Research Post: Then & Now (My Thoughts)

I've decided to update this post and make it my research one, simply because I put a lot of time into thinking about and writing this post out, that adding to it and finding articles that correlate with it would be very easy to find.

Music changes with society-just as each decade becomes different, so does music. Back in the 60’s and 70’s, all anyone sang about was “I want you to want me” and “I wanna hold your hand.” Now, it seems that all anyone sings about is sex, getting with girls, etc etc. Although many people would complain that music used to be so refined and much more “classy” they fail to understand that nothing ever stays the same-society is constantly evolving and changing with every year.

Most parents today despise our generation of music, disgusted with most of it, declaring “back in my day, this was music, not that trash you listen to.” Sure, parents would hate our music simply because it is a new generation and therefore brings a new style of music. In 20 years from now, we will be outraged by the music our children will listen to. It’s how society works, it’s how life works. Back in the 60’s and 70’s, the main focus of music was rock and roll, today the newest installment to music seems to be dubstep. Sure, rock and roll still exist today, it just isn’t the same as what it was half a decade ago.

We may also note the increase of female music artists that have arisen in the last few decades. When you look back at oldies/classic rock music, how many of the bands/artists were male or an all male group? Most of them. The 80’s seem to have brought out more female artists, up to today, where the music industry seems to be evenly divided in both genders. Think about it: women didn’t hold many rights half a decade ago, even now, we still don’t seem to have equal rights, however, the mindset of our culture back in that time period, was that women filled certain gender roles and the men filled others. Today, women have made a huge improvement in ascertaining rights and self empowerment. (Unless Rick Santorum becomes president, then our country will be thrown back a couple centuries).

Let’s take a look at stereotypes in music genres. Our society still has the mindset of which gender belongs to which genre. Now, it may not be true for everything-we still have male country singers and female rock singers, but for the most part, the genres are segregated to gender. When you think of Taylor Swift, she has a mainly female fanbase. What she addresses in her songs, speak to the female audience. Not saying, however, that a man can’t listen to Taylor Swift, but he would have less of a chance relating to the music than a women would. And then we have the “male” music genre, which would be rock, punk, metal, and rap. As said previously, we can’t say that this music only relates to the male audience, but for the most part, it does. The stereotypes of women and men are shown in music. Women are described to be dainty, feminine, pretty, fragile, emotional, etc. Men are described as aggressive, strong, powerful, not easily expressive in their feelings. As a society, we assume that women listen to, for the most part, pop music because it is “feminine.” And we assume that men listen to rock, metal, and rap because it is “masculine.”

I suppose that both genders would fall under their assumed categories in music genres, but, I think that because there are so many genres out there, and our society is changing to be more tolerant and more open minded, that both genders have a wide range of music tastes. Take me for example, my music tastes include oldies/classic rock, pop, rock, punk, alternative, indie, dubstep, and a little bit of country. I am not set on one genre.

I believe the reason music is so different now than it was back in the Beatles era, was because our culture has become more liberal about sex and less hush-hush. How many songs today have the word sex or imply sex in them? Several, actually, but do we care? Sure, the parents would, but because our generation was raised at a different time with different ideals, we don’t make a fuss. We need to understand that as time passes, as the world evolves and changes, our ideas and perceptions do as well. Our thoughts on gender and sexuality today, are most likely very much different than they were 50 years ago. Because ideals change, so does: music, media, fashion, the way in which we speak, and on and on. 100 years ago, showing very little skin was seen as attractive, now, showing nearly no skin is seen as sexy.

I have said this several times, and I’ll say it again: as time progresses, society changes. So does our ideals, principles, mindsets and perceptions. 

http://sc2220.wetpaint.com/page/Taylor+Swift+Reinforces+Gender+Stereotypes
http://www.virtualprofessors.com/rocking-gender-stereotype-and-subversion-among-female-pop-musicians 

-Kaitlyn