Added: 01/24/2006 |
Female Pop Pianists - The Few, The Proud, The TalentedThe roots of piano pop style are dated back to 1950's. Of course back then the piano was integral part of jazz music. During this time guitar was probably the most popular instrument and there was a small number of musicians using piano as major instrument - and there were almost no female pop pianists.
The most well-known names at the beginning of piano pop were Jerry Lee Lewis and Ray Charles. Their music and manner to play the piano was new and most of the male and female pop pianists till modern days try to use this manner. And this music was very influential - not only modern pianists but other musicians also say that they took a lot from music of Jerry Lee Lewis.
These days classic rock and pop are also mostly based on guitar music but piano pop is also pretty developed. There are big stars such as Elton John who prefers to play piano. With his songs modern piano rock received a great impulse of development and became much more popular than before. But today we can see not only male artists in the area of piano rock and pop music - there are also female pop pianists - and the number of women playing in style of piano rock is growing.
Probably, the most representative names of female pop pianists are Sheryl Crow and Natalie Merchant. Of course, these stars are known not only as female pop pianists - they are composers, singers and show many other different talents.
Famous musician Sheryl Crow was born on February 11, 1962 in Missouri (the United States of America). There was no doubt that Sheryl would be a very musical person because her parents were members of a local big band. The family owned three pianos, so beginning at a pretty young age Sheryl was playing this wonderful instrument. At school Sheryl took part in choir where she also showed a great singing talent.
In the beginning of her music career Sheryl Crow worked as backup vocalist with many artists (she performed as back vocalist on Michael Jackson's BAD tour). But pretty soon she started to sing on her own and in 1993 she released her first album "Tuesday Night Music Club". And then huge success fowled. During her music career she released many albums and she is considered a famous singer. But Sheryl Crow is also a great pianist and she represents piano rock on modern scene.
Another great name in female piano pop Natalie Merchant became well-known in 1993. But her career in music had started a little earlier. Since 1981 she performed in very famous band "10,000 Maniacs" but then she decided to leave the band and started her solo career. In 1995, Natalie Merchant released her first album "Tigerlily" and most of the songs from this album were in top positions of different charts.
Natalie often works together with other famous artists - for example in 1998 together with Billy Bragg she released album called "Mermaid Avenue". She is interested in different music styles and that was illustrated by her traditional songs' album "The House Carpenter's Daughter" in 2003. And she not only plays piano but also writes and produces songs. In her songs she often talks about different social and political matters.
These two great women are only the most well-known artists but there are other female pop pianists.
Article comments:
No comments for this article yet. Post your comment now!
