Men and Women in Pop Music

Running head: MEN AND WOMEN IN POP MUSIC
Men and Women in Pop Music
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1MEN AND WOMEN IN POP MUSIC
Introduction:
The word pop music has been derived from the Pop culture or the popular music. Its
origin dates back to the middle of the 20th century in the United Kingdom and in the nation of the
United States. This genre of music had turned popular due to its various and diverse styles.
Along with its popular style, this music genre had won the numerous hearts because the music
lovers found a sense of familiarity with this music. The different men and the women had been
represented in this pop culture in many forms. The following essay deals with this different
representation of the men and the women in pop music, their way of dressing and also the
manner in which they portrayed themselves and their professions.
Discussion:
The men and the women are very different portrayed in the pop music. The women in
the pop music culture have various different job roles apart from being the musicians. The men
and the women were also performing the roles of composers, singers, music critics, or
songwriters and also the instrumental performers. However as per the discussion of Trier –
Bieniek (2014), in the beginning of the pop music, the music field had been entirely male
dominated and the pop culture had been initially popularized by the patriarchal culture. There
had been the presence of many female singers in the field but they only used to sing in the radio,
and thus there had not been any such representations of them on the first half of the culture. The
young women were not supposed to be seen as song writers or playing any such instruments.
According to Hawkins (2015), in the 1960s, the musicians and the pop music took an entire toll

2MEN AND WOMEN IN POP MUSIC
in the American Society. They began to be represented as the beginning of changes in the
American society into the romantic and the sexual standards.
As per the discussion of (), by the end of the 1960s, there had been a change in the pop
culture and this time began the new wave of the female singer songwriters. They were gradually
seen to break the confinement of the pop culture and write their own songs following the path of
the female poets like Sylvia Plath. Also according to Avery, et.al., (2017), the women had been
victimized at the very beginning and they also had to face innumerable struggles and gender
discrimination. these famous songwriters included Lauren Pritchard and Katie Thompson. In
accordance with them, there were also the black women musicians such as Beyonce and Whitney
Houston (King, 2016). The representation of the black women into the music industry had not
only influenced the entire world, but also the women of the globe. She won many awards and a
lot of recognition due to her songs which were themed on the independence of the women all
throughout the world. Also according to Flynn, et.al., (2016), she through her stardom had been
able to portray the important message of women empowerment of the entire world. she being an
African American women, was a representative of the gender politics and the racial inequality
that had been increasing in the world. Along with her, there had also been several female bands
and girl groups of the pop music (Hawkins, 2017).
The pop music along with the pop culture imparted the notions and the ideas of
masculinity as well as femininity in the people. The notions of gender and sexuality gradually
started altering with the advent of the pop music and with the introduction of the women in the
pop culture (Scrine, 2017). The medial outlets in the United States saw the changes of the music
culture and the introduction of the variety of gender roles and sexual norms. The audiences all
throughout the world began to absorb the pop culture and started getting influenced by the pop

3MEN AND WOMEN IN POP MUSIC
musicians. The men and the women especially began influencing the women of the world since
they began talking of the women upliftment and of the circumstances that have kept the women
behind the confinement of the society (Flynn, et.al., 2016). There have been diverse
representations of the femininity and masculinity in the music of the pop culture. There also have
been sexual diversity in the songs and the entire world came to know ,much about the gender
norms. The pop music at the very beginning had been engulfed with the masculine world where
there had been only male songwriters and the male singers and composers. Gradually as the pop
culture improved, there had been the introduction of the feminine gender, representing the
problems that they used to face. As per the statement of Iddon & Marshal (2014), these included
them being characterized by the taglines of hyper feminine, heterosexual as well as hypersexual.
However in spite of all the hardships and the problems, the female representation in the pop
music of America increased and the songs and the song titles had a change in their
representations (Hawkins, 2017). The culture of the popular music actually through its cultural
interpretations altered the concept of the gender divisions and masculinity and introduced the
concept of femininity. In accordance with this, most of the women who are represented as
musicians in the pop music, are seen to be single and not married. They believe that in order to
break from the shackles of patriarchy, they needed to come out of the male gender dominated
society and fight single handed representing themselves as the brave souls (Trier – Bieniek,
2014). The single women were most prominently featured in the music because they had been
taking the feminism and its movement into the account. The men on the other hand had not been
seen to struggle this much to represent their gender in front of the entire society. Instead their
representation gradually became to fade and diminish after the advent of the female musicians in
to the context. However in this context , Maults & Burnim (2016) argues that there have been