EDITOR’S NOTE

I’ll always remember this one visit to a CD shop in Kuala Lumpur that specialised in alternative and indie music in my early teens. Armed with a stack of releases that I had on my wish list – music was my biggest indulgence then – I was caught off guard when the cashier quipped, bemused: “All the albums you’ve picked are by women.”

It wasn’t a conscious decision. Come to think of it though, it made sense for a curious adolescent girl to be drawn more to female oddballs like a smudgy-eyed Shirley Manson and a bindi-wearing, pre-Blake Shelton Gwen Stefani singing candidly about life than, say, a nasal-voiced Peter Andre warbling about getting close to some mysterious girl.

Since then, there have been many more riveting, if not inspirational female musicians – from the late, great Amy Winehouse and The Kills’ Alison Mosshart to Ariana Grande and Cardi B. As writer Keng Yang Shuen points out in the opener to the third edition of our annual Music Issue (pg 60) though, the industry is still very much a boys’ club, be it in the number of musicians or their influence. (This, I theorise, is partly due to men generally not being as avid or vocal as women in supporting female musicians – how many straight guys are there at a Rihanna concert? And they apparently hold her in high regard as a badass.)

It becomes all the more important to fly the flag for women in music, especially those who march to their own beat. Our country is in no short supply of them, having produced superstars like pop maverick Stefanie Sun, the Comme des Garcons-loving Joanna Dong, and Jasmine Sokko, who at press time became the only female to make it into the quarter finals of the Chinese electronic music talent show Rave Now.

In “Girls Aloud” (pg 100), we got seven fledglings who have what it takes to join that league with their vocals and distinct personas to play dress up. In “Rebels With A Cause” (pg 76), we profile five names who are even more under-the-radar, enriching the scene through the likes of underground parties, Singapore’s only music museum, and an independent radio station in a record store. This is where the modern adage about how girls ought to be seen and heard holds heightened significance – and it’s time we all listen.