Date of Award

6-2012

Document Type

Open Access

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

Department

Political Science

First Advisor

Robert Hislope

Language

English

Keywords

gender construction, music genres, punk, rap, hip-hop

Abstract

This study focuses on gender construction in contemporary music genres, including Rap/Hip-hop, Country, and Punk Rock. Although all these genres are vastly different, each genre creates unique masculinities and femininities which impact the way listeners view male/female relations in politics and their everyday lives. Rap/hip-hop creates a construct which results in the objectification of women through their “pornification” and “commodification” in the lyrics of popular songs. Country, on the other hand, has complex masculinities and femininities which create a complex network of gender characteristics which reinforce and complement each other. Lastly, this thesis looks ‘back’ to Punk Rock, whose prime was in the mid 1970’s, to find a more positive gender construct than what the previous two genres had to offer. Punk, through seeking to defy societal norms also defies gender norms both in its lyrics and its role models; however, female punk rockers, seem to struggle to fit into the masculine norm of “being punk.” Yet, in trying to find their niche, they end up combating gender norms not only in the punk movement itself, but in mainstream society as well. This study also attempts to discover songs that could exemplify creating positive gender constructs which are more in line with feminist thinking.

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