Music is an Integral Part of our Lives

For this term, I want to study music and how we perceive gender and sexuality based on the music genres we listen to. Music is something that people hear every day just about everywhere. Music is on the radio, on our phones, in the restaurants we go to, in the waiting rooms we wait in, and in the grocery stores, we shop in. Either by choice or not most likely you listen to one form of music or another at least once every day.

Does the type of music we listen to affect us? Does it shape how we perceive gender and sexuality? Do the genres of music we like to make a difference? These are important questions as music is such a consistent part of our lives and could shape something important to our society. A survey about music and views on gender and sexuality could give a lot of information, with more responses than the number of interviews that could be done in one semester I feel that more responses would give more knowledge than fewer in-depth views.

This is an important topic for our society because how we see gender and sexuality is a topic that has many views and affects all people. With the music industry having more and more famous singers and artists as the years pass it is important to look at what messages are being put out from the lyrics in the songs and how people are reacting to these messages, whether consciously or subliminally.

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Literature Review

Music is something that we hear every day, whether we put the music on or hear it from another place or person. Music is used for many purposes, recreational use, social use, and emotional use, just to name a few. We listen to music in the car, walking to class or work, while waiting for coffee, and waiting in the elevator. In 2012 the music industry generated 16.5 billion dollars in the United States alone (Flynn et al., 2016). Music gives us messages, even without us realizing it, and with that “there is a growing concern about the impact of adolescents’ exposure to messages that focus on objectification” (Werner, 2013). Music gives us so many messages, very blatant messages like having a happy holiday or breakups stinks, but there are other subliminal messages that we receive as well. One subliminal message is the sexualization and objectification of women. In on,e a study 750 popular country songs that came out between 1990 and 2014 were lyrically analyzed for their portrayal of female gender roles and the objectification of women (Rasmussen and Densley, 2016). This study revealed that changes in the portrayal of women appear to be driven by the changes in lyrics by male singers, and not by the songs sung by female artists. Country songs from 2010 to 2014 were less likely to depict women in family roles and traditional roles. Songs from 2010 to 2014 were more empowering than songs from 1990 to 2013. Though the songs produced from 2010 to 2014 were more likely to have lyrics containing the objectification of women in tight and revealing clothing, and being referred to in slang.

It is important to look at the types of music men and women are listening to. Colley first looked at the types of genres that men and women tend to listen to. It was found that women tend to listen to chart pop music while heavier contemporary music was more popular for men (Colley, 2008). Gender became a strong predictor of music taste. While heavy music is associated with aggression and dominance, and mainstream music tends to have lyrics that focus on the relationships and emotions, it seems to have a big impact on the listeners, by their gender. Colley’s study had 208 undergraduate students, 110 females and 98 males, these 208 students completed a questionnaire asking for a rating of preferences for music based on genre, including folk, chart pop, heavy metal, country, rap, jazz, o and, rock. Rock was rated the most highly by men, while chart pop received the highest rating by women, with rock not too far behind. Folk had the lowest rating for both men and women. Now looking at these genres and more we can get a better idea of what gender is getting affected the most and look at the genre that has the most sexual objectification and how we perceive the lyrics of these genres.

To understand the the16-year-old impact that music has it is important to talk with those who listen to music. In one study a group of 14 to 16-year-old girls was perceptions put into a group to talk about their favorite music and artists. The study was designed to look at the relationship between music use and gender, ethnicity, and sexuality. The results concluded that the girls’ perceptions of sexuality and morals are framed through their views of race and ethnicity in music (Werner, 2012). The conversation veered towards women’s empowerment but was not a long-lasting subject as most of the girls saw this topic as something that could hurt their reputations if they were for it in a major way. One of the topics most talked about was the idea that oppression is projected onto young women from the lyrical standpoint of music and the use of the word or notion of a ‘slut’, is overused,

Another study looked at the lyrics of the top 20 songs from the years 2009 to 2013 and reviewed the lyrics of the song from rap, R&B/hip hop, country, adult contemporary, rock, and pop genres and analyzed for female objectification. Flynn’s study mentioned in ‘Objectification in Popular Music Lyrics: An Examination of Gender and Genre Differences’, assessed the inclusion of body objectification, gaze, and attractiveness themes in the musical lyrics. The study looked at self-objectification, genre, and gender differences in the occurrence of objectification. There were clear genre and gender differences. The objectification in rap and R&B/hip-hop was significantly greater than in all-female any other genre. It was also found that female artists are more likely than male artists to objectify themselves. It is important to understand that women are not only objectifying women too, but they are as much of a culprit as males. While the top twenty songs of the year are not the only songs that came out that year they were some of the most listened to and had an influence on those who listened to them.

The music industry wants to know what sells so they can sell it, with that it makes sense for a major music company like Rolling Stone to poll “almost 300 professional musicians, managers, producers, critics, historians, label executives, and other industry personnel to determine the “greatest albums of all time” (Schmutz and Faupel, 2010), The top 500 albums were then looked at by singers gender(s) and analyzed lyrically for gender objectification. It was found that only 15 percent of the albums feature solo female performers or an all-female group (Schmutz and Faupel, 2010). It was found that songs sung by males were more likely to mention women in a manner that objectifies them. It seemed that after 1983 the direct effect of gender and objectification becomes less significant.

Another study took an observational and interview approach, speaking with women who were fans of musician Tori Amos, a feminist musician (Trier-Bieniek, 2012). This is important to look at because it is a positive message about women that these songs are about. This study found that many women that listen to Tori Amos were inspired by Amos’ lyrics, live shows, and her work with RAINN (Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Network), to take action against objectification and sexualizationSome songs point and move forward with healing from trauma. Music with a positive message can have a positive effect on a person. The music we listen to can shape how we see things and can even inspire us to make a difference in our lives and possibly even in the lives of others.

Some songs point out this objectification and bring up stereotypes. One very popular country song ‘Girl in a Country Song’, sung by Maddie and Tae is a country song calling out gender stereotypes in country songs. The article, ‘Girl in a Country Song: Gender Roles and Objectification of Women in Popular Country Music across 1990 to 2014’ by Rassmussen (2017) even uses the catchy chorus of the song as perfect evidence about how country genrestopgenres top open-top sub has been treating women:

Bein’ the girl in a country song,

How in the world did it go so wrong?

Like all, we’re good for

Is looking good for you and your friends on the weekend

Nothing more

We used to get a little respect

Now we’re lucky if we even get

To climb up in your truck, keep our mouth mouths shut

And ride along

Women are portrayed in a way that is as if they are only on this earth for men, as the chorus mentions in the third through fifth lines. The chorus also mentions the loss of respect and how in songs at this time it seems that women are just supposed to sit there and look pretty. The song shows the discrepancies between males and females in county songs, with a very interesting music video as well, portraying men in place of stereotypical female roles in country music videos. Even artists can see the sexualization and stereotypes in music lyrics. While some like Maddie and Tae are making fun of objectification and bringing it to the attention of their listeners and the media, others just keep using the stereotypobjectification, cations to sell music and the audience is just letting this happen (Pruitt, 2007).

Methods Section

The goal of this study is to see how the genres of music we listen to affect how we perceive gender and sexuality. For this study country, genres sub I would use a survey, a study in which the same data is collected from one or more samples (Adler, 2015). Music has many different genres and sub-genressub-genres with even more artists behind each grouping, to have set answers for someone to pick from, instead of letting one talk freely, would make it easier to find results and connections, if there are any. Think the way to get the best response would be a web survey. I feel that there would be more respondents to a web survey, which is what is needed, compared to doing interviews, also with anonymity people are more likely to be truthful.

For my target population, I would look at those living in the New England area. I feel like a study like this would serve better if it was first looked at in a select area to truly see if music has an effect, without also adding area dynamics to the research theory. To sample the New England states, I think a simple random sampling would be the best way to conduct this research. I would put the questionnaire out online and would spread the survey by word of mouth. The only trouble I could see with this type of sampling would it be the majority of people who took the survey being of the genrestopgenres top-open sub, one sex over another, while I feel to get a good understanding it would be better to get an almost even split of males and females. With looking at the whole New England area I do not feel that finding many people of both sexes would be hard though.

For this research topiopentop-open-endedopenended open-ended I would ask probably about twenty questions. I would first have questions about what state they live in, their sex, age, and education. Most questions would be open-ended multiple-choice with at most up to ended anotherdedanother their questions at the end. After finding out the background of the survey taker, the next question would ask about anothertheir favorite genre of music. I would also ask roughly how many minutes a day/week they listen to music, another ut if he/she listens to different types of music. I would also ask if they tend to listen to more male or female artists. The next round of questions would focus on the definition of gender and sexuality. To separate these surveys, I would first focus on the genres of music – country, rap, rock, pop, R&B/hip hop, and rhythm & blues. Another question I would ask is ‘When you listen to music is it for the beat or the words?’, after, that I would ask ‘ When you listen to music do you listen intently to the lyrics to understand the song?’. After dividing these surveys up I would look at the answers given about how much time is spent listening to music, to divide down even further, and from the hand study methods, I would look at the answers given to questions about gender and sexuality. There have been a few studies done on music genres and sexuality, I could look at those to find alternate forms of memethodsthodof to check my research.

I do not believe the IRB (Institutional Review Board) would need to be contacted. As this would be a survey for those who are 18 and older and the responder would be able to stop answering the questions at any time, with voluntary participation. With the topic at the beginning of the studycanmethodsstudy methods, the survey taker can decide if they want to continue taking the survey or delete it. Taking no names from the surveyors would also protect their identity. To make getting the research easier, not going to the institutional review board (IRB), to survey young ones would be in the best interest, and so it would be a condition for the person taking the survey to be 18 years of age. Having a minimum age could skew the results, but also could help the results. By age of 18 one tends to have a better grasp of music and listenslistenlisten listens to the music and lyrics, that one likes instead of just listening to what is most popular.