ABSTRACT

Why is gender inseparable from pop songs? What can gender representations in musical performances mean? Why are there strong links between gender, sexuality and popular music? The sound of the voice, the mix, the arrangement, the lyrics and images, all link our impressions of gender to music. Numerous scholars writing about gender in popular music to date are concerned with the music industry’s impact on fans, and how tastes and preferences become associated with gender. This is the first collection of its kind to develop and present new theories and methods in the analysis of popular music and gender. The contributors are drawn from a range of disciplines including musicology, sociology, anthropology, gender studies, philosophy, and media studies, providing new reference points for studies in this interdisciplinary field. Stan Hawkins’s introduction sets out to situate a variety of debates that prompts ways of thinking and working, where the focus falls primarily on gender roles. Amongst the innovative approaches taken up in this collection are: queer performativity, gender theory, gay and lesbian agency, the female pop celebrity, masculinities, transculturalism, queering, transgenderism and androgyny. This Research Companion is required reading for scholars and teachers of popular music, whatever their disciplinary background.

chapter 1|12 pages

Introduction

Sensing gender in popular music

part 1|64 pages

Masculinities, femininities, community, and transcultural practice

chapter 2|20 pages

Growing up to be a Rapper?

Justin Bieber’s duet with Ludacris as transcultural practice

chapter 4|15 pages

From Throat Singing to Transcultural Expression

Tanya Tagaq’s Katajjaq musical signature

chapter 5|14 pages

Spectres of Masculinity

Markers of vulnerability and nostalgia in Johnny Cash

part 2|55 pages

Audiovisuality, sex(uality), women, and the politics of looking

chapter 6|10 pages

“You Mean I can Make a TV Show?”

Web series, assertive music, and African American women producers

chapter 7|13 pages

Holding on for Dear Life

Gender, celebrity status, and vulnerability-on-display in Sia’s ‘Chandelier’

chapter 9|15 pages

‘Working It’

Female masculinity and Missy Elliott

part 3|78 pages

Vernacular soundworlds, narratives, and stardom

chapter 10|15 pages

High Notes, High Drama

Musical climaxes and gender politics in tenor heroes and Broadway women

chapter 12|16 pages

Staging The ‘Street Boy’

Transculturalism, realness and hypermasculinity in the Norwegian rapper Jesse Jones

chapter 13|14 pages

Fairport Convention

Gender and voicing strategies in a sound signature

chapter 14|15 pages

“I Don’t Play Girly House Music”

Women, sonic stereotyping, and the dancing DJ

part 4|70 pages

Gender, race, and the female celebrity

chapter 15|14 pages

‘A Woman’s Place’

Staging femininity in live music from Jenny Lind to the Jazz Age

chapter 16|13 pages

Beyoncé

Hip hop feminism and the embodiment of black femininity

chapter 17|11 pages

Performing Race and Gender

Erykah Badu between post-soul and Afrofuturism

chapter 18|14 pages

“Armed with the Faith of a Child”

Marit Larsen and strategies of faking 1

chapter 19|14 pages

“Singing from the Heart”

Notions of gendered authenticity in pop music

part 5|66 pages

Challenging hegemonic practices

chapter 20|15 pages

Doing Hip-Hop Masculinity Differently

Exploring Kanye West’s 808s & Heartbreak through word, sound, and image

chapter 21|13 pages

Express Yourself!

Gender euphoria and intersections

chapter 22|13 pages

Covering Trans Media

Temporal and narrative potential in messy musical archives

chapter 23|21 pages

Confronting the Gender Trouble for Real

Mina Caputo, metal truth and transgender power