Music and Gender

Throughout life we see gender affect many different things, though the bridge is crossed everyday. Even when it comes to things like skinny jeans...

With music, I don't believe there is much of a difference anymore. It used to be that girls could only play the piano, the flute, the clarinet, or sing. Even at my high school it seemed that way somewhat, but like I said, the bridge is crossed everyday. We had a female drum major, we had females on the drum line, playing trumpet (though all the tuba players were male), but we also had males playing flute and clarinet. In chorus, we had a decent sized section of male singers, but definitely more females than anything. There were two choirs of just females, and then one mixed choir. It was considered kind of dorky for the guys to be in the orchestra or in the chorus unless they were really good. Which of course in itself is biased. Guys were constantly made fun of until they proved themselves. One of the cello players in our orchestra bought a pickup and distortion for it, and played his own heavy metal composition on the cello in the talent show. He placed third and was never made fun of again. One of the guys in chorus made it all the way to Hollywood for American Idol so of course he wasn't made fun of. In my town that made you a celebrity. With the exception of those couple of things, it just didn't matter what gender you were.

With professional musicians now, everything is diverse. Pop stars for example, whether it be rap, country, rock, etc. all sing about the same things. There are multiple all male groups, all female groups, and groups that are mixed. It just doesn't matter in this country anymore and I love that.

I don't know if it is the same in other countries or not, but from the videos we've watched and the things we've studied it seems as though the men are the musicians and the women have to stick to dancing and singing occasionally. I'm sure its not a "hey women are not capable of this" type situation like it used to be here with say voting, but more of a tradition thing. Most cultures of the world seem very rooted in doing things traditionally and sticking to the old ways not out of close mindedness, but rather respect. That is very cool and all, but I do prefer our culture where it doesn't matter if you are a female or male, you can do what you want; play music, run for president, anything. It is awesome that so much is socially accepted now.