Forging Masculinity Analysis
Without a doubt, popular music is a primary, if not the primary, leisure resource in late modern society.
- Andy Bennett
As Bennett (2001) implies, and as supported by the Kaiser Family Foundation’s study “Generation m2”, teenagers spend on average 2.20 hours listening to music. Its importance lies not only in providing for a mass market but also its ability to reflect and express popular culture. The perpetuation of popular music to be able to serve as a timeline; the protest songs of the 1960’s, the rock hits of the 1970’s, the power ballads of the 1980’s, k-pop today, not only acknowledges the issues of then, but also addresses, even if indirectly, the issues of today’s society. This essay will attempt to explore the capital issue …show more content…
The TV show ‘The A-Team’ is presented as an example of the ideal world without women, which allows for an interpersonal dependency among the members of a ‘hero team’ that serves as a masculine performance. Heavy metal promoted traditional notions of male power and the subordination of women and homosexuals. This can be supported by Harrison’s statement on patriarchal power within popular music which refers to the fact that men have ‘historically and traditionally dominated culture and have been privileged by it’ (2008). However, it must be noted that heavy metal has also had a significant effect on gay communities (Gay Metal Society) women and primarily androgynous individuals which illustrates that not only has popular music, via metal, become a site for the perpetuation of what was assumed to be morally right but has also created these gendered identities by which they have come to be known by. Walser explains that masculinity, like popular music, has the inability to be stable, consistent or ‘natural’ which ‘produces the need for its constant reachievement’. The development of heavy metal is, I believe, an extension of these re-enactments, that led to the broadening appeal of heavy metal starting in the 1980’s which under the influence of a broadened audience led also to a slightly ‘less masculine’ culture of contemporary heavy metal. Notwithstanding, the 20th century saw a shift towards a more ballad-based musical style otherwise known as ‘soft rock’ which at the same time attracted a greater female metal audience (Harrison, 2008). Androgyny (showing characteristics of both sexes, in this case particularly men) has also, now been understood, in the case of bands such as Poison, to be an act of dealing with the anxieties of masculinity. This portrays an important message of masculinity affecting men as much as women as men become
- Andy Bennett
As Bennett (2001) implies, and as supported by the Kaiser Family Foundation’s study “Generation m2”, teenagers spend on average 2.20 hours listening to music. Its importance lies not only in providing for a mass market but also its ability to reflect and express popular culture. The perpetuation of popular music to be able to serve as a timeline; the protest songs of the 1960’s, the rock hits of the 1970’s, the power ballads of the 1980’s, k-pop today, not only acknowledges the issues of then, but also addresses, even if indirectly, the issues of today’s society. This essay will attempt to explore the capital issue …show more content…
The TV show ‘The A-Team’ is presented as an example of the ideal world without women, which allows for an interpersonal dependency among the members of a ‘hero team’ that serves as a masculine performance. Heavy metal promoted traditional notions of male power and the subordination of women and homosexuals. This can be supported by Harrison’s statement on patriarchal power within popular music which refers to the fact that men have ‘historically and traditionally dominated culture and have been privileged by it’ (2008). However, it must be noted that heavy metal has also had a significant effect on gay communities (Gay Metal Society) women and primarily androgynous individuals which illustrates that not only has popular music, via metal, become a site for the perpetuation of what was assumed to be morally right but has also created these gendered identities by which they have come to be known by. Walser explains that masculinity, like popular music, has the inability to be stable, consistent or ‘natural’ which ‘produces the need for its constant reachievement’. The development of heavy metal is, I believe, an extension of these re-enactments, that led to the broadening appeal of heavy metal starting in the 1980’s which under the influence of a broadened audience led also to a slightly ‘less masculine’ culture of contemporary heavy metal. Notwithstanding, the 20th century saw a shift towards a more ballad-based musical style otherwise known as ‘soft rock’ which at the same time attracted a greater female metal audience (Harrison, 2008). Androgyny (showing characteristics of both sexes, in this case particularly men) has also, now been understood, in the case of bands such as Poison, to be an act of dealing with the anxieties of masculinity. This portrays an important message of masculinity affecting men as much as women as men become