The music industry throughout history has been, and still is dominated by men. This comes to no surprise since patriarchal leadership (male dominance) has been a part of human history since the early civilizations began, and music is no exception to this trend. But how do women play into this? Where are the women of music? Where will women go within the culture?
Though music making’s beginnings are male due to religious ties, women became a predominant reason for secular music to occur. When music became the peasants’ trade, folk tunes became prime entertainment, and relatively cheap entertainment at that. Men used music to serenade (potential) lovers in hopes of courtship. “Greensleeves” is a well known song that is about a man and his love for a woman he knew only by the green sleeves on her dress.
However it doesn’t end there. In the household, mothers were expected to stay at home cleaning, raising children, cooking dinner, and providing for their husband in every way, including entertainment. To entertain their families, the mothers would need an instrument, such as the Concertina. The instrument was fairly cheap so women were able to afford the instrument, making it easy for them to get ahold of one to use in the household. Women became musicians and often performed simple, short tunes for their children and their husband as part of their daily routine. This was a huge accomplishment for women in the 19th century because it aided them in their education since they couldn’t leave the house. The Oxford Music Online source provides an in depth timeline of how women have interacted with music throughout history.
But music making still is a very gender biased industry. Every genre has a stereotype and includes gender within it. If you hear “Metal Band” you would think of bands like Metallica, where they are all male groups. On the contrary, if you hear “Pop Singer” more than likely you’re going to think of Taylor Swift or another woman before you think of male singers. We feel this gender bias brought on by not only the fan base each genre is expected to have (yet another stereotype), but also what types of music that are considered stronger than a different genre.
This is all over American/Western society predominantly. To continue with the genre themes, Metal is a harder music style, often with fast tempos, aggressive rhythms and the lyrics are themed around drug abuse, politics and death. Often referred to as “man’s music.” Pop music however, is a different side of the spectrum, and is often criticized for its popularity. Pop music themes around love typically, has a wide range of tempos, and rhythms can also be of a wide variety. Though with this complexity of categorizing, it is considered simple and what people feel is a woman’s type of music.
Even though these bias are very clearly not the case in modern society, people still let those social biases stay cemented in what is considered “correct”. If a man likes to listen to “soft” music from groups like “One Direction” or artists like Lady Gaga, they are patronized for being weak and “acting like a girl”, whereas women who listen to “hard” music are glorified for being “not like other women.” The goal seems to be unfeminine, and to be pro masculine.
However, groups like “Halestorm” go against the grain (or against societal norms) and shatter the bias. While they aren’t an all female group, they have a female lead for a heavy metal genre oriented band. Click here to listen to “Mz. Hyde” by Halestorm. As presented with this example, Lzzy Hale (the lead singer) is able to keep her femininity while still being a part of this male dominated genre within the industry. This step is also shown through other artists such as Nicki Minaj, who is thriving in the Rap genre, yet again another male dominated industry. While these are small steps, the are showing growth to break gendered norms within music culture and shows promise for a gender neutral music making environment.
Resources
“Women in music.” Oxford Music Online. Oxford University Press. Web. 20 September 2015.
Nick De Los Santos- Idea, Writing and Editing.
Erika Query-Idea, Pictures, Sources and Initial Writing.
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