Music and Gender

I grew up playing the piano from the time I was eight years old. The number of boys and girls taking lessons from my teacher was pretty equal when we were young, and then there were fewer and fewer boys as we grew up. By the time I graduated, there was only one high-school aged guy left among four or five girls. Most of the guys I knew in high school played a brass instrument, the drum set, or the guitar, and most girls played woodwind instruments. This wasn’t always true, however, because one of my best female friends was drum major during our senior year.

Last summer in 2010, I worked as the music programmer at a summer camp for children and young adults diagnosed with learning disabilities. I noticed a huge difference between the way boy campers and girl campers responded to music activities and instruments in the music hut. For instance, girls tended to respond well to passive activities, such as music listening and drawing to music. Boy campers, on the other hand, typically enjoyed active music activities, such as singing, playing instruments, and improvising.

Male campers of all ages tended to gravitate toward the drum set, hand drums, the electric guitar, and the bass. They usually requested rock music by artists like U2. Female campers usually gravitated toward the keyboard/piano and the acoustic guitar, and many of them requested pop music by artists like Taylor Swift. However, I specifically remember one male teenage camper who said his favorite singer was Ke$ha (Yes, I spelled it the correct way with the dollar sign), which I think many Americans would say is gender atypical. The other guys in his cabin did not appear to mind that he liked a “girly” singer, and I remember being very impressed with their maturity and acceptance of different music tastes.

Ke$ha

U2

My musical experiences at Converse have been quite diverse, and I feel like my gender has been an important part of some of them. My sophomore year, I was involved in Finding Voice, which is a performance piece that was created by Dr. York and women who have experienced domestic violence. The experience was challenging, and at times unpleasant, because a lot of the subject matter was deeply emotional. Being able to empathize with the amazing and powerful women through music was an eye-opening experience. I feel like many men and women probably view the subject matter differently because domestic violence is predominantly directed towards women. I was able to identify with the music and poetry in Finding Voice very strongly because I am a woman.

Yay women!