Sigh.

Often we find ourselves complaining that the music industry and music journalism are rife with sexism. Well of course they are. They exist in the world and the world is sexist and patriarchy holds us all in its vile iron grip. So it would be quite something if even in the apparently depraved and liberal world of popular music, there was little to no misogyny. But it's everywhere.

One of the worst things that gets our back up a lot is when lazy or unwitting music journalists/bloggers/fans/labels/artists/human beings compare female artists to other female artists because they have no imagination. They also do this because in their conditioned-to-be-sexist-since-birth minds they believe that all female artists are the same (or at least similar), partly by virtue of being not-as-good-as-their-male-counterparts but also because they're women. And let's face it, y'all! Women are all either sluts or virgins, some of 'em are both! They're also all stupid and incapable of writing their own music. So it's easy to get them confused???? [/satire].

We try to avoid this as much as possible and only compare female artists to each other when it's NEVER. Most female artists aren't even necessarily inspired by other female artists, so to assume that they're all the same or they all have a similar sound or their music all sounds like Kate Bush crossed with Björk on [insert name of currently trendy drug] is lazy and offensive.

HOWEVER (longest and worst written caveat ever now over), when a beautiful young girl who looks suspiciously like Rihanna and sings suspiciously like Rihanna is signed to Rihanna's label by Rihanna's mentor and given a song produced by Rihanna's former producers and then styled like Rihanna in a very Rihanna-esque not-much-happens-except-our-intrepid-heroine-gives-moody-sexy-attitude-in-edgy-fashions video... well... we can't help but draw comparisons and raise an eyebrow, lazy, sexist or not.