p386 “Directed Freewrite”
Music and its lyrics are storytelling for the times. They chronicle society and what is happening politically, religiously, and culturally. All genres of music have morphed with the times. Specifically, Jamaican Dancehall music and Hip-Hop are rooted in cultures from other countries and have morphed into what they are today in the United States. These types of music and lyrics are more sexually explicit and contain gender stereotyping themes that portray the culture and the times.
George Lipsitz’s article World Cities and World Beat: Low-Wage labor and Transnational Culture, discusses the gender and stereotyping or misogyny in these genres of music in relation to the specific culture and their experiences with the global economy (379). The male artists sing about their real life situations in the hip hop and dancehall lyrics. Andrew Ross, Carolyn Cooper and Luois Chude-Sokei all share the same view that “citing the overt and uninhibited demands for sexual pleasure by women in dancehall music as a positive alternative to gangsta rap’s demonization of women as “ball breakers” and “gold diggers” (379).
Yes, I think that women are exploited and stereotyped in all genres of music. Some genres to different degrees. In the 21st century there are many female counterparts in the music industry that do the same thing towards men. What would artists write about in their songs if not a love or sex interest? We live in a capitalist society and corporate America is looking to make the big bucks. It is plain and simple: sex sells. What would we sing in the car if it weren’t for the top 5 Billboard Radio Songs? Bruno Mars Just The Way You Are, Usher feat. Pitbull DJ Got Us Fallin’ In Love, Katy Perry Teenage Dream, Taio Cruz Dynamite, and Fareast Movement feat. Cataracs, Dev G6. All of these share a theme of sex and love.
Top Ten Radio Songs: Billboard Chart. Billboard. New York. Web. 21 Oct. 2010.
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