ABSTRACT
One way to critique popular music education (PME) would be to ask what good or successful PME might look like. A successful education may, for instance, lead to agency, understanding, respect, compassion and self-empowerment. Masculine domination leads to particular, narrow presentations and representations of women in popular music: The objectification of women in popular music is prevalent across genres and sub-genres, but is perhaps nowhere more obvious than in the globally popular musical style and culture of rap and hip-hop. Masculine domination exerts and reinforces its power and normativity in PME through institutionalized processes, curricula, repertoire and other music industry norms including the gendering of musical instruments. In order to address such questions systematically, it is useful to consider how institutionalization is conceived by sociologists, particularly in terms of social, artistic and academic legitimation. Sociologist Shyon Baumann developed a theory of artistic legitimation featuring three essential components: political opportunity structures, resource mobilization and frames of discourse.
