Music & Gender

 Growing up, listening to a predominantly male dominated genre, hip-hop, there was not many popular female artists. And if there was, they weren't talked about very often. When I was in middle, and high school I have no particular memory of listening to female artists. Of any genre. Not hip-hop, not R&B, not country, not even jazz. Most of my social media and internet influence was male based. Being young, and immature, I never really payed attention or had any knowledge of why female artists in the hip-hop industry never got any mainstream attention. Maybe it was me, maybe it was a West Coast thing, maybe it was the environment I was in? 

However, later on in my late teens, as I became more mature and aware I started to get connected with the female artists in hip-hop and R&B. Maybe, these artists started to get popular, or maybe it was my own self awareness and the act of expanding my horizons to not just male artists. Artists like Ella Mai, SZA, Jhene Aiko, Cardi B, and Glorilla became artists I listened to. The app TikTok might have influenced the promotion of these artists, who knows. 

Now I have known of some really famous female artists, that are a little bit older for me, but were really famous and popular. Beyonce, Taylor Swift, Nicki Minaj, Adele, Rihanna, and Madonna, to name a few. Taylor swift has had a huge influence on my generation, and so had Beyonce. But also they are much older, and on the tail end of there career. It is hard to find a female artist that was as popular around my same age, that everybody loved to listen to, and not just listened to because it was considered "cool". For males, there are hundreds of hip-hop artists that I can name who are around my age, that are extremely popular and promoted. 

This song here by Billie Eilish is one of my go-to songs today. When I study or do homework I always find a way to put this song on. 

One of the explanations for why there is a lot more male attention in the hip-hop industry is because culturally hip-hop is more a masculine dominated industry. Now R&B is more of a feminine dominated industry. Male rappers, and hip-hop artists are more crazy, loud, and aggressive than female artists tend to be so that is why males get more attention. I think the typical stereotype of girls being more calm and more fragile may also play a part in the less popularized female music. Many males would not care to listen to females because they would think that is weird and that females should not be making music. 

Another one of my favorite female artists in the hip-hop game is Glorilla. She has become very popular in the last couple years, and I have to say this song is very catchy.