Hello Rocksmith fans.
Controversial subject today as we wait for the next DLC of February, 2016 to be revealed. Awhile back @pcgamingisted and I were talking about the lack of women artists in Rocksmith and decided to do a bit of exploring through the available songs to see just how much of the content varied from all dudes. We conducted the poring over data back in May, 2015. Fun fact, the lead vocal or duet data didn’t have a new addition until September because of Breaking Benjamin’s remix of Blow Me Away and then December with Skillet and Band of Merrymakers…
Forgot about The Subways, thanks George Carlinlives – ed
@toymachinesh @Rocksmithgame Aw 🙁 Need more girl bands, y’all
— Emily Gera (@twitgera) December 17, 2015
Bands that feature a woman in Rocksmith 1:
- Best Coast (Bethany Cosentino) “When I’m With You”
- Jenny O (Jennifer Anne Ogniben) “Well OK Honey”
- Pixies (Kim Deal) “Where Is My Mind?”
- Silversun Pickups (Nikki Monninger) “Panic Switch”
- Yellow Moon Band (Jo Bartlett) “Chimney”
- The xx (Romy Madley Croft) “Islands”
- The Dead Weather (Alison Mosshart) “I Can’t Hear You”
- The White Stripes “Icky Thump”
Bands that feature a woman in Rocksmith 1 DLC:
- Heart “Barracuda”
- Evanescence “Bring Me To Life”
- Pat Benetar “Hit Me With Your Best Shot”
- Grace Potter and The Nocturnals “Paris (Ooh La La)”
- Chic “Good Times”
- Pixies “Here Comes Your Man”
- Blondie “Call Me”
Bands that feature a woman in Rocksmith 2014:
- Earlyrise “Wasteland”
- Gold Motel “Brand New Kind of Blue”
- La Sera “Love That’s Gone”
- Magic Wands “Black Magic”
- Paramore “Now”
- Screaming Females “Rotten Apple”
- The Smashing Pumpkins “The Chimera” (Nicole Fiorentino)
- White Zombie “Thunder Kiss ’65” (Sean Yseult)
- Crimson “Don’t Stop”
- PAWS “Sore Tummy” (Alice Costelloe)
- Jack White “Sixteen Saltines” (Carla Azar and Brooke Waggoner)
Bands that feature a woman in Rocksmith 2014 DLC:
- The Lumineers “Ho Hey” (Neyla Pekarek)
- The Smashing Pumpkins [5 Song Pack]
- REM “Shiny Happy People” (Kate Pierson)
- Flyleaf “All Around Me”
- Heart “Crazy On You”
- Halestorm “Love Bites (So Do I)”
- A Day To Remember “If it Means A Lot To You” (Sierra Kay)
- Garbage [3 Song Pack]
- No Doubt [3 Song Pack]
- The White Stripes [5 Song Pack] (Meg White)
- Seether feat. Amy Lee “Broken”
- The Cranberries “Zombie”
- All That Remains [3 Song Pack] (Jeanne Sagan)
- The Subways
- Fleetwood Mac (Stevie Nicks and Christine McVie)
- Skillet [3 Song Pack]
- Band of Merrymakers [2 Songs]
- Breaking Benjamin [Blow Me Away]
Bands in Rocksmith that feature Lead vocals by a Woman:
- Best Coast (Bethany Cosentino) “When I’m With You”
- Jenny O (Jennifer Anne Ogniben) “Well OK Honey”
- Yellow Moon Band (Jo Bartlett) “Chimney”
- The xx (Romy Madley Croft) “Islands”
- The Dead Weather (Alison Mosshart) “I Can’t Hear You”
- Heart “Barracuda”
- Evanescence “Bring Me To Life”
- Pat Benetar “Hit Me With Your Best Shot”
- Grace Potter and The Nocturnals “Paris (Ooh La La)”
- Pixies “Here Comes Your Man”
- Blondie “Call Me”
- Earlyrise “Wasteland”
- Gold Motel “Brand New Kind of Blue”
- La Sera “Love That’s Gone”
- Magic Wands “Black Magic”
- Paramore “Now”
- PAWS “Sore Tummy”
- Screaming Females “Rotten Apple”
- Crimson “Don’t Stop”
- Flyleaf “All Around Me”
- Heart “Crazy On You”
- Halestorm “Love Bites (So Do I)”
- A Day To Remember “If it Means A Lot To You” (Sierra Kay)
- Garbage [3 Song Pack]
- No Doubt [3 Song Pack]
- Seether feat. Amy Lee “Broken”
- The Cranberries “Zombie”
- The Subways “Rock and Roll Queen”
- Skillet [3 Song Pack]
- Band of Merrymakers [2 Songs]
- Breaking Benjamin [Blow Me Away]
This leads us to the following conclusions
- Less than 8% of Rocksmith’s library (772 songs) contains bands that have members that are Women.
- under 5% of Rocksmith’s library contain songs that feature lead vocals or a duet featuring a Woman, that’s 39 songs.
Rock music has always been a pre-dominantly male dominated space but there are many women artists that can be a welcome addition to the Rocksmith library! Let’s explore a few choices.
St. Vincent
You’ve probably heard a few songs from Annie Clark in passing, maybe you’ve heard her stuff because of her inclusion on Rock Band 4. I’m gonna tell you straight up, Annie Clark isn’t a good guitarist for a girl. She’s a good guitarist period, she rips.
Check out this interview for more regarding her rich musical background.
The Pretenders √
Chrissie Hynde’s distinct raw vocals compliment the catchy guitar riffs and bass lines of The Pretenders extremely well, and I mean they had a song on BandFuse so why not?
Sleater-Kinney √
Hey look it’s the girl from Portlandia, oh wait she’s an accomplished musician in addition to being hilarious. Sleater Kinney has about four songs across Rock Band DLC and Rock Band Network, so definitely not impossible to get them on Rocksmith.
Sheryl Crow √
I really just want this song, but I will also take Marissa’s cover of it.
Joan Jett & The Blackhearts √
This song is coming eventually right? It has to be… How can it not?
Alanis Morissette
Canadian and from the 1990’s. Jagged Little Pill sold a lot of copies for a reason, and once again her songs have appeared on other music games, most recently this one.
Against Me! √
Laura-Jane Grace is a complete bad ass, coming out as trans in 2012 and then releasing an album (Transgender Dysphoria Blues) to let others know that they are not alone in their journey, and it’s raw as hell anarcho-punk as well.
Featured on the newest Guitar Hero Live as well.
Roxette √
Chances are if you don’t think you’ve ever heard Roxette, you are wrong…
Janis Joplin
Besides having an incredibly distinctive voice Janice Joplin also had an extremely talented band behind her. Tons of hits to choose from as well.
Arch Enemy √
I miss Angela… Although, Alissa isn’t bad, and she’s Canadian also so I guess I have to support that!
Alabama Shakes √
So good, and they are only getting better.
Joni Mitchell √
Whatever you do, don’t call her music “folk:” Joni Mitchell is perhaps one of the most critically revered singer-songwriters in all of contemporary American music. With her signature use of unconventional custom open tunings, of which she has used as many as 50 through her career, she has made a massive name for herself in spite of her polio reducing the mobility of her fretting hand early in her life.
Are you surprised at the lack of gender representation in the Rocksmith library? Or do such things not concern you? What women artists would you like to see show up this year? Let us know!
As always, don’t forget to request!
😉
how many rock songs have a female lead? about 1 in 20? OK, right on track I guess
maybe we could have conchita wurst offa Eurovision ,wears a dress got a beard and may even have a penis.why o why does rock smith not have more ball gown wearing beardy transgender dlc. Music is not a feminist issue .i don’t care if a musician has a penis count of zero or even three it’s about the music
The developers also have to factor cost of production compared to projected sales figures and actual demand…What business sense does it make to produce content just to be inclusionary??
I’m all for more female artists to be featured but with the exception of the truly big names the best solution would be using female artists as supplements turning 3 packs into 5-7 packs or having a larger supplemental or special edition packs like they did with Hendrix which rocksmith should do more of anyway
>produce content just to be inclusionary??
A lot of you keep saying this but why is it inclusionary to put in good music by people that aren’t men?
Article reads like it’s pushing for more music made by females irrespective of whether there’s a substantial demand for it through song requests.
But who knows why there aren’t more women in Rocksmith.
The list doesn’t have Fleetwood Mac – Go your own way (Stevie Nicks and Christine McVie), REM – Shiny happy people (Kate Pierson) or Jack White – Sixteen saltines (Carla Azar and Brooke Waggoner).
Definitely missed out on some back up vocals for artists, my bad
need a MOAR BETTER Pat Benetar pack
Neil Giraldo’s riffs are very good
Wouldn’t mind seeing packs of Halestorm, Kaki King, The Pretenders, Otep, The Pretty Reckless, Arch Enemy, or more Fleetwood Mac and Heart. I’m pretty indifferent to the issue though. Songs/bands are either good or they aren’t. I don’t really consider gender of band members when deciding whether or not I like it.
Yeah, that did get me going. But i ended on a happy note so all is good now.
Portishead — the rip
P!nk – mainly simple tracks on guitar, some nice low hanging fruit so to say, but really fun tracks.
Fugees or Lauren Hill’s solo work – I don’t care if a few of them are bass only, still worthwhile.
The Corrs – so many great tracks.
Macy Gray – a guilty pleasure of mine for ages.
Skulker – Australian semi punk/rock, some fun (also fairly easy) guitar parts. (youtube Hej or Naughty)
Liz Phair – might be some censorship needed in some of her work, but some really good songs.
The Bangles – Wife suggestion, I’m not taking the blame for that one.
Jewel.
Frente!
Natalia Imbruglia (as long as Toy doesn’t try singing)
Kate Bush.
Nelly Furtado.
The list can go on for ages, I’ve requested tracks from at least half of these artists already.
FACT OF THE DAY.
Tim Armstrong from Op Ivy/Rancid wrote/recorded a bunch of Pink’s songs
Well, that explains The Transplants!
Wow!!! Very impressed to see someone on here recognize Lauryn Hill.
Nice
Great topic for discussion. I have thought of the seeming lack of women artists in rocksmith. I’d love to see some artists like the Pretty Reckless, Girl in a Coma, Wolf Alice, St. Vincent and more Lizzy Hale.
I was thinking about this the other day, actually! Three more songs to add:
The Breeders – Cannonball
Edie Brickell & New Bohemians – What I Am (GREAT guitar solo)
4 Non Blondes – What’s Up
These should definitely be added at some point! I just requested all three.
What I Am has a nice bass line too.
Ok, first let me admit, i have a penis.
Second, music is an art, not a platform to force gender neutrality, racism or religious perspecrives. We enjoy music that hits us where it feels good, regardless of who sings ut, plays it, or promotes it. I would much rather play good music that makes feel good, accomplished and rewarding. I would not enjoy playing shitty music just beacause some feminists feel they are notrepresented enough so Rocksmith forces crap down our throat just beacause a female sang the song or played the solo. Dont get me wrong, there are some great female artists out there that i would enjoy playing to, but not enough to dominate my playlist. So lets just focus on quality, not quantity.
Third, i like potatoes.
It is incredibly sad that you even felt the need to include that first sentence. I feel like it came from reading that particularly sexist comment in the FB comments didn’t it? Did they really not notice their blatant hypocrisy? Doing things for the sake of meeting quotas is NOT good.
I’m honestly indifferent to all of this. Though I will say that there are lots of female artists that definitely would be welcome in the Rocksmith library, but talking strictly about percentages soon gets a bit ugly. I live in Sweden, a country obsessed with equal statistical representation for all groups of people, and while equal representation sounds good in theory, it just doesn’t work in practice for some reason, there are simply too many trade offs. Sorry for getting a bit political at the end there.
The thing is, if there’s a historic bias in the music industry towards male performers, which there arguably is, then Rocksmith will naturally show a gender bias if they attempt to accurately cull a representational sample of hits from various eras. It also probably creates a gender bias in requests, since people request the hits they grew up listening to. The only way to avoid it is by having an intentional bias towards overrepresentation of female artists, which may or may not be a good thing.
I don’t care enough about gender (or the musicians background in general) to actually have figures myself, but i have the impression that at least the music i listen to is male dominated. Most time’s when i see any live videos there’s mostly guys on the stage.
I do have idly wondered why, maybe it’s because i prefer instrumental music anyways, but i don’t really care and my first reaction to reading this was: Oh noes, not another made up gender issue. If you think this actually is an issue, then it might be quite unfair to blame Rocksmith’s Devs.
When you actually write the percentage of female focused songs down to make a point, that should be put into relation to the percentage of femele focused songs available to correctly put in in perspective.
To end on an agreeing note: There are some songs here wich i would love to see added though.
>If you think this actually is an issue, then it might be quite unfair to blame Rocksmith’s Devs.
The blame isn’t being put on the developers, there is no blame really. The aim of the article is to do the following.
1) point out something maybe nobody considered
2) get people to think in a different way about representation in guitar driven music
3) get people to consider requesting or listening to music that isn’t male dominated
That’s all 🙂
That may have been your aim, but that’s not necessarily how the article comes across.
For an opinion piece there’s not much in the way of opinion (fair enough if you want to stimulate discussion rather than pontificate), but describing this as a “controversial subject” and asking questions such as “Are you surprised at the lack of gender representation…?” and “do such things not concern you?” kinda suggests that you think there is an issue, or why are you writing the article?
We are given the figure of 8% with no real context: what is the particpation rate in popular music in general? All we know is that 8% is a lot less than 50%, and given that you set up a poll to see if we think this is an issue, it’s not unreasonable to come to the conclusion that maybe there is indeed a problem here.
And if there is a problem, who is to blame? The music industry? Consumers? Society in general? I think these are interesting questions, and if you don’t agree, why did you write the article?
If your article was supposed to be “Hey, there aren’t many female musicians in Rocksmith. Wouldn’t it be great if there were more? Who has some suggestions?” then I would be right behind you, but that wasn’t what you wrote. Try substituting “female” for “Australian” in the article and you’ll see what I mean.
That said, why is nobody talking about PJ Harvey here? Is she not big in North America?
As many other commenters have said, the lack of gender representation is a symptom of genre representation.
What lack of genre representation is holding back the catalog though?
if we can have stats of the selling dlc maybe we could understand why some band make their appearance or not , im sure theres a corelation about it , if this topic means to get to know about what ppl thinks on social media by consideration ( young ppl aged to 25 or younger to try to sell more because they might sells but when you put megadeth , offspring and whats been given from the start of the years, it targets a certain kind of person that listen or play music , if they want to make more sells about band over 2000 that have a female in their lineup , i find this ridiculous . i have said before an idea that could sound good you divide the month week per week and try not to give the same genre each month or put 2 , 3 pack or different genre each weeks, Ubi and RS have to reconsider the way dlc is getting out, If i was a multi billionaire , i would have created THE Music Game with a big M and G , you will found almost everything and have alot more feature in it. if they just sits on the game waiting for money and try to put dlc thats cost less just to make more money , this game is gonna blow up . They need a new Rocksmith version with at least i see 4 to 5 new thing to do ( online multi player , when youll had this and ppl could play online on vs or in team , man your gonna make money there plus other feature like creating your song to register a total of 10 or 12 on your profile , other stuff , upgraded ranking… Read more »
The New Rocksmith Platform–The Rocksmith VSM
I think you touched on something that should be looked at–the online play.
I’m not advocating this as someone who plays games online. (Prior to this idea I didn’t have the time or interest) What I think would be a great idea is to create an online session mode. The idea is to take the old concept of the garage band you and a few friends (from the neighborhood or from school) getting together and coming up with something.
The play should be set so that up to 3 players (leave that last slot open for percussion) could meet online and jam with each other. It’s like a virtual band. Music is an international language. Imagine if (for example) a couple of individuals from Thailand, the US, and Mexico got together, created a band and collectively went on to become famous due that original meeting on Rocksmith’s Virtual Session Mode(VSM).
I know someone out there is listening.
I’ve been wanting something like this for years. A third spot for drums and a forth for a singer and we can..”start a band and rock the world”…. only for real. i know a few good drummers and singers….. Lets make something groovy happen rocksmith! 🙂
You didn’t list Meg White for Icky Thump in RS1, and doesn’t Sore Tummy from RS2014 have male and female vocals harmonizing?
Anyway I’d love to see some Distillers added, and hopefully you’re right that Joan Jett is inevitable.
You are right on both counts, thanks!
I guess you might say that Alex Costelloe is a Big Deal /dadjoke
First off, and I’ve mentioned this before, in my opinion(<–key words here) 2 song are essential for any guitar game–Johnny B Goode and I Love Rock N Roll. Yes they're old. Yes they're probably not that difficult to play, but when you talk essentials, those 2 belong at the top. If we talk, "representation" then one artist fits into the current topic of discussion and the other fits into what should be a future topic.
The other thing to consider is the varied genres that we should be looking at with regard to the topic of Women represented on Rocksmith. I like how you spread it around–Alabama Shakes, Sheryl Crow, The Pretenders, Roxette, and even though I'm not a fan Alanis Morissette. There's more than just rock, punk and metal out there.
Always a champion of the blues, I would like to see:
Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Koko Taylor, and Bonnie Raitt Could even include music from the CD Lou Ann Barton did with Jimmie Vaughan.
Among the genres that have received piss poor representation on Rocksmith, I would include more country.
The Dixie Chicks (especially music from the Home album)
Lastly, and I'm not a fan but the question has to be asked. Are Jefferson Airplane on Rocksmith? (kind of before my time, but I know someone out there is looking for them)
This raises the final question. If Ubisoft considers our requests (I've made mine for those artists mentioned above) are you all requesting these artists? My guess is that this would be the only way these worthy artists have DLC.
>Lastly, and I’m not a fan but the question has to be asked. Are Jefferson Airplane on Rocksmith? (kind of before my time, but I know someone out there is looking for them)
No, unfortunately not.
I’m there with you. I’m in for some Crystal Gayle, too.
Eurythmics -would I lie to you
would be a nice add
unfortunaly the only songs people will vote for by them is sweet dreams with is mostly synth and bass. I personaly want the Manson version of it. I rember like with holy diver the dio version came out first and I almost bought it the the KSE version came out like a week or two later in their pack.
Oh, and Republica and Veruca Salt and The Bangles and Imperial Teen…
Saw Veruca recently, they still rock hard
Guano apes!!
10,000 Maniacs/Natalie Merchant, diVinyls, Juice Newton, Linda Ronstadt, Shawn Colvin, Sixpence None the Richer, The Corrs, The Motels, Go Go’s, Elastica, Bonnie Raitt, Tracy Chapman, Paula Cole, K.D. Lang, Jewel, The Donnas, The Black Belles…
More punk less dadrock!! ?
More mom rock?
Forget gender representation, there’s an over-representation of punk. Let’s mix it up a bit guys.
I think dad rock greatly outnumbers the punk or arguably punk content if we are being real here 🙂
Elliott is right, there is so much dadrock and “arguably punk”
Thanks for starting the conversation, that St. Vincent post the other day led me to request a bunch more stuff, including some Distillers and some Sleater-Kinney.
I play bass, but I also play guitar, I’d love to learn the Sleater-Kinney stuff on guitar. (but I’d also love DOS from Mike Watt and Kira)
Wild Flag is one of Carrie’s other groups and it’s pretty great. Worriers/Measure(SA)is a nother great band with a female front woman.
probably because punk is so easy to play while still sounding cool.
The Runaways – Cherry Bomb!