Monday, 8 February 2010

Is it reasonable to consider that rock music is gendered male?

Men have ruled rock music since its creation, over fifty years ago. Iconic figures like Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Paige and Joe Strummer (plus, every single one of the Beatles) have filled the charts. Only very occasionally have women forayed into this male-dominated territory, such as Janis Joplin, Joan Jett and I'm sure a couple of others with too many J's in their names, but whenever they have, their gender has always been more like a quirk, or a selling point for their music. As opposed to... Well, their actual music. I don't think it's particularly unreasonable to state that rock music is gendered. Guitars are just bigger, louder phalluses which are okay to play with in front of large crowds, and much of the genres and sub-genres contained within "rock" almost exclusively deal in degrading women, so it's not hard to see why many consider it to be male-centric.

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