Influential Artists and Genres- Feminist Songs

The Blues

Blues/R and B:
Music has always been a way of people expressing themselves which was influenced by the Blues created in the late 19th century. The Blues lyrics often entail troubles experienced within African American society. However, although the blues gained an association with misery and oppression, the lyrics could also be humorous and raunchy as well "Rebecca, Rebecca, get your big legs off of me".

Music has progressed into a way of expressing feminist points of views and misogyny. Otis Redding wrote the song 'Respect' as a man's plea for respect and recognition from a woman “Hey little girl, you're sweeter than honey”. The use of ‘little’ girl caused some controversy as woman are often referred too as weaker than men , which resulted in a strike back to this song.
This is extremely interesting as the roles were reversed when Aretha Franklin covered a new version. Franklin's cover was a landmark for the feminist movement and is often considered as one of the best songs of the Rock &Roll era. Aretha's cover is a well known feminist song and is evidence of sexualities rivalry in music. Her perception is extremely renowned in the music industry as many women can relate to wanted respect from a man.
'All I'm askin'
Is for a little respect when you come home, Hey baby when you get home ,mister'

Pop
The musical artist Pink has been known for her striking ‘masculine’apperance, with the 'pink' short hair and 'rock' image she has been an inspiration in the music industry for young teenage girls. She elaborates through her music family related dramas and the troubles of growing up which is what attracts her music to a youthful demographic. One of her releases and title of her album is called 'Misunderstood' and is a view her young female audience can relate to: growing up. Different subjects are touched upon in Misunderstood. In ‘Don't Let Me Get Me’ and ‘Just like a Pill’ she describes her drug abuse as a teenager, and her confusion with growing up and not being perfect like other girls. Pink's father was sent to serve in the Vietnam war which made such an impression that she used the stories of her father in the song ‘My Vietnam‘ and towards the end of the song is a sonic interpolation of Jimi Hendrix’s "Star Spangled Banner" ."Family Portrait" is extremely important to Pink as her parents divorced when she was younger so she infuses her struggle with keep the family together in this song. She makes it particularly interesting in her video which follows the narrative of this song. The video uses a younger girl along with pink as the central characters who are struggling with the segregation of their family, this puts us into a voyeuristic position of looking at this little girl and identifying what Pink felt at this age and relating ourselves to this family situation, tackling divorce and its severe effects on children. But on her 3rd album she released the controversial song 'Stupid Girls', which has been listed as one of the Top Ten Most Feminist Songs . The background of this is that Pink was inspired by the fact that she noticed many young girls near her Los Angeles home aspire to -as said by Wikopedia- the "hypersexual personae of female celebrities" rather than for their careers or talents. This statement is agreeable as Pink is elaborating how young girls aspire to the sexual behaviour of these celebrities who set a stereotypical bad example for the passive generation they are consuming for. Nowadays there aren’t many female pop acts who don't use their sexuality to promote themselves, setting a bad example for females in the music industry.



The music video of ‘Stupid Girls’ is extremely humorous and shows Pink can have fun with her music and style, even when she is degrading other women. The video entails Pink as an angel and a demon who is trying to influence the future of a young girl. The angel shows her a series of images demonstrating the stupidity of current trends in female celebrity, and the images feature Pink in various roles, including a dancer in a 50 Cent video, a girl who uses her emergency inflatable breasts at a bowling alley, a girl at a tanning salon, a girl with a purging disorder who considers calories "so not sexy", a girl getting plastic surgery, a girl making a sex tape, a girl washing her car and rubbing a facecloth and soap all over herself. These different representations she establishes are due to these women dominating the music industry making the next generation follow in the footsteps.

Although this isn't a feminist (could even be seen as misogynistic) perspective she is implying how there aren’t enough role models who are helping the young aspiring audiences. This in my view is because the media are letting untalented people in the business and flaunting them because of their appearance. I think it's quite humours that a well known female artist thinks so strongly about this that she has gone to the lengths of making a lyrically offensive song and music video to advocate her perspective.

This is useful in my project, as it shows a women degrading other well known females such as; Mary Kate Olsen, Jessica Simpson (the part of a girl washing a car in Pink's video is an exact replica to Simpson’s 'These boots are made for walking'), and Paris Hilton, where Pink performs a spoof of her sex tape. This is interesting as Pink has made her point very clear through a music video, and has reversed the media's 'Role Models' , humiliating them virally on TV to show what the young generation are aspiring to be. This is an exception to my query as this isn’t a type of misogyny, it is purely that the Pop industry isn't always run by talent but by appearance.