is the one of the only women I can think of that qualifies for household names in the same way as the men you've mentioned. But a lot of that is less to do with the music she was part of in Blondie and more for how she looks.

Kate Bush is another, but again her looks are a big part of why people I know certainly like her. That old leotard picture still gets a lot of coverage.

Patti Smith, on the other hand, looks fantastic in the same way a Keef or Joe Strummer looks fantastic, but not necessarily a pin up, and has been responsible for some of my favourite music ever. But without that pin up status - my mum wouldn't know who she was. But her music is somehow as vital and raw and ROAR as any male rocknroll and completely feminine. Which makes perfect sense really, considering the toughest people I know are all women.

even if less feted: I'd include the 3 above, together with Lucinda Williams, Emmylou Harris, Ani DiFranco, Chrissie hynde, k.d.lang, Sandy Denny, Aretha Franklin, Joan Armatrading, Sinead O'Connor, Mary Coughlan, Polly Harvey. And that's just a start. All powerful women with little need for paternalistic tokenism.

Debbie, Patti, Janis, Chrissie, Dolly, Emmylou.

The Go Go's had their own sphere of influence - entire gang (and boy, they were a gang!) of ladies, writing and performing their own material. Jane Wiedlin and Belinda Carlisle in particular.

Male pop stars have long been venerated for their looks over ability, probably more so than females. Would Nick Drake's music risen to an illogical critical high were it not for his astoundingly beautiful face. Jeff Buckley the same. The Stones oozed sex and in the mid sixties (aside from Wyman) were a team of very pretty boys!

I'm not arguing that people are sexual beings, that looks aren't involved when judging an artist. But I'm trying (and struggling) to think of female artists where their sexuality isn't part of how they're presented/judged/appraised.

But where men are concerned I can think of plenty, especially the older artists, and especially quite a few Word favourites, unless talking about beards is discussing their looks.

you can't have secret Icon not in sense that it's over used in the media.

... a rock icon?

Dusty, Cilla, Lulu, Sandie - look, all known by one name only they're so famous.

Then there's Marianne Faithful of course, Sandy Denny. The list is endless.

I'll take any of mine over Joni. Indeed I'd even chuck in Norah Jones*, Gillian Welch, Eliza Carthy and Shawn Colvin in above her. But, as they all say, it's all taste.
Joni is just OK.
*yeah, why not. It's not her fault that she sells a shedful.

Debbie Harry, Kate Bush, Patti Smith, Lucinda Williams, Emmylou Harris, Ani DiFranco, Chrissie Hynde, k.d.lang, Sandy Denny, Aretha Franklin, Joan Armatrading, Sinead O'Connor, Mary Coughlan, Polly Harvey, Janis Joplin, Dolly Parton, The Go Gos, Dusty Springfield, Cilla Black, Lulu, Sandie Shaw, Mariane Faithfull, Sandy Denny, Norah Jones, Gillian Welch, Eliza Carthy, Shawn Colvin, Joni Mitchell.

Icons maybe, goddesses possibly - admirable bodies and bodies of work amongst them. But do they honestly command admiration and respect to rank alongside their male counterparts? When John Martyn passed away our glorious leaders at Word HQ stopped the presses and rushed out a memorial issue - I'm not sure I can imagine the same tribute being extended to any of the women on the above list. (And meaning no particular criticism of Word - I can't imagine any of the music or indeed mainstream media paying the same respects as they woudl a male artist.)

are my earliest musical heroines. I grew up on their sound and the way they looked, danced and carried themselves was out of this world. In fact I'd go as far as to say that those ladies were more influential on my expectations of what a woman in music had to measure up to in terms of talent and professionalism than any from the rock pantheon.

I'm all for girls being treated the same as boys but when it comes to sex and attitude I'm from the "less is more" school and the Motown ladies had that in abundance.

And no that doesn't mean I go weak for Dana and secretly wish I was Cliff.

that seems to be missing - unless I've missed it - is Stevie Nicks. It seems to me that at her best - she's almost a match for (my beloved) Joni.

Oh and Linda Ronstadt - is she in there? What have you got against the ladies of the canyon?

Say... women... they will come and they will go
When the rain washes you clean... you'll know

Of course if you move outside of 'rock' you get plenty of female music icons. Dusty Springfield, Aretha, Dionne Warwick, Barbara Streisand, Diana Ross, Bette Midler, Billie Holiday, Eartha Kitt, Shirley Bassey. There are many many more across jazz and shows and easy listening fields.

Maybe rock is just a bunch of toys in a boys playground?

In various ways, iconic and revolutionary.

until that fabulous fabulous film "La Vie en Rose"*. Now I want to burn down every Specsavers shop. Anfd their MD is a frenchman, or he was in an earlier ad whwn he crumples up his frames and they spring back into shape.
*Did we do a best film with subtitles sometime? I seem to recall, distantly. Anyway, add it. After Betty Blue and Les Amants du Pont-Neuf

Siouxsie Sioux. Regardless of the music she practically created a whole fashion style that is still around after 30 years.

Personally I always preferred Tracey Thorn (who sang about Siouxsie on her last album). And can we have Sandy Denny too?

But Madonna's death will generate more coverage in the news than Dylan's (but fewer late night retrospectives).

Good call, well remembered, even if much is, in retrospect, unlistenable derivative tosh. (And much, I concede, isn't)
You are the 3rd for the posthumous icon what is Sandy, btw.

I feel the John Martyn issue was a one-off (OK, he clearly was, but the response, stopping the press, following his death) He was not hugely popular, being at best a cult beloved of the sort of folk who blog here, if there is a type (and I supect there is, broadly). I supect that timing had a fair bit to do with it, perhaps even the serendipity of having had a big piece within the month or so before (with, dare I suggest, some spare copy available and unused?) I will repeat my theory of him also having the added attraction of being an accident waiting to happen, which slides also into the theory aired above about fan-identification aspects. Somehow, strangely, there does seem to be an aura of imagining life thru' the eyes of the doomed romantic, albeit thru' NHS thick rose-tinted, and I'll bet many here have sometimes fantasised about being any of the prematurely deceased (which, at 60, includes Martyn). Preferably without the death and quite so much vomiting.
Somehow there is a male thing about this way of thinking: I would be amazed if Mrs Path ever expressed a wish to emulate Janis Joplin or Cass Elliott. Or even Sandy Denny, as that voice and songwriting aside, she had little of glamour in her booze-sodden life latterly.
There have been as many deaths of figures as and more iconic than he in the years of Word, yet with more muted last posts, waiting until the next issue. Who else would stop the presses?
Dylan would get a special edition in just about everything, I suspect. As far as this esteemed organ is concerned, maybe only RT?

Ms Winehouse and I tell you Retro is so right on this. If she came to an unfortunate premature demise not only the music press but the national press would come to a halt so that they could get their obituaries out. Jade Goody would soon be forgotten about.
I agree that there are numerous female artists afforded the same stature as their male equivalents with or without the looks another example not so far appearing on here is Nina Simone.
But regardless of gender the demise of many a star is reported in the press by emphasising their good looks. A recent example is Paul Newman - undeniably a kind man and a great actor but the sorrow of his passing was possibly amplified by his good looks.Would Princess Diana have been so revered and sadly missed if she looked like the back of a bus? The answer is an uncomfortable no - we are all fixated by beauty to some extent or another - it is human nature and there is nothing we can do about it.

Debbie Harry, Kate Bush, Patti Smith, Lucinda Williams, Emmylou Harris, Ani DiFranco, Chrissie Hynde, k.d.lang, Sandy Denny, Aretha Franklin, Joan Armatrading, Sinead O'Connor, Mary Coughlan, Polly Harvey, Janis Joplin, Dolly Parton, The Go Gos, Dusty Springfield, Cilla Black, Lulu, Sandie Shaw, Marianne Faithfull, Sandy Denny, Norah Jones, Gillian Welch, Eliza Carthy, Shawn Colvin, Joni Mitchell, Linda Ronstadt, Stevie Nicks, Madonna, Patsy Cline, Tammy Wynette, Edith Piaf, Billie Holliday, Annie Clarke, Siouxsie Sioux, Amy Winehouse, Cass Elliot, Kylie.

As mentioned above Motown and Nashville both give us iconic female figures - Diana Ross/ Aretha Franklin, and Patsy Cline/ Tammy Wynette passing the household name tests as well as providing classic songs and tragic lives. (And good looks?) Maybe it is just that rock is traditionally a boys thing?

Thanks for the compliment Gauntlet. Perhaps I shall quote it on my profile like an extract from a review in an advert. Perhaps not.

I was thinking of rock in particular as man's world in my comment, though less so these days. And the more rocking the rock the more male it has been, but then isn't that because it appeals more to blokes as a thing to do, with notable exceptions, like driving fast cars and all that. The more you combine rock with other genres, or stray from it altogether, the more women are revealed, as has been said.

I do think there is something in this point about looks - but if your talent is so great as to be undeniable and immediately apparent you can get away with having your lack of resemblance to an oil painting overlooked it seems, for either sex, but generally, in pop/rock etc, there is undoubtedly more expectation that women are to be attractive than there is for men to be so, as is the case in many fields in fact - like newsreaders. Often a rock band has ugly blokes but any women members are usually pretty. But then that reality seems so ingrained (for various reasons, as we know) in our culture you can't see it changing anytime soon, apart from the odd exception, unfair though it may be. Personally I currently find Karen O of Yeah Yeah Yeahs a woman in rock who ticks all the boxes without being particularly pretty (not that she's a Van Morrison equivalent by any means!). But not an icon high up in the canon of course. They say she can't sing, perhaps technically that is so, but I think the records are fantastic and care not. In fact I think I may find her desirable in a way certain male rock icons of the past were attractive to young straight male rock fans back in the day - by virtue of their charisma (and looks), though they also had their androgyny, as was cool in the seventies, working for them, confusing us teenage chaps, but that's another story.

Susan Boyle.
Phwoar !