Have you ever heard a song once and was never able to get the tune out of your head no matter how hard you tried? I know that has happened to me on several occasions. Whether we enjoy the songs or not, there is something about music within popular culture that drives the American public wild. Sadly, for quite sometime the music industry was largely closed off to women. Of course there were obvious exceptions to this, since talented female artists have existed through the ages, but on the whole there were not many female artists that got a lot of airplay and certainly none were considered significantly influential in the music industry.
Recently the United States has begun to experience a women’s musical renaissance. Women’s roles in pop music are steadily growing. There have been many outstanding female musicians and vocalists in the past that have aided in making the music industry less of a male opinionated society, from Aretha Franklin, Mo Tucker, and Ella Fitzgerald to pop icons like Courtney Love, Queen Latifa, and Melissa Ethridge. Along side these, there are two women who have conquered most obstacles they’ve faced and, in addition, forced the music industry to become more of a female friendly environment. Those two women are Madonna and Brittany Spears.
Madonna is an artist that most Americans are very familiar with. From rudeness to charity, she is always in the public eye. Madonna took women and sex through a quantum leap and her unique style and flair has been imprinted on pop culture forever. Besides creating major trends in music she was responsible for many fashion statements throughout the eighties and nineties (Gandee 307). Up until 1982, female sexuality was largely a suggestion of cleavage and tight-fitting jeans, then Madonna showed up in 1983 wearing her Victoria's Secrets on the outside, and all hell broke loose.
Madonna Ciccone was born in 1958 near Motown, to an engineer father and homemaker mother, the eldest of eight children. The one thing baby Madonna wanted more than anything was to become famous. She trained on piano and dance, and signed up for almost any activity that would put her face in public view. By the time she turned twenty, she felt she had waited long enough for fame to find her, and went out looking for it.
Throughout her career as one of America’s superstars, Madonna maintained much of her creative control while...
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...stry seem obtainable to everyone. Their accomplishments represent many of the recent victories won by women in the music industry; Accomplishments like Lilith Faire and Rock for Choice.
Though many doors have been opened there are many that have remained shut. For instance, the way that many labels choose to market female artists like sex symbols instead of relying on their ability to perform. A women musician are becoming more and more visible, and with this visibility comes power. Ani DiFranco and Madonna are just two examples of women who are starting their own record labels and signing their own bands. By doing this they are insuring that female artists get heard. Obviously, not every women musician can have this kind of determination, but the fact that they are on stage playing what they love, music, makes them powerful.
O’Dair, Barbara. "Introduction". The Rolling Stone Book of Women In Rock. Ed. Barbara O’Dair. New York: Random House, Inc., 1997.
Udovitch, Mim. "Madonna". The Rolling Stone Book of Women in Rock. Ed. Barbara o’Dair. New York:Random House,Inc.,1997.
Gandee, Charles. "In The Closet With Madonna". Vogue Oct. 1997: 306-313, 378.
Diana Ross was born in 1944. Emerging from the housing projects in Detroit to become an international superstar, she gained prominence first as a member of the supremes, then as a solo artist. The mention of her name evokes the indelible image of the broadly smiling diva, the long hair, sequined gowns, etc.
...lomon, 2008). Warner Bros (the firm that invested in Madonna’s career) benefited from Madonna’s power to capture the market. Madonna’s unique persona helped her establish high customer loyalty. Warner Bros received an unexpected sale increase during Madonna’s first tour when the initially planned small concert has to add new seats and move to a larger arena because her concert tickets were sold-out within the first hour (Cengage, 2003). The success in selling Madonna’s books and albums are resulted from people’s perceived quality of racy and erotic contents in her work. Madonna puts both her career and personal life on the spotlight to create maximum customer awareness. Although there are some negative associations with her name, Madonna’s ability to reinvent herself to fit the public’s desire has kept her one of the most influential American icons in the world.
De Boer, Jennifer Anne. On the Margins of the Mainstream: Queen, the Rock Press, and Gender. Open Access Dissertation and Theses, 1999. Print.
Popular music in the United States throughout the decades have always consisted of different genres of music and during the late 70’s and early 80’s, many of the popular bands consisted of only male artists and members. In an era dominated by male artists, Fleetwood Mac featured their lead female singer Stevie Nicks, who went on to transcend the gender expectations of the time and pursue a solo career in the midst of heavy adversity. Fleetwood Mac’s lead singer, Stevie Nicks, is a prime example of the evolution female artists have endured as they struggled to gain equal footing in this male dominated industry. This essay will examine the different factors contributing to Stevie Nicks’s popularity, along with her breaking these normative masculine roles and the way she combined different genres and personal
Women in popular music have created a tremendous history in the wake of feminism. They have made their presence visible by identifying themselves as feminists. Being a woman was hard during that stage. Women were not allowed to do many things due to gender inequality such as the right to vote and to own a property. Therefore, from that moment onwards, women decided to stand up and make some changes. During the early stage of feminism, women developed their skills in popular music to create awareness. They associate popular music with feminism. Although there were racial issues between the black and white during that time, both sides continued to establish in different ways, through different genres of music. Black women focused on ‘black genres’ such as blues, jazz, and gospel, whereas white women performed in musical theatres. Female artists such as Lilian Hardin, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, and Nina Simone were among the notable exceptions of female instrumentalists during feminism. In this essay, I will assess feminism focusing on the second-wave.
Madonna was loved by almost everybody. She had a personality to die for., and “Some say that Madonna’s image is that of a girl ‘you hate to love’. One who is irresistible even though you know she will break your heart” (Greenberg 8). She was one of those girls that no matter how much someone hated her, they couldn’t help but to love her. To this day, she is still known as one of the great woman in rock and roll and as even been indicted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (People Magazine; Madonna). Madonna was also a huge trend setter and also has multiple clothing lines around the world. Seymour Stein, the Sire Records executive who signed her from his hospital bed remembered: “I was very impressed with how determined she was. I don’t want to use the word ruthless; at the time, I said, ‘Shes somebody who would take a shortcut through a cemetery at night to get somewhere.’ You could tell it in her eyes ”(Student Resources in Context, “Madonna”). She is also a very determined person when it comes down to it and will not take no for an answer. Madonna was an inspiration in the 80s but, these days, there’s a new inspiration in the pop culture world.
The 1990’s were responsible for a plethora of powerful music. While many may correlate this decade with pop stars like Brittany Spears and Christina Aguilera’s brand of bubble gum mainstream music, there were many women who did not resign themselves to the conventional. Artists like Courtney Love and Fiona Apple hit the music scene during this decade. They introduced the world to a new brand of female power unlike anything the world had seen. During this time, these women and many others were not afraid to call themselves feminists, in fact, they insisted upon it. This decade was responsible for some of the most powerful female anthems from many different genres of music but one song stood out above the rest and made singer-songwriter Alanis Morissette a world-wide phenomenon.
Gone were the days of the backup singer in coordinated costumes, choreography, and tambourines. LA bands such as the Go-Go's and the Bangles achieved national success as they redefined the meaning of “girl band” and inspired a generation of young women to pick up guitars and write songs. At the same time, forgotten in this mix is the Screaming Sirens, a group of five L.A women who fused a particular type of punk rock and country music described as “Cowpunk” along with a wild stage show that earned them a widespread and notorious reputation. Uniquely for the time, the sirens were not under the control of a male authority figure like the Runaways were with their manager Kim Fowley. This Screaming Sirens masterminded every raucous lyric, guitar riff, and punk stage antic attached to their legend, refusing to compromise their sound or DIY ethos. Despite a major label recording, a Hollywood motion picture, and multiple national tours, documentation of the band’s existence is minimal. This paper will provide an introductory oral history, exploring the band’s rise, musical catalog, and legacy, as well as contextualizing the conditions in the LA music community that enabled the band to become a force in the
Women’s sufferage was at it’s peak with the ratification of the United States Nineteenth Amendment. Women recived more independence after the end of the First World War and took a greater part in the work force. In the 1920s, there were many famous women Jazz artists such as Lovie Austin, a piano player and band leader, Lil Hardin Armstrong, a pianist who was originally a member of King Oliver’s band, and Bessie Smith, an African-American blues singer who inspired women like Billie Holiday and Janis Joplin. Although women were also making a difference in the Jazz industry, it wasn’t until the 1930s when they were recongnized as successful artists in the music world.
Janis Joplin was selected 28th in the World's Greatest Singers list because she thought that female singers were just as good as male singers (“100 greatest singers,” 2016). Joplin wanted to prove to all of her fans that males and females were equal. Janis Joplin’s personality was very important to her career because they helped her become nationally known. Even though Janis Joplin only recorded four albums, her major accomplishments have created a legacy for her.
Romeo and Juliet, lovers, and enemies as well, meeting by fate’s chance... right? In the play Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare, the main characters Romeo and Juliet lose their lives because they had love for one another. Their families have lasting conflict which prevented them from loving one another. This is a story said to be fate driven, but don’t be so quick in judgement, because personal choice had a greater impact on the main characters than fate had.
Madonna is a controversial legend whose attitudes and opinions on sexuality have forced the public to take notice and change the image of females in society. Madonna believed women’s sexuality was a natural aspect of life; therefore, she dared to challenge the rules and definitions of femininity and sought to expand the meaning of it. In a male dominated world, she wanted to focus on the importance of women and let them have a voice of their own. Madonna shattered all the myths on traditional beauty standards and made her statement on sexuality and feminism, which changed how society viewed the standards of beauty. She impacted female power by encouraging sex- positivity into her music and her style. It is mainly because of Madonna that ordinary women, and women in modern entertainment have more choices and freedom which continues to influence further generations.
In the beginning, Madonna ultimately sacrificed sexual purity. Her daring exploitation of sex from a feminine point of view was definitely a breakthrough in 1980’s American society. Often, she dressed like a man and grabbed herself in “sacred” and “unseen” places. Actions like these, as Fiske points out, presented a threat but “not the traditional and easily contained one of woman as a whore but the more radical one of woman as independent of masculinity (Fiske 284).” Young girls regarded her actions not as “tarty” or “seductive” but as completely “acceptable.” Eventually, they embraced her image and strived to follow her example of the independent and sexually licentious woman (Fiske 283).
On August 16, 1958 Madonna Louise Veronica Ciccone was born in the world. Madonna is the third of six children as well as the middle child. She was somewhat “the sissy of the family” and she would often use her feminine wittiness to get her way (A&E Biography 2011). Madonna was raised in a devoted Catholic family and attended the Sacred Heart School through her academic years. Her talent for dancing enabled her to graduate high school a semester early and then attend the University of Michigan on a full dance scholarship. Madonna soon dropped out of college and moved to New York to further her dance career. In order to pay for rent, Madonna worked a string of odd jobs that include modeling nude, working at the Russian Tea Room, and performing at the American Dance Center. While working at these jobs, Madonna also began to pursue her music career by forming several bands and then deciding to go solo once she met Camille Barbone of ...
The lyrics of music play an important part of interpreting the meaning of the song. The roles which women have been allowed by the society to embody have changed drastically. Women may question their roles because of what they see portrayed by popular culture or media. Change in female’s identity can be seen in how women are viewed or how they portray themselves in popular culture specifically through music. In general, music continues to...