women in popular music
TRANSCRIPT
Sex Roles, Vol. 13, Nos. 9/10, 1985
Women in Popular Music: A QuantitativeAnalysis of Feminine Images Over Time
Virginia W. CooperOld Dominion Universitv
Popular song lyrics from the years 1946, 1956, 1966, and 1976, were contentanalyzed for feminine images. Eleven stereotyped female images wereexamined: woman as evil; emphasis on physical characteristics; woman'sneed for man; woman as a possession of man; woman as mother; woman assex object; woman as delicate; woman as child; woman on a pedestal;woman as physically attractive; and woman as supernatural. Significantchanges over time were found for 8 of the 11 images. Of the songs sampledfrom 1946-1976, 96% contained at least one of the female stereotypesexamined in this investigation.
Music has been examined by numerous scholars in a variety of disciplines asa communication or sociological force that functions to persuade (Kosokoff& Carmichael, 1970) and socialize (Roueck, 1971; Toohey, 1982). Theuniqueness of popular song lyrics and tonal music and the relationshipbetween the two suggest that popular music has a more powerful impact onits audience than other forms of verbal communication in which a view ofreality is affirmed (Hayakawa, 1957).
First, popular song lyrics often reflect realistic experience in a clear,simple, and unified manner (Nyquist, 1972). Second, song lyrics aregenerally characterized by repetition of phrases (Adorno, 1976), cliches,myths (Booth, 1976), and stereotypes (Reisman, 1957). Thus comprehen-sion requires minimal effort from the listener. Third, depending upon thetype of tonal music, the sensorimotor impact of music may evoke excitation(Fried & Berkowitz, 1979), decrease strength (Pearce, 1981), reduce physicaltension (Linoff & West, 1982), and relative anxiety (Bankart & Bankart,1983). Tonal music elicits emotional responses that influence judgments(Infante & Berg, 1979) and thus, facilitates the subliminal or unconscious
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acceptance of verbal messages presented in song lyrics. Repetition ofmelodic phrases can be hypnotic (Irvine & Kirkpatrick, 1972), and rhythmchanges can reinforce a given message (Crow, 1970). Fourth, tonal musicpromotes learning (Botkay, 1982), language production (Harding &Ballard, 1982), and facilitates memory (Deutsch, 1977). Estimates of theamount of time spent listening to popular music range from 3 hours a day(Greenberg & Dervin, 1970) to over 5 hours a day by high school and collegeage young people (Toohey, 1982). Further, popular music accounts forapproximately 90% of all record sales within the music industry, with 75%of these records purchased by persons in the 12 to 20 age span (Frith, 1978).
The images of women that have been communicated by popularsongs, therefore, have profound implications for the socialization of maleand female attitudes toward women. The continued presence of femalestereotypes among the general population (Bem, 1974), the media (Busby,1975; Courtney & Whipple, 1974), and specifically song lyrics (Gray, 1974;Hyden & McCandless, 1983; Rodnitsky, 1975) is well documented. Further,there is behavioral evidence to suggest that children learn social behaviorfrom the media (Bandura, Ross, & Ross, 1963), including sex-role behavior(O'Bryant & Corder-Bolz, 1978). Studies that have explored sex-rolestereotypes in the lyrics of popular music have found women to be describedas (a) pretty; (b) heavenly or angels; (c) possessions of men; (d) submissive;(e) causing injury to men (Wilkinson, 1976); and (f) lacking in fidelity(Shea, 1973).
The purpose of this study was to examine the images of women inpopular song lyrics to assess the nature and quality of stereotyped femaleimages over time. Song lyrics are believed to parallel the attitudes of a givenperiod in history (Witt, 1978). Given the documented emphasis of love andsex as a predominant theme in popular music during the 1960s (Cole, 1971)and the increasingly liberal attitudes toward intimate relationships found inlove lyrics from 1940-1977 (Anderson, Hesbacher, Etzkorn, & Denisoff,1980), the Hypothesis 1 was advanced: Emphasis on the female body willincrease over time.
Given the increase in assertive behavior among women which thewomen's movement facilitated (Tolor, Kelly, & Stebbins, 1976), theHypothesis 2 was posited: There will be a decrease in the '^helpless" or''dependent" stereotypes and an increase in images depicting women as*'powerful."
The hostility and negative attitudes toward women which menincreasingly expressed with the growth of the women's movement (Lott,1973; Miller, 1973) and the historical dominance of men in the musicindustry as composers and lyricists (Levy, 1983) led to Hypothesis 3: There
Female Images in Popular Music 501
will be an increase in the depiction of women in negative terms. It was notexpected, however, that there would be any change in man's desire forrelationships with woman since love lyrics have been found to be morepredominant than any other type during the last four decades (Anderson etal., 1980; Freudiger, 1978), and since the lyrics of popular music havegenerally depicted men as loving and emotionally dependent on women(Hyden & McCandless, 1983).
METHOD
Eleven stereotyped female images were coded in popular song lyricsfrom 1946-1976. A sampling every 10 years was chosen to indicate trendsin attitudes toward women for each decade. Anderson et al. (1980) generallyfound that each decade represents a unique epoch in popular music, eventhough they discovered the music of the 1940s and most of the 1950s to bevery similar. A 10% sample of all songs to be coded was used to select the 11female images used as dependant variables. The operational definitions andexamples of each image appear in Table I.
The sample consisted of 1,164 popular songs about women thatappeared in the 12 monthly issues of Song Hits Magazine during the years1946, 1956, 1966, and 1976. The publishers of Song Hits Magazine contendthat the lyrics printed in their magazine reflect the "Top 100" listing in themusic trade papers {Cashbox, Billboard, Record World, and Variety). Thesongs listed in the trade papers represent the most played songs on radio andjuke boxes and those having sold the most records (Hesbacher, Downing, 8iBerger, 1975). It has been noted that popular music tends to shift in formover time due to audience tastes (Anderson et al., 1980). Thus, the lyricspublished in Song Hits Magazine include pop, ballard, folk, rock, countryand western, and soul.
Two trained coders coded all songs from the January and Februaryissues of each year to compute reliability estimates. The obtained reliabilityfor *'evil," **need for man," "possession of man," *'sex object,""childlike," and "special powers" was 97% using a modified procedureproposed by Scott (1955) which takes the obtained reliability of agreementsand disagreements between coders and subtracts the reliability that couldhave occurred by chance. The obtained reliability for "physicalcharacteristics/' "mother," "delicate," "on a pedestal," and "physicallyattractive" was 99%. The 11 dichotomous variables were analyzed onconfiguration tables using chi square.
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Table I. Operational Definitions of Feminine Images
ImageWoman
as evil
Physicalcharaclcri.slics
Need forman
Definition
Possessionof man
Woman asmother
Woman assex object
Examples
Any explicit reference to a woman asbad or evil or exhibiting evil behavior
Any mention of any part of a woman'sbody
Any reference to a woman's need for orreliance on a man
Any explicit reference to a womanas a possession ol a man
Any explicit reference to a womanexhibiting nuturant, maternal behaviors
Any explicit reference to a woman asbeing sexually desirable or of a mandesiring sex with a woman
Lying, tempting orseducing a man, beingunfaithful
Eyes, hair, mouth, skin
Depending on a man,clinging lo a man.finding lullillmentin a man,waiting tor a man
"She belongs to me,""make her mine"
Taking care o\' a man,soothing a man's hurtfeelings
"Desirable to kiss,""make love," or"getting it on"
Woman as Any explicit reference to a woman asdelicate soft, delicate or uentle
Woman as Any reference to a woman as being achildlike child or e\hibitini2 immature behavior
Woman on Any reference to a woman beinga pedestal elevated to a position of worship or
status higher than man
Woman as Any description of a woman as physicallyattractive attractive
Woman as Any explicit reference to a uoman assupernatural ha\ing supernatural powers
"Like a tlower"
"Girl," "baby," "imma-ture," "helpless,""emotional," "Hightty"
"Precious," "apple of m\c\e," or "my dreamcome true"
"Beautiful," "pretty,""lovely" or "lair"
"Eyes that make angelssmile" or "I couldmove mountains lorvou"
RESULTS
Of the songs sampled from 1946-1976, 96% contained at least one ofthe stereotyped images examined in this investigation. For 1946 and 1956,100% of the song lyrics were written by men; for 1966, 95% of the lyricswere written by men; for 1976, 90% of the lyrics were written by men.
The percentage of songs containing each stereotyped image appears inTable II. The following trends were indicated: (a) *'Woman as evil'*
Female Images in Popular Music 503
Table II. Percentage of Songs Containing Stereotyped Images"Image
Womanas evil
Physicalcharacter-istics
Need forman
Possessionof man
Woman asmother
Woman assex object
Woman asdelicate
Woman aschildlike
Woman ona pedesial
Woman asattractive
Woman assupernatural
1946
9.6
6.4
37.4
12.2
7.8
22.9
14.8
26.4
3.8
4.1
5.8
1956
17.2
11.7
40.6
17.5
8.8
21.8
9.4
26.0
4.5
4.5
3.9
1966
28.6
13.6
19.7
17.4
2.3
15.0
13.6
48.8
5.6
8.0
8.5
1976
24.2
20.4
21.6
16.7
14.9
23.8
13.0
45.5
4.5
4.8
11.5
55.4
27.2
78.5
4.9
25.9
6.5
4.5
52.7
8.0
12.8
14.7
df3
3
3
3
3
3
3
3
3
3
3
P
.001
.001
.001
ns
.001
ns
.001
.05
.01
.01
'All percentages in ihis table computed from codable songs.
generally increased during the 1970s; (b) "mention of physical character-istics" significantly rose during each of these four decades; (c) "womanneeding man" occurred more often in the two earlier decades than in thelatter two; (d) "woman as possession of man" did not change significantlyduring this 30-year period; (e) "woman as mother" dropped somewhat in1966 and then rose significantly to its height by 1976; (f) "woman as sexobject" did not change significantly during these four decades; (g) "womanas delicate" did not change significantly during this time period; (h)"woman as childlike" generally increased during the last two decadesexamined; (i) "woman on a pedestal" generally increased until 1966 andthen dropped in 1976; (j) "woman as attractive" increased from 1956 to1966 and then dropped by 1976; and (k) "woman as supernatural"decreased by slightly in 1956 and generally increased during the next twodecades.
DISCUSSION
The results of this investigation indicate significant changes in theappearance of stereotyped feminine images during the four decades
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examined. Hypothesis 1 which predicted an increase in the emphasis onfemale physical characteristics was confirmed. Hypothesis 2 whichanticipated an increase in characterizations of woman as powerful andharmful to man was supported. The third hypothesis which predicted adecrease in characterization of woman's helplessness and need for man wasalso supported. These changes are consistent with trends in societalattitudes as well as previous research examining images of women in music(Freudinger & Almquist, 1978; Gray, 1974; Rodnitsky, 1975; Shea, 1973;Wilkinson, 1976). Furthermore, the stereotypes revealed in this study arecontradictory as are the historical feminine stereotypes (Beauvoir, 1952).Beauvoir noted specifically that contradictions such as ''virgin" versus"temptress" function only to confuse those who attempt to discover"feminine essence" and create conflict within women who attempt to be"feminine." Perhaps such contradictory stereotypes also facilitate confiictbetween men and women as they search for meaningful relationships.
The rationale for this study has implied that the lyrics of popularmusic not only refiect the attitudes of periods of history but also function,as do other media forms, to socialize attitudes. While it is difficult tomeasure the impact of any channel of socialization, this study has presentedsome evidence to indicate that the lyrics of popular music containstereotyped images of women that have been distributed widely amongyoung people. Thus it seems reasonable to conclude that the lyrics ofpopular music at least have the potential to influence attitudes aboutwomen.
An important relationship between song lyrics and tonal musicwas imphed in the introduction to this investigation. In short, it wastheorized that song lyrics might have a stronger impact on an audience thanother forms of verbal messages because of the nature of tonal music and itsdocumented impact on the affective and cognitive processes of listeners.Although it is impossible to quantify the relationship between the tonalmusic of the songs and the female images examined here, the speculation ofa possible relationship suggests that popular music warrants seriousconsideration as a medium of socialization. Clearly, song lyrics cannot beexamined in isolation from tonal music without excluding valuableinformation about listeners' processing of the messages contained in music.Future research which examines this relationship will ultimately provide uswith a clearer understanding of the nature of popular music as a form ofcommunication and perhaps as an influential form of socialization.
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