What Role Does Gender Play In Music In The 80s And 90s

I. Introduction Gender plays a big role in music, I became aware of gender role in music when noticing how most songs talks about women and how they are being either exploited or empowered. Most music videos even in the 80s either objectified women or respect sexuality. Women are usually sexually alluring in music videos, stage performances and even in the song lyrics. Most music video uses video vixens or video girls that are usually dressed or performing sexually. For example, “Siouxsie Sioux frequently performed wearing black leather and rubber bondage attire, as well as heavy eye make-up, making overt statements about her sexuality. When asked about her appearance, Siouxsie said "image represents in a way, a kind of rejection of a stereotype, a blonde, dumb cuteness that was sought after by most singers, especially female", conveying that she dresses for her own pleasure and not others.”

In my opinion, this music video would offend a lot of feminists but what I appreciate about music in the 80s and 90s is the fact that women could dress like strippers and not get judged for it. For example, in this Girls, girls, girls music video most of the video models wore high waist underwear and leather clothing. It was proper to sing or rap about women in a dirty way but at the same time still, respect women. Visually and textually it shows that they are men, they love women and their bodies. For me, there weren’t any curse words or women being sex symbols in this music video, the band simply wanted to show that they’re masculine and they valued what most men loved in the 80s and 90s era which was girls and motorcycles/cars. I personally never heard this song before writing this essay but I actually really like it, especially after watching “The end live in LA” on YouTube, the performance was really good. What I like most was the guitarist who played the best tones throughout the whole