Gender Roles and Women in Music

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Recommended: The misogynistic portrayal of women in rap

Historically, women have faced oppression in the music industry. Regardless of genre, women have often found themselves in a world of patriarchal domination. Two genres, punk and hip hop are especially known for male dominance. The two articles I will be comparing are as follows: The Expansion of Punk Rock: Riot Grrrl Challenges to Gender Power Relations in British Indie Music Subcultures by Julia Downes, and The Spirit Is Willing and So Is the Flesh: The Queen in Hip-Hop Culture by Leola A. Johnson. The articles focus on the Riot Grrl movement and the ‘Queen’ in hip hop and its accompanying culture respectively. The ‘Queens’ and the Riot Grrl movement defied political, social and sexual norms. They both had similar goals but somewhat different backgrounds and approaches. Both articles examine ways in which each group of women fought for gender equality and how they challenged and rejected traditional roles in music.

The Riot Grrl movement began in the 1990’s in the United States as a response to the masculine domination of punk music. It was characterized by strong ideals of feminism and assertive displays by women. The figure known as the ‘Queen’ has been a stable figure in Hip Hop and African American culture for many years. Queens are women who like those in the Riot Grrl movement, defied the various conventions ‘associated with white capitalist male supremacy’. I chose to compare these two articles as they both discuss and examine the roles of females as the minority in their respective genres, and the actions they took in order to be taken seriously and respected.

Both Downes and Johnson make similar claims in their articles. The first claim I will be exploring is that women needed to assume certain roles within their...

... middle of paper ...

...hered to men’s ideas to begin with, rather deciding to ‘oppose and take power away from men’. The different ideas behind the movements are what make the articles interesting. Both sets of women had similar goals but different approaches.

Both these articles are significant to the study of popular music in regards to gender. Gender makes up a huge part of how people see and respond to popular music, therefore it is important that we understand various aspects of it. Both articles give insight into important times and movements in popular genres. They encourage thought and discussion in relation to gender in popular music. Downes and Johnson write with specific examples and clear motivation, that leaves the reader informed, interested and aware of the ways in which women fought for gender equality and how they challenged and rejected traditional roles in music.

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