Gender Roles in Country Music

Hello, friends!

Today I am writing for those who are curious about country music and its success. I am also writing to those who are interested in how gender roles function in country music. In this blog I am hoping to inform those who are unfamiliar with how gender roles function in country music. So, let's get started.

I am here to hopefully interest researchers and modern country music fans about how these roles function and thrive in the industry and in the genre itself. I have read other blogs that relay this same message to readers, and the discussion arrises that the listeners and writers in the genre are stereotypical and are both very similar in many ways. These blogs then typically describe the role of masculinity in country music and how it divides gender roles in country music. Having this separation of gender roles in the genre is very important to see, and many bloggers, such as myself, are starting to catch on to such trend.

Whether some people agree with these statements or not, it is important to see that my opinion is not the only one that affects this argument.

Other bloggers, researchers, and writers have also seen this division in the genre and see how this can cause problems in the genre and how artists can lose success in the long run. In a recent article that I read, the author describes how female artists have a different “sense” of music than male artists. Is this true? Do female artists seem to have a difference sense of emotions, lyrics, and even instruments? If this is the case, why does this matter, really? This automatic assumption of gender division, in that many different areas of country music, really shines on the argument that gender roles in this genre do in fact exist, and it is projected to exist for a long time.

Another quite interesting article that I recently found interesting was revolved around the topic of Dolly Parton and her famous song, "Jolene." In Jolene, Dolly really focuses on how she admires this woman. Dolly actually does the opposite of what women typically are known to do in this genre, as she promotes this woman in such a way that some articles even suggest that she is referencing homosexuality. I found this article to be quite optimistic that not all country stars aim to promote gender division and that one of the most well-known country songs in the entire genre, promotes kindness and love. In this song, Dolly even rhetorically suggests that she is very different from other country artists, not only based on her music, but even through her looks and attire.

Although artists such as Dolly Parton give us hope that not all country music is based upon this topic, it is quite simple to see that gender roles are not only in our society, but the division has creeped into our music.

I leave this blog with the final thought that we all must be conscious of what we listen to and what the meaning of the song truly is. Gender roles in country music, in my opinion, should not even exist as this genre is known for its accepting ways and being considered a minority itself for quite a long time. Country music is created daily in order to be relatable to listeners, and have listeners understand that even famous celebrities still experience heart ache, pain, and break ups. However, especially in this era, country music has been turned into being about how manly you are and how manly you must be in order to get the girl.

In the past, country music was placed in the same category as the misfits of homosexuals, hillbillies, and minorities. Why would country music want to exclude one gender over the other and continue to move backwards? It is up to us to reach out and have our voice be heard concerning this issue in country music.This concept is far from correct and I challenge not only fans, but researchers and country music writers to dig deeper in this topic and find the root of this problem in order to make country music what it used to be.

Thank you for reading and until next time,

Savanna.