Radio & Popular Music - Week 5 Response

During this week’s lecture, we discussed the concepts of representation, discourse and power, and how they are intrinsically linked. The relevant set reading ‘Rock and Sexuality’ by Frith and McRobbie, written in the 1970s, considers rock music’s influence on the representation of sexuality, and the sexist discourse of the genre. My complimentary reading ‘All Rock and Roll is homosocial’ by Davies debates the exclusion of women as credible artists and fans in the discourse of music journalism.

Frith and McRobbie’s text is concerned with rock music in particular as they claim the genre is ‘the most explicitly concerned with sexual expression’ (Frith & McRobbie 1970: 371) They also argue rock to be a ‘male form’ (Frith & McRobbie 1970: 373); men dominated the rock industry, and most processes involved in it.

Their text uses Cock Rock as a particular case of male dominance, a genre in which musical talent correlated with sexual expertise, and comprised discourses of control over women. This example begins to set the argument of sexism within rock music, and how men hold the power in the discourse of rock music. Davies similarly highlights that men dominate music press: ‘credibility, which is of vital importance to the 'serious' rock music press, is … almost completely unattainable for women’ (Davies 2001: 301). Frith and McRobbie make a comparable point that in rock, ‘a girl is supposed to be an individual listener, she is not encouraged to develop the skills and knowledge to become a performer’ (Frith & McRobbie 1970: 376). Women are even expected to take a passive role in the way they consume music.

Furthermore, Frith and McRobbie argue that women have to ‘use sounds, structures, and styles that cannot be heard as rock’ (Frith & McRobbie 1970: 372) to find success. They are often channelled into the mainstream, and transformed into family-friendly entertainers. I agree: in the 1970s, female rock stars were not allowed to embrace their eccentricity and had to repress their femininity and sexuality, whereas males could effortlessly maintain their sexual freedom. Davies’ argument compliments this; she claims that female music journalists have to similarly conceal their femininity to conform to publications’ discourses. She states they must ‘use the same sexist discourses as male journalists to distance themselves from the type of women the music press despises’ (Davies 2001: 316-317).

In conclusion, both these readings emphasise the unfair representations and discourses of femininity in both the rock genre and music journalism industry, and the imbalanced allocation of power towards males. This matter could be researched through a semiotic analysis in which multiple music publications could be compared in their discourses and verbal representation of women.

Bibliography:

Davies, H. (2001). All Rock and Roll Is Homosocial: The Representation of Women in the British Rock Music Press. In: Popular Music, 20(3), pp.(301-319.)

Frith, S & McRobbie, A, (1990). 'Rock & Sexuality'. In: Simon Frith & Andrew Goodwin (ed) In: On Record: Rock, Pop & the Written Word. 1st ed. UK: Pantheon Books. pp.(371-389).