The love song, a timeless ballad expressing a man's love for a woman. The most popular pieces of music in the last century have been about men expressing the love they feel for a woman. In those love songs, the women is either naive or she is a "bitch". Some of the most popular compositions (or abominations, depending on your taste) in the modern day and the past portray women as either naive, cunning gold diggers or as whores. The dominant disposition for women in the medium of music is very narrow. Two genres of music that seem to exclusively be about a man's love for a woman are Rock and Pop. The Beatles in 1963 were a pop band, who made songs targeted towards young girls. The song "She Loves You" is about a girl who has her heart broken but she is still in love with the man who broke her heart. It made the woman seem weak and helpless, it leeched off of the insecurities the young women of the time had and it was a hit. In the modern day pop artists are cashing in on this trend, we have One Direction and 5 Seconds of Summer making songs that make the woman seem fragile. 'What makes you beautiful" a song with 200 million YouTube views (a large majority of them being teen girls) does just that. It tells 'her' she is insecure and she should not be insecure because the man singing the song is in love with her (or something along the lines of that cliche worn out bullshit). The biggest band of the 60's and the biggest 'band' now sing a song about an insecure girl and they sell millions of records, what an unanticipated surprise (sarcastically speaking of course). There are 2 more sides to this trinity, the second type of song that is extremely popular has the woman as a cunning 'bitch'. The woman is the reason for the man's misfortunes, and it is made apparent in the music of old blues legends. Cream, considered to be the greatest blues fusion suprgroup of all time covered many blues artists that came before them, their song 'Born Under a bad Sign' written by Booker T. Jones and Albert King talks about the many misfortunes of an unlucky man, but one verse that stands out is "You know, wine and women is all I crave.
/A big bad woman's gonna carry me to my grave". Which in other words means that a woman will be the death of him, the meaning of the verse is very broad but verses concerning a 'big bad women" are seen throughout the discography of many blues artists like Buddy Guy, Eric Clapton, Albert King, John Lee Hooker just to name a few. The hottest song of 2012 according to Billboard is "Somebody that i used to know" which has the woman breaking the poor man's heart. The woman in this is some a witch who leaves this poor helpless lad to a life of loneliness and depression, sound familiar? These songs are targeted towards teens dealing with relationship problems and they completely contradict the songs where women are weak. The third side of of the triangle is the song where women are portrayed as whores who are the man's to command, from legendary Canadian rock musicians The Guess Who to a disgrace to Canadian music Robin Thicke. The most popular songs of the two artists portray women as objects of a man's desire. The Guess Who's most popular song 'American Woman' has a literal and figurative meaning but lets take a look at the literal. The entire song tells American Woman to stay away because he doesn't want anything to do with them which seems reasonable enough until the verse "Coloured lights can hypnotize/Sparkle someone else's eyes". They are pretty much calling all American woman whores at this point in the song. The song is telling American woman to stay away because they are slutty, no more words are needed to prove my point. Robin Thicke is a bit less subtle with his masterful use of rhymes and poetry in the song 'Blurred Lines' with verses ranging from "What rhymes with hug me?" to "You the hottest bitch in this place" and the music video for the song has a bunch of naked emotionless girls standing around Robin. It makes women look like objects to a degree past offensive and yet the general audience for the music video is a split between men and women, the masses are not outraged but rather entertained by this and the critical response is positive. When men talked about women as objects of sex in the past they were subtle and had some humility but now with Robin Thicke's success it seems that society has evolved or rather devolved to a state where this is acceptable. If you look at the billboard top 100 or any top 100 songs list a majority of rock and pop songs will talk about women in these 3 scenarios. There aren't many female equivalents to non-love songs like Johnny B. Goode, Satisfaction, Bohemian Rhapsody, songs like Respect by Aretha Franklin are rare acceptations and they are even rarer now.*Blurred Lines (Censored music video)
Questions you may wanna consider
1) Should musicians make songs about the same overdone themes of a man's love for a woman or should it be a form of progressive story telling?
2) Think about the last 10 songs you heard, how many of those portrayed women with those 3 stereotypes?
3) Is it acceptable to have rock and pop music be male dominated?
4) Rank the 3 (Women are weak, they're cunning, they're sex objects) in order from most political accuracy to the least and explain why?
5) Are you offended by Robin Thicke's blurred lines video?
Waleed you have brought up a good point. I am not offended by Robin Thicke's blurred lines video because media has embedded into our minds that its okay to see girls half-naked. We consume a lot of media from media literacy and media text. Nowadays videos like these seem to be normal in the society that we live in this time of age. Take for example Miley Cyrus when she got famous over her youtube videos and her twerking actions on national television. Dominant discourse has shaped our minds into believing that being half-naked and doing random stuff like twerking is "normal". I will say that probably our parents think its complete stupidity, but if you were to ask a teenager it's normal. We just have been influence by media greatly and it's sad to say that being stupid nowadays looks normal. It's weird. All media are constructions and each video that we see on YouTube is sending us a message. The message that most medias are sending is that being wild, young, free and not caring is the way to live life.
ReplyDeleteThat message has been around since the roaring 20's, there is a dominant discourse in the western countries that youth are rebellious against the previous generation. This generation though has been under excessive influence from the media. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram are a part of a teen's life now and those websites are on the surface they look like social networks but they are just a new way to advertise. But Robin Thicke went a bit too far with his uncensored music video, the women were placed there as objects and is it right to have young teen girls think of themselves as objects?
DeleteI have noticed this several times how male rock bands do target women and portray them in an inappropriate manner just like Endrit said. I think this is wrong and things like these we should avoid doing or even listening to because this is highly influential. You can not tell someone not to listen to the type of songs where the artist is indicating women as sex objects and things like those, if the music is good they will listen to it. These type of media constructions are excessively harmful to today's growing teenagers. Referring to the first question, even if an artist wants to talk about a man's love for women i do think it should be delivered in a non-stereotypical way such as a form of story telling. Men have gone too far with their infatuation for women in the media. The media itself needs different ways to make money so they propagate songs like these. Again, it is not right for young teen girls to think of themselves as objects, because they are not, but i think even they should avoid enjoying listening to songs like these. Women should be also be held responsible for not protesting against such music videos.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you Bilal. At the end of the day the media does have some sort of control in what we find entertaining, because it makes it seem like the norm. Plus, if people don't actually take action than nothing will happen. The media will take it as people are accepting this and continue to do what they are doing, while making money off of it.
DeleteI'd also like to agree with Bilal when he says that "if the music is good the will listen to it." I, myself really hate the song "Blurred Lines" because I know what the lyrics do mean, but sometimes I catch myself humming along or whatever just because its such a catchy song. This is really troublesome because while we all like good music we now have to be more conscious and aware about the messages this music is portraying, which is really hard because music is supposed to be relaxing and we don't want to put in work to find good music.
Deletei also agree with endrit, this does not offend me, but ionly think so because we are so used to seeing this kind of because of the media and the hollywood industry.
ReplyDeleteGreat post Waleed! What would help me from going cross-eyed while reading it is if you separated your ideas into paragraphs.
ReplyDeleteWhen I first saw the video for "blurred lines", I was kind of offended. Why would they show half naked women for everyone to see? Maybe because over a long period of time, we've been seeing things like this everywhere it has become a society norm.
ReplyDeleteWaleed, I do agree with you that females have become the objects of love, lust, or simply objects in songs. I've realized that the last ten songs I've listened to have portrayed women in the three stereotypes you have mentioned in your post. What's astonishing is, I haven't really minded this nor paid much attention to it. I have to say, the American Woman lyrics are targeted towards a anti-American theme, not about what you seem to have stated" The entire song tells American Woman to stay away because he doesn't want anything to do with them which seems reasonable enough until the verse "Coloured lights can hypnotize/Sparkle someone else's eyes". They are pretty much calling all American woman whores at this point in the song. The song is telling American woman to stay away because they are slutty..." Additionally, if you point out the fact it's saying American Woman not women. The whole use of the two words American woman came up accidently from a fan not intended by the writers. Although, it can be said why is the word woman even used to describe what is interpreted as an anti-American song. I have to say, that I feel your forgot to bring up that rap songs also show women being mainly objects of lust or just objects.
ReplyDeleteI do think musician should choose what they want to write for a song whether it be storytelling or a man's love for a woman. My only my wish is that the majority of songs being written won't be focused on a man's love for a woman; which in the medium of music is a common theme. I don't find anything wrong with rock and pop music being dominated by males, because I feel it is a levelled playing field for both genders in terms of lyrics. I would have to say if I ranked woman using those three stereotypes from the most politically accurate to the least, I would say it would go women are cunning, sex objects, and finally weak. Finally, I find Robin Thicke's video blurred lines and other videos made similar to the way women are portrayed to not be offensive but rather disgusting to view, because of the over sexualized acts done in these video's that prompt women and men in a negative light.
It does not bother me that singers sing about women in that context. Its something i have noticed and i find it interesting. American Woman is a song with dual meaning like "Every breath you take" which on the core is a song about a man's love for a woman but deeper down it's about a stalker. I do however hate the fact that these newer artists are taking what established artists did and just taking the content to the extreme. Moderation has been lost in music these days. You have people like Vybz Cartel saying lyrics like "If you give me head, ill never call you bitch" in his song "Proper Ting" and i know a few girls who say that song is great. Comedian Chris Rock puts it best in this stand up http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aU8O4tKc-2E . Rock is a male dominated genre, the female is rarely ever the band leader or the lead guitarist. In most bands, the female is an attractive singer who really has no talent which is a shame. Women like Joan Jett and Kim Deal should be more common but they are not. I do find something wrong with that because Kim Deal is an amazing bassist and Joan Jett is a badass. There should be more women like them in rock.
DeleteVery interesting post Waleed. I agree with many of the points you made and i have to say, you had me chuckling a couple of times. I'd have to agree that rock/metal music is male dominated and that many female artists who are in the scene are either "underground" or are strongly underrated. Females such as Doro Pesch, Simone Simmons, Amy Lee and Tarja Turunen (just to name a few) are not that well known and do not have as big as a following as male rock/metal singers. Looking at question one, i think it should be obvious that songs should be related to the latter because nowadays the cliche of rock/pop songs has been thoroughly dragged out. Before when songs like "Still Loving You", "There's No one Like You" or "Wish You Were Here" came out, the cliche was accepted because not only did the music sounds good and make sense but it was also molded to fit each band's unique style. In regards to question 5, i am not offended by the song however i do find it highly inappropriate, plus its not the kind of music i like so i don't care for it. Personally, with regards to question 2, none of the recent songs i have listened to had anything to do with women, let alone the 3 groups that you described.
ReplyDeleteFawad, you and i are fans of progressive rock and metal, the entire point of those genres. That being said, you were singing whole lotta love with me the day i wrote the day you wrote that post and that song is about one of the 3.
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