Blog Entry No.3: Music and Gender

 

Hello everyone! Fall is finally upon us. The leaves are changing colors, the air is getting crisp and chilled. Out of curiosity, does anyone else have their taste in music change along with the season? I feel like mine does. You know what else changes? Gender roles! Gender roles in music has definitely changed over the years from jobs to clothing choices to music. Since this is for a music class, we are going to talk about how gender has changed in music and how being a biological female has affected me when it comes to music.

I have never been into playing an instrument. It has never been my forte if I am being honest, but I used to be in marching band as a color guard member and one thing I remember so vividly was one of my friends was the only girl on the drumline. People always joked that she was the little sister of the group or she was just one of the guys, but she is an amazing drummer! She really enjoyed it and it made her unique. My last year of marching band, I overheard a couple of the male drummers talking about how more girls were on drumline after tryouts and they didn't sound too happy about it. I never understood why because if you have ever seen a marching band uniform, everyone looks the exact same so it's not like the audience would be able to tell who was a guy and who was a girl. It always just struck me as odd. On the flip side, there was only one guy who played the flute. The rest were all girls. In marching band, there were a few instruments that seemed to have a nice mix of men and women and the occasional nonbianary like trumpets and front ensemble, but baritones were primarily guys as were tubas. Woodwinds like flute and clarinet were typically girls. I'm not sure if it is still the same since it's been about 2 years since I have been in a marching band show, but those were some things that just stood out to me. 

Another way I've seen gender play a role in music is women are not supposed to be into rock, heavy metal, alt, punk. That is something I've always seen as a general rule. People would ask me what type of music do I listen to and list off singers like Taylor swift, One Direction, Justin Beiber, singers that are very pop music based. When I would say a rockband like Queen or AC/DC or Greenday, guys would sort've "test" me? I would get asked questions like 'Oh, you like Greenday? Name 5 of their songs.' I've seen a lot of gatekeeping especially from guys like that. I don't know if it was because I was a girl wearing bows and pink skirts, but I don't think that my femininity has anything to do with what I listen to. I can listen to Ghost while I put on my eyeliner. I will listen to Mindless Self Indulgence while I put on earrings and hairclips. It's all because music shouldn't have an influence on gender identity. Listening to Katy Perry does not make you less of a man. Listening to Set It Off does not make you less of a woman. And it doesn't have to be just rock vs pop music. Guys can listen to musicals, girls can listen to rap, just as long as we can agree that music is good. 

Sorry if my blog seemed more like a rant this time around, I promise mine will not always be a soap box speech but I hope that I can leave you with a good note with one of my favorite videos of woman singing something that is light and fancy and feminine and switching to something that would be seen as masculine.