Gender and Sexuality in Music - Essay Example

Women have played a vital part in advancing hip-hop and the music industry in their entirety since the 1960s. For instance, the Teen idols, Riot Girls, misogamy and homophobia in hip-hop, girl groups of the 1960s, Heavy metal masculinity, "twerking", and Spice Girl masculinity underscore the critical role that women and girls have played courtesy of numerous prominent female musicians in history (Biddle & Gibson, 2009). Although they appear to be underrepresented in the world of pop music, women such as Wendy Carlos and great artists of the 70s, 80s, and 90s, have used music specifically to agitate for equal representation, and women's rights, and to campaign against sexual assault.

            Similarly, the contestation over the significance and meanings of ‘girl power’ and girl culture has produced a new relationship between feminism, girls, and popular culture. In particular, popular culture has always been the primary focus of feminism (Biddle & Gibson, 2009). The impact of contemporary life on women and the importance of popular culture in mapping ideologies and desires around the modern woman have been of vast interest to feminists. As a popular civilization, girl culture is conceivably a form of feminism. Many of the contemporary feminist approaches underline the active deployment of popular culture by women.