Music and Gender

What I wanted to look into was the gender roles in country music, specifically focusing on the main instrument, the acoustic guitar. Just about every country song involves the guitar and in today's world it is played by all. The guitar is a type of chordophone made from wood and strung with nylon or steel strings. It came from the Europeans who settled here in the Americas as early as the 1600s. 

The guitar, both acoustic and electric, is a staple in country music. The acoustic guitar has been the primary instrument while the electric is more modern. It brings a rich and warm tone the to music while the simplicity of the design and the structure of it makes it easy to carry on the go and play wherever you wish. 

From my basic observation/opinion, it seems like the guitar is a more male dominant instrument and that could be because of cultural stereotypes and social conditioning that increases the use of the guitar by males and decreases the use for females. Obviously there are many female artists that play the guitar and originally the guitar was known as a women’s instrument. In 1783 a German Philologist by the name Carl Ludwig Junker stated that the guitar was best built for women as it was seen as an instrument mainly to be played at home by amateurs. The males would play professional orchestral instruments. Critics saw the guitar as a perfect instrument for women because it was made for “simple, unpretentious music, most of all in a subordinate role as an accompanying instrument” (JSTOR). Although the guitar gained popularity within professional musicians, it was still seen as an amateur instrument. It was until jazz, country, and rock brought about a change and altered how others viewed the guitar. It started to become a neutral gender instrument instead of only being associated with women, and eventually it all shifted. More and more males were seen with a guitar than females were. 

One female artist that comes to mind is Taylor Swift. She produces both American pop and country music as a singer-songwriter. She started playing the guitar at around the age of 12 years old. The song I have below is “You Belong With Me” which was released in 2009. 

One male artist that comes to mind when I think about country is Morgan Wallen. He is an American country singer-songwriter.  He learned the violin when he was five and eventually learned how to play the guitar. The song I have below is “Quittin’ Time” which was released in 2021.

Work Cited: 

- http://info.thanksforthemusic.com/history/guitar.html

- https://www.thehealthyjournal.com/frequently-asked-questions/why-is-guitar-masculine#:~:text=%E2%80%9CThe%20instrument%20is%20seen%20to,was%20uniquely%20controversial%20and%20conflicted.%E2%80%9D

- https://daily.jstor.org/at-first-the-guitar-was-a-womens-instrument/#:~:text=%E2%80%9CThe%20instrument%20is%20seen%20to,was%20uniquely%20controversial%20and%20conflicted.%E2%80%9D

- https://www.allmusic.com/artist/morgan-wallen-mn0003351348/biography

- https://www.nt-instruments.com/country-music/#:~:text=The%20acoustic%20guitar%2C%20known%20for,defining%20the%20country%20music%20sound.