Coldplay.  The Jonas Brothers.  Green Day.  The Killers.  U2.  Nickelback.  Owl City.

The list goes on and on. And on.

There are way more all male bands than all female bands.  On iTunes’ alternative genre currently, the top bands are Kings of Leon, Boys Like Girls, Cobra Starship, Muse, Phoenix and Cage the Elephant, all of which are bands made up of only men.

But why is this?

According to Professor of Sociology at Ruskin College in Oxford, Mavis Bayton, young men like demonstrating their masculinity, and in doing so, they need girls out of the picture.

“Research shows that a major preoccupation of young men is establishing their ‘masculinity,'” Bayton said.  “The very ‘masculinity’ of activities can only be maintained by the exclusion of girls.”

This trend has largely determined the roles of both men and women in music, said Bayton.

“Traditionally, women have been positioned as consumers and fans, and in supportive roles (wife, mother, girlfriend) rather than as active producers of music: musicians,” she said in her book, “Women Performing Popular Music.”

Junior Maura Porter has been familiar with these roles for women in music, and attempted to go against them when she and junior Hannah Longstreet formed their own band, the Tenants.

“For a while we were thinking [of forming] an all girls band because you don’t see too many girl bands,” Porter said.  “We were kind of trying to find a female drummer, but it was nearly impossible.”

After finding the perfect lead guitarist, Marie Mader, bassist Porter and singer Longstreet decided to ask two of their guy friends to play rhythm guitar and drums. However, the band started having problems with their rhythm guitarist.

“He’d rail saying that he should be the lead guitarist,” Porter said.  “He was an okay player, but he just refused to admit that he didn’t know what he was doing.   I think he was the type of guy who had a problem with [Mader] being a girl and her being the lead guitarist.”

The rhythm guitarist’s quarrels with the band resulted in his dismissal from the band.

Porter thinks that her band had issues with past male rhythm guitarists because young men tend to be more assertive and aggressive, especially when it comes to music, whereas young women are insecure about their abilities.

“Hypothetically, if a guy and a girl pick up a guitar, the guy would be like ‘I can’t fail at this.’ The girl would say ‘It’s not coming that easy, I’m not even going to try, I’m just going to make a fool of myself.'”  Porter said.  “A lot of girls are content just being affected by [music] and just listening to it.  But a lot of the guys aren’t content with just watching it, they need to be a part of it. . . Guys are just more stubborn, that’s what I’ve seen.”

Ms. Kristen May, singer of the local alternative band Vedera, has experienced similar attitudes with her bandmates.  Being the only girl in the band, she finds it more difficult to relate to her bandmates at times.

“I think there [were] times in the past when they haven’t understood something I was going through or I would freak them out with my emotional side,” May said.  “I think as a female I can tend to get caught up in the little things, whereas the guys in my band are less emotional and just think of things as black and white.  Like, ‘don’t worry that you’re having a bad hair day, Kristen, we are still going to play a great show and most likely no one will notice.'”

Like in Vedera, the few times that women are included in the image of music, it is as the lead singer, with rarely any other roles or abilities, according to Professor Bayton.

“When [women] have been on stage, on TV, on record, it has nearly always been as singers,” Bayton said.  “They have sometimes written their own lyrics, rarely their own music, and there are very few women playing instruments.”

Indeed, in many of today’s popular bands, women are frequently just the singer. Case in point: Paramore, No Doubt, Evanescence, Black Eyed Peas, Blondie, Lady Antebellum…

According to Porter, most of these female singers are for sex appeal, so that the band may gain more success and popularity.

“If you put an ugly chick in a mediocre band, they’re not going anywhere,” Porter said.

However, this trend must change.  In order to establish a respectable place in the music world, women should start becoming more involved, and go further than just being the attractive image of the band, says Porter.

“More girl bands should get started and should strive to be genuinely good.”