12 Best Female Rock Singers Of All Time

At the end of the 60's, the rock scene in New York City had gotten much nastier. Thanks to the bold reinventions by the Velvet Underground, rock had started to get back to its roots while still pushing the artistic side of the music. While Patti Smith may have been a late bloomer on the scene, the mark she left on the genre as a whole was absolutely mind-numbing.

Much like her heroes Lou Reed and Bob Dylan, Smith was an artist who considered herself a poet first and a musician second. Though the focus may have been on the words rather than musical structure, the pathos she was able to put into her songs was something otherworldly. Across albums like Horses and Easter, Patti bended the norms as far as what was expected from a rock princess, down to the more androgynous photography on her debut record.

Smith's influence was so strong that she not only set the precedent for female rock musicians, but entire genres as a whole, with alternative artists like the Smiths and R.E.M. citing her as an essential part of their musical upbringing. She might not have the most versatile voice, but when you hear her sing "Jesus died for somebody's sins but not mine," you believe every single word.