Music and Gender
In music, along with nearly everything else, there are these gender roles that say what women and men tend to lean towards more regarding style or taste. I cannot tell if my own opinion on what gender roles in music is accurate all the time or just what has been true for my own experiences. Generally I think of when we were younger, it was always the girls that wanted to sing; very rarely did the boys want to sing like at church or at school for a play or something like that. Also in high school, while I was never in band or theatre, I did go to concerts or musicals to support my friends, and what I noticed then was that theatre was very heavy in girls whereas band had more boys. Maybe that was just my school though.
When I think of a band, I always think about all men. Very rarely can I think of seeing a woman playing on a band, and I could not think of one single all girl band so I googled it and only recognized The Go-Go's... which makes me really upset actually that there are no modern day mainstream all girl bands. On the other hand, while I am on the topic and since I just love MGK so much, I want to mention that his lead guitarist is the coolest girl I have ever seen.
The pictures I included are of famous bands I could think of off the top of my head; all being composed of only men.
Here are The Go-Go's.
I think that men, or women especially, should be able to enjoy or participate in whatever music they want regardless of gender; however, I also think that some gender roles cannot be avoided in some situations. For example, generally speaking men have lower voices and women have higher voices, which would mean more than often you hear women singing higher notes and men singing lower notes. Or at least I think that is how that works.
Lastly, one thing I do not notice gender roles as prominent in is the style of music that people listen to. If I think about it hard enough than I guess I can think of gender norms but it more of, for example, Justin Bieber and Harry Styles have more of a girl fan base. That is not necessarily what I mean though. What I mean is comparing rap to pop, or rock to alternative, or country. I have not noticed one genre having more of one gender than the other when talking about listeners, not artists necessarily.
Hi Olivia, I think it is great that you wrote your blog on your own thoughts and ideas of music and gender roles. I agree that typically when i think of a band I think of men and when we were younger mainly the girls would want to sing instead of the boys. I also believe that men and women should be able to enjoy and participate in the music they wish.
ReplyDeleteHi, i do think of men when i think of bands but more so i associate men with playing the instruments in bands. I think that there definitely needs to be a wider variety of famous female instrumental musicians and MGKs guitarist is a great example of that.
ReplyDeleteI like the part about how when we were younger mostly girls wanted to sing (I know way more girls than guys who were in chorus). I think its interesting how that changes as we grow up and boys always want to start a rock band.
ReplyDeleteHi Olivia. I agree. When I think of a band I think of men. I only know maybe 2 bands that were comprised of all girls but I can definitely think of many more than 2 bands that are all men. Everyone should be able to enjoy or sing whatever types of music they want without being judged.
ReplyDeleteHi!!! I thought that it was really cool that you said that if your thoughts weren't accurate or if that is just based off your experience. I really like that! I also like how you pointed out the thing about growing up and how it was mainly girls wanting to sing, I also noticed that trend going up.
ReplyDeleteHi Olivia, thanks for sharing. I think that you brought some interesting opinions to the conversation. I think you were very articulate in your blog. I do enjoy several of the bands you displayed.
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