[This isn't an assigned post, but a response to one of Wednesday's readings.]
After reading the piece by Will Straw, I started thinking about an old conundrum that has been rattling around in my brain for years and I wondered if anyone had any insight / opinion on the matter. I have a YouTube channel where I post mainly classic blues and jazz songs. On each video, I can see the demographics (age, sex and country) of total views, and I have noticed an interesting pattern. On most of the jazz videos, the gender breakdown is roughly 50/50, male/female. On the blues videos, however, the split is usually around 80/20, male/female. Some of the videos have over 300,000 views, so I don’t think the gender split is completely arbitrary.
I understand that the blues genre is more heavily dominated by men than jazz; however, I have a video of a female blues artist (Koko Taylor), and even on this video, the gender demographic is about 60/40, male/female.
I have noticed this in “real life” too -- I have known women with quite eclectic taste in music, and women that included blues among their favorite genres -- but (completely subjective) I have yet to meet a women that was drawn to the blues with the same intensity as some of my male friends. It’s not like there is a dearth of female blues artists currently recording -- Shemekia Copeland and Marcia Ball are two of my favorites.
I have pondered this a long time -- why doesn’t the blues enjoy a larger female audience? Perhaps women are socialized to reject songs about love gone wrong -- which seems to be the traditional, if not stereotypical, blues formula. However, jazz has its torch songs (usually sung by a female artist) and yet enjoys a larger female audience. Similarly, blues has long been a male-dominated genre and as a result has garnered a male-dominated fan base -- but again, nearly every genre is traditionally male-dominated, so this also doesn’t explain the lack of female blues fans.
Thoughts? Opinions? (I realize that casual observations of views of YouTube videos doesn’t quality as objective or scientific, but I believe there is some truth to it.)
Hi Haley,
ReplyDeleteThis is just my opinion, so here goes. I lived in New Orleans for 5 years, and I am a fan of the blues. Many of my male and female friends were fans of the blues too.
I honestly think it is location and exposure. There is also different types of blues, and it can not fall into a single blues category. Blues ranges from the 20's to now right? I think it is exposure, and too large of a category for one to dismiss it entirely.
Yolanda,
DeleteThat's an excellent point -- I had never thought of it that way.
I think there is a way to cross-check demographics of the views by US state and gender. I wonder if there is a correlation (like ... do a greater percentage of women listen to the blues in Louisiana vs. Montana?). (I love looking at US maps that chart music tastes by region. Music in general is a private obsession of mine.) I am going to have to look at that today.
Thanks!!
Hayley
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ReplyDeleteI think Yolonda makes a great point about location and exposure. I love bluegrass music, for example, because I grew up in Kentucky, but I've never developed much attachment for the blues. You make a good point though because much of the blues - at least what I've listened to - discusses/commiserates over the plight of women (no money, no options, cheating man, loss, etc). You'd think that would speak to lots of women. Is it just not part of the cultural script of femininity? Are we "supposed" to like Taylor Swift and pop country rather than true musicians? That's what I notice - seems men are more often positioned as fans of the music (great guitarists, piano players) while women like the story of the lyrics. What do you think?
ReplyDeleteJen,
DeleteI agree with you -- one of the articles (I think the piece by Will Straw) mentioned the lack of female guitar players in rock. This makes me think something else ... I wonder if the "Men are drawn to music, women are drawn to lyrics" (which I have noticed, too) phenomenon is rooted in brain structure. Or, instead of “men” and “women” substitute “some people” and “other people”. Having just taken a linguistics class, this is fresh on my mind, haha.
Do people with a right-brain dominance tend to prefer music, and people with a left-brain dominance prefer lyrics (or, music *with* lyrics, more likely)? If I remember correctly, right brain processes music, left brain processes language. I wonder ... and off the top of my head, I can't remember if there is a gender split on left/right brain preference ... but, I am going to look into that today. It might not explain the blues question, but I think it would account for different tastes (for example, I would posit that music-based genres like traditional jazz would attracted right-brain dominated listeners and lyric-based genres like country and hip hop would attract left-brain dominated listeners.)
And, of course, this doesn’t control for variables like cultural exposure.
Hayley