Music and Gender

 Something that first came to mind when I thought about gender in music was country radio. When people think of country they think of either old time southern country or new modern day singers but the first people that come to their mind when thinking about the singers is men. For example if you were thinking about old music generally it was all country men singing about the west and women and alcohol  like the singer George Strait. If they were thinking about todays music usually the first person coming to mind would be Morgan Wallen or Zach Bryan. Kitty Wells was the very first country singer to perform in the 1950s. No one is thinking about her when country comes to mind or even listen to her on the radio when listing to classic country. 

This is Kitty Wells most popular song “It wasn’t God who made the Honky Tonk”. She had many more famous songs but this is the one people will remember. If you can see in the background it is mostly men playing the guitar and some women for her background singers.When listening to country music radio today most of the singers they are talking about are men and very few women that are famous enough to be talked about. Kitty Wells did sell a little under 800,000 copy’s of her record but compared to Jimmie Rogers who was a famous country singer in the early 1950’s who got over 1 million copy’s of his records. 

Even in todays world country music is taken over by men with a few famous women singers scattered in there amongst them. In 2020 only 16% of country singers were female meaning 84% are men. Yes there are many women singers that are coming up but that will never out due the men. In 2015 the #TomatoGate was made by a radio consultant that encouraged program directors to limit the number of songs played that are sang by a female to make ratings. He said “Women are the tomatoes of an all male salad” meaning women should not be played all the time and just spread in there sparingly. 

This is Kelsi Ballerinie talking about how #TomatoGate opened up the talk of women and country music and how much they are being played and recognized. Personally if I am listening to country music it is a mix of both female and male but not one more than the other if I am playing it off my phone. But if I am listening to the radio it is typically men singing that I listen to. Even though it is 2023 and right are suppose to be “equal” you can find miss gender in everything even something like country music.