Gender Stereotypes In Contemporary Popular Music

In my investigation I will be discussing how the language used to describe females differs from that used to describe males in contemporary popular music. I will be selecting several popular songs by current male and female artists. Music is a large part of our everyday life. We rarely go a day without listening to a song on our phones, the radio or even on television advertisements. The music industry has a large influence in our society. It is no secret that in current pop music many male artists use derogatory terms towards women. However, recently I have seen a change in music where women are fighting back with their own choice words to describe men. I hope to prove my hypothesis that female artists of today are setting a level playing
It is most prominent on album covers, music videos and song lyrics. However, this hasn’t always been the case. In the days of Frank Sinatra and The Beatles the language used in lyrics is a strong contrast to what we hear today. Lyrics then would often talk of courting and charming a woman. The language used in contemporary music has a pejorative shift from that era and are now hyper sexualised and often demeaning. This does not mean that talking about sex in lyrics is unacceptable. However, the degradation, debasement and objectification that is present with it is damaging. Over time it seems most consumers have become desensitised to the sexual objectification of the sexes in song lyrics. The stars singing and the catchy melody have overshadowed the denotations and connotations of the lyrics themselves. We our now so used to women being called 'bitches' and 'hoes' that we do not bat an eye when we hear it on the radio. We hear how artists graphically talk of having sex and in many cases it sounds not consensual but we still seem to blast them from our
I began by looking at the top charts at the time of beginning my research. After researching the lyrics, I found that this was not the richest data to choose if I wanted to focus my investigation on how the artists were describing the sexes. I wanted the lyrics to specifically be focused on the degradation of the sexes. As a result, I decided to widen my search to find popular songs within the last 10 years. Delving deeper into my research I found articles that spoke of ‘music and misogyny’ and ‘Today’s lyrics degrade and objectify woman’. I also found previous thesis papers on the depiction of women and men in popular music which contributed to my secondary data. After reading the articles, papers and studying some of the songs; I garnered some of the song examples they used. I decided to pick six songs to analyse. Three from three different contemporary male artists and three from three different contemporary female