Music and Gender

There are many ways in which music and gender coincide. There are certain themes women express in their music more often than men do, or there are trends in the types of instruments men play that do not crossover to what is expected of women. How music is marketed for men and women is different, with women normally being sexualized in their videos while men try to look "cool" or tough. All of this has to do with what the gender norms of our society are, with women normally being expected to normally be softer while men are expected to be tough, and said expectations can be harmful to both and can restrict what each gender can do based on how society thinks they should act. 

In the past, there have been some pretty clear lines drawn when it comes to what instruments women should play and what instruments men should play. In the recent past the lines are becoming more blurred, with more women starting to play percussive instruments and men starting to play aerophones such as flutes. One example of women crossing the gender lines pertaining to percussive instruments is Sandy West in The Runaways. She started drumming during the same years as Karen Carpenter, another famous female drummer and played with an energy on the drums that was up and coming during this time. One song in which her energetic drumming can be heard is in the song "Cherry Bomb", which you might have heard in the movie Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 1 if you are not familiar with the song. 

The consumption and marketing of rap/hip-hop is definitely affected by gender in music. There is an increase in consumption of rap/hip in men than women, and this could be attributed to there being more expectations for men to be rap/hip-hop artists than women or the types of messages and images that are shown in rap/hip-hop songs. More often than not, female rappers and female participants in rap/hip-hop videos are more sexualized than men, from what I have seen. Most of the time I will see, in music videos, female rappers will be dressed provocatively and saying provocative stuff, while male rappers in their music videos may be dressed proactively, they will be addressing their sexualized messages towards women or about women. 

One example of this is the difference in images displayed by a female artist, Nicki Minaj, and a male artist, Travis Scott. Unfortunately, due to the nature, visually, of these videos, BlogSpot is not letting me insert the videos, so I will link the music videos and put in a picture of a scene from the video for reference. 

In Nicki Minaj's music video "Pound the Alarm", well, the women in the video are clearly dressed provocatively. 

Pound the Alarm 

And in Travis Scott's "Sicko Mode" he is not dressed provocatively, but the women in his video are, which is paired with the lyrics he is rapping.

Sicko Mode

Now, the trend I have seen displayed in music videos by female wrappers could be a marketing choice made by them or their bosses so that more people will consume the media, and it could also be a choice made for female empowerment. Female rappers could be choosing to display these images in order to take control of the narrative and to be sexualized because they choose to be sexualized, in order to feel good about themselves, their bodies, and their sexualities, or they could just be women being women and are not asking or aiming to be sexualized. 

The trend I have seen displayed in music videos by male rappers could also be a marketing choice made by them or their bosses because they know it will be consumed and purchased more often because there are more male consumers of rap/hip-hop, and might not speak to their personal beliefs on women, or it could. 

I am not trying to make any assumptions about what these female or male rappers are thinking, all I know is that more often than not, this is the trend I see in rap/hip-hop videos when it comes to a difference in gender.