Week 5 - Rock n Roll vs Feminism
The first text by Frith and McRobbie highlighted the gender issues surrounding the rock genre. Female's have tried to break into the rock scene however they're not seen as edgy as males and end up on reality TV shows - this is because their male producers/team don't want them to threaten the male dominated rock sex scene. In the music genre which is sex-driven it isn't driven equally, it is all focused around male desire and arousal which can offend some women yet when the roles are reversed it isn't seen as power? They are still seen as objects. Not many women make it as rockstars, they're pushed down other avenues such as folk/songwriter paths (Frith & McRobbie) but the few that do struggle to make it.For a female to be accepted as a rock artist they have to become as masculine as possible or to avoid the media as much as possible - the stereotypes are formed within the media so if you remove the media then you remove the stereotypes. Rock is for men so it's focused around arousal, sexuality and desires whereas pop is for women so it is more focused on love and romance whilst also telling them the lives they should live.
Whilst rock is a more male dominated genre it also sexually objectifies men making them sex objects for women - especially the cock-rockers. As Frith and McRobbie said "[Rock] carries messages of male self-doubt and self-pity" which subtly proves how vulnerable men can be.
As times passed men have become more feminized after the birth of the Mods in the 1960's boy's take more care with their appearance offering an image of a loving, caring man ready for romance.
Despite the feminisation of men in the rock community - women are steel deemed to be weaker and more unimportant apart from in the punk genre. Women were widely accepted in punk and as Reynolds and Joyce said "women were free to uglify themselves...to shriek... to deal with taboo subjects". Thanks to the punk era more women artists are able to be lead singers in rock bands e.g. Hayley Williams and thanks to the women out there such as Janis Joplin we are closer and closer to equality in the musical and real world.
I would use action research to investigate this so that I can firstly get some results but secondly to help female artists/musicians that want to be taken seriously. I would interview them and find out how they feel about the way they are treated whilst also conducting focus groups to see what people think of female artists and why they are/aren't taken seriously.
Frith, S & McRobbie, A, (1990). 'Rock & Sexuality'. In: Simon Frith & Andrew Goodwin (ed), On Record: Rock, Pop & the Written Word. 1st ed. UK: Pantheon Books. pp.(371-389).
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