To be completely honest, I have never given the idea of gender effecting the world of music so this blog topic was a little difficult for me. As I have spoken about before, I grew up in a home where a verity music was always being played. That being said, I feel like due to that I am consistently listening to a wide array of music all the time (and by all the time I mean to the point where my roommates wanna plug their ears). I have always listened to music by males and females in every genre, and really have no preference or thought when considering gender in music.
Beginning in middle school I started singing in the school choir. To be completely honest, I began singing as a way to get out of PE class but quickly grew to love it. At the time there were not many boys in the choir, as they wanted to participate in PE and they saw it primarily as a "girls thing". I continued seeing throughout high school and ended up participating in chorale and competing against other schools. I really enjoyed this and enjoyed singing with people who were serious about the music and enjoyed it as much as I did. That being said there was still a majority of females in the group, but a few more males had joined. I believe there were 4 Bass and 5 Tenor.
While in choral I sang as a soprano which was all ladies. I have never given much thought but we were a lot more collected than the Tenor and Bass groups, aka nine 16 year old boys.
Im sure there are people who are very aware of the gender roles in music and see the possibly problematic side to music having imposed gender roles. After giving it some thought while writing this blog post it will definitely be something that I consider more when observing musical groups or performances.
A lot of the music in the present-day have involved an equal amount of men and women sharing their roles in every part of music. But back in the day, there were stereotypes about men or women singing a certain genre or playing a instrument that was considered as being playing mostly by a male or female.
ReplyDeleteI agree, this blog was difficult for me to think about too! But, that's funny you got out of PE class and it is great that choir was something fun for you!
ReplyDeleteI had a similar experience in middle school as well but other than that It was difficult for me to notice a difference. I think it is normal now a days for people to be more accepting and kind.
ReplyDeleteI had a difficult time with this blog topic as well! I had a similar experience except we have to be in a chorus class or a band class.
ReplyDeleteI can relate a little bit because I didn’t really think about the whole gender thing when it came to the music industry until I came to Converse. But it’s really surprising how much you learn about different things!
ReplyDeleteRichelle
DeleteIt was also fairly difficult for me to write about this topic; I like to think I have a pretty balanced musical taste, with plenty from many genres by many different people. Such a thing is becoming much more common, thanks to the internet. But my middle and high school choirs were the same way!
ReplyDeleteIt was difficult for me to write this post too, because I felt like I didn't have any direct experiences with this. I'm glad you were able to enjoy choir in school!
ReplyDeleteOoops, I accidentally posted. Anyways, I never gave gender roles much thought in middle school either, because I didn't think it mattered, so I'm glad I wasn't the only one.
DeleteThe boys-in-choir thing is always interesting. At my church, we have choirs for 4-year-olds, K-1st grade, 2nd-5th grade, and Youth. At every stage of the game the percentage of boys drops. The 4-year olds are almost even, but the Youth is entirely young women and has been for years. And yet who wouldn't want to date a guy that can sing to you!
ReplyDelete