screaming Headless Torsos even if the audience takes a little longer to sit up and take notice.

8220;If the show is not well done then people don8217;t care if you are a boy or a girl. They will not stick around to see the performance,8221; says Michelle, the vocalist of a new band, SOAP that is jazz-primary but Michelle will vouch that fronting a jazz band is equally challenging. Arjun, who started the band, always wanted a female vocalist. 8220;A genre like smooth jazz requires the vocals to be emotive and a female is able to bring out emotions naturally,8221; he says.

Groups like SOAP, Level9 Delhi and Soulmate Shillong push for the blend of emotion and melody in the female timber but some listeners believe the music says it all. 8220;People who listen to rock or jazz love that music. So women, when they become a part of any group, cannot be considered a glamour factor which is never in genres like these,8221; says Manisha Dey, chief manager Newage music. Besides, 8220;women becoming a part of bands and especially rock is a good opportunity for any record label to promote them if there is talent8221;. Palash Sen thinks times are changing, this is the time for women to make a breakthrough. 8220;I think women are smarter and have opted to become part of bands at a time when bands are becoming commercially viable. Western music has never been the first preference in the country and there is still time for such a change to happen,8221; he says.