Gender In Popular Music

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In modern society, it is relatively clear that people consume hours of television, reading magazines, browse the Internet or look at other forms of communication. It is typically unavoidable and therefore we are prone to view a lot of uncensored media. Popular music is the forefront of media and is a very powerful tool to communicate messages to society. We see that there is a constant debate between theory and the realities of men and women’s daily lives thus creating question as to how this affects us. There are many different sources discussing gender in relation to popular music. The ones I will be focusing on in this essay are Tara Brabazon, Simon Frith, Kate McCarthy, Julia Downes and Jamie Glantz. McCarthy and Frith discuss the objectification and segregation of women, while Downes, specific to the Punk genre, explores barriers created for women and having them to compromise. Brabazon takes a different perspective as to how popular music affects men while Glantz looks at societal boundaries. These sources explore various dimensions of music, with the one common factor of being in relation to gender.

Current trends in popular music media suggest an increased sexualized representation of women. As a result, it is in question as to how this is influencing society, especially the youth. Through lyrics in songs and music videos, we see the portrayal of women is becoming subdued. McCarthy (2006) describes the female body as a “performance site” through which male dominance is “materialized” or “subverted” (p.71). Popular music representation shows that women are referred to as property and it suggests the mind-set of it all being placed into society. It shows the standards being set for women and what is rapidly becoming the p...

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...edia, which is degrading our thought process; creating barriers and labels that we have grown so accustomed to. McCarthy (2006) addresses the issue of women being portrayed as property and being submissive in nature. Downes (2012) discussed how although women had immense talent within the punk genre, they were shunned away due to their gender. It is important to note points made by Brabazon (2012) which shows the effects and modifications music has on men to argue that it is not just women that are affected by this media culture. All the academic sources examined discuss the detrimental impacts popular music culture has had on the community. Both female and male artists are breaking barriers as to the gender roles originally implemented, however, it seems that artists are in a constant struggle between what their audience expects of them and what is the reality.

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