My favorite topic: Gender

All of the topics talked about have been pretty interesting to me. I enjoyed going back through different time periods and looking and researching different music and observing all of the changes. For example with ethnicity it was interesting to see how the differences in music between different countries and cultures. With sexuality it was also interesting to see how much of an increase there has been from generation to generation. Spirituality was also interesting because it got me thinking about the different controversies that can be associated with it, and made me think about my own opinions on the subject. However, I think the one topic I found most interesting is probably music and gender. Before this class I never really thought about how the meaning of the song would change if it were sang by the opposite sex. But now at times when I’m listening to a song I’ll wonder about that. Some of the songs may not have been as popular or maybe they would be more popular if they were sung by a different gender. It was also really fascinating to me to look at the differences in roles regarding gender and how they have changed from just a few generations ago. For example, women singers during the 1960s were often referred to as “girls” not women and they were seen as dependent on men. They often sang songs about being in love and needing the man in order to be happy.  Now things have changed and women sing about a far greater variety of topics, some of them completely opposite to what was expected of them before.