Role of Gender in the Transition of Music
In the 1950s and 1960s, rock songs’ scope was typical heterosexual male singing and playing electronically amplified instruments loudly. However, by the early 1970s, singers like Dylan has begun to leave it behind. During the 1970s, a group of singers who were referred to as singer-songwriters emerged. These singers performed solo songs. The songs had slow melodies that portrayed a lot of emotions. They could help narrate a story and made musical sense from an emotional perspective. The success of this type of music in the late sixties and early seventies represented the continuous development of rock music to other genres like pop music. This type of music provided women with the chance of entry to the music industry. The songs were based on intimacy, emotions, and emphasis on words and melody, factors that made women more favorable for this kind of music. The women became a valuable asset in coffee houses where everybody wanted to listen to these songs that told a story. The use of songs to convey emotions became quite common. Singers recorded songs to emphasizing love, depression, sorrow, marriage, etc. (Campbell, 2011).
Emerging singers in the late 60s, such as Joni Mitchell, produced songs that did not follow the hard rock format but was more of classic rock because the ideas shaped the form and not vice versa. Melodies respond to the words and still followed their own internal logic. These songs amplify the temporal and emotional ambiguity of the lyric. Classic rock is diverse into blues rock, country rock, raga rock, and jazz-rock. In the 70s, the genre of music that became common was a glam rock, which was based on realism. It confronted difficult issues and real feelings. In glam music, artists like ziggy stardust wore flamboyant costumes and heavy makeup, which narrowed down to question their gender. Glam rock was a subgenre of heavy metal, which emphasized volume, power, and speed. Punk was the new wave of music in the 1970s and 1980s, which eventually became an alternative rock. Other genres of alternative rock included pop-punk and electronic rock.
Funk music was another genre that originated in the 1960s from the African American society. It was danceable, which was a blend of rock, jazz, and soul music. The black music in the rally 70ss became quite common in clubs. It facilitates the black community, working-class women, and gays to have a chance to express themselves and blend with the community. With increased technology, the use of synthesizers became the new innovation to produce soundtracks. This led to the emergence of disco music. This music was stimulated by Donna summers.
One of the women who impacted the transition of music from hard, noisy music to slow melodious music is Donna Summer, who was given the title “The Queen of Disco.” Her voice was a blessing to the music world. She produced songs based on love, and sorrow. One of her songs is based on the depression she went through after her marriage broke. Her music created a new path for pop-artists as the boomer-era popular music was replaced by classic soul, and rock music transitioned to disco and punk-punk music. Her voice and her studio laid the foundation for post-disco and modern R&BS. She became a source of inspiration for many women to join the music industry, such as Beyonce and lady Gaga (Williams, 2018).
Summer’s songs love to love you baby, and I feel love are the two songs that changed the course of music. Donna and her studio pioneered the electronic sound as well as changed the music format by doing 17-minuted versions which led to the popularity of the 12-inch dance single. The rhythm in I feels love was appreciated for its robotic and synthesized sound, and it set the standard for disco music.