10 Greatest Female Singers In Rock History

Rock has gotten the mad rep of being a boys' club far too often. It's not like that name isn't warranted though, since the main look of a rock star from now until forever has normally been a straight white man. Out of all the frontmen that have graced the stage in rock history, there have also been plenty of women that can wipe the floor with their competition.

Compared to some of the male fronted acts in rock history, these women might actually manage to best them in terms of raw vocal power. Outside of those who rely more on their star charisma to get by, these ladies have gone the distance just by being able to sing phenomenally well, with ranges that most of us would have to practice our entire lives in order to get just right.

That's not to say that their stage presence takes a back seat by any stretch, with most of these women being absolutely electric whenever they take to the stage. If anything, the fact that every one of these women have been able to carve a name for themselves in the rock world just makes the lower tier of male fronted acts look even worse by comparison. The rock world might be hard on everyone, but if these women can break the gender stereotypes and still write kickass music, you have no excuse.

If you were to take the archetype of what constituted a good rock singer, you would most likely be describing someone like Robert Plant. With the long hair and the absolutely booming voice, the golden god behind Zeppelin was the blueprint that most rock bands still like to reference time and time again. And as the rock landscape spread out a little more, Ann Wilson had enough vocal power to give even Plant a run for his money.

Keep in mind though that this isn't a one to one comparison of Robert Plant's vocal range. On most of Heart's greatest material, Ann has a lot more bellow in her voice, even when she's going for broke on songs like Barracuda and Magic Man. She does wear that Zeppelin influence on her sleeve though, having a similar mystical connection with the music that you would have seen out of songs like Stairway from Zeppelin's catalog.

Even when some fans were calling the band sell outs for their more mainstream success in the '80s, Ann's pipes never failed her, bringing a huge amount of power to songs like Alone and These Dreams from the MTV era of the band. If anything, this serves as a strange way of bridging the gap between both sides of the band's career. After all, we weren't going to see Zeppelin make their way into the '80s for too long, so hearing a female counterpart was just what we needed.