Not until very recently did I ever generally start to realize that sometimes gender can take a fairly big part in music, which kind of is fairly significant. I am not the type of person to care who is singing a song or anything. Gender was never a generally big issue for me, very contrary to popular belief. So for having to generally look sort of more into this topic for this blog I thought "Oh this will definitely be easy", little did I, for the most part, think it would actually take me a fairly little while to just find one type of music. So that first type of music is actually Classical! This was a recommendation from a close friend of mine. So for my example, I decided to use "Ode to Joy" written by Beethoven. Now I picked Classical music because you mainly see men writing them. Even if you do a quick google search on “What gender are most people who make classical music”. It highlights the word, Men. Now after I found this out I had to see the famous women who made classical music as well. So I found one. Hildegard of Bingen. She wrote the song Nunc gaudeant. After listening to this song I was in shock at how amazing it sounds. I might not be able to understand everything that is being said, but all I know is it sounds amazing in my ears.
The definitely next music topic with the gender I really decided to for the most part pick essentially is rap in a big way. Not until recently did women definitely start to really make a name for themselves in a particular major way. Rap mostly is mainly a male-oriented genre in a really major way. Either men write the rap/rap it or they listen to it the most, or so they for the most part though. Some of the bigger women who are rappers that we are knowing their names more and more are, Nicki Minaj, Cardi B, and, Megan Thee Stallion. A song that sticks out to me in being a woman rapping would be “Super Bass” by Nicki Minaj. Now I basically am personally not very much the biggest fan of rap, it mainly depends on the artist, but I do really like this song, which particularly is fairly significant. I mainly mostly listen to it because of the beat it has going on in a fairly major way.
Hi Lily! I agree with your points about men dominating both the classical and rap worlds. I never thought of it before, but the big names are usually men, which is interesting. I love that you found a woman who made a career in the classical world, the vocals in "Nunc gaundeant" are definitely powerful. Comparatively, I love rap, as I grew up listening to both pop and rap. I especially grew up on Nicki Minaj, and it's amazing how relevant she still is today.
ReplyDeleteIt definitely is very apparent that men dominate the classical music world. While yes there are women who write amazing classical pieces and so many very talented classically trained women, they are not the ones who are taught in the history books. And that could be a big reason why the classical world is so dominated by men; women might have been or might be more inclined to go that way if they saw themselves in history.
ReplyDeleteI like how you mentioned that classical music has always had men written all over it rather than women, so it was nice to hear a piece that was written by a woman. I also like how you mentioned Nicki Minaj as a female rapper because you are so right, men typically rule the rap world.
ReplyDeleteReading this continues how women are underrated in the music industry although this does not stand in the way for them continuing their musical journey in such male dominant content women still shows that they can prevail and make a big impact on the short side of the stick
ReplyDeleteI find it interesting that men dominate the classical music world. I definitely would've assumed the opposite due to the "norms" of women playing softer kinds of music/instruments.
ReplyDeleteI love Hildegard von Bingen!! I remember learning about her in my high school music history class and thinking she was just so impressive. When studying especially older music, it almost slips my mind how underrepresented women are. Even as an English major, I get excited whenever we study a female writer from hundreds of years ago. The fact that despite they are able to rise to prominence despite the heavy gender expectations of the time is so impressive.
ReplyDeleteI've never heard Hildegard von Bingen until now! It's a very nice change of sound compared to the mostly male classical music. I also love that women are expanding into usually male dominated genres such as classical music and rap.
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