Above is my assessment sheet ^In my investigation I felt my argument was especially strong in three areas. These are Gender, Misogyny, and Feminism. Although they are different in themselves, they are highly influenced and motivated by gender, and it's 'boundaries'. By this I mean that the music industry has created certain boundaries for gender, using binary opposition. Music was created for people to be able to express themselves, and is a type of escapism. I think that it almost feeds and influences peoples actions, especially a younger generation. This maybe biased but when people are listening to degrading music of some kind it can be detrimental to them. Although I could have elaborated genre more, I aimed mainly at Rock as it contains the most discrimination.
Gender:
Gender has been the main direction of my research and has developed into two sub topics such as Misogyny and Feminism. I have been really fascinated with this project as it has enabled me to use my own initiative and focus on my interests. I chose genre because I knew I would be able to write a lot of content but found it hard to keep it condensed to one argument. I found that music was a huge inspiration to the progression of gender and almost helped both the sexes with expressing their opinions to one another. My findings will be extremely useful for my music video. This is because Smaller Than You, the band I am using consist of 5 males and one female. Although the genre is Ska, which I haven't looked into, this type of knowledge I have learnt provided me with a new perspective to music. This project will help me also with my digi pack and advertisement for the band. I will be able to look into types of zines for Ska music, and its roots. I also will be able to understand the lyrics more from this investigation as I have been analysing meanings in songs, and how the band wanted us to interpret them. This will help me with creating the style of the digi pack/advertisement and also how the audience wants it to look. I am going to aim to make these (digi pack etc) desirable packages for both genres but I want to especially market Alice as women in men's Ska groups are quite rare, the only example I could think of linking to the genre would be No Doubt, or even The Raincoats.
Misogyny:
Misogyny implies a hatred of women and comes from the word misandry meaning hatred of men and women in general. I have always had a clear vision of what misogyny means, but further research in the music industry made it clearer to me that that misogyny was present in the music I was listening to. I used to be very fond of Eminem and his extreme depth into music. These type of misogynist artists were detrimental to young audiences. I remember listening to Eminem from the age of 13 and now see that those discriminating types of music, (feminist and misogynist etc) music should not be promoting a dominant gender to their audiences. This is as music is listened to audiences for recreation and escapism and it is easy to let the music influence you passively.
Another word that could be associated with this topic of my argument is the degradation of women. It is present in many genres, especially the 3 R's. These are Rap, RnB and Rock. I think it is hard for some men to appreciate women in these genres as our culture has defined what is right and wrong for genders. I agree that both genders should have the ability to speak their mind, but bands such as Rolling Stones seemed to have expanded...
"Hear him whip the women just around midnight.
Ah brown sugar how come you taste so good
(a-ha) brown sugar, just like a young girl should"
I think it is clear that young audiences are going to think its acceptable and usual for music to be discriminating against both genders, as many imitate their idols. This is seen strongly with the audience of Brittany Spears (from a fan site blog) "Sometimes I pretend I am her just to boost up my confidence". Wikopedia "teenagers who spent more time listening to music with lyrics that objectify women or praise men for their voracious sexual appetites were more likely to become sexually active earlier in their youth." I think this statement can relate to any genre of music, for example artists who sing about murder, drug abuse or discrimination etc, are almost feeding the audiences minds and actions. When this audience is old enough to depend on their own beliefs, it could be that they have been influenced highly from their passion of music and the environment they grew up in.
This definitely applies with Feminist music and art as their is not a 'better' gender, but as the majority of their lyrics imply 'sisterhood' and awareness against domestic violence like Riot Grrl, or more modern artists like Christina Aguilera 'Can't Hold Us Down' there is less to apprehend about.
Here are two examples of highly sexualised album covers from The Rolling Stones, they can be viewed as asthecially offensive to women, and recent photographers have been 
manipulating this image to the womens perspective, so that a naked women is hugging/clenching the man almost invading the mans privacy instead of hers. The first could be seen as implying the male dominace of their sexuality, and it is clear The Rolling Stones like this kind of frontal explicit humour. This also realtes to their lyrics in their music, of using women and being sex symbols.
Feminism:
My argument for this is that women did not have enough recognition in the Rock industry. I think this was and is still to do with Rock being aggressive and seen as too 'hard' core role for a stereotypical women to play. This is a lot to do with binary opposition, for instance Rock is typically associated with men and Classical ballet is seen as a feminine sport/dance, which is ironic as many men take ballet.
In my research I found Riot grrrl very intriguing. The genre was formed by women who wanted equal rights, or even just to rebel back to this classification in culture and society. It was very rare for a women's voice to be taken into account seriously in the 1990's, and Riot grrrl gave them the chance as I believe music is the easiest way to raise awareness. In this project I have realised what an impact music and media have on our culture. As music can target a passive audience, it enables them to subconsciously be influenced. I think that this type of feminist approach to music was successful to women and their empowerment, It gave them the ability to speak through their music and image- DO IT YOUSELF. Media has changed our culture in this topic, before Riot grrrl, Zines ( a type of small magazine issue) were male orientated, but the Riot grrrl movement used the media for awareness. They manipulated the Punk's movement of underground music, by spreading word through these zines and their lyrics.
Ironically The two members of Bikini Kill I looked at both had typical make rock boyfriends. This was interesting as they were promoting women to be free and independent from the males who degraded them in the first place. Kathleen Hanna was married to Ad-Rock from the Beastie Boys who was a very mainstream rock artist. And Toby Vail was once with Kurt Cobain, the lead singer from Nirvana. Both of these women show dependence on men, not just men but 'rockers', the men who they were rebelling and singing against. After I researched this I was astonished as their music consists of stories of men using women for sex and they are quite sarcastic "All Men Are Evil Except My Boyfriend" with there lyrics.
Feminist music to me seems more acceptable to be listening to. The feminist artists I researched didn't degrade men, but sang full of sorrow of domestic violence, or empowering genders advocating Girl Power. The outcome of this music isn't to sing out loud how 'pathetic' and 'powerless' women are classified as, but to how they really feel and to inform other women that they are not alone. New modern artists such as Florence And The Machine empower women also in this way, giving the music a positive vibe.
Her song 'A Kiss With A Fist' I think is very influential to women as it is sending a positive message to her audience. In this song she is singing about being domestically abused, but ironically she is also abusing him back. This creates themes of equal gender and how women aren’t defenceless and they are as bad as men. The lyrics also imply a sexual ambiguous aspect:
"You hit me once
I hit you back
You gave a kick
I gave a slap
You smashed a plate over my head
Then I set fire to our bed"
She is acting with power and reversex the role of a 'innocent' typical women and is implying that the sexes here are just as equal physically which is rare in this musical industry. Here Florence is creating a message of equal gender quality, giving no benefits to either sexes. Although this is true, Florence's success is due to her distinct femininity, by her Pre-Raphaelite image of beauty. She portrays her femininity also with the softness of her first name ‘Florence’ contrasted to the masculinity in ‘The Machine’. She presents a new feminism in the music industry as she is allowing herself to explore the humour and horror in the relationship of a man and a women and doesn't chose a sex to degrade.
Gender:
Gender has been the main direction of my research and has developed into two sub topics such as Misogyny and Feminism. I have been really fascinated with this project as it has enabled me to use my own initiative and focus on my interests. I chose genre because I knew I would be able to write a lot of content but found it hard to keep it condensed to one argument. I found that music was a huge inspiration to the progression of gender and almost helped both the sexes with expressing their opinions to one another. My findings will be extremely useful for my music video. This is because Smaller Than You, the band I am using consist of 5 males and one female. Although the genre is Ska, which I haven't looked into, this type of knowledge I have learnt provided me with a new perspective to music. This project will help me also with my digi pack and advertisement for the band. I will be able to look into types of zines for Ska music, and its roots. I also will be able to understand the lyrics more from this investigation as I have been analysing meanings in songs, and how the band wanted us to interpret them. This will help me with creating the style of the digi pack/advertisement and also how the audience wants it to look. I am going to aim to make these (digi pack etc) desirable packages for both genres but I want to especially market Alice as women in men's Ska groups are quite rare, the only example I could think of linking to the genre would be No Doubt, or even The Raincoats.
Misogyny:
Misogyny implies a hatred of women and comes from the word misandry meaning hatred of men and women in general. I have always had a clear vision of what misogyny means, but further research in the music industry made it clearer to me that that misogyny was present in the music I was listening to. I used to be very fond of Eminem and his extreme depth into music. These type of misogynist artists were detrimental to young audiences. I remember listening to Eminem from the age of 13 and now see that those discriminating types of music, (feminist and misogynist etc) music should not be promoting a dominant gender to their audiences. This is as music is listened to audiences for recreation and escapism and it is easy to let the music influence you passively.
Another word that could be associated with this topic of my argument is the degradation of women. It is present in many genres, especially the 3 R's. These are Rap, RnB and Rock. I think it is hard for some men to appreciate women in these genres as our culture has defined what is right and wrong for genders. I agree that both genders should have the ability to speak their mind, but bands such as Rolling Stones seemed to have expanded...
"Hear him whip the women just around midnight.
Ah brown sugar how come you taste so good
(a-ha) brown sugar, just like a young girl should"
I think it is clear that young audiences are going to think its acceptable and usual for music to be discriminating against both genders, as many imitate their idols. This is seen strongly with the audience of Brittany Spears (from a fan site blog) "Sometimes I pretend I am her just to boost up my confidence". Wikopedia "teenagers who spent more time listening to music with lyrics that objectify women or praise men for their voracious sexual appetites were more likely to become sexually active earlier in their youth." I think this statement can relate to any genre of music, for example artists who sing about murder, drug abuse or discrimination etc, are almost feeding the audiences minds and actions. When this audience is old enough to depend on their own beliefs, it could be that they have been influenced highly from their passion of music and the environment they grew up in.
This definitely applies with Feminist music and art as their is not a 'better' gender, but as the majority of their lyrics imply 'sisterhood' and awareness against domestic violence like Riot Grrl, or more modern artists like Christina Aguilera 'Can't Hold Us Down' there is less to apprehend about.
Here are two examples of highly sexualised album covers from The Rolling Stones, they can be viewed as asthecially offensive to women, and recent photographers have been 
manipulating this image to the womens perspective, so that a naked women is hugging/clenching the man almost invading the mans privacy instead of hers. The first could be seen as implying the male dominace of their sexuality, and it is clear The Rolling Stones like this kind of frontal explicit humour. This also realtes to their lyrics in their music, of using women and being sex symbols.Feminism:
My argument for this is that women did not have enough recognition in the Rock industry. I think this was and is still to do with Rock being aggressive and seen as too 'hard' core role for a stereotypical women to play. This is a lot to do with binary opposition, for instance Rock is typically associated with men and Classical ballet is seen as a feminine sport/dance, which is ironic as many men take ballet.
In my research I found Riot grrrl very intriguing. The genre was formed by women who wanted equal rights, or even just to rebel back to this classification in culture and society. It was very rare for a women's voice to be taken into account seriously in the 1990's, and Riot grrrl gave them the chance as I believe music is the easiest way to raise awareness. In this project I have realised what an impact music and media have on our culture. As music can target a passive audience, it enables them to subconsciously be influenced. I think that this type of feminist approach to music was successful to women and their empowerment, It gave them the ability to speak through their music and image- DO IT YOUSELF. Media has changed our culture in this topic, before Riot grrrl, Zines ( a type of small magazine issue) were male orientated, but the Riot grrrl movement used the media for awareness. They manipulated the Punk's movement of underground music, by spreading word through these zines and their lyrics.
Ironically The two members of Bikini Kill I looked at both had typical make rock boyfriends. This was interesting as they were promoting women to be free and independent from the males who degraded them in the first place. Kathleen Hanna was married to Ad-Rock from the Beastie Boys who was a very mainstream rock artist. And Toby Vail was once with Kurt Cobain, the lead singer from Nirvana. Both of these women show dependence on men, not just men but 'rockers', the men who they were rebelling and singing against. After I researched this I was astonished as their music consists of stories of men using women for sex and they are quite sarcastic "All Men Are Evil Except My Boyfriend" with there lyrics.
Feminist music to me seems more acceptable to be listening to. The feminist artists I researched didn't degrade men, but sang full of sorrow of domestic violence, or empowering genders advocating Girl Power. The outcome of this music isn't to sing out loud how 'pathetic' and 'powerless' women are classified as, but to how they really feel and to inform other women that they are not alone. New modern artists such as Florence And The Machine empower women also in this way, giving the music a positive vibe.
Her song 'A Kiss With A Fist' I think is very influential to women as it is sending a positive message to her audience. In this song she is singing about being domestically abused, but ironically she is also abusing him back. This creates themes of equal gender and how women aren’t defenceless and they are as bad as men. The lyrics also imply a sexual ambiguous aspect:
"You hit me once
I hit you back
You gave a kick
I gave a slap
You smashed a plate over my head
Then I set fire to our bed"
She is acting with power and reversex the role of a 'innocent' typical women and is implying that the sexes here are just as equal physically which is rare in this musical industry. Here Florence is creating a message of equal gender quality, giving no benefits to either sexes. Although this is true, Florence's success is due to her distinct femininity, by her Pre-Raphaelite image of beauty. She portrays her femininity also with the softness of her first name ‘Florence’ contrasted to the masculinity in ‘The Machine’. She presents a new feminism in the music industry as she is allowing herself to explore the humour and horror in the relationship of a man and a women and doesn't chose a sex to degrade.
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