After retiring a few years ago the feisty daughter of Keith Allen is back. Not only is she favorite to bag Christmas number one with a cover of a Keane song from that 'oh so emotional' John Lewis ad but if that was all too vanilla for old Lily then she's back to her angsty pro-feminist self on Hard Out Here, her woeful comeback single.
I don't disagree in a male chauvinistic way, I disagree because I love female musicians and there's loads of them out there... In the past five years how many successful male solo artists can you name? How about successful female solo artists? I imagine more of the latter. Lily's point is that it is harder for females to be successful in music, not only are they battling the gender war but they have to be good looking, thin and well sexy, wear few clothes and practically bend over for men. Lily Lily Lily, have you not being paying attention to music in your gap year? It is 2013, things have moved on. As a general rule pop music is aimed at teenage girls, they won't be illegally downloading music or not illegally downloading music based on short your skirt is.
In recent years we've seen Adele pretty much be a music phenomena, she hasn't done a single slut drop in her videos, she is successful because she can write and sing songs well ( I don't think she is owt special but hell of a lot of other people do!). Florence Welch has never been caught in her posing in her smalls, flaunting her tits for a bit of publicity and the late Amy Winehouse was only judged on her looks when it was drug-related, not gender related. Even the more conventional of pop star, Taylor Swift, although she is beautiful she has never (ever ever) been portrayed as 'sexy'. Hayley Williams, front lady for Paramore who, in the past might have had to flash some flesh as a 'rock chick' in the seventies but not anymore and she's doing pretty well out of it. Lady GaGa uses make-up and costume to distract attention from her natural image whilst Katy Perry chooses quirky over sexy. Lana Del Rey and Beyonce do it classy and young Lorde doesn't seem to need to shred some layers for success. It is only Miley Cyrus (oh, and Robin Thicke, but he is pure filth) who rely on sexualisation but she's still growing up. Rihanna and Nicki Minaj get a lot of flack for how they 'sell themselves' but they come from different cultures and we forget that!
So, to compare with the boys, there isn't really any in the same league. As solo stars go, for the lads the ones who tend to last are generally lookers. Even the boy bands (not The Wanted) have to be pretty boys wearing wet t-shirts... Harry Styles is forever being photographed with his top off, showing off his six pack and tatts like members of Take That did in the past.
Miss Allen, the world has changed, your views are a misconception, maybe you are just not good enough. Don't blame your gender. This whole feminist trend is uneducated (even Miley Cyrus claims to be one) and if it continues to be then the message will get lost and the meaning will be sanitised.
