Music and Gender

In my musical experience, the intersection of music and gender have been mostly focused on guys. Meaning that guys are the mental picture when some says, “Tell me the first thing that you think of when I say rock band.” Then instruments that people think of when someone says “drums” are guys. When someone says “violin,” people think girls. When people think of a marching band, they mostly think of guys on the percussion instruments and girls on the smaller, lighter instruments. I found that middle school guys and girls listened to mostly the same music. I find my music experience at Converse very different from a mixed gender setting. The instruments that people mostly think of for guys are dumbfounded when they see a girl playing the same instrument. The guitar is neither a girl or guy dominated instrument though the majority of guitar players have been male Most instruments are like that because the shock of seeing the opposite gender playing that instrument has already happened before our lifetime. When someone says “singing,” people automatically think of girls because guys think it's “uncool” to sing unless they were in a rock band. Being in chorus in high school is a lot different from being in chorale here at Converse. The most different aspect is the absence of male voices. In high school, there were never enough guys in the choir to hear them in concerts or competitions, but when we were in the rehearsal room and they were singing by themselves, they blew me away. Their voices were so amazing. Being here at Converse has made me appreciate getting to hear the male voices. Converse has male singers, but they are few and far between. In my experience with choir, even though the sopranos have the melody, guys complete the choir. They are the key to having the most beautiful sounds ever heard by human ears. People need to get over the biasness for having gender specific instruments. Like most of the cultures we are studying in class are a male dominated music society. In the recent years, they have let women join in on the music and dancing. The music and gender have intersected fairly well. In country music there is almost an equal amount of singers from each gender. There are still more males playing the instruments but it's getting more equal as the years go by.