Popular Music, Gender and Sexualities

Authors

  • Sheila Margaret Whiteley University of Salford

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5429/604

Keywords:

IASPM, popular music, pop, rock, mainstream, gender, sexualities, queer, popular music studies

Abstract

This paper responds to Philip Tagg’s discussion of the state of popular music studies since the formation of the International Association for the Study of Popular Music (Tagg, 2011) by foregrounding issues concerning the current position of popular music studies, gender and sexualities. It provides both a personal insight into teaching practice and publications, and explores the current position of women in the music industry.

Author Biography

Sheila Margaret Whiteley, University of Salford

Professor Emeritus School of Media, Music and Performance University of Salford Sheila Whiteley is Professor Emeritus at the University of Salford, Greater Manchester, United Kingdom, Visiting Professor at Southampton Solent University, and Research Fellow at the Bader International Study Centre, Queen’s University (Canada), Herstmonceux. As a feminist musicologist with strong research interests in issues of identity and subjectivity, she is known for her work on gender and sexuality as well as for longstanding interests in popular culture. She is author of The Space Between the Notes: Rock and the Counter Culture (Routledge, 1992); Women and Popular Music: Popular Music and Gender (Routledge, 2000); and Too Much Too Young: Popular Music, Age and Identity (Routledge, 2005), and editor of Sexing the Groove: Popular Music and Gender (Routledge, 1996) and Christmas, Ideology and Popular Culture (Edinburgh University Press, 2008). She co-edited (with Andy Bennett and Stan Hawkins) Music Space and Place: Popular Music and Cultural Identity (Ashgate: 2002) and (with Jennifer Rycenga) Queering the Popular Pitch (Routledge, 2006). Her most recent work includes ‘Which Freddie? Constructions of Masculinity in Freddie Mercury and Justin Hawkins’ (Freya Jarman-Ivens, Oh Boy! Masculinities and Popular Music, Routledge, 2007), ‘Trainspotting: The Gendered History of Britpop’ (Andy Bennett, Jon Stratton, Britpop and the English Music Tradition, Ashgate, 2010), ‘A Boy in the Bush: Childhood, Sexuality and The Smiths’ (Sean Campbell and Simon Coulter, Why Pamper Life’s Complexities? Essays on The Smiths, MUP 2010), and ‘Research strategies of the unruly feminine’ (Derek Scott, Popular Musicology Companion, Ashgate, 2009). She is currently editing the OUP Handbook of Music and Queerness with Fred Maus, the OUP Handbook of Music and Virtuality (with Shara Rambarran) and the ‘Countercultures and Popular Music’ edition of Volume! (Ashgate and Éditions Mélanie Séteun, Bordeaux).

References

Biblopgraphy

BBC News Channel (2007) “Male Professors outnumber Women”. 14 May. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/6653705.stm; Accessed: 15 Jul 2012.

Bennett, Andy, Baker, Sarah and Taylor, Jodie eds., (forthcoming) Redefining Mainstream Popular Music. New York: Routledge.

Brett, Philip, Wood, Elizabeth, Thomas, Gary C. eds., (1994) Queering the Pitch. The New Gay and Lesbian Musicology. New York/London: Routledge.

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Jarman-Ivens, Freya ed., (2007) Oh Boy! Masculinities and Popular Music. New York/London: Routledge.

Kotz, Liz (1992) “The Body You Want: Liz Kotz Interviews Judith Butler”, Artforum Vol. 31 (3): 82-89

Middleton, Richard ed., (2000). Reading Pop. Approaches to Textual Analysis in Popular Music. Oxford: Oxford University Press

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The New Music Office, SPOT Festival (2012) http://www.the-nmo.com/8/post/2012/04/spot-festival-aarhus-denmark.html Accessed 5 May 2012.

Roszak, Theodor (1970) The Making of a Counter Culture. New York: Faber and Faber.

Smith, Nicola (2009) “Beyond the Master Narrative of Youth: Researching Ageing Popular Music Scenes” in Scott, Derek B. ed., The Ashgate Research Companion to Popular Musicology. Farnham/Burlington: Ashgate: 427-445.

Spelman, Nicola (2012) Popular Music and the Myths of Madness. Farnham/Burlington: Ashgate.

Tagg, Philip (2011) “Caught on the Backfoot: Epistemic Inertia and Visible Music”, IASPM Journal, 2 (1-2):

Toksvig, Sandi (2002) Flying Under Bridges. London: Time Warner. Originally printed Warner Books, 2001.

UK Music Industry, “Equality and Diversity Charter” (2012) http://www.ukmusic.org/edc Accessed 14 Feb 2012.

Whiteley, Sheila –

(1997) Sexing the Groove. Popular Music and Gender. London/ New York: Routledge.

(2000) Women and Popular Music. Sexuality, Identity and Subjectivity. London/New York: Routledge.

(2005) Too Much Too Young. Popular Music, Age and Identity. Abington, Oxford/New York: Routledge

(2009) “Who Are You? Research Strategies of the Unruly Feminine Scenes”.. Scott, Derek B. ed., The Ashgate Research Companion to Popular Musicology. Farnham/Burlington: Ashgate: 205-220.

(2011) “The Vision of Possibility: Popular Music, Women and Human Rights”. Ian Peddie ed., Popular Music and Human Rights: Volume 1: British and American Music. Farnham: Ashgate: 157-170

(2013) “Following In Mother’s Silent Footsteps: Revisiting the Construction of Femininities in 1960s Popular Music”. Bennett, Andy, Baker, Sarah and Taylor, Jodie eds., Redefining Mainstream Popular Music. London and New York: Routledge.

Whiteley, Sheila and Maus, Fred, Eds (forthcoming) The Oxford Handbook of Music and Queerness. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press.

Whiteley, Sheila and Rycenga, Jennifer (2006) Queering the Popular Pitch. New York/ Abington, Oxford: Routledge.

Whiteley, Sheila and Rambarran, Shara eds., (forthcoming) The Oxford Handbook of Music and Virtuality

Whiteley, Sheila and Sklower, Jedediah eds., (2012) Counterculture(s) and Popular Music. Farnham: Ashgate

Whitesell, Lloyd (2008) The Music of Joni Mitchell. New York: Oxford University Press.

Audio VIsual References

Joni Mitchell, “All I Want”, Blue, 1971, Reprise Records, MS2038, US.

Cover page, showing Phil Tagg in Pop Art style, with the following text: Now available: new special issue, <a href="http://www.iaspmjournal.net/index.php/IASPM_Journal/issue/view/55">Vol 3, Issue 2</a> Popular Music Studies in the Twenty-First Century

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Published

03-12-2012

Issue

Vol. 3 No. 2 (2013): Popular Music Studies in the Twenty-First Century

Section

21st Century PMS: Articles

License

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