| Abstract | Throughout history creative female voices have been silenced. From Mary Ann Evans, Mary Shelley, and Sylvia Plath, to Meg White, Kim Gordon, and Kim Deal, women’s presence in the artistic world was always overshadowed and linked to men and their achievements. Is rock and roll music still almost an inclusively masculine domain because it reflects the society that still considers women to be less capable and less imaginative, or is the society still sexist because young girls are discouraged to pursue their ambitions and are raised hearing predominantly men’s voices in the music industry? Or rather, are women still banished from it because of sexism that reigns in it or is sexism caused by their absence? This Master’s Thesis addresses these and other related issues and explores how contemporary rock music answers them. The sources that will be used will vary from scholarly articles focusing on the depiction of women in mainstream media, performativity, male gaze and other concepts related to feminist and cultural studies to close reading of the lyrics of songs, interviews with various musicians and bands, and other sources in order to approach the question of gender in American music. After defining what rock music is and explaining its importance in American society, we are going to discuss the relevance of the question of gender in rock music. Finally, after defining and explaining main terms we will be using in the analysis, namely visuality, violence, and identity formation, we are going to analyze four contemporary rock albums that are written and performed by female artists. In this paper the terms “rock and roll” and “rock” music will be used interchangeably. |
