Gender and Music

 Gender and Music are not exclusive, separate entities but, instead, are a tangled web of balance, discourse, and harmony. To understand how music and gender intersect, we must explore both ideologies' realms and untangle the web that connects them—starting with how gender is portrayed in music. 

Gender plays a vital role in how music is perceived, from music videos to the actual vocalists. Top pop, rap, and R&B hits all have a very similar mapping when it comes to their infrastructure. Especially when it comes to male artists, but not exclusively. Male artists tend to portray females as sexual beings and hold little to no substance. While I don’t think this is on purpose, I do believe it is a product of history's pattern of downplaying the role of women in society beyond sexual desire.

Music videos are heavily centered around the male artists' sexual swagger; their ability to make any woman do anything they desire. Women are depicted as dancing, acting, dressing, and being sexual. This also tells what expectations are for men versus women in their taste in music. 

Because male artists mostly, are depicted in videos as macho womanizers and show no emotion besides the have sex and get money mentality, It is easy for the general public to take that specific image and move it to be the social standard. Society sees it as less acceptable for men to show emotion; therefore, why would men listen to more emotion-evoking music types? Suppose the community has demonstrated that they are not accepting of anything other than a strong manly man for all of American history. What else are we to expect from men?

 On the other hand, women in public settings are more accepted to be emotional and complex. This is why we see a distinct gendered difference amongst listeners in specific genres. 

I would like to preface this by saying that today's standards of men have changed drastically in the past ten years compared to the last 100. With that being said, some of these stereotypes are no longer the social norm, but they are still important to discuss for further advancements to de-stigmatize music and gender roles. 

Now, focusing on the performers themselves, Female performers are much more scrutinized in the public eye for what they create and how they create it. The example that I think best describes this phenomenon is Taylor Swift. Throughout the years, Taylor has been criticized for creating music based on her experiences in many different relationships. Now, while this is nowhere near an exclusive practice for women artists, they are the ones taking heat for producing art through their relationship experiences. I think Taylor puts it best.