How Does Music Inform Our Notions of Gender?
             Music allows people to express their gender and sexuality in either an advert or a subtle way. The Spice Girls used the phrase 'Girl Power' which could not be less feminist in a 'We are Women, step aside men' way, 'boy Power' doesn't have quite the same ring to it. Girls in rock bands are women trying to fit into a male orientated environment by acting masculine, for example Courtney Love acts tough yet still gets away with wearing pretty little girlie slip dress's in the same way that Mick Jagger confused crossed the line between male and female and met somewhere in the middle, he was pretty and androgynous and delighted as did David Bowie in 'gender bending', he even said himself "What really upsets people is that I am a man and not a women... what I do is very much the same as a girls strip tease dance." He confused the idea we had of gender. Where as more recently Spice Girls were defiantly female, Madonna goes about it in a very powerful way going about her work showing everything it is to be a woman in a masculine way.
             Bands these days are very much manufactured, Take That all though are admired by flocks of adoring female fans were actually quite camp. Boyzone with their clean 'nice boy' image calling themselves Boyzone although most are approaching their 30s seems an odd choice, 'Manzone' would have been more appropriate with a much more rebellious testosterone filled ring to it. (Sheila Whitely 1997:28)
             As this is such a wide area to look at I have decided to focus in one particular area: heavy metal. In this essay I plan to analyse heavy metal with response to gender. Heavy metal musicians show their masculinity through their use of instruments, lyrics, image and style.
             Heavy metal music usually include impressive technical feats on the electric guitar, counter posed with an experience o...