Music and Gender
Gender norms are something I notice mostly within genres. Both who sings what genre, and who listens. The easiest example is that in hip hop, men are the dominant artists, and when a female rapper comes around I feel like girls listen to her a lot more than men do. For a long time usually if a female was in a rap song she sang the chorus and bridge but never rapped, like in Nas’ If I Ruled the World where a well respected female rapper (Lauryn Hill) sings but doesn't rap. I know that most of the time when I get in my male friends' cars I usually don’t hear Nicki Minaj, but it’s more common in a female friend's car. While on the subject, Nicki Minaj is a great example of somebody who has pushed and broken these gender norms within hip hop. On the 2010 Kanye West song Monster, Nicki delivered one of the coolest (and a personal favorite of mine) verses of all time. She has a fast flow, great word play, imagery, and even switches between voices. This is big in discussions about the greatest rap verses ever, and usually the only female one ever mentioned. I say she broke gender norms because up to this point hip hop was known as mostly misogynistic and female rappers rarely got the opportunity and recognition that men did. Nicki was a mostly unknown female rapper (this was before her debut studio album), and rapped a better verse than three hip-hop legends in Jay-Z, Rick Ross, and Kanye, causing an explosion of recognition and love from the media.
Another example I see frequently is the duet, especially in country music. The most common type of country duet I see is the male and female combo. A few songs stray from this, like Merle Haggard and Willie Nelson’s Pancho and Lefty, but these are not as powerful or common as the male/female ones. The men and women usually harmonize well and have powerful contrasts in their voices which is why I think these duets are normally sad or love songs with two characters. An easy example of these powerful love song duets is Tim McGraw and Faith Hill, who are married and have put out multiple popular songs together that fit into this idea. I think this gender norm is really good for music, because it has resulted in so many beautiful country ballads that I can’t list all my favorites. One good example is Picture by Kid Rock and Sheryl Crow. The song follows the basic format where Kid Rock sings his verse then the chorus, then Sheryl Crow sings her verse and the chorus. The song tells two sides to a love story in the respective verses and then they go into a call and response portion and finish in harmony. It works to create a really nice sounding duet and is exactly the type of song I was thinking of when trying to describe this musical gender norm.
Hey Spenser!
ReplyDeleteI agree with what you said about the gender norms being present in most genres, not only on the side of the singer but also on the side of the audience listening to the music. I really liked how you brought in and mentioned Nicki Minaj and how she has changed the rules in the industry of hip hop. I think it is really important for the female gender to have the opportunity to show their talent and be included in the music industry.
Hey, I agree with your example of Nicky Minaj, when this artist appeared, basically only women listened to her, today she has become famous worldwide and is listened to by both men and women.
ReplyDeleteHey Spenser! I enjoyed reading your blog. I can see that we have some of the same music taste. Also I do agree with you where you talked about Nicki Minaj breaking the gender norms. She is one of the first females in the music industry to be able deliver an anthem by rapping and singing.
ReplyDeleteI liked your mention of Nicki Minaj because she is just one of a many women who have "broken the unspoken rules" of the music world. It is interesting to see how certain artists and genres attract audiences with more women or men; similarly, it is interesting how certain genres have more of one gender of artists than the other.
ReplyDeleteHey! I thought that it was really interesting the way that you talked about Nicki Minaj. I thought that this was a really good example. I thought that is was really interesting how you point out the fact that she broke the norms of the gender roles in hip hop. I do agree with you.
ReplyDeleteHey Spenser I would like to start of and say that I really enjoyed reading your blog. I love how you mention that the music industry don't expect many females to be hip hop artist but Nicki Minaj is one of the artist that shown that it could be done.
ReplyDeleteLoved reading your blog! Really like your example on Nicki Minaj on how she was the first female rapper to become successful in the industry and broke the rule of only men being rappers.
ReplyDeleteHey Spens I enjoyed your blog but I do disagree with Nikki being the first artist to put a hard-hitting verse on a featured track. She is a trailblazer in her field by far though. I just don't want us to forget the ones that walked so Nikki could run.
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