Critical Approaches to Gender and 21st Century Pop Music

This is an interesting article that relates feminism with fashion. I think this article will help us explore and understand the relation between pop culture and the use of fashion.

Here is the video of Stephen Colbert singing Friday. There may be a possibility of how gender determines the quality of the song...

Today in class we discussed parodies and it reminded me of this Jon Lajoie ditty. He is arguing that all pop songs have the same song structure and are unoriginal. 

A woman accounts why seeing Miss America gave her hope she didn't realize she needed and why there should be more diversity in the media overall.

Katy Perry recently sign to be the new face for CoverGirl Cosmetics. In this article, Katy Perry claims that beside music, make up is an avenue of self expression. She continues to motivate others with her personality and values.

The article highlights the current success of Bangerz, illustrating how Miley's shock and awe promotion may have caused an uproar but it certainly achieved what she wanted.

Here's a recent interview The Associated Press did with Taylor Swift that was published by The Salt Lake Tribune. Swift discusses her ideas for the new album, briefly mentions her friendship (not relationship? Hmm) with Ed Sheeran, and the CMAs (she apparently just opened the "Taylor Swift Education Center").

Here's an article I found where Lady Gaga reveals an email sent to her from the people in charge of Instagram. Looks like they don't care who is a celebrity and who isn't: They're looking out for everyone.

This video is rather outlandish, the video is shows the abuse and overt sexualisation of females, but it isn't until the very end that the point of view is changed.  For Gayle Rubin class

Hannah, I think this video is great for analysis -- I'm thinking of R&W's point about how videos create authenticity, and that this video, through that shift at the end, tries to portray Prodigy as somehow clever, not misogynist. It's a "clever" move to say: "Look, we're not violent! All people, even women, are violent. We and our fans don't have to think about being implicated in a culture that's violent toward women, because everyone is violent toward everyone!" That changed point of view, in my reading, is way to build "ethos" with their fans and allow them to continue to be violent and cool.

This clip is from the TV show Happy Endings.  It has six friends who hang out together, and they are all at a wedding.  Max, the guy who is singing the Madonna song, is gay, and is part of a Madonna band called "Mandonna."  I know we talked about Lady Gaga and Madonna, and I just thought this is a funny parody of Madonna.

For Rubin article

It is interesting how Emilie uses sex as a form of self embracing in her music video. Also, the very title 'Fight like a Girl' commonly used as an insult in sports, is used in a very inspiring and confident tone. 

In this music video Rise Against explore issue of homophobic bullying in High School and teen suicide and acceptance of sexuality

An interesting music video that explores the conflicts and juxtaposition between the societal 'norms' and androgyny and complex sexualities.

Just a thread I came across while on reddit! Someone had posted about an interview they heard on the radio. The comments are very interesting, and I saw some stuff about gender feminism! Worth reading, I think!

Found these amusing, then considered why I found them amusing; this is going to differ person-to-person.

Kornhaber discusses how media outlets often respond to Fiona Apple by alluding to insanity: calling her outbursts crazy. However, this is a mechanism to raise sensationalism and not actually address issues (and even to dismiss them); if we look at Apple, she has very clear rational reasons for her behaviors, and her "outbursts" are often very rational, even if emotion-laden. Kornhaber then extends his critique, showing how often this sort of "reading" happens to other artists, including Kanye and Sinead O'Connor.

I bookmarked this video as a comparison to Miley Cyrus's 'Wrecking Ball'.  In both, the lead singer sings to the camera and it is slowly revealed that they are completely nude.  Yet, there seems to be very little controversy over the Panic! At the Disco video whereas the media is still talking about Cyrus.