Who Is Mainstream Music In The 1960's?

Sheila Whitely (2000), in her book ‘Women and Popular Music: Sexuality, Identity and Subjectivity’ argues that mainstream music in the 1960’s was fundamental misogynistic, characterising women along the classic lines of either an idealised saint or a whore. For her there is little room for feminism to thrive given these two polarised and constructed forms of identity. In terms of the saintly figure she analyses two of rock’s most popular songs, The Beatles ‘Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds’ or Led Zeppelin’s ‘Stairway to Heaven’. In both of these songs, women, while being the main characters, are objectified as an idealised dolls living in a mystic fairytale. Mainstream rock also presents idealised forms of female identity on the other side

of the spectrum of patriarchal construction. The Rolling Stones billboard advertisement for their album Black and Blue, provides an iconic and shocking example of this type of misogynistic representation (Whitely, 1997). It displayed an image of a half-naked, bound, gagged woman with the caption ‘I’m Black and Blue with The Rolling Stones and love it.’ The lyrics to ‘Brown Sugar’ further reflect the nature of prejudice that was evident in the 1960’s mainstream music industry, as they even go as far as explicitly condoning the link between ownership of woman by men and sexuality.
Gold coast slave ship bound for cotton fields
Sold in a market down in New Orleans
Scarred old slaver knows he's doing alright
Hear him whip the women just around midnight
Brown sugar how come you taste so good?
Brown sugar just like a young girl should
This is a clear representation of the direct suppression of a woman’s rights and ownership of her own body. Mainstream music in the 1960’s, in this sense, directly informs and mirrors societal cultural norms in the acceptance of male dominance.
The continuation of male domination of women’s sexuality in contemporary times was confirmed in my primary research, when I interviewed Associate Professor Cynthia Langtiw, a feminist academic. She stated that even now, in the 21st century, these representations are a direct result of the fact that “most producers of albums, radio programs and awards are men and so exert control over the respresentations of female sexuality”. Katie Whighton, a contemporary folk singer and musician from the band All Our Exes Live in Texas further reinforced this view during my interview with her over the telephone. “In terms of the industry side of things men have always been the ones in control and in power.” In contemporary times there is no greater example of this than the experience of Kesha, a young woman, know for her sexualised image, who has claimed she was raped by her producer from the age of 18 and prevented by the corporation form negating her contract.
To some degree one can also argue that the contemporary music industry is actually out of step with developments in the wider feminist social movement. Women now have greater rights at work and in the home, but regardless sexism is arguably now worse in the mainstream music industry. Dr Janet Conti, feminist academic at Western Sydney University stated “I think the sexualisation of women in the music industry continues in contemporary times with a greater focus on social media and photographic representations of women as a measure of their identities. I think that the excessive focus on images frequently obscures the message of social justice issues, including those taken up to be feminist voices.” Nicki Minaj’s Anaconda, Miley Cyrus’s Wrecking Ball or Rihanna’s Pour it Up are all potential examples of sexually explicit videos that would never have been permitted in the 1960’s.
Dr Dawn Wells, American academic musicologist, however, warns against focussing on visual representations when criticising music based on the visual representations of sexuality;