Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Women oppression in music
Essays on the portrayal of women in the music industry
Feminist movement in the us
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Women oppression in music
Women in popular music have created a tremendous history in the wake of feminism. They have made their presence visible by identifying themselves as feminists. Being a woman was hard during that stage. Women were not allowed to do many things due to gender inequality such as the right to vote and to own a property. Therefore, from that moment onwards, women decided to stand up and make some changes. During the early stage of feminism, women developed their skills in popular music to create awareness. They associate popular music with feminism. Although there were racial issues between the black and white during that time, both sides continued to establish in different ways, through different genres of music. Black women focused on ‘black genres’ …show more content…
Feminism is not a disapproval against men, it’s not about outshining or surpassing men. It is to allow all people to be treated equally, regardless of gender, race and religion. The emergence of second-wave feminism is distinguished by many feminist’s activities in the United States. 2nd-wave feminism engrossed on equal right movements for women. Feminists structured radical feminism to end male supremacy in society. It emphasized on gender inequality between men and women, to dismantle male dominance in oppressing women’s status. Consciousness raising groups were dynamically formed to organize protests and events to strengthen their core movement. Music were brought into the act of feminism, to convey messages into songs. This emerged in the early 1970s that brought to the development of women associated to music …show more content…
In spite of this, several obstacles were aroused. It was a conventional occurrence of complication. There were financial constraints within musicians in getting their hands to music instruments, equipment, transportations to musician and equipment, the renting of venue to rehearse and perform, and the cost of publications. The preconception view on gender stereotyping is harmful, in this case on women’s perspective in relation to their performing styles. For the reason that it was still a male dominated period of time, women faced difficulties in attaining space for their activities as well as performance. Opportunities continued to shrunk with parental and spouse’s restrictions. There were no complications for the male musicians to explore their interest thus presenting it
Blues music emerged as an African American music genre derived from spiritual and work songs at the end of the 19th century and became increasingly popular across cultures in America. The Blues is the parent to modern day genre’s like jazz, rhythm and blue and even rock and roll, it uses a call-and-response pattern. While Blues songs frequently expressed individual emotions and problems, such as lost love, they were also used to express despair at social injustice. Even though Blues singing was started by men, it became increasing popular among women, creating one of the first feminist movements. Ma Rainey, a pioneer in women’s
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.
Women’s sufferage was at it’s peak with the ratification of the United States Nineteenth Amendment. Women recived more independence after the end of the First World War and took a greater part in the work force. In the 1920s, there were many famous women Jazz artists such as Lovie Austin, a piano player and band leader, Lil Hardin Armstrong, a pianist who was originally a member of King Oliver’s band, and Bessie Smith, an African-American blues singer who inspired women like Billie Holiday and Janis Joplin. Although women were also making a difference in the Jazz industry, it wasn’t until the 1930s when they were recongnized as successful artists in the music world.
Nina Simone used music to challenge, provoke, incite, and inform the masses during the period that we know as the Civil Rights Era. In the songs” Four Women”, “Young Gifted and Black”, and Mississippi God Damn”, Nina Simone musically maps a personal "intersectionality" as it relates to being a black American female artist. Kimberly Crenshaw defines "intersectionality" as an inability for black women to separate race, class and gender. Nina Simone’s music directly addresses this paradigm. While she is celebrated as a prolific artist her political and social activism is understated despite her front- line presence in the movement. According to Ruth Feldstein “Nina Simone recast black activism in the 1960’s.” Feldstein goes on to say that “Simone was known to have supported the struggle for black freedom in the United States much earlier, and in a more outspoken manner around the world than had many other African American entertainers.”
In this essay I have chosen to critique Portia K Maultsby’s article “Soul Music: Its Sociological and Political Significance in American Popular Culture”, dated 1983. This article explains how soul music associates with the Black Power Movement, and then clarifies the concept of “soul”, how it was used as a label to identify black performers and how this evolved from Race Records to Soul. The author also explicates how White performers interpreted this style and alludes to how specific artists and songs impacted and strengthened this, as well as explaining the adaption of subject matter to addressing the social and political concerns of the Black community. Her final point defines ultimately how this encouraged the assimilation of Black people
Women in popular music have created a tremendous history in the wake of feminism. They have made their presence visible by identifying themselves as feminists. Being a woman was hard during that stage. Women were not allowed to do many things due to gender inequality such as the right to vote and to own a property. Therefore, from that moment onwards, women decided to stand up and make some changes. During the early stage of feminism, women developed their skills in popular music to create awareness. They associate popular music with feminism. Although there were racial issues between the black and white during that time, both sides continued to establish in different ways, through different genres of music. Black women focused on ‘black genres’ such as blues, jazz, and gospel, whereas white women performed in musical theatres. Female artists such as Lilian Hardin, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, and Nina Simone were among the notable exceptions of female instrumentalists during feminism. In this essay, I will assess feminism focusing on the second-wave.
This exhibit takes a feminist approach to digital technologies in its engagement with women singers’ covers of blues, jazz, and popular songs, beginning in the 1920s and spanning through recent covers in the 2000s. Building from Angela Davis’ Blues Legacies and Black Feminism, the exhibit presents a genealogy that traces the legacies of the blues women’s black working-class feminist consciousness over time and space, and across genres. It looks to explore how this feminist consciousness set forth by the blues women might have been engaged by subsequent women blues and jazz singers of different races and ethnicities through their interpretations of recorded cover songs. This article considers how digital technologies can be utilized to create useful platforms that can highlight feminist methodologies and epistemologies, particularly through engagement with sound studies and studies of the voice. In tracing the conceptualization of the Women Sing the Blues project, I aim to show that by listening closely to women’s voices on a digital platform, listeners have the ability to understand and interact with different interpretations of cover songs, which then has the potential for audiences to track singers’ engagement with feminist consciousness and social critique through a gendered lens. This article also discusses the benefits and limitations of particular platforms and approaches in the digital humanities, and advocates for the continued development of alternative platforms and technologies grounded in feminist methodologies and epistemologies. I focus on covers of the song “Black Coffee” as present on the exhibit in order to demonstrate these
...field women had that power is in domestic arts. Women admire sharing their talents with an audience in different ways, whether it is theater, performing a song, ballet dancing, conducting an orchestra or being on television. Eileen Marie Moore shows discipline, excellence and success in her all-age field today. Amy Beach was the first woman to compose a symphony and Clara Schumann was the first woman be publicly accepted as a woman musician. These women opened doors for aspiring and existing women composers and performers to gain recognition, regardless of the culture. A tribute for Amy Beach, Michael Anthony quoted “Being a woman hadn’t held her back as a musician.” The confidence these women portrayed for music was tremendous. Determined to succeed in male dominance category is a challenge, but having the resilience and purpose to keep going, is what counts.
African-American music is a vibrant art form that describes the difficult lives of African American people. This can be proven by examining slave music, which shows its listeners how the slaves felt when they were working, and gives us insight into the problems of slavery; the blues, which expresses the significant connection with American history, discusses what the American spirit looks like and teaches a great deal from the stories it tells; and hip-hop, which started on the streets and includes topics such as misogyny, sex, and black-on-black violence to reveal the reactions to the circumstances faced by modern African Americans. First is about the effect of slave music on American history and African American music. The slave music’s
Throughout the past few decades, female artists within the music industry have become increasingly sexualised and objectified. As society’s views on women began to change during the early 20th Century, allowing them more freedom, it also brought about an increase of attention and focus within the media. Women were becoming more prominent as artists, actors, singers, and models.
The feminist art movement was a movement that set into motion to fight for equality, women’s liberation and women’s rights overall. The view of artistic production through the female perspective brought high visibility to the female artist, and was the beginning of many influential female artists whom made both political and strong social statements through the centuries. The feminist art movement became a platform in which female artists could rebel and express their opinions, views and ideas. By the 1960’s women had reached their tolerance level with being good enough to be placed on works of art for gawking purposes, but not good enough to be seen as an artist. This was a time when female artist began producing art that reflected the lives of females from their perspectives and not from a man’s
Madonna is a controversial legend whose attitudes and opinions on sexuality have forced the public to take notice and change the image of females in society. Madonna believed women’s sexuality was a natural aspect of life; therefore, she dared to challenge the rules and definitions of femininity and sought to expand the meaning of it. In a male dominated world, she wanted to focus on the importance of women and let them have a voice of their own. Madonna shattered all the myths on traditional beauty standards and made her statement on sexuality and feminism, which changed how society viewed the standards of beauty. She impacted female power by encouraging sex- positivity into her music and her style. It is mainly because of Madonna that ordinary women, and women in modern entertainment have more choices and freedom which continues to influence further generations.
The music industry’s history is a convoluted mess. There is no real consensus on what the music industry IS and what paths it has taken. Were the Beatles the greatest band to ever exist? Maybe. Is there a hyper objectification of women throughout the “men’s club” that is the music industry? Probably. It’s this hard to define, frankly confusing business that is worth roughly $130 billion dollars today. With it’s flimsy and opaque edges, can the music industry ever be called into question on its wrongdoings? The racist undertone throughout its history may force it to. With the music industry as an ever growing business that seems to change almost every decade, the one thing that has not changed throughout time is an undercurrent of racism that
Multiracial Feminism: Recasting the Chronology of Second Wave Feminism introduces ideas by Becky Thompson that contradict the “traditional” teachings of the Second Wave of feminism. She points out that the version of Second Wave feminism that gets told centers around white, middle class, US based women and the central problem being focused on and rallied against is sexism. This history of the Second Wave does not take into consideration feminist movements happening in other countries. Nor does it take into consideration the feminist activism that women of color were behind, that centered not only on sexism, but also racism, and classism as central problems as well. This is where the rise of multiracial feminism is put to the foreground and a different perspective of the Second Wave is shown.
Feminism has been an extremely controversial and significant subject over the centuries. The issue of equality between men and women have been questioned and exceedingly debated upon, why men were treated and considered the ‘superior’ gender. During the 1960’s, civil rights, protests against war and gay and lesbian movements were at its peak. It was the period of time, which the Feminist art movement had emerged, also known as the “second-wave” of feminism, shifting away from modernism. Women wanted to gain equal rights as men within the art world. Feminist artists such as Cindy Sherman, Carolee Schneemann and Hannah Wilke pursued to change the world and perspectives on women through their artworks, specifically in body art. Their goal was to “influence cultural attitudes and transform stereotypes.” (DiTolla. T, 2013)