Gender in Popular Music
Dec. 12th, 2010 01:58 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
stoutfellow(Don't expect anything too sophisticated here. These are just some random thoughts that have occurred to me lately.)
One of the things I learned from reading Wayne C. Booth's A Rhetoric of Fiction is the concept of "implied narrator". Any piece of literature has one - the person(a) presented as "telling the story" (or the poem, or whatever); it may be a character (e.g. in first person POV) or nearly so (in tight third person), but it exists even in omniscient POV. In any event, the implied narrator is every bit as much a fiction as the characters.
In connection with popular song, the fictitious nature of the implied narrator can become a problem; there's a natural tendency to identify the singer with the narrator. The narrator may be a thief ("Wednesday Morning 3 A.M."), an unrepentant murderer ("Indiana Wants Me"), even a cannibal ("Timothy"); none of these seem to trouble the people who sang these songs. But there's one situation in which it does appear troublesome.
I have three covers of "Me and Bobby McGee" on my hard drive. One is the original, by Janis Joplin. The narrator is clearly female; this is marked at several points in the lyrics. The other two are by Roger Miller (!) and Gordon Lightfoot. In both of these, the lyrics have been tweaked to make the narrator male and McGee female. (The Miller cover is even retitled as "Me and Bobbie McGee".) Thief, murderer, cannibal: OK. Female: well....
Contrast this with Cher's "You Better Sit Down, Kids", in which the narrator is a newly divorced father, explaining the situation to his children.
Perhaps oddly, Peter, Paul and Mary's "Leaving on a Jet Plane" also comes to my mind in this context. It's not the same situation - the narrator is female, as is Mary Travers, who is the lead singer. However, the situation described.... A pair of lovers, one stay-at-home, the other a traveller, is not an uncommon topic in song. "Brandy" (Looking Glass), "If You Be Wise" (Kenny Loggins), and "Angelina" (Harry Belafonte) all discuss that situation, each from a different viewpoint. But, it seems to me, it is far more common (in story as well as in song) for the wanderer to be male and the other female. "Leaving on a Jet Plane" describes the reverse situation. It seems to me that the song would have quite a different flavor if it were the other way.
I'm not going anywhere with this - just ruminating. Once in a while I notice these things. (I once mentioned to a drama professor the underlying similarities between "A Star Is Born" and "Funny Girl"; he thought that a gender-reversed version would be possible, but I don't know of one. Anyone?)
One of the things I learned from reading Wayne C. Booth's A Rhetoric of Fiction is the concept of "implied narrator". Any piece of literature has one - the person(a) presented as "telling the story" (or the poem, or whatever); it may be a character (e.g. in first person POV) or nearly so (in tight third person), but it exists even in omniscient POV. In any event, the implied narrator is every bit as much a fiction as the characters.
In connection with popular song, the fictitious nature of the implied narrator can become a problem; there's a natural tendency to identify the singer with the narrator. The narrator may be a thief ("Wednesday Morning 3 A.M."), an unrepentant murderer ("Indiana Wants Me"), even a cannibal ("Timothy"); none of these seem to trouble the people who sang these songs. But there's one situation in which it does appear troublesome.
I have three covers of "Me and Bobby McGee" on my hard drive. One is the original, by Janis Joplin. The narrator is clearly female; this is marked at several points in the lyrics. The other two are by Roger Miller (!) and Gordon Lightfoot. In both of these, the lyrics have been tweaked to make the narrator male and McGee female. (The Miller cover is even retitled as "Me and Bobbie McGee".) Thief, murderer, cannibal: OK. Female: well....
Contrast this with Cher's "You Better Sit Down, Kids", in which the narrator is a newly divorced father, explaining the situation to his children.
Perhaps oddly, Peter, Paul and Mary's "Leaving on a Jet Plane" also comes to my mind in this context. It's not the same situation - the narrator is female, as is Mary Travers, who is the lead singer. However, the situation described.... A pair of lovers, one stay-at-home, the other a traveller, is not an uncommon topic in song. "Brandy" (Looking Glass), "If You Be Wise" (Kenny Loggins), and "Angelina" (Harry Belafonte) all discuss that situation, each from a different viewpoint. But, it seems to me, it is far more common (in story as well as in song) for the wanderer to be male and the other female. "Leaving on a Jet Plane" describes the reverse situation. It seems to me that the song would have quite a different flavor if it were the other way.
I'm not going anywhere with this - just ruminating. Once in a while I notice these things. (I once mentioned to a drama professor the underlying similarities between "A Star Is Born" and "Funny Girl"; he thought that a gender-reversed version would be possible, but I don't know of one. Anyone?)
no subject
Date: 2010-12-12 11:32 pm (UTC)