From the architects to the agitators shaping the genre now

By: The Lace Ledger Staff

Right now feels different.

Not quieter, not softer, not diluted; but, volcanic and disruptive.

Women are not entering rock again. They are reclaiming it, backed by decades of women who screamed into rooms that were never built to hold them.

Women have been consistently ranked among the most influential rock musicians of all time, with Janis Joplin, Tina Turner, Stevie Nicks, Patti Smith and Joan Jett shaping entire movements rather than moments.

Today, that lineage is no longer symbolic. It is audible in festival lineups, metal charts, touring rosters and a new generation of artists whose rage is articulate, intentional and unapologetically feminine.

This is not a revival. It is an expansion.

The Icons: Women Drafted the Blueprint

These women didn’t break into rock as much as they built its vocabulary from the inside. Joplin tore open the idea of what female voice could sound like, soulful and outside of the existing norm. Turner showed us all what endurance and resilience could look like, on stage and off. Smith collapsed poetry and punk into a single channel, proving that intellect could be both feral and sacred, all at once. Nicks made mysticism legible on a stadium scale, carving space for emotional authority without diminishment. Jett stripped rock of permission entirely, modelling independence as infrastructure rather than attitude.

What they created was not a style but a system: permission to have a voice without apologizing, to age without erasure, to desire, to bleed, to have our battle cry heard, to command, to be seen. Every woman that followed is standing upon the shoulders of these giants.

The lineage matters because it explains the present moment not as a trend, but as the inevitable momentum created from a movement that began long ago, gradually building over generations.

Janis Joplin

Heretics and Headliners: The Women Who Rewired Rock by The Lace Ledger — Photo Credit: @janisjoplin

Beloved front woman of Big Brother and the Holding Company, Janis Joplin defined late-60s blues rock with a voice that sounded lived in, torn open, and fearless.

Impact: Her refusal to soften agony for consumption, making vulnerability a form of domination.

Anthems: Me & Bobby McGee, Piece of My Heart, Mercedes Benz.

Tina Turner

Initially rising from Ike & Tina Turner before reinventing herself as a solo powerhouse, Tina Turner fused rock, soul and spectacle across decades.

Impact: Her survival narrative reshaped conversations around resilience and female authority in music.

Anthems: Proud Mary, Steel Claw, Private Dancer.

Joan Jett

From The Runaways to Joan Jett & the Blackhearts, she forged punk-driven hard rock with militant clarity.

Impact: Her influence sits in every woman who chose distortion over permission.

Anthems: Bad Reputation, Victim of Circumstance, Change the World, You’re Too Possessive.

Patti Smith

Poet, performer, provocateur, Patti Smith blurred punk, art rock and literature into a singular voice.

Impact: She reframed intellectualism as something wild, sensual and confrontational.

Anthems: Pissing in a River, Easter, Birdland.

Stevie Nicks

As the mystic core of Fleetwood Mac and a solo force, Stevie Nicks merged rock with mythmaking.

Impact: Her legacy lives in her command of softness as power.

Anthems: Dreams, The Chain, Silver Springs, Gypsy.

The Current Guard

This era sounds different because it refuses legibility on anyone else’s terms. In This Moment weaponizes ritual with theatrical control, transforming the stag into a site of deliberate domination. Halestorm restores classic rock muscle through vocal command, with Lzzy Hale’s range, asserting technical authority as a form of credibility no one is drowning out. Jessie Murph bends genres, collapsing rock, hip hop and country into a heartfelt confession executed with precision, without losing emotional narrative. Chelsea Wolfe drags metal, doom and folk into darker terrain where distortion and silence carry equal weight.

What unites them is not sound but posture. These women do not soften rage for mass appeal or translate pain for comfort. They asset authorship over their voices, bodies and aesthetics in ways that make space rather than ask for it. This guard marks a shift from inheritance to enforcement.

In This Moment

Led by Maria Brink, In This Moment fuses industrial metal with ritualized performance art, turning vulnerability into spectacle on their own terms.

Impact: Brink reframed the metal front woman as an architect rather than an ornament, using embodiment and voice as instruments.

Anthems: Blood, Heretic, Black Widow, Big Bad Wolf, Whore, Roots, Adrenalize.

Evanescence

Fronted by Amy Lee, Evanescence merged gothic atmosphere with rock intensity, carving space for grief and grandeur in the mainstream symphonic rock space.

Impact: Lee reshaped emotional permission within heavy music.

Anthems: Bring Me to Life, My Immortal, Going Under, Call Me When You’re Sober.

Jessie Murph

Jessie Murph collapses genre hierarchy by delivering confessions with unfiltered emotional scale and vocal immediacy. She also embodies Brat energy, creating some of the most viral songs of the moment including the same level of narrative but stirring a different set of emotions.

Impact: Murph reframed vulnerability as confrontation with a level of intimacy and honestly that is unmatched, authentically creating a fan base that feels seen and connected on an unprecedented level. Murph is shining light in some extremely dark places and finding a healing community there. She has become a beacon for a generation of woman that feel broken.

Anthems: The Man Who Came Back, Certain Kind of Love, What Happened to Ryan, If I Died Last Night, Forever, Sex Hysteria, Sip.

The Pretty Reckless

Fronted by Taylor Momsen, The Pretty Reckless channels classic hard rock lineage through a voice sharpened by lived volatility rather than nostalgia.

Impact: Momsen’s authority comes from vocal precision and emotional pressure, restoring menace and female leadership to post-grunge music.

Anthems: Going to Hell, Make Me Wanna Die, Heaven Knows, 25.

Halestorm

With Lzzy Hale at the helm, Halestorm anchors hard rock in vocal dominance and technical credibility.

Impact: Hale’s range and stamina reasserted skill as authority, challenging the genre’s gatekeeping by outperforming it, outright.

Anthems: Do Not Disturb, I Miss the Misery, Love Bites (and So Do I), Freak Like Me, Back from the Dead

Chelsea Wolfe

Chelsea Wolfe dissolves the borders between doom, folk and metal into singular tension.

Impact: Her work expanded heavy music inward, legitimizing dread and spiritual unease as a sonic force.

Anthems: Feral Love, 16 Psyche, Carrion Flowers.

Dead Sara

Driven by Emily Armstrong, Dead Sara strips rock back to urgency and confrontation without theatrical mediation. Think blues grit meets punk execution.

Impact: Armstrong’s delivery rejects polish as credibility, reviving raw vocal aggression without losing accessibility.

Anthems: Weatherman, Lemon Scent, Anybody, Heaven’s Got a Back Door.

Dorothy

Led by Dorothy Martin, Dorothy blends blues soul with contemporary modern rock muscle and outlaw energy.

Impact: Martin reintroduced conviction as currency, grounding modern rock in vocal weight.

Anthems: Raise Hell, Gun in My Hand, Wicked Ones, Flawless, Gifts from the Holy Ghost.

The Emerging Artists

What defines this tier is velocity. The Pretty Wild channels feminine glamour into unapologetic rage, building sound and image around confrontation rather than compliance. Spiritbox engineers extremity with surgical clarity, collapsing technical metal and emotional precision into a language that feels purpose-built for the present. Jayden Hammer treats persona as authorship, using theatrical menace to interrogate identity rather than escape it. Crae Wolf operates in the liminal space between siren seduction and threat, letting tension, cadence and voice do the work spectacle usually performs. Skydxddy blends vulnerability into something unruly, folding tenderness and abrasion into songs you can’t stop listening to.

The Pretty Wild

Formed by sisters Jules and Jyl Wylde, The Pretty Wild merges punk attitude with hard-edged melody and chaos-driven breakdowns. This is one band you absolutely must listen to.

Impact: Their work embodies feral femininity without irony, asserting female unity as a disruptive force rather than marketing angle. Additionally, the impact of their heavy metal sound seems contrary to their gorgeous, full-glam look — trust us, that’s intentional; this is not watered-down pop-rock, it is the real deal.

Anthems: Sleepwalker, Paradox, Button Eyes.

Wet Leg

Led by Rhian Teasdale and Hester Chambers, Wet Leg filters indie rock through deadpan delivery and sharp lyrical misdirection.

Impact: Their detachment destabilizes expectation, providing a case study for borderline-humorous refusal as a credible rock posture.

Anthems: Chaise Longue, Wet Dream, Angelica, Ur Mum.

Larkin Poe

Fronted by sisters Rebecca and Megan Lovell, Larkin Poe reworks Southern blues and roots rock through modern amplification.

Impact: Their command of lineage and instrumentation restores technical authority to women without using nostalgia as a crutch.

Anthems: Preachin Blues, Bad Spell, Bleach Blonde Bottle Blues.

Spiritbox

Led by Courtney LaPlante, Spiritbox fuses progressive metal complexity with stark emotional articulation.

Impact: LaPlante’s vocal control collapses extremity and clarity into a single channel, reshaping what modern heaviness can communicate.

Anthems: Holy Roller, Circle With Me, Jaded, The Void, The Summit.

SkyDxddy

SkyDxddy blends alt-rock and confessional song writing into a sound that oscillates between abrasion and exposure. Think glam-coded rock filtered through theatrical distortion.

Impact: Their work destabilizes genre comfort, positioning lyrical vulnerability as an active confrontation.

Anthems: Pretty Distraction, Battlefield.

Max Madly

Max Madly channels industrial textures and theatrical edge into a new style of sound.

Impact: Their work treats persona as infrastructure, using image and sound to interrogate power rather than decorate it.

Anthems: Bones of Ours, Worship Me, The Haunt.

Jayden Hammer

Jayden Hammer mixes industrial rock with electro-metal and energetic stage presence; the result is seductively melodic while still unapologetically defiant and cynical. Think Deftones sun, Nine Inch Nails rising with a Hole moon. This is elite Corporate Goth-core.

Impact: Her work seamlessly flows between genres, pulling from rock, industrial and electronic without hierarchy. She approaches experimentation as instinct, allowing contrast to exist within a single track. We are all more than one thing but are often put in boxes culturally; Hammer reminds us that all sides of you can coexist outloud, at once.

Anthems: Living Dead Girl, Searching for a Feeling, Obedience, Mourn/Adored, Hate Yourself, Won’t Pray for You.

Cræ Wolf

Crae Wolf operates at the intersection of rock and dark pop, letting cadence and sensuality guide structure layered with atmospheric production.

Impact: Their work conjures atmosphere, expanding rocks emotional vocabulary.

Anthems: Buzz Trip, Mouth, Try Me, Monster.

Sam Short

Sam Short distills indie rock into bite-sized narratives driven my melodic and lyrical focus.

Impact: Her work asserts intimacy as scale, proving small-frame storytelling can carry structural weight.

Anthems: Aphrodite, Naked, Hooked, Masterpiece.

Sludge Mother

Fronted by feral vocal presence, Sludge Mother fuses metal density with punk immediacy resulting in noise-heavy distortion rooted in catharsis.

Impact: Their sound rejects commercial framing without losing accessibility.

Anthems: Antidote, I No Temple, When the Earth Swallows Us.

Playlist

This conversation continues here — explore our curated playlist spanning every artist featured above.

We’re living through an extraordinary moment for women in music.

It’s being shaped right now by the work of artists who have already changed the structure and by those still in the process of redefining it.

What will come next will depend on who is supported, amplified and adored by devoted fans.

The icons broke the silence. The current guard fortified the stage. The emerging voices are shaping the next generation.

This chapter is not closed; it’s an ongoing conversation between artists and audiences willing to listen closely.

Tell us who you’re listening to now.

We’re listening too <3.

Heretics and Headliners: The Women Who Rewired Rock