Superstardom In Popular Music : The Gendered Character Of The Music Industry

Commercially, some women have experienced extreme success while under the country music umbrella. Shania Twain, one of the most popular artists in the 1990s, “Not only is [...] country music’s most successful female artist, she also recorded the genre’s most successful album of all time, Come On Over in 1997” (McCarthy, par. 3). Taylor Swift’s 2013 arena tour to support her last country album was the most lucrative tour in North America that year, bringing in more than $113 million in ticket revenue (Sisario, par. 16). Critically, women have fared extremely well in recent years. A movement to make music acknowledging the genre’s roots has been lead by a group of female country musicians- to the admiration of critics and fans alike, if they get the chance to hear the music. Since 2014, seven of fifteen nominees for the Grammy Award for country album of the year have been women, with two of the three winners being female (Leight, par. 28-30). If women are given the opportunity to be heard on the radio and develop a fanbase, the chances to achieve a high level of prosperity are just as high as their male counterparts’. The level of critical success experienced by some new female artists shows that women and the themes they portray in their songs appeal to many people, even if the music is not being heard by the

Starting a career in the music industry is a difficult task. There are many important steps that you need to take along the way, and the path is often long and confusing. The people that you meet along the way will guide you along this path, and hopefully help you become a music industry success story. The goal is to not let your message get jumbled and distorted beyond your control and lead you to disaster.

From wearing cupcake bra outfits to performing in a lavish swimsuit, Katy Perry has demonstrated how women in the music industry use sex appeal to captivate their audience. In today’s society, it isn’t uncommon to see female artists in revealing, flashy outfits surrounded by flashing lights and steam. Artists such as Miley Cyrus and Nicki Minaj have certainly made news headlines for their audacious performances. In many cases, artists are presenting false images to their fans as an investment for future sales. Female artists continue to be sexually objectified by their audience, which increase their viewership, which leads to record labels pressuring artists to keep a sexy image.

Sexualisation is a way that mass media, celebrities or advertising can make young or old people, especially young girls, become more provocative in the way that they speak, dress and behave

Charlotte Bunch once said “Sexual, racial, gender, violence, and other forms of discrimination and violence in a culture cannot be eliminated without changing culture.” Our society experiences all of these problems and I would like to focus on the gender perspective in the 21st century and how women have had more of an influence in music than people actually realize. Men have dominated the music industry and business but women have been the underlying reason as for why men and other females have been so successful in the music scene.

Nowadays, certain style of music are becoming more involve in our society than others. For instance, the R&B and Rap/hip pop are now getting the top on the Medias. We will try to explore those music’s gender. We will try to understand why and how they are what they are now?

Since the 1980’s hip-hop has been one of the most popular music genres. In chapter 4 of Feminism and Pop Culture: Seal Study (written by Andi Zeisler) talks about women in the late 1980s and early 90’s broke through in the hip-hop community, but were not commercialized to sell to the young, male, and white audience. This genre is male dominated that brag about the amount of money and women they have. In the hip-hop community women were viewed as objects and some still are today, but female hip-hop artist caused changes. The movement of female hip-hop artist has been through tough times since the late 1980s till now.

Members of this all-girl band consisted of African American women, Asian women, white women, Hispanic women, and women of Native American descent. In the back of my mind, I was perplexed that this group even existed given the time period– mid 1900’s. But then I realized that World War II switched up society and negotiated previous gender roles. Women took on once “male roles” in society, like working in the factory. Initially, I did not think of music as one of these male dominated platforms.

The topic of femininity in pop culture is important today because women are still far from achieving equality with men socially, economically, and politically. Music is a huge part of everyday life and affects millions of people. The music industry is intertwined throughout many outlets of the media. From commercials, to television, to the radio, music is a part of everybody’s daily life. What is noteworthy about trendy music today is that the messages that the artists are singing about can influence the listener's behavior, even though they may not consciously know this. With many popular anthems being so influential in every aspect of today’s world, we have to closely look at the correlation between music and how this alters how people act in today’s culture. Those who’ve been closely following the trends in country music over the last few years have had a sense that songs that objectify and degrade women (“bro-country”) have been on the rise, but it was only anecdotal evidence that we could

Feminism as an idea has been actively intersected and integrated within the western mainstream pop culture progressively since the beginning of the 21st century. Some of the largest players in the current mainstream music scene not only identify as feminist but also encourage their millions of fans to do the same. While this could potentially be a positive influence on a movement that has struggled to gain larger scale mainstream representation since it’s beginnings in the 19th centaury, this essay aims to explore the damage it is inevitably causing to the movement.

A brief analysis of the lyrical content of many popular songs substantiates the fact that sexism and misogyny are significant problems within music today. In an article called Music and Misogyny: why we’re

Hip-Hop today is genre of music that many, mostly a younger demographic are drawn to it. Hip-Hop culture is now commonly recognized by it’s fundamental elements; such as, rapping, dancing, lyrics, beat, urban and apparently relevance which are viewed as an art. Hip-hop is constantly evolving and incorporating different and new aspects to it and it’s just going to continue to grow within the next decades. Hip-hop focuses on urban youth therefore, many young people actually turn to hip-hop as an outlet to express themselves with various emotions and sentiments and sometimes devote themselves as aspirating hip-hop artists and pursue the hip-hop industry. Hip-Hop was was initially an underground urban movement and created in the 1970’s by an African man, Kool Herc influenced and introduced it which has now become universal in not only English, but in many languages. In the 1980s symbolized the diversification of hip hop as the genre eve loved into more complex styles. One of the positive aspects of the hip hop culture is that it encourages producers to recruit a diverse group of individuals. At first, Hip- Hop was predominantly performed by men and eventually evolved into being performed by both men and women. Some examples of successful women in the Hip-hop culture are Lauryn Hill, Erykah Badu, Missy Elliot, Salt-N- Pepa,Trina Beyonce, and ‘Lil Kim. Although hip-hop

Gender Biases in music focusing on the parallels associated with gender roles in modern day and historical trends are still present today. As of recent decades, women have had extremely limited opportunities within music especially composition. Unfortunately, women were often encouraged as amateurs but not professionals. As professional performers and composers, historically, there have been many obstacles facing woman. From the eras of "Let women keep silence in church." Women could and did make music in their own separate covenants, but these institutions did not compare to their male counterparts. Advancing to instrumental music in the Renaissance era, women faced sexual stereotyping when it came to instruments. Women were expected to develop and cultivate "feminine" instruments that would not require an alteration in facial expression or physical demeanor. This left women with mostly keyboard instruments such as the piano and harpsichord, sheltering women from broadcasting themselves because it was deemed inappropriate. The lute and viol were also acceptable during the Renaissance and Baroque eras and the harp and guitar were acceptable in the Classic and Romantic periods. There were many more instruments that were deemed "masculine." This included winds, brass, percussion, and larger strings. This made orchestra and other ensembles mostly an all-male profession. Between 1880 to 1920 the number of women composing and performing increased drastically, thanks to the

biases. Now when you take a look at the surface of the music business there seems to be diversity with gender, but behind the scenes, this bias has changed very little. This behind the scenes industry consists of music production, mastering, mixing, A&R, administration and many other record label jobs that are given. The gender biases that exist in today’s music industry serve a harsh reminder of influential sexism, most prominent biases are the attitudes towards women because of pre-existing male preference in the business.

Successful strategies are based on several common elements, such as: 1)Simple, consistent long-term goals 2)Profound understanding of the competitive environment, 3)Objective appraisal of resources, and 4)Effective implementation (Grant, 2010). As our case study shows, Madonna has had a firm grasp on these elements. Her long-term goal to be the greatest female performer is very simplistic and long term. Her understanding of the competitive environment is exceptional, throughout the years she understood exactly the direction that music was taking. In the 1980's she understood that dance clubs and DJ's were the future and if she wanted to break into the industry she needed to start there. In the late 1980's and into the 1990's she utilized sex and seduction to keep in public's eye. By the late 2000's she understood that music was going away from the recorded format and the money to made was in live performances. Madonna has understood throughout the years that as the industry was constantly changing that she would need to as well to stay relevant. She has been successful at promoting her strengths, while shadowing her weaknesses. Madonna has developed her image throughout the years to