Music and Gender

In music gender norms are shown across varieties of music. If you take a look at different genres you will start to notice that depending on what genre of music it is, gender will be talked about in a particular manner. If we take modern day hip hop for example it isn't the most clean, proper way to speak about gender depending on who you listen to, but it is just an example. Or another example could be country music with a majority of their songs being break up songs between couples, or going on to show the love and affection that they have for each other. These are just two examples off the top of my head. When I think deeper into it, going back to high school, I believe that in our band/orchestra at Wando High School mostly girls played strings instruments such as the violin or the viola while there were more guys playing the bigger strings instruments such as the cello. One huge thing I noticed in high school was that there was a significant amount of girls compared to boys in our choir. I do not think there is a negative reasoning behind this, I just think at that time in my high school experience there were just more girls that were interested in singing than the guys. I also think that they were probably better than them as well from what I could tell. Another thing I have noticed is that in every orchestra, band, or choir event I have been to, the main person who is instructing everyone has been a man. I do not think that there is a specific reasoning behind this, I just believe thats who just so happens to be the front runner of the bands, orchestra's, and choirs that I have been to. I went to the orchestra event in Twitchell last week to support one of my teammates and I noticed there was significant amount of females compared to males playing the violin. While the same thing was going on with the group playing the cello as well but just role reversed. These are just some of my experiences along with my own thoughts and opinions on music and gender.