Music and Gender
It is no mystery that music holds influence and impact. Music can influence your perspective in many different areas of life. In other words, “music has the ability to deeply affect our mental states and raise our mood. When we need it, music gives us energy and motivation. When we're worried, it can soothe us; when we're weary, it can encourage us; and when we're feeling deflated, it can re-inspire us.” In the same way music can also inspire or also alter our opinions regarding social topics as well. In today’s world, more recent music will sometimes include controversial topics in order to influence or add to our personal thoughts of those topics. One big topic that music holds alot of influence over is gender. Gender plays a big role in music. Artists use music as a platform to express their feelings, opinion, experiences, backgrounds, etc. and with that sometimes comes the impression of gender and even sexual identity. One way this is displayed is “it has been suggested that perception of gendering of a musical composition may be dependent on the sex of the listener, which may “influence their overall response to music, and perception of masculinity or femininity, so that … men and women must have a slightly different type of musical experience resulting from their gender.”
For the Blog topic “Music and Gender,” I would like to focus-in on the rap genre of music. Rap is hip-hop music, formerly known as disco rap, is a popular music that originated in New York City in the 1970s. It consists of stylized rhythmic music that commonly accompanies rapping, a rhythmic and rhyming speech that is chanted. This genre of music is more commonly produced by and listened to from males. And it's not till more recently that female rappers are becoming more relevant and popular. In fact, in 2018 “in terms of gender, 31.8% of men downloaded rap/hip-hop as opposed to 18.4% of women.” Additionally, “in a study on representation and equality in the music industry, only 2.8 percent of producers were female while approximately 97 percent were male.” “In this regard, men seem to prefer rebellious music (heavy metal and punk music) while women choose easy listening music (pop and country music). Similarly, men show greater preferences towards more aggressive, exciting music styles, linked to behavioral disconformity with social rules. Conversely, women prefer softer music, with more emotional content, made to dance to and with clear dependence on social media patterns.” More recently, there has been an increase in women rappers and rap music listened to by women; however, it is still evident that the male rap music is more rebellious, aggressive, and rapid than in females. I believe the reasoning ties to the impression of masculinity and femininity. As men are more masculine which is displayed as more aggressive and tough- Females are more feminine which is perceived as more expressive and tender. Below, I have inserted two rap songs that recognize the differences of rhythm/melody and lyrics that often occur across gender to match the listeners' preferences which either appear more “masculine” or “feminine.”
Lose Yourself by Eminem
Vocals and lyrics are aggressive and passionate, melody is faced-paced, exciting/suspenseful, video content displays violence and rebellion.
Pills N Potions Nicki Minaj
The rapping isn’t as rapid and they’re are moments when there’s singing rather than rapping, melody and lyrics are slower pace and less aggressive.
Resources:
https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-76882-9_5#:~:text=In%20terms%20of%20gender%2C%2031.8,%25)%20and%20jazz%20(58.7%25)
I enjoyed reading about the statistics about the gender gap in the music world. I also read how 97% of producers are male, which just goes to show how much men dominate the music industry, much less the rap industry. I also agree with how you said men are more associated with aggressive and rebellious music, which is what rap really consists of.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading about the stats about how the industry is represented by gender. I think there different perspectives to put into play about how men's rap is more aggressive because there are some men out there that don't have that kind of attitude. I also think the music you listen to can just depend on the kinds of situations because different music can be used for different ways.
ReplyDeleteI thought you did a great job of showing us how the music industry is related to gender. It was interesting to see that only 3 percent of producers were female while 97 percent were male.
ReplyDelete