Music and Gender

When thinking about music and gender, the first thing that comes to mind is actually a person, Fanny Mendelssohn. I learned about Fanny Mendelssohn's story when I took Music History IV when we were learning about 19th-century music. I feel that her musical career is a great example of the history that gender has played in music. 

Fanny is the older sister to the very well-known Felix Mendelssohn. She was an incredible musician and composer. Fanny composed many things, but when Fanny wanted to publish her compositions both her father and her brother told her it was not a good idea because she was a woman and because of her social status. She would continue to compose, but her brother would publish Fanny's compositions and would claim them as his own because she was unable to publish them herself. It wasn't until 1846 when she was forty years old that she published some of her compositions. She sadly died a year later when she was forty-one from a stroke. Fanny wrote hundreds of compositions, but only a fraction have been published or performed today. 

This example of Fanny's life shows how gender has played a huge role in music. Fanny was discouraged from pursuing her career in composition because she was a woman in the 19th century. Over the past century or so more of her compositions have been found, but it is crazy to think about what great things she could have accomplished had she not been denied the opportunity because of her gender. 

Here is Fanny's "Easter Sonata": 

Here is a link to more info about Fanny's "Easter Sonata" being found: The Guardian: Fanny Mendelssohn 

Another thing that comes to mind when I think about gender in music is how there are specific genres that society thinks that men and women like the best. Personally, I do not listen to a lot of pop music, but it seems that pop music is the genre that is most associated with what girls and women listen to. The same with men. I think that rock, punk, and metal music are all associated with men and that those genres are what men listen to. 

I did a little searching and I looked up "songs for women" and "songs for men" just to see what would pop up and if it agreed with my thoughts. When searching for songs for men, some of the different songs and artists included were "Eye of the Tiger" by Survivor, "My Way" by Frank Sinatra, the band Black Sabbath, the artist Johnny Cash, and this song below that I think fits well into the stereotype of what people think men would listen to. The song is "Let There Be Rock" by AC/DC: 

When searching for songs for women to listen to I was met with a lot from the pop genre. Some of the songs and artists included were: "We Belong Together by Mariah Carey", "Long Live" by Taylor Swift, "Bootylicious" by Destiny's Child, and the song below which is known to be one of the biggest women's anthems, "Girl On Fire" by Alicia Keys. 

These findings prove in a way that there are stereotypes when it comes to what kind of music each gender is associated with. The list of men's songs includes a lot of the rock genre because rock has been associated with men for the longest time. The instrumentation in the rock genre includes electric guitars, drums, and bass which are all instruments that I personally have seen only men play a lot. It is a rare occurrence to see a woman bass player, and I honestly don't think I've ever seen one. The same goes with the list of songs for women. A lot of the songs and artists were from the pop genre because for as long as I can remember that is the genre that has been associated with what women listen to. 

I think these genres have been associated with each gender because society thinks that a lot of times women prefer to only listen to pop songs about falling in love or being heartbroken, and men prefer to listen to hardcore music that only includes electric guitars and screaming which is just not true. Music is and should be universal to all no matter what gender.