WXPN in Philadelphia is mid way through the listener chosen

[NewHendoLib]

885 greatest woman-written songs. We've been streaming it throughout the week. They are in the 370s, heading to #1. Just played a Lucinda Williams and a Joni Mitchell. Now Sia

WXPN and our own western NC WNCW are superb - we stream both, depending upon the particular show, constantly. They are part of the soundtrack to our lives.

https://xpn.org/ways-to-listen/

https://www.wncw.org/listen-live

[ProfessorGAC]

1. Interesting Idea

WXRT, last year i think, did a top 100 of bands with a Chicago connection. Or at least northern Illinois.
What your station is doing is far more exhaustive.

[IcyPeas]

2. Nice. I went to your link and there is a playlist showing whats been played so far

That's a lotta songs.

https://xpn.org/wxpn-playlists/

[NewHendoLib]

3. Kicking - now in the 200s. Happening all day.

So much Lucinda Williams (I heartily agree!)

[highplainsdem]

6. Glad you kicked this. They're playing Judy Collins' Send In The Clowns now. But it's by Stephen Sondheim,

not Judy Collins.

It's from Sondheim's musical A Little Night Music.

[highplainsdem]

4. Thanks! Bookmarking.

[NewHendoLib]

5. As expected, lots of Joni Mitchell too. Sue and I are

having such a great time listening.

Full list here! https://xpn.org/countdown/885-greatest-songs-by-women/

[highplainsdem]

7. Thanks again! But as I just mentioned in a reply above, I tuned in just in time to hear

a classic song that WASN'T written by a woman - Sondheim's Send In The Clowns.

It's probably best known because of Judy Collins' cover, which I love.

But I wonder how many other songs written by men might've ended up on the list because they're most associated with a female singer.

[NewHendoLib]

8. Good question ..

[highplainsdem]

9. I just did some more googling and found these are songs with lead vocals by women.

https://xpn.org/vote-885-greatest-songs-by-women/

Vote for the 885 Greatest Songs by Women

Tell us your 10 Greatest Songs by Women!
Vote for up to 10 songs that feature lead vocals performed by a woman. Place your votes in order from 1 – 10. Submissions are weighted: your number one vote is worth ten points; your number ten vote is worth one point.

-snip-

What songs qualify for this countdown?
Any song that features lead vocals performed by an artist who identifies as a woman can be included in this countdown if it receives enough votes.

Why did you choose to focus on women?
In recent years our audience has called attention to the domination of male artists in our crowd-sourced countdowns. To shine a spotlight on voices that have been underrepresented in those past countdowns, this year’s will focus on women.

-snip-

I think their calling this "songs by women" caused the confusion for listeners who might not have seen the specific request and were just going off the playlist title. It would have been better if the title had been as specific as this request for people to vote for their favorites. Just saying "by women" can refer to songwriting or vocals or both.

[highplainsdem]

10. Now playing Ella Fitzgerald. What a great list...

[highplainsdem]

11. Followed by Janis Joplin's Mercedes Benz. Which always makes me laugh.

[NewHendoLib]

12. I'm hearing a lot of artists my wife and I aren't familiar with

Courtney Barnett. We like it!

Sarah McLachlan's Possession....wow. Haven't listened to it in years - still sounds amazing

[highplainsdem]

13. Do you know if they'll leave the playlist online for a while, so people can look through it

later? Or will it disappear from their website once they're through the entire list?

[NewHendoLib]

14. Not sure. You saw the by the numbers page?

Joni so dominant, but Pretenders up there too, Patti Griffin.

I'd have every song from Court and Spark, Hissing of Summer Lawns and Hejira on the list!

[highplainsdem]

15. No. Where is it?

I've been looking at the playlist page

https://xpn.org/wxpn-playlists/

and I see the calendar there letting me go back to earlier dates. But having the list separate would be nice.

As I mentioned in another thread here, my favorite vocalists are male, not female. But there are such great voices and songs on this list. Including some not familiar to me.

[NewHendoLib]

16. Here ya go

https://xpn.org/885-greatest-songs-by-women-by-the-numbers/

https://xpn.org/countdown/885-greatest-songs-by-women/

[highplainsdem]

17. Thanks! Just realized you'd posted the link for the full list in reply 5, too.

Sorry I'd missed it. Too many tabs open, as usual. Mea culpa.

[highplainsdem]

18. Interesting that the top 10 years those songs were found in were all from

1989 to 1998, except for 2019 and 2023.

and the '90s had more than twice as many songs as any other decade except the 1980s, and the '80s had only about 60% as many as the '90s. The '70s, 2000s and 2010s all had close the same number of songs on the list, just under half of what the '90s had.

[NewHendoLib]

19. Related to demographics of the listeners?

I'm glad the list isn't stuffed with Taylor Swift (still never listened to her as far as I know). The whole American Idol singer thing - and recent pop, hip hop/rap - anything auto tuned - completely passed us by.

[highplainsdem]

20. Possibly. The only page I could find with demographics for the station

didn't break it down, though.

https://xpn.org/business-support/

The form for voting in this poll did ask voters' age range, so the station does know how old the voters (said they) were, but I don't know if they'll release that info.

Taylor Swift has done some very good pop songs. I prefer rock and blues to other genres, though, so I haven't paid that much attention to her music, much as I admire what I've heard about her otherwise.

I don't watch any of the music competitions on TV.

And I hate auto-tune. It's bad enough that it's being used by so many younger artists. But I found out recently via Wings of Pegasus videos that live performances from decades ago by Randy Meisner and Freddie Mercury (and probably a lot of other artists) are now being auto-tuned,

[NewHendoLib]

21. approaching the top 100!