Gender representation and the Music Industry

In the music industry, gender is used as a guide for who to target which genres at. For instance, boy bands would be aimed at female audiences while heavy rock would probably be more of a male taste. This is shown predominantly in magazines where photography and mode of address is important. In rock magazines (Rolling Stone, Classic Rock etc), masculinity is key for making the men look big and strong. There is often a lack of females in these sorts of magazines but when they do appear, they are shown to have the key masculinity to suit the genre, whilst trying to be sexually appealing at the same time. For the Hip Hop genre magazines (Hip Hop, XXL etc), masculinity is less evident but still present. There is more appearances of an 'intimidating' gaze used mainly by men which is quite a stereotypical feature when it comes to rappers and hip hop artists. It gives that feel that they are quite strong, powerful and not to be messed with. As this is what has come to be expected for this genre, audiences can therefore relate it straight to the idea of Hip Hop, and perhaps notice the magazine if this gaze is used on a front cover. Another common representation used by artists in hip hop is the idea of having money, muscle, girls and drugs. This can make young audiences look up to these celebrities as they have it all, and must be going 'right' in life. Female artists are often sexually explicit on these magazines as this can gain attraction from male audiences rather easily. In this genre, the idea of being misogynistic and macho is looked upon as a positive thing for the genre, violence being good. This really signifies who the audiences are, as these sorts of things would get completely different feedback if they were mentioned in The Sun or Daily Mail.