Music and Gender

  

   I want to start out with an eye opening experience that I witnessed at a small psychedelic rock show in someone's garage. It was a small, intimate environment where, to some extent, everybody knew everybody. The band that was playing was a 5 piece band of all guys, except for the keyboardist, Hannah. I knew all of the band members, in fact, I went to high school with all of them. While they were playing, a guy came up to me, gestured to Hannah, and said "so which band member is she dating?" making the assumption that she was only in the band because of some relationship with a man. I immediately felt anger rush over my body, but I kept my composure and just asked, "why do you say that?" The guy just repeated himself and laughed while he said "I just want to know which one she's dating." I told him that she's not in the band because she's in a relationship with any of them, she's in the band because she's an extremely talented, experienced, and professional keyboard player. He didn't say much after that. I didn't feel like his mind was changed and it didn't seem like any convincing would do anything. 

    This comment was made about a musician who has been playing since she was a child, has had years of classical training, has had years of jazz instruction, played in a local band all around the upstate for years, and was able to live in Asheville as a freelance musician, without a band, by herself. If he knew this information, I don't think he wouldn't have made the comment. He made no comments about the male musicians. This whole interaction was small and didn't have an effect on anything or anybody (except for making my blood boil), but it reveals the common, unspoken rule that a woman must prove her capability. She must prove why she is even there. There's no way she could be in a band because she's a talented musician, it must be because of some other means, she must have gotten in the door through manipulation and romance. As a woman, your talent isn't assumed. Her word on her own capability isn't trusted. As a woman, you must have a mental resume you're ready to spit when your abilities are questioned. I think all of this is the reason that throughout history, the most successful musicians are more often men and the surrounding jobs, like sound, are also men.

Anyways... now for a word on the difference between masculine and feminine listening.

I think what everyone listens to usually consists of a diverse set of genres and sounds and what they listen to usually might fall in between stereotypical masculine and feminine music. Even though everyone listens to all kinds of music, specific music's can, and still are labeled as masculine and feminine. Also, a trend I've seen is that when I ask someone what music they listen to, they'll initially tell me what music is expected of them, and then after some prying I'll usually discover that they listen to everything, even if it's unexpected of them. I even do it. For example, on the musical culture blog, I said that I like this song:

Emotional Machine, is by Marina, a female artist, who makes "feminine sounding" music. I was willing to tell you guys I listen to this because it's expected of me, and it would be easily digestible to everyone. I'm going to share another song I listen to that I'm more embarrassed about. It's called HURT by 1800PAIN. I feel less inclined to tell people I listen to this because it's extremely aggressive and vulgar music (that being said don't watch the video if that kind of stuff offends you). It's not expected of me. I don't think a lot of people in general listen to this kind of music, but the people who I know listen to this, are guys.